8530 gps?

[Don00]

I've got an 8530 curve 2 for a week (admittedly an eval unit) and it "appears" that 3rd party apps cannot access the GPS. I thought I'd heard that Verizon had abandoned that practice.

Can anyone who has a production unit verify if for example google maps can access the GPS?

thanks,

Don

[powellcrazy]

according to verizon online chat, on there web site, NO!!

I guess, I still want to look at it, but GPS is a must for my next phone. That just leave the tour in my sights, wish that tour 2 would get released!!

[dixonba]

Blackberry maps works...however google maps wont lock in on a precise location. Will approximate though. Any ideas?

[powellcrazy]

This is the issue I have with current curve (8330), verizon has the gps turned off. BB maps is the only thing that will work.

In google maps, you are just seeing which cell tower you are pinging off of.

[mrberger202]

According to:
Verizon BlackBerry Curve 8530 Features and Specifications | CrackBerry.com

Assisted, Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS enabled with preloaded BlackBerry Maps application and for e911 capabilities. Both User Plane & Control Plane GPS is supported

Sounds like it should work the same as the Storm and the Tour

[mtrimmer]

Just purchased an 8530 for my wife yesterday - LBS applications cannot get GPS lock (just like with the 8330 / 8130 devices on Verizon). Did someone at VZW make the decision to lockdown the GPS for their newest Blackberry?

[Hotel]

I had thought that they were done with this kinda thing

[scottb]

I just posted this in a different thread, but I'll repeat it here. My 8330 always positioned me about a mile from my house when using Google Maps. My new 8530 positions me about 100 feet from my house using Google Maps. Something is worker much better than it used to.

[drfirefighter]

i think its using your wifi connection to bring you to a more accurate location. my router's time zone was set for london - it kept saying im in london england...

im currently in maryland

[ziggy41]

My 8530 works decent with Bing Maps and it wouldnt even let me download Google Maps let alone use it?

How did you get google maps on your BB 8530?

[JeffH]

I don't know why you can't download Google Maps. But it won't use the internal GPS on your Verizon 8530, according to people who have it. Try going to m . google . com to download it.

[scottb]

Originally Posted by ziggy41

My 8530 works decent with Bing Maps and it wouldnt even let me download Google Maps let alone use it?

How did you get google maps on your BB 8530?

I downloaded it from m.google.com. As stated above, it won't use GPS on the 8530, it will use the cell towers to position you. BB Maps, Bing and Poynt do use GPS at the moment.

[TFO_Phoenix]

I just bought my 8530 Curve a week ago. One of the things I wanted to use it for was Geocaching, but when I tried to activate the GPS to use with Blackstar it didn't seem to work. Blackstar's and many other forums all seem to point to Verizon not unlocking the GPS feature as the problem.

After fooling around with my 8530, I have the Blackstar app working fine.

1. Go to Options/Advanced/GPS Make sure GPS is set to Location ON (This is the part that most forum are telling us to try).

2. Make sure the Blackstar permissions are all set to ALLOW. Go to Options/Applications/Blackstar/Edit Permissions. Set all to ALLOW then save your new settings.

Go outside and give it a try. It should be working fine now. Make sure you have a clear view of the sky, and give the device a couple of minutes to acquire a good satellite signal.

[ziggy41]

Thanks it worked. I tried to download Google maps using Opera Mini and it told me my phone was compatible. I used the BB browser and it downloaded just fine.