Hack me baby.

So I 'hacked' my phone. Not exactly, but its still kinda scary messing about in config menus. Basically I find the volume to be insufficient (especially in the car) and wanted a way to turn it up. Using the volume up/down keys it maxes out at 7, which doesn't really seem like much. After a bit of searching I found these instructions:

v710 Volume Hack
This reportedly works on most v710 handsets, but some are already at max. It worked greaet on my personal handset:

* Enter the "Opcode Menu" by pressing: MENU 048263 * (you'll have to enter it rather quickly).
* Enter 54* and press OK. This will suspend the phone and dim the backlight.
* Press the external camera button to turn the backlight back on. You will see "SUCCESS". Press BACK.
* Enter 5*0*15 and press OK. This will max out the system volume of the handset. You can use any number from 0-15 as the third digit, but even at level 15, the phone could be louder.
* You should see SUCCESS. Press BACK.
* Press CANCEL to exit the Opcode Menu

Apparently other people felt similarly. I only changed it to 10, I'm not greedy. I guess I haveta use the phone in the car to see if its loud enough. But this is the kinda thing that I shouldn't have to do to customize my phone settings. It really cheezes me off that rushed production and carrier restrictions turn a very nice product into a poorly executed phone. Read this, its pretty much dead on with all my beefs about the phone. Don't get me wrong, its a fine phone (the best that Verizon offers) but it could be so much more.

Update
Send this letter to your Congressperson.