A new toy... and a new hack

After three years of being fairly happy with my cell phone (an LG VX6000), I decided it was time to visit the local Verizon store and upgrade. Frankly, I had all but killed the battery in my poor old 6000 and rather than spend the money on a new battery, I wanted something new to play with.

So what did I end up with? A shiny new LG VX8100. Overall, it was the best option for me, with a bunch of slick features - although I think Verizon is fairly mercenary with the way they set up their phones. Regardless, the handset supports Bluetooth headsets - a first for me - as well as sporting a decent camera, and a media player (also a first for me). The winning factor for me was the mini SD slot that the phone has, so I can load up a bunch of music and pictures and tote them around. Now I can put off buying an iPod for a few more years.

The basic reason for this post is because I promptly found a way to "hack" the phone and enable the built in MP3 player. Straight from Verizon, this feature is not available, but it's easily enabled using the following steps:

1. Access the main menu by pressing the OK button
2. Press "0" to access the service menu
3. Press "0" six times for the service code
4. Go to setting 11, "Music Setting"
5. Press the OK button
6. Select "MP3 Enable"
7. Press the OK button
8. Press "END"
9. Restart your phone.

Now that you've rebooted the phone, the MP3 player is enabled. To use it...

1. Enter "Get It Now" by pressing the right navigation button
2. Select "Get Tunes & Tones"
3. There will be a new option available, #8: "My MP3s"

Now you can play any MP3s that you have loaded onto your external mini SD card. For me, this is huge, because I didn't want to be forced into converting my existing music collection, nor do I feel like paying $1.99 a pop for music from the VCast service, which is in WMA format at a low bitrate. Not that fidelity through the onboard stereo speakers is great, and only marginally better with the earbuds - but now, I have one device that I can tote around, and listen to my music when I'm doing... whatever.