KRZR

So I signed up with Sprint for the coverage, and I got the KRZR from motorola for the look, feel, battery life, mini SD expansion etc.,

I’m excited because it’s my first camera phone, and it’s my first mp3 player (I never got around to getting an ipod for some reason).

Then I take pictures with the camera, and I’m happy with the pictures.

I try to transfer my pictures off the phone to my computer, and music off the computer into my phone.

Nothing. Neither the USB connection or the SD card will accept or reveal files I want to move and use.

I’m no longer excited.

I call customer service and the guy keeps telling me it’s easy, all I have to do is pay 15$ a month and I can send all the pictures I want to my “free” Sprint Picturemail account and download them online. He also says getting music is easy, all I have to do is log on to the Sprint music store and then I can buy all the music my heart desires, for a fee. When I tell him I don’t want to pay 15$ a month for shitty internet service and a conduit for picture transfer he says everybody does it, and I should too. I ask him to stop bullshiting me and just get me the drivers/software that let me connect my phone to my computer. He says there aren’t any.

What the hell is Sprint/Motorola thinking? Are customers really supposed to put up with this proprietary bullshit? Is this really the direction they see the market going? More importantly, how long do you think it’ll last before they change gears and reconfigure the system. I’d like to get my pictures out of hock.

Any plausable logic behind this inane interface would be appreciated.

The plausible logic is that the companies tried to come up with features to make them more money rather than enhance the user’s experience. It seems like you will have to kiss those pics goodbye!

It’s the carrier, not Motorola that’s keeping you from doing that. I know, it pisses me off too, which is one of the reasons I’m excited about the Apple iPhone–it does sync with your PC, no strings attached (well, okay, one, which is that you need to use iTunes.)

Motorolas answer is that you need to buy a software product called “Mobile Phone Tools.”

Does your phone have Bluetooth? I can transfer pics from phone to computer that way. Granted it’s a Samsung and I’m on Cingular. The Bluetooth on my old Motorola never worked very well for anything.

What you’re describing is also the reason Cingular won’t let the iPhone use iTunes tracks as ringtones. Cingular makes millions of dollars selling people (presumably very dim high school children) ringtone versions of songs for $2-3 a piece. Apple only gets 99 cents, and for that they give you the whole song. I guess there’s a reason everyone hates their cellphone company.

I am willing to bet that this will be the same with the iPhone, as my cousin who lives in Bermuda also has the razor with her service…it would always link to her computer via usb and bluetooth. I actually got the phone for the fact that she was able to bluetooth sink her outlook calender and contacts with the calender and contacts on her phone.

She never had buy or load the software.

Btw…I would rather have Cingular than anyother…especially Verizon. Just try moving cross country and see the BS charges and games they will expect you to pay and play.

Supposedly not from the Demo I saw. It will sync your music, contacts, photos etc. with iTunes on your computer via the dock. In Cingular, Apple found a vendor that was willing to pick them up with few strings attached, and basically sight-unseen. That’s a one-time trick. The other manufacturers can’t get away with that–the carriers have them by the balls.

The exception would be some of these new virtual carriers like Boost, Virgin, Mobile ESPN etc.

My friend uses the Cingular provider, same motorola phone you are using, there was an initial fee i believe and then it “unlocks” the music/picture storage capabilities. I thought that was reasonable, but not as good as free… sounds like Sprint muffed it all up.