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Motorola

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So there is finally an update for the Motorola Q phone I bought in June. I’ve really liked the phone, but I have to admit it’s pretty sloppy on the software side. It’s slow and very buggy without making a few registry hacks on your own. Today Motorola issued an update for the phone, but I’m cautious to install this after hearing that it breaks more things than it fixes and not to mention that it requires a full reset of the phone, therefore losing my contacts, programs and settings I’ve installed. The contacts can be transferred back easily via Bluetooth, but the rest of the stuff will be a real pain in the ass to set up again. Guess I’ll be spending tonight fixing my phone.

The good part of the update is that it enables dial-up networking by default which should hopefully work better than the registry hack I’d been using previously. This allows you to use your phone as a modem with a laptop. So if you can’t get Wi-Fi anywhere, you can plug in your phone (or use it via Bluetooth) through a USB cable and browse the Internet on the laptop as long as you can get a cell signal. I got it to work a few times with my laptop but it hadn’t worked for the past month or so.

Update to the Update: I never got this to work and it sounds like it’s a good thing I didn’t. After downloading the Motorola Update Software and connecting my Q as per all the directions, the update sits there and tells me there is no internet connection so it cannot start. This happened with both my wireless card and a wired interface. At that point I said eff it, I’m only keeping the phone another week due to the fact that Verizon is screwing me over at any chance they get. I’ll be trading the Q in for a shiny new Blackberry Pearl from T-Mobile in another week or two. As for the dial-up networking being enabled, it actually disables the registry hack all the Q users had been using and makes you pay Verizon $15 (more!) a month just to be able to tether the phone. So let’s see, $50 unlimited data plan + $15 tethering charge and you still don’t have any minutes available to use the damn thing as a phone. You need to pay more for that! I can’t wait for the Pearl to finally come out.

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