<rant>

Reminders: a) read the fine print b) realize the fine print should probably be 3 times as long in reality

OK, so I'm a Telus Mobility subscriber. I've been with this company since 1998 (anyone remember "clearNET"?), and as of this evening I'm on my 3rd handset with them.

I'm stubborn when it comes to certain gadgets. It took me until 2005 to even consider an iPod, Apple only really earned my attention in 2003 and no cellphone has piqued my interest until the Motorola V710 became available at Telus. Why? Well, according to its specs, it has Bluetooth capability. Yes, you can use headsets with it... but I don't make that many phonecalls. I just want to sync it to my iBook -- contacts and calendar. That's it.

Long story short: it won't let me. Telus has disabled the firmware to allow such synching because Motorola's implementation of BT on this phone would have file transfers open if Telus were to enable this feature. Can't have that... ooooh, digital rights management issues... ooooh. Scary. Telus, should I remind you that Canada doesn't have these rights issues (at least not yet). I should be able to do anything I damn well please with this phone.

Yes, yes -- I can sync the phone if I outlay $80 for a USB cable... I am not doing that.

Verizon customers in the US received a firmware patch for the phone to allow these things. Come on, Telus -- please -- don't make me return this thing!

</rant>

Other than that, it's a pretty nice phone. Big... (larger than my LG-TM520 in fact)... but I'm looking forward to using the other bells and whistles (Video/Still camera, speakerphone, voice dialing, etc.)

March of the Swivelheads by The English Beat