A bunch of people have sent us emails that Verizon has now unlocked the GPS functionality for the BlackBerry 8130 and 8330. This will allow Verizon subscribers to finally use BlackBerry Maps (by selecting the ‘internal GPS’ option in your settings)! However, Google Maps will not work as Verizon deems it a ’security risk’.
You’re going to need OS 4.5 to experience GPS freedom on your Verizon BlackBerry. Thankfully, we have all the information you need to upgrade to OS 4.5 at the links below.
BlackBerry OS 4.5 now available from BlackBerry.com/Upgrades. No, seriously.
How To: Upgrade your BlackBerry Software
I have Verizon for my 8830 and I use Google Maps all the time. Why would these two models not be allowed to access the app? Is there a substantial difference in the platforms that would cause this issue?
@addicted:
Your google maps does not and never has accessed the gps chip in your Verizon 8830. Google themselves say their app has never worked with a Verizon BB other then via their “My Location” (call tower/wifi ap triangulation). Don’t believe, google it or check ANY Blackberry forum.
As to the article, confirmed GPS location and tracking is fully functional on Verizon 8830 also (running OS 4.5.0.101) in BB Maps.
Yes! Finally! I had to reinstall Blackberry Maps on my Curve 8330 to see if this isn’t an April Fool’s posting. And what do you know…it works! Just wish that Google Maps would work just as well. But, oh well.
Now I can start to use all the 3rd party social networking apps out there that utilize the GPS (like http://www.loopt.com, who at the moment isn’t supporting the 8330 yet).
@Chris:
Don’t assume that because it works for BBMaps that it will (or ever will) work with any other LBS apps. I suspect Loopt and others will have to submit their product to Verizon for their “open” process and get approved before they can get access to location. Maybe there will be a hack that other apss can tap into location as long as BBMaps is running but I wouldn’t count on any app getting direct GPS access unless Verizon approves it.
Works with unofficial OS 4.5.0.56. It’s nice to have GPS on my phone.
i installed the new version thingy.. i cant even install blackberry maps because on the website it’s only for v1.x and v2.x … and none of my GPS functions seem to be working.. WHYYY!!
blackberry 8330 verizon
Our IT person called Verizon about getting GPS enabled – and they indicated “VZW Navigator costs $9.99 per line”. We already new that. Is it your understanding that this has been (re)enabled for free with Blackberry Map?
JTT
@Jim:
Yes. It is confirmed by many Verizon subscribers on many sites to work 100% free of charge on Blackberry 8130/8330/8830 running an OS 4.5. However, as I understand it this sort of thing can be locked out by a BES admin, so if you are on a BES and have a restrictive policy it may not work for you.
…great…but how do you change the settings to point it to the internal gps chip?
Make sure Location is enable (not 911 only) in Advanced Options…GPS. And do a battery pull reset. You are running a 4.5.x.x OS right?
DavidB…yes I am running 4.5.0.77. All the settings are as you say but I hadn’t tried a battery pull…did that and it’s now working great..thanks! Is there a way to set the backlight to stay on indefinitely while in GPS mapping mode
@Johnny:
Glad that fixed you up. Not sure about the backlight, I think you have to disable it in Options in order for it to stay on all the time. There is a setting in BBMaps to control backlight via battery charge level but not sure that works 100% correctly. Try it though.
Verizon supports Trimble Outdoors software on 24 of their handsets but not on the Blackberries. I wonder why this is? It can’t be security reasons, because they do support their software. Trimble has a program called Geocache Navigator and all other service providers support it on their Blackberries but not Verizon. I want a Blackberry but Verizon is too proprietary.
I can’t seem to get the BBMaps to redownload on my BB 8130. I deleted BBMaps from my 8130(just got it last week) before I realised BBMaps was the only program that allows use of the GPS. I go to the BB RIM webpage on my BB and go to the map programs and try to dl BBMaps but it tells me my device isn’t compatible?!?!? I can’t get it to dl onto my laptop so I can manually install it either. Anyone care to shed some light on where I might be able to pick up the BBMaps app again besides the RIM website?
Mike
Download the OS from Verizon. Install on PC. Run Desktop manager. Go to the install/remove device software section. It shoul recognize that what is on you device matches your PC except for things missing like BBMaps. Select it and it installs without touching anything else.
I would like to run Greenfinder on my Blackberry 8330. My carrier is Verizon. I have the 4.5 Verizon installed. When I try to lauch the application I get the message “GPS not supported on this platform…” Is there anything I can do to make this work?
I downloaded and installed Geocache Navigator just to see if it would work on the Blackberry 8330 with OS 4.5.0.77 with the GPS enabled.
The app itself works, but the GPS capability does NOT work.
However, you can still search for caches by typing in your coordinates and it will interface with Geocaching.com to find caches in your area, as well as use all the other features, so it’s a nice app for that at least. However, I’m not sure if it’s worth $5.99/month without the GPS functionality.
Google Maps and Blackberry Maps work great on my device.
However, if I run the GPS test found here:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f61/gps-coordinates-your-8830-a-171334/
it times out.
I’m of the opinion that the GPS functionality is not completely “unlocked” on Verizon Blackberry phones (at least not the 8830).
err.., at least not the 8330.
@Ralph,
Correct. On 8×30 BlackBerry smartphones from Verizon, when upgraded to a 4.5 OS, true GPS will work with BlackBerry Maps. This is the ONLY “free” application that can use the GPS chip on a Verizon 8×30 BlackBerry, period. There ARE free apps that work with true GPS on the Storm 9530, but that’s totally unrelated. And who knows what will work with the coming 8230 Pearl Flip or 9630 Niagra.
We can all WANT Verizon to allow more apps to access GPS on our 8×30 BlackBerry smartphones, but it plain and simple aint gonna happen. These are all “ancient” in electronics lifecycle terms, and Verizon has only demonstrated a more “open” policy on “new” devices (like the Storm).
O meu Celular 8130 Black.tem chip fixo o q eu faço p mudar o numero
Alfret
Anyone have any info. on getting the GPS to work on a Storm? Frankly, I am getting increasingly pissed at being screwed by Verizon. I have been in cellular since 80’s, and this is the same crap that providers have been pulling since the beginning of the technology.
@Bigg:
You have a Storm? What GPS apps don’t work? They all work on mine. Even ones like Google Maps and Nav4All and such that don’t work on any Verizon 8xxx or 7xxx series BlackBerry work on the Storm.
Here’s my what worked with my vw storm. VZNavigator cost $10/month, however other apps are able to access the internal gps at no cost. There were a few things i had to do to get it to work. Go to: Options->Advanced Options->GPS, set “GPS Data Source” to: Device GPS, and “GPS Services” to Location On (Not E911 Only).
After that Programs like Nav4All, GPSed, Poynt, Trapster (one of my personal favs), etc. should all work. To get google maps / Latitude to work you need to install “GPSed” and leave it running in the background, then google maps will get your location from the GPS instead of using cell tower triangulation.
its july 20th,, can someone tell me that GPS application loopt or lattitude is working on any other blackberry besides ’storm’? i want to buy a cheaper blackberry with these application functioning… so that I can track that devise and get worry free about my family.
@polly:
Give up those apps ever working on a Verizon 8×30 BlackBerry. They work on Storm 9530 and Tour 9630. Storm’s can be found online for under $50 now for new contracts (amazon I believe). And Storm is going to be less than Tour in almost any instance.
Or switch to sprint. I believe those sort of apps work on old Sprint 8×30 BlackBerry but confirm that first.
@davidb
do you know of any golf yardage application that will work with the 8330 for verizon? i have found MANY free golf applications but since verizon has their gps locked, none is compatible. i can buy a handheld model but i would rather have all of this on my phone.
@Chris: you are right, none work with the GPS that is in the Verizon 8330. I have heard many DO work with an external bluetooth GPS puck though. This actually might work well for golfing as you could attach the puck to the cart. But that won’t help you on “cart path only” days, or close to the green. If Storm intrigues you it is hard to beat the deals to be had on it right now and several of the golf apps work flawlessly on it. And they work on Tour also.
Face it guys, NOTHING is ever going to work with the internal GPS on 8130/8330/8830 without Verizon having a complete change of heart. Yeah, THAT will happen…not! I’ve tracked the how’s and why’s and what’s of this for over two years now and it just aint gonna change. You can read old stories of people claiming they have successful hacks to make it work but NONE have ever panned out to be usable by the masses.
If you want fully working GPS on a Verizon BlackBerry, get a Storm or Tour now (sorry, don’t know about Pearl Flip), or hold out for Storm 2 or maybe Aries (8530). Storm 2 will be as unencumbered as current Storm plus have wifi, but 8530 is intended as a “low end” model so who knows how free its GPS might end up?
Does the GPS in the 9630 work internationally? On 8×30 Blackberries running BB OS 4.5 it did not. BB Maps worked worldwide, but it seemed that the GPS capability was inextricably tied into CDMA EVDO mode.
For education purpose and not comprising any of Verizon’s I.P.
Try to load….. say Bell mobility(Canada)’s O.S. into your Verizon phone? Most of the other carries are GSM so it would not work.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp
The hardcore users do this to get the latest O.S. on their phone regardless of carrier.
Others has used this method to gain foreign language support.
@AlexS:
If you’re proposing that would free up the GPS for other apps, nope, its been tried. No go. If only it could have been so easy.
You can read the 8830 GPS thread at Crackberry.com (92 pages worth) to see two+ years of everything that has been tried and didn’t work.
Paying Verizon for GPS was just the second dumbest thing anyone has done and the worst was succumbing to any explanation by any Verizon employee claiming there wasn’t an alternative.
The BB GPS was “locked” from the Blackberry OS Engineering Menus and this special menu could be accessed with a mild amount of Google effort to learn the 3 key combination and a growing number of websites willing to freely and anonymously provide the short code into the “lock”.
Whether it was Verizon’s 8830, or any Blackberry made for the last umpteenth years, the “Engineering Screens” have always been able to perform EXTREME CONFIGURATIONS the BB OS ver X.YOUNAMEIT.D.U.NCE.
Most cellular store employees have never heard of them since they aren’t expected for for their pittance of salaries and if you ever take a loot at the ES’s…you’d be afraid to let anyone else bang inside this privileged menu.
Those people with MMS know what I’m referring to and the ES’s are the 2nd deepest level of config and reports you can glean from a BB w/o using HEX registers and a JTAG.
Some examples of the info you can config and dump from the Engineering Screens is the unique identifiers assigned to radio towers and even the sub ID’s to the actual platters on the towers, AND IF YOU’RE adventurous or bored enough, you can even set your phones affinity to define priority for those towers and in what order.
….OH, and you could’ve just flipped a single toggle to enable the agnostic GPS antenna inside your Canadian designed phone and ignored the Verizon official screw disguised as a value added surcharge.
Posters like DavidB on 9/2 are another tragic example of middle class consumers accepting the first response as the only response and worse, ..venturing into forums spreading specious explanations as authoritative truth.
Misery loves company but the advice of the ignorant can be ignored since just deleting the hidden vendor.xml file out your BB OS desktop program directories is all that is necessary to load any carriers OS into your phone and even the CDMA GSM versions are irrelevant. If that bit of advice fascinates you then begin researching and validating it across the web instead of listening to unsubstantiated advice from those like DavidB posting b.s onto anonymous forums !!!!
JEEESH PEOPLE, NO WONDER RALPH NADER WANTS TO PRESIDENT SO BADLY !
Lol! Nice rant dude. If only it was so easy. There is nothing ANY user of a Verizon 8×30 BlackBerry can do to enable GPS on their phone. You can upgrade the OS to anybody’s 4.5, such as the 4.5.0.169’s for 8130/8330/8830 that USCellular just released, or the “official” 4.5 OS released by Verizon, or use a Sprint or Bell or Telus or Alltel or whoever you desire, but still the only FREE app that will work is BlackBerry Maps. No Google Maps, no Nav4All, no LifeInPocket, nothing will be able to access the internal GPS for location. No loading of other carrier OS, no using Engineering Screens, no hacking of PDE authentication, nothing. The post above shows a clear lack of understanding of the technical issues involved as well as how the LBS API functions under OS versions prior to 4.7. If it was that easy we all would have been doing it for the past 2 or more years eh?
Perhaps rather than posting your vitriol you would care to post step by step instructions right here, or provide a link to a site that has such already posted?
(Posted from my Tour 9630 with completely unencumbered internal GPS)
agreed with DavidB, some instructions would be nice if it’s even possible. VZW sucks for doing this to these phones.
We are trying to use this software with a BB Curve 8330 on verison (software version 4.5.0.77). We can’t get this to track any sats… Is there documentation available for this software? Does it work with the GPS chip in the 8330?
I have tried multiple software programs with my BB Curve 8330. I have the 4.5.0.160 os (when I tried to update from BB site – this was the lastest version available ???)
The only time I was able to get the GPS to work was when using the trial TeleNav. During the trial period I was able to get another GPS app to work, but as soon as I cancelled TeleNav GPS functionality ceased on the other program and has not worked on any other apps since either.
Anyone have some advice or help to offer?