Verizon Finds A Way To Charge For GPS On 8830
It seems that after all the hubbub about GPS being locked down on the Verizon 8830 there is finally a way to use Verizon’s Navigator service on your 8830. A new patch that Simon at BBCool caught opens up the door for Verizon 8830’s to work with the Verizon Navigator GPS application. If you remember Verizon blocked GPS in the first place since they could not charge for it but I guess they finally opened up their greedy doors. It is not full blown GPS access since it only works with the VZ Navigator 
.
According to Simon the new software patch will allow your BlackBerry 8830 GPS to work for their Navigator service, which will cost you $9.99 monthly or $2.99 per day. The software patch is version 4.2.2 release 339 which can be downloaded from this link. This just makes me glad I don’t have Verizon as my carrier.
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Related Reading:
- Verizon 8830 With OS 4.5 Found In The Wild
- So What Ever Happened to GPS On Verizon’s 8830?
- FAQ: Get Verizon To Unlock Your 8830 For International SIM Cards
December 1st, 2007 04:41
Google Maps 2.0’s new My Location can figure out where you are within ~3,200 ft.
December 1st, 2007 18:16
Thanks for pointing that out Jason. I just cant believe Verizon always wants to charge for every little feature. Especially when the customers know it should work and would cost them nothing!
December 2nd, 2007 14:36
VZW navigators works much faster than GPS Unit + Telenav. I recently used AT&T Tilt + Telenav. It was often very slow. About 30% of the time, it took several tries to pick up GPS signals from the air. Whereas the VZ navigator has this type of failure rate about 5% of the time. But, usually it just works. VZ Navigator works inside the building and outside the building. The GPS Phone + Telenav, you have to be outside to make work. Sometimes, even at the outside, it doesn’t work that well. When it works, it works beautifully. I think partially this is due to AT&T Network in Houston. During the night, I have experienced where the device doesn’t pick up any satellite signals. It could be just me or my device. Others may have difference experiences. But in Houston as of 11/2007, AT&T Tilt + Telenav didn’t always work well. Subsequently, Windows Live, Google Map, and Yahoo Go’s map’s GPS feature suffers. It’s like not having GPS feature inside the phone. I really wanted this to work. But, at the end, it doesn’t matter how hard you try.
Also, VZ navigator doesn’t require the device to constantly download stream of data. So, in many ways, NZ Navigator is quicker, faster, and it requires less data streaming. I think, if you want a good GPS functions, you should get portable GPS puck. I think they will work much better than relying on Phone’s GPS
I don’t particularly fault VZW for this. One of the arguments is that these internal GPS units are often weak. It’s not like it has SIRF III chip inside. It may require more tech support for it to work and may create customer dissatisfactions like mine. VZW sell features and services often works really well. So, maybe, their policy is not to sell features that doesn’t work almost all the time. It would increase the return rate, customer dissatisfaction, and tech support cost.
Again, I had the Tilt, I had hard time watching Cingular Video, and it would chop out. I would go in and out of G E 3G H all the time. I got H about 10% of the time, and then it would switch right back to 3G (about 20%) of the time….. Most of time, I got E or about 10% of time G.
And you see this from the customer satisfaction result. Verizon often had 6 point or more lead. So, Maybe the 8830’s GPS function as disabled.. maybe for a good reason. However, I have wished that they would have enabled it so, the Windows Live, Google Map, and Yahoo G!… and of course BB’s own map can be functional.