I like to do projects and things to see what I can do. It is not necessarily that is has not been done before, however, I have not done them before and I want to. Sometimes those projects do not go as planned and sometimes the planning does not go as it does inside my brain parts.
I believe in showing when things don’t go as planned as well as presenting the usual nifty and helpful tidbits here.
Today is one such project fail 🙁
I had a notion to use some older tech to document a project I want to do. I was intent on using a flip phone from 2009 as a camera. Why? I hear the skeptical stinging screams from here! First, it’s old. Second, because it’s old I won’t worry if I hurt it, drop, it, or drown it. Third, Flip phone cameras are also easier to operate one-handed.
This phone is a Motorola Entice that previously lived on delicious Verizon cousine. It has previously been wet, but who hasn’t?
This Entice has sat so very long that it now functions completely normally, even holding a ridiculous length charge on the 940 mAh battery. The camera resolutions on this phone are pretty good for a 2 megapixel device. The Entice supports a highest resolution of 1600×1200 which is what I wanted to use.
What happened was not a failure of the phone tech itself but a failure in the tech of the time in which it was born. I had taken a sample picture of the project I wanted to document, then connected the phone via USB to my modern PC to snag the pics. It was not to be. “Back in the day” when this flip phone brought all the geeks to the yard there was not really any provision by Verizon to transfer pictures via USB. We could transfer music via USB and VCAST (what happened to VCAST?) because what was attracting customers at the time was using a phone for music and not carrying another MP3 player in addition to a phone.
Pictures were to be transferred via SMS, Bluetooth, or sent to online album. The last option might have worked if this phone had been in service, however, it had been idle in a box for years. It is nine years old after all.
I wondered, out loud, if Verizon might reactivate this? (hang out a bit ….. I’m going to Verizon and I will ask! (…Standby…)
(DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE)
< …And I am back! >
Trip to Verizon was what I expected. They courteously declined to let me record the audio. I called a friend on the way and told him what I was about to do. He enlightened me that Verizon is shutting down all CDMA in two months. My Verizon representative confirmed this to be true.
However, the answer is, yes, they can activate the Motorola Entice today even if it will be short lived. I did not do the activation and I now we have my answer!!
There are alternatives. This phone has an Operating System called BREW. Brew is hack-able with a bit of research. I could have used some tools to access the pictures and done the deed. Sure but that is a completely other article and not the difficulty level I was looking for (whisper, “easy”).
…Oh this is not over yet…. I have another flip phone to try out… Stay tuned!
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