I just got a w580i from AT&T and I love the phone, it is fantastic. I just have a couple of nitpicks with it:
- AT&T’s crippled firmware forces you to confirm every time an application (like Opera Mini or Gmail) wants to access the internet - which gets really old and really unnecessary on an unlimited data plan
- Lots of AT&T branded crap all over the phone - trying to force you to buy their overpriced ringtones ($2+ !?!?!) and streaming TV/music/etc
- The shortcut buttons (MEdianet and Walkman) were not very useful/convenient - i.e. I have an iPod already, I don’t need the Walkman functionality
The first issue (constant internet confirmation messages) was what really drove me crazy, so I thought I’d call AT&T and see what they had to say - maybe there was some sort of voodoo that they could do to allow those applications to run uninhibited. After about 20 minutes on the phone with the nice lady, she said that it didn’t appear that there was anything they could do from their end and that I might be better served talking to SonyEricsson.
After doing some research, it appears that the best way to remove the AT&T crap and get to a more fully-functional phone, is to “debrand” it, meaning removing the carrier-specific firmware, and flashing the original manufacturer’s firmware to it, basically making the phone like it would have been, had I bought it from SonyEricsson, instead of AT&T. There appear to be services like WotanServer that will do this for a fee, but I was able to do it myself without any problems by following these instructions on HowardForums. If you follow the instructions exactly, you should not have any problems, and in 20 minutes you will have a fully functional w580.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] Note: Debranding my w580 makes running this application and others a lot easier, because it removes the locks that AT&T puts on the phone for data usage. You can read more about it here. [...]
Post a Comment