Verizon Wireless has unlocked the GPS on the 8330 Curve and the 8130 Pearl?
If you look up in the sky today, you may see some pigs flying as rumor has it that Verizon Wireless has unlocked the GPS on both the 8330 Curve and the 8130 Pearl. This apparently is not a cruel joke but an early Christmas present (or a long overdue upgrade, depending on your perspective). We have tested it ourselves and BlackBerry Maps indeed picks up the internal GPS. You can see that we have locked on to 8 satellites in the screen capture above. It only appears to work on OS 4.5 as BlackBerry Maps for OS 4.3 did not have the option to select the Internal GPS. We couldn’t get Google Maps to work, either – it still used the crude cell phone triangulation method to pinpoint our location. Wow – did anyone think this day would ever come? We sure didn’t
Thanks, Nate and everyone who sent this in!
@will I’m guessing he left verizon and went to another carrier since all carriers are essentially the same, you can save $10/month by leaving verizon and going elsewhere with free gps.
$10/month savings is not a bad idea at all.
On another note, it’s not just gps that verizon cripples, they used to (still do?) put their crappy software on all the phones.
@nick
Verizon put their crappy software on my 8830?
@sam
No, that was cell triangulation, nowhere near as precise as GPS.
@nick
VZW barely touches smartphones. Their feature phones have their crappy OS, but blackberry’s and WinMo’s get off with little more than a default theme.
@ Nate: Most GSM devices use a standalone GPS receiver that doesn’t require a signal. Newer Qualcomm chipsets (6800 and above, including the 7600 on Storm) support standalone GPS fallback when out of coverage (i.e. satellite-only mode). Unfortunately, this is useless unless the software supports it, and today most nav apps are pulling maps off the network.
They can’t put their crappy software on a BB, just some really cheesy theme. Its gay as all get out. Other than that, my BB 8330 came with all the usuals, and none of that extra Verizon crap.
I am amazed they unlocked the GPS. It only appears to work with Blackberry Maps. Google maps still shows me an accuracy of about 2300 meters.
I know it’s not a Blackberry, but this is a hotpoint to me, and it appears as if there are several here that might agree with me. Maybe it’s time for a consumer revolt.
I’ve been on the phone for a total of about 4 hours over the last two days regarding the GPS with the Samsung Omnia. It’s clear that the reviews that mention GPS and the Use of Google Maps with the omnia are such that they are “unlocked” and not available for public use. After discussing with two different people with Verizon and finally getting to a director level, it’s clear Verizon has made a choice that if you wish to use the GPS the ONLY way you will have the option of doing so is with VZ Navigator. Google Maps is not an option.
With that said, I want to be clear that I’ve used my Omnia heavily in the last few days and have used it in crowded places, quiet places, as a modem and have had excellent luck with it. I find the engineering solid and useful and the windows interface outstanding.
However, the issue of the GPS being “on-board” was one of the sales points for me. What I am hearing regarding the GPS service is what I’d consider a classic “bait and switch” advertisement. Nowhere in either Verizon’s or Samsung’s information does it say if you want to use the GPS on a window’s Mobile Touch device (including the Omnia) or anything affiliated with GPS while affiliated with Verizon, you must use ONLY the VZ Navigator software and that something as common as Google Maps is not available and as was stated over and over by the initial customer service reps “is not supported as a third party set of software.” I am disappointed with what I’m hearing from Verizon to the point where I believe a good attorney needs to be contacted and a class action started. Anyone else here interested pursuing what to me is a classic abuse of the “buyer beware?”
I’d definitely be down for that. I bought an Omnia. I was excited because GPS was clearly a perk. and then I find out I’m going to have to pay 10 bucks a month?? Some would just say I should stop complaining and take a closer look, but I’m not a tech geek. How was I supposed to know? It’s obviously dirty tactic on verizon’s part. VZ Nav is not bad, but quite exorbitant. Where are my options??
you might wanna talk to the lawyers in the case below (follow the link). i wonder if their suit had something to do with VZW unlcoking the GPS?
http://www.cyberlaw.pro/docs/verizonbbcomplaint.pdf
NOWFS:
Where can I get this stable release of 4.5.x.x for my 8830WE? I’ve been miffed that VZW hasn’t released a 4.5 OS upgrade for these phones yet..unless they secretly have and I haven’t heard about it yet.
I suspect you are using another carriers OS version? Which on – I’m still a bit leary about trying that!
Are you aware of others like us? I’d think it’s a legitimate complaint. I see a link with the same thing with the BlackBerry. Seems as if it’s a company-wide deception. Would you care to communicate off-site about this?
@ Dave & Jon: Believe me, I feel your pain on the locked-down GPS. I have been told that standalone GPS will be unlocked on the Omnia with a future firmware update.
It doesn’t work on mine. I’ve got GPS enabled in settings and the latest phone/BB Maps software installed. Displays “Searching for satllites…” endlessly.
@nate “I think we all get the advantage of aGPS. You’re ignoring the big disadvantage of depending on a cellphone for your GPS, though.”
Agreed! Long live Garmin GPS, TomTom GPS, et al.
8830WE and OS 4.5.0.101. Verizon. BBMaps working flawlessly. Google Maps not so.
Installed 4.5.0.77 on my VZW Curve today (used google to find the download) and the BB Map application now finds me using GPS.
It works fine for me.
Another new option I noticed was in the browser under the Go To feature there is now a search function.
Verizon guy….
I’ve been told about Santa Claus and the Great Pumpkin too. I’m still waiting for them as well.
@Dave:
Good luck with that. There is a class action about the 8830 GPS and it’s been well over a year since filed and first actions aren’t for another month or two. You have 30 days, take it back.
I suspect you will find NO literature from Verizon saying phones have GPS any more. They have learned from the lawsuits. They just say “VZNavigator compatible (or capable)”. You’ll get nowhere in two years plus of a lawsuit over a $500 device, if it means so much to you either return the phone (you have no standing to claim you didn’t know in time to return for a refund), or buy a BT GPS puck for $50-60.
@Crazy Sam:
Google has you fooled with their “My Location” cell tower/wifi ap triangulation. No application besides VZNavigator or TeleNAV (corp custs only) has had GPS location access on ANY Blackberry until 4.5+ OS and whatever Verizon did on the PDE server back end (2 weeks ago for Storm, yesterday for 8×30 devices). Sorry. That’s the facts.
GPS on my Storm works fine. Even gives me directions…not audible turn by turn but still, it’s GPS and working great, actually.
I just tried it on my 8830 running 4.5 ver. 77. It seemed to work just fine. Would be nice to have google maps work as well but I’ll take this for now. It’s better than nothing.
Well I can tell you with certainty that the GPS may be working with Balckberry Maps on Verizon now but it does not work with third party applications. MyMileageGenie (which automates tracking your mileage for expoense reporting) uses the GPS to track distance traveled through out the day. Although I was hoping 4.5 would fix this, a client reported last evening that it only works when VZ Navigator is up and running. Verizon needs to fix this problem.
I was having problems with mine. It said, searching for satelites and did nothing else. I had to play with the application permissions to get the GPS to work on my curve. I did and it does!!
I have my gps permissions set correctly and it still will not work. Any help would be appreciated. I have the 8330.
@jesse:
Did you upgrade to a 4.5 os?
Did you do a battery pull?
Try resending services books from your BIS login?
Just some thoughts…