I’m starting to notice that mobile network carriers disable features in their handset on purpose (as shocking and cruel as that may sound.) That strikes up a great deal of irritability from me — I am a sound believer that if I paid for a product, I should be getting full access to what I paid for. Carriers disabling features on their products is an even greater incentive to not deal with the majority of large cell phone corporations in North America — their dodgy tactics of forcing their customers to pay more money for features they already possess is despicable. Some providers are starting to open this up, most notable Verizon unlocking the GPS for third-party program use (Google Maps for Mobile, for instance.) Source
Thankfully, the good guys over at xda-developers and ppcgeeks can help you unlock the disabled functionality of your handset, and use your phone like you paid for it. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, good links.
interesting, i hadn’t heard that they locked stuff out on the phones and charged more to have it unlocked, that is a travesty.
Good thing you found a way to counter that problem.
I guess that’s just greed on the part of these large companies. As long as they know that we will pay for it, they’d make us pay for it. And that really sucks. Pardon my French.
I guess that’s commercialism (?) You might notice that products today are not as durable as they used to be? Why? ‘Cause that would force us to buy again…and again… and again. I’m no conspiracy theory guy but that’s what I’ve been noticing.
I agree that we should make the most of what we buy. After all we should benefit from our hard earned money. I suppose some large network carrier focuses on income than quality service. That is sad.