A couple of months back I lost my cell phone and when I went down to the Metro-PCS store I let the sales girl talk me into a smart phone (a ZTE Obsidian) Up until last week it was doing OK but I had already been forced to do a couple of factory resets to get rid of some erratic behaviors. Last Tuesday morning when I woke up I discovered it had frozen up again due to some app I had apparently downloaded. When I attempted to perform yet another reset the screen went black with only a short message in red print stating that error 101 had occurred due to that app trying to flash the phone's hard drive and that the phone was locked. After an hour and a half talking to various representatives from Metro-PCS and ZTE I finally learned that error 101 is fatal and the phone couldn't be unlocked. I was told that if I sent the phone back to ZTE they would either fix it or send a replacement. I told them that I wasn't willing to wait several weeks without a cell phone and that I would be going to the Metro-PCS corporate store the next morning. At that time I would either get a free replacement phone or take my business elsewhere.

The next morning at the corporate store I explained the situation, whereupon the girl went into the back of the store to consult with her superiors. A few minutes later she came back out with a new phone of a different brand and told me I could either take that phone as a replacement or wait until a new ZTE phone was sent. I took the other phone(Alcatel Onetouch Fierce II) and after it was set up went home.

On Saturday a package arrived from Metro-PCS, not ZTE, with a new ZTE Obsidian and a letter apologising for the inconvenience. It came with a UPS return shipping label to send the old phone back with. I sent it back explaining that the corporate store had already replaced the phone.

The online explanation about error 101 is that they set up the phones so that if an app tries to access the secure portions of the phone it gets locked. The problem being that they didn't include any way to unlock the phone and it becomes useless and they claim that it voids any warranties. This must be pretty rare since nobody I talked to knew anything about error 101 at the start of the conversation.

Moral to the story, be careful of buying off brands of cell phones.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Flip phone Bob. I have never had the
courage or inclination to get a smart
phone. I hear some strange stories about
them, but I know others who can't get along
with theirs. I guess it may be taste, thanks
for filling us in on your experience.

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A quick look on the internt show that this is something introduced by Metro-PCS and has nothing to do with the phones themselves or the Android operating system.

MetroPCS is committed to delivering an optimal experience on our phones for our customers and we have added Secure Lock to protect the integrity of the phones sold by MetroPCS. Secure Lock is technology that prevents unauthorized firmware from being installed on MetroPCS phones. Preventing unauthorized firmware helps protect against security threats that may result from third-party firmware that has not been tested by MetroPCS and our equipment manufacturing partners. If unauthorized firmware is flashed on a MetroPCS phone that has Secure Lock, the phone will no longer work. Phones that have had unauthorized firmware added are not eligible to be covered under warranty or insurance.

Smart phones are often "jailbroken" where you can down load software that can unlock the phone from the operating system and allow you to install other software that is not controlled by Google (Android) or Apple (iPhone)
Seems this is an attempt to stop this.

The Google Play store is not quite as tightly controlled as the Apple App Store and so you may well have stumbled upon a rouge app by accident.

I have to say I have been using a Smart phone since 2007 (Blackberry) then moved to and iPhone and while I would not be lost without it I do find it very useful.

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@Bob DeWoody.

Does not your story perhaps remind me of something else as well?

No pun intended, of course.

Except for that, always an explanation or solution, of course.

If I had the opportunity to use a mobile phone, would I not choose to dial someone?

The likely fact is that if you happen to call a close member of family, probably noone else would bother.

Still, there happens to be a discussion about privacy and security going on when using such equipment and whether or not doing a given thing is supposed to be for the good or bad.

Privacy could at times mean the simple thing of not allowing anyone else to read my personal notes stored on my own computer.

Supposedly, with access to the web, you may not be able to protect yourself on your own. Therefore you will need some help for this to be working out.

My guess is that personal information could be hacked or compromised not only by those who are using illegal ways in order to carry out such acts, but also by those who are able to come up with any solutions to the problems at hand.

Most likely those ways of dealing with such things are not always of that much interest here, but if you happen to be buying a mobile phone and next are perhaps guessing that someone is listening at you, then the whole process is continuing once again and you may be left with a compromise between the need for personal protection and the possible way you choose to be using such equipment.

In fact, you do not see any security certificate when using a mobile phone. Therefore such tools as cryptography for protection and also spyware products, more likely become add-on products to your already existing tools.

Driving a car does not make or create any such problems. Your vendor may not necessarily offer any solution or good alternative either when it comes to better protection or use of such things like mobile phones.

A quick look on the internt show that this is something introduced by Metro-PCS and has nothing to do with the phones themselves or the Android operating system.

MetroPCS is committed to delivering an optimal experience on our phones for our customers and we have added Secure Lock to protect the integrity of the phones sold by MetroPCS. Secure Lock is technology that prevents unauthorized firmware from being installed on MetroPCS phones. Preventing unauthorized firmware helps protect against security threats that may result from third-party firmware that has not been tested by MetroPCS and our equipment manufacturing partners. If unauthorized firmware is flashed on a MetroPCS phone that has Secure Lock, the phone will no longer work. Phones that have had unauthorized firmware added are not eligible to be covered under warranty or insurance.

Smart phones are often "jailbroken" where you can down load software that can unlock the phone from the operating system and allow you to install other software that is not controlled by Google (Android) or Apple (iPhone)
Seems this is an attempt to stop this.

The Google Play store is not quite as tightly controlled as the Apple App Store and so you may well have stumbled upon a rouge app by accident.

I have to say I have been using a Smart phone since 2007 (Blackberry) then moved to and iPhone and while I would not be lost without it I do find it very useful.

Bernie, I read that same paragraph last week. Since, at that time I wasn't interested in checking other services, I didn't go beyond Metro-PCS to check out whether other providers had the same setup. I think T-mobile does as they are the parent company and the message on my phone directed me contact T-mobile service. I hope none of the other providers have been this stupid. Even though I have been with Metro for over 8 years if it happens again I will probably go back to a dumb phone and get it from Consumer Cellular as they have an AARP plan.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Looking a bit deeper it seem that there is a lot of legal wrangling going on as to whether "rooting" the Android version of "jail breaking" is legal or not.

Seems here in Europe and the UK it is not considered illegal to "root" a device.

However in the US it is less clear, seems Verizon and AT&T also prevent rooted phones from working. The reason is that "rooting" the phone can allow the install of software and "apps" that can permit things like cheap calls, which of course the providers wish to avoid.

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Now as to cell phones, I have always owned Samsung's, whether flip or smart, My current phone is a Galaxy Ring that
is tied to Virgin Mobile, about the only problem I have is twofold, 1. I can't uninstall some apps that came with the
phone(Google Chrome for one), and 2. there is not enough room to install more than a few apps(less than 200MB),
I had to uninstall a few apps just so I could update a few other apps, I have the Firefox app on My phone, plus:
flashlight, paypal, the WU(weather), speedtest, gofundme, ebay, amazon, war commander & realtor.com...

Though I might uninstall war commander, cause it's not the same as on the PC, a totally different game.

My next phone, will be a Samsung Galaxy J7 from Virgin Mobile, which is normally $229.99,
but I don't have the cash yet for this phone and even if I did the phone is currently(as I type this), out of stock.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Perhaps I should not tell, but I purchased the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32 GB Gold from my vendor paying full prize.

The only thing missing was a cover for protection, which had to be bought separately with the help of some relatives.

Always that slightly undesidered curiosity, especially since I was told I had made a good choice.

I have not turned it on yet and happen to be more used to the Nokia phones.

My guess is that you could be quite well off by only using the provided functionality built into it.

If you write an e-mail message for someone, it may or may not be read.

Next the usual thing is that such a device is being turned off when you are asleep in bed, or at least when you do not want to be disturbed by someone calling you or perhaps sending a SMS.

Reminds me about the time of day as well.

Back tomorrow.

I can't uninstall some apps that came with the
phone(Google Chrome for one), and 2. there is not enough room to install more than a few apps(less than 200MB),

Which is the reason I don't like Android and the way it works. I had a Samsung Galaxy S2 for a while but went back to my older iPhone 3 for that very reason, and I had a 2GB SD card but most apps would not install on it only on the phone!! So why have an SD slot!!

As far as apps, it is the same on the iPhone, you cannot un-install the apps it comes with unless you "root" the phone, thereby possibly causing the problem Bob had.

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I downloaded some ringtones to my phone and they automatically were loaded into the download directory. When I tried to change my ringtone I couldn't find a way to look into the download directory or to move it from the download directory to the ringtone directory. But when I connected the phone to my PC via the supplied USB cable my PC recognised it as another drive and I was then able to transfer the files.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.