Pro-668: Upgrade options explained.

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ScottPDX

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I still can't believe what a "trojan horse" this whole "Legacy Scanner Upgrade" scheme that Whistler invented is/was. They must have loved how well it was received by all legacy scanner owners, but truthfully, they offered it for such a short time only for the legal reasons that if they were going to surprise lock the non-upgraders out, then at least later their lawyers could say that they offered a way around it prior to the "locking". The short duration between the start of the June 1 "Legacy Upgrade Offer" and the July 1 hidden "locking" trojan horse activation just shows they are playing the legal game, but to their favor. Really nasty move. This will come to bite them though. All Whistler scanner owners, locked or not, now know they can count on Whistler to pull dirty tricks in their products. Trust has been lost in this PR disaster.
 

ChibiPaw

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We need to got together and call Wendy Taylor at Whistler and make sure she knows that we won't be buying Whistler products again.

And we will make sure prospect buyers are aware of Whistler's conducts and attitude.
It's a shame that even Baofeng purveyor of cheap radios has a better PR record than these people.
 

milcom_chaser

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Who cares about the peanut gallery anyways. He comes across to be "on the spectrum" with his approach and demonstrated social skills. I don't blame anyone who will just simply ignore him.
But look on the bright side. Yes, this whole this is really petty, especially on Whistler's part. But that's okay, free market will take care of that. As the scanner industry is quite small, and no doubt the word will be passed around. Ultimately Whistler's little stunt will simply will amount into advertisement and product loyalty toward Uniden.

Also if some unnamed hero comes up with another hack, I can safely say very few people who will have any hesitation to advertise and encourage as many people to to apply it. Do not underestimate the Streisand effect.

We love Streisand. She was awesome in, "What's up Doc" and "Hello Dolly"
 

EricCottrell

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Just goes to show how dishonest Whistler really is. DonS knew darn good and well that the bad code was in firmware 4.6. Whistler is also lying about the fact that the PRO668 the can not be unlocked. I have talked to Electronic Engineers and this Micro Processor can be unlocked. You have
Whistler to thank for their dirty underhanded tricks because they are trying to get even with Eric. Then CPUNUT wonders why Eric won't answer his PM's. Really Whistler are you that underhanded? That is why Radio Shack could not get the updates for the PRO 668 before they went out of Business. Whistler I have no respect for you at all. Tired of Whistler lying.
Hello,

I did answer cpunut in the thread and sent a PM to him later when he PM me again.

I can understand the views of cpunut and DonS as they were deeply involved in GRE development, felt the code they worked on was stolen, and there would be possible legal issues for Whistler. There was little that I could do as I had already ended further development. It seemed like just the existence of a third-party firmware updater was a major issue. After consideration I decided to remove the repository and declare Whistler the winner.

You have to remember that cpunut and DonS do not speak for Whistler, although it does seem they had at least knowledge of discussions. You do not know if their personal opinion reflects Whistler's official line.

73 Eric
 

KevinC

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You have to remember that cpunut and DonS do not speak for Whistler, although it does seem they had at least knowledge of discussions. You do not know if their personal opinion reflects Whistler's official line.

73 Eric

Which is one of the reasons I closed the other thread. People were giving responses that others were taking as Whistler's official response. And those responses may have been 100% correct, but since neither person is the Whistler representative on RR I felt it best to wait for an official response (still waiting :p) on what the impact of the announcement actually is.
 

mancow

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Which is one of the reasons I closed the other thread. People were giving responses that others were taking as Whistler's official response. And those responses may have been 100% correct, but since neither person is the Whistler representative on RR I felt it best to wait for an official response (still waiting :p) on what the impact of the announcement actually is.

And I owe you an apology for being an a** via PM.

I see your point now.
 
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Hello,

I did answer cpunut in the thread and sent a PM to him later when he PM me again.

I can understand the views of cpunut and DonS as they were deeply involved in GRE development, felt the code they worked on was stolen, and there would be possible legal issues for Whistler. There was little that I could do as I had already ended further development. It seemed like just the existence of a third-party firmware updater was a major issue. After consideration I decided to remove the repository and declare Whistler the winner.

You have to remember that cpunut and DonS do not speak for Whistler, although it does seem they had at least knowledge of discussions. You do not know if their personal opinion reflects Whistler's official line.

73 Eric

I personally think that thier opinions (CPUNUT and DonS)is a reflection of Whistler. It just shows the vendicitive mentality that was prevalent in the decision to write the time bomb. That attitude is not going to reflect positively on the company. It's as you said there was many other ways two keep people from using their code in the Radio Shack radios without locking the radio. I think the people like myself who decided to be honest and send my radio in for the legitimate upgrade should have been acknowledged and appreciated. Whistler should help users with locked radios get them unlocked so they can receive the same upgrade everybody else can. In all honesty I think it's morally bankrupt of them not to do so.
 
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exkalibur

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Geeze, after seeing Don's reaction to this, I don't feel so bad for helping myself to a copy of Win96 years ago.
 

rgchristy

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Regardless of your opinion of whether "you're on your own, you shouldn't have done it, it's stealing", etc., there should have been an official, sticky topic and posting from Whistler on RR.com and also an email sent to every one of their customers that said "If you do not revert back to firmware X and DSP X by xx/xx/2017, your scanner radio will be locked up and you will not be able to utilize our legacy upgrade program".
 

rgchristy

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Could we please get an official response from Whistler regarding the factual accuracy of this information and what the current policy is and will be moving forward? It would be appreciated by all.
 

ChibiPaw

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Could we please get an official response from Whistler regarding the factual accuracy of this information and what the current policy is and will be moving forward? It would be appreciated by all.

Unlikely that they will post anything official. As Im sure they, and WhistlerWendy who is an active member of this forum are well aware of the current shinola storm, and is purposefully keeping a low profile.

As for the validity of the information, I've personally spoke directly to their engineering manager who over sees this project, and that was what the guy told me and I have no interest or motivation in fabricating, or embellishing the story.

If you're that skeptical, go call them up yourselves, their technical support number is right on their website, and you can ask to speak to the engineer in charge of the upgrade process. Be sure to post a summary of your conversation. I'm willing to bet money that it'll parallel mine.
 

Fasteddy2

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Pro-668

Could we please get an official response from Whistler regarding the factual accuracy of this information and what the current policy is and will be moving forward? It would be appreciated by all.

I did nothing to harm the whistler company in any way and I get locked out ?
 

rgchristy

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Unlikely that they will post anything official. As Im sure they, and WhistlerWendy who is an active member of this forum are well aware of the current shinola storm, and is purposefully keeping a low profile.

As for the validity of the information, I've personally spoke directly to their engineering manager who over sees this project, and that was what the guy told me and I have no interest or motivation in fabricating, or embellishing the story.

If you're that skeptical, go call them up yourselves, their technical support number is right on their website, and you can ask to speak to the engineer in charge of the upgrade process. Be sure to post a summary of your conversation. I'm willing to bet money that it'll parallel mine.

Sorry ChibiPaw,

I should have explained my reasoning in my initial post. I trust what you say, but believe that we deserve to hear it "officially" from Whistler.

Take Care,

Rich
 

ChibiPaw

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Sorry ChibiPaw,

I should have explained my reasoning in my initial post. I trust what you say, but believe that we deserve to hear it "officially" from Whistler.

Take Care,

Rich
Ahh got it.
Ideally they should, and they should have done so long ago. But at this rate, and their track records. Its likely they'll just try to ignore it until, and hope it'll blow over.
 
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