Comments on: Verizon’s FOTA & Its Dangerous, Dirty Little Secret

By: Humberto Saabedra

Humberto Saabedra — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:07:55 +0000

Just to add some info, the fimware is in fact directly taken from Casio’s KDDI build and modified for Verizon so there is no generic firmware at all for flashing.

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:50:09 +0000

Billy, there is no generic firmware available… so, you can’t. It would take PCD or Casio Hitachi to leak both the service tools, and the generic firmware to enable this.

There actually may not be a generic firmware in existence. The phone originated on KDDI in Japan, and the Verizon firmware is suspected to be modified from that.

By: Billy

Billy — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:24:02 +0000

All I want to do is hack my boulder and get modify veriozons horrifically terrible firmware. How can this be done?

By: T-Mobile G1 Update Causes All Text to be Entered As Commands | PhoneNews.com

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:54:32 +0000

[...] update also echos our previous coverage of Verizon’s FOTA implementation, which can be used to update devices without the [...]

By: Verizon FOTA Issues Persist, Customer Council Objects, FCC PSAPs Concerned | PhoneNews.com

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:35:57 +0000

[...] Our original reporting on Verizon Wireless’s issues surrounding forced firmware updates have sparked controversy. [...]

By: Chevy Volt’s Battery, its Moral Hazard, and My Solution | Christopher Price .net

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:07:04 +0000

[...] you’re in a natural disaster, or in a dangerous situation… it’s just as bad as a derelict cell phone that decides to update brick itself. So, give users a little bit of leeway, but set requirements [...]

By: Boulder Owner

Boulder Owner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:32:33 +0000

If everyone is saying it just updates before prompting you, you just might have a defective phone. I have a Boulder along with many coworkers at my company, and none out of the 39 devices we purchased from Verizon gave us any problems with not prompting twice first. But go ahead and take the 1-2 examples you have and keep feeding the fire; deterring other people from getting what we all here at our company as a well put together device. The very few people whom are actually experiencing a problem not prompting first: Get off your lazy ___ and get a warranty replacement! Gies. All the time you spent complaining on this blog, you could have already exchanged the device, and had your problem fixed already.

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:25:27 +0000

We don’t have an update just yet… but I would agree that people should file an FCC complaint against this. When enough people file them, they are quite effective.

And, despite mob wisdom, it’s actually pretty simple to do… just go to fcc.gov and take 15 of your minutes to help make the wireless industry better.

By: SaltyDawg

SaltyDawg — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:40:21 +0000

So eventually Verizon will do something like cripple GPS, everyone will flash a custom ROM to enable GPS, and Verizon will “update” the firmware over the air- crippling GPS again.

The FCC needs to step in and do something about these “automatic” updates.

By: Dan S

Dan S — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:35:29 +0000

There are a variety of FOTA updating methods out in the market now. People are getting extremely positive FOTA experiences with Nokia’s N78 3G smartphone. Read below:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=1222
June 25, 2008: “The update downloaded, something like 1.7MB, and installed flawlessly with all of my settings, applications, and personalizations in place and working like a champ. This is the way I would like to see all mobile phone updates and am very happy to see Nokia making over-the-air updates available.”

http://symbianworld.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/nokia-n78-over-the-air-update-available/
June 25, 2008: “I think this new way of getting a firmware for your Nokia-device via wireless-lan is great and should be added to more devices. What do you think about getting new firmwares directly over the air?”
June 29, 2008: “I think firmware over the air (WiFi) is a great idea. I wish I could do it with my N95 (I think I can’t, am I right?).
Thanks for the info.”