Darmon Takes A Chill Pill…

Commments in the previous entry concerning the Motorola V710 mobile phone and Verizon Wireless have warranted a follow-up.

Michael Demmons noted in response to the link I cited from Russell Beattie’s blog, “your link about the problems with the V710 has mostly been updated to say he was wrong.”

In fairness, Russell did make a correction to his post, now confirming that the V710 does support dial-up networking via Bluetooth (in addition to headset support).

However, it is a fact that the V710 currently does not support the OBject EXchange protocol (or OBEX, for short) — which is also a Bluetooth component. OBEX is crippled on the phone. For Bluetooth users, OBEX is a nifty feature used for wireless data transfer between other Bluetooth devices such as PDAs and other Bluetooth-enabled phones.

In an effort to confirm the facts on my part, I personally visited a Verizon store and performed functionality tests on both a live demo phone and on the store manager’s phone. While I could pair my Palm Tungsten T3 with the V710, I could not transfer data files or use the PDA’s autodialer.

I also reviewed Motorola’s specifications for the V710, which stated that the phone currently supports only wireless headsets and DUN. Since the phone is produced mainly for Verizon Wireless, I have reason to believe that OBEX was deliberately disabled, being that Verizon would rather have their customers pay extra for their GetItNow service and their propietary sync tools.

In feedback, some felt that I was being extremely harsh on Verizon Wireless. I’ll concede to having taken the matter personally, as I helped petition VZW to offer Bluetooth phones with their service. While I find the lack of full Bluetooth support on their current offering to be disappointing, hopefully they will consider full BT support in the future. High marks for wide coverage and customer satisfaction mean nothing when a certain demographic is being alienated by not offering fully functional products.

So, for now until further notice, my VZW account remains active (I’m currently not locked into a contract). However, I will not upgrade my VZW phone until fully-enabled Bluetooth products are offered. And for the time being, all of my incoming calls from my Verizon number will continue to be forwarded to my Sony Ericsson T610 from T-Mobile.

Related: Jonathan Zdziarski at Nuclear Elephant goes into the nuts and bolts of the V710.

Update & Mea Culpa (8/23/04): According to information posted at HowardForums, Motorola released the V710 to production without OBEX (via Michael D.).

Verizon Wireless is not at fault for the lack of BT data connectivity in the V710, and apologies go out to VZW for the misunderstanding.

I’ll wait patiently for the next BT phone to be added to VZW’s lineup. In the meantime, I’ll be having crow for dinner tonight.

Update (9/4/04): It’s official. Verizon sez that OBEX will not be enabled on the v710. See this entry.

Filed under Gadgetry, Technology |