[Jckfrost780]

Hey guys-

So I had a problem, and it was that I wanted to try out Blackberry Maps. Love Google Maps, tried Bing, and handful of other map programs. I started combing through posts, found a bunch of decent little tidbits here and there, but nothing start to finish legit as far as a walk through.

After a few hours spent working on this, I figured it out, and decided to put it all down in a thread that I'm sure existed but couldn't find, and figured maybe this will help someone out someday. You also need Blackberry Swiss Army Knife, and a litttle bit of know how.

My status is newbie as far as my post count goes, but I've been tweaking BB's for a few years, soaking a lot from these wonderful threads; I figured my time had come to contribute. A lot of you know a lot more than me, not bragging. But I am going to write this for newbies, by a "newbie," because I don't want to skip any steps, and hopefully that way most people can get this to work.

So basically real quick some background: Blackberry puts BBmaps on all of their phones standard. Some carriers suppress this for different reasons: usually so they can push their own crap on you, and get an extra $9.99/month for some lackluster turn by turn nav program.

Feel free to delete vendor.xml all you want, but there are traces of vendor specific stuff all over the phone. If you put a vodafone or Tmobile SIM in your phone (assuming you unlock it) real subtle things like layout, icon placement, wallpaper, default settings all change. There are tons of "If --> Then" clauses all over the place in the software.

Vendor.xml is just the tip of the iceberg as far as methods by which these phones identify the vendors. For example...vendor 102 = AT&T. If certain criteria are met on cell signal radio band, IMEI#, SIM#, etc, the phone knows it's time to put on the AT&T "costume."

Anyway, enough hating. BBMaps has some cool stuff, Google Maps has it beat in a few areas, not gonna lie, but my girlfriend has a droid, and her Google Maps kicks our 4.5.3 in the behind, so it's all relative. BBMaps tells you your speed and Cardinal direction, like "45mph SW," and your GPS coordinates in a click (I know you get to that through fishing through the menus, but this is like, click "Display Details," and BAM, longitude and latitude.

You can send your exact location in a text, email, BBM, etc, which after using a few times in clutch situations, I don't know how I lived without! I know about Google Latitude, but I'm sorry, this kicks it's ****.

Anyway, in the never ending fight to keep our phones ours, here's what I did.

DISCLAIMER: There's a lot of ways to get BBMaps working I'm sure, on your phones, but this is just my way that I used that worked. Someone said they installed Traffic and BBMaps appeared, so who knows how all this VooDoo works.

So here's what I did. Navigate to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\WHATEVER OS YOU ARE LOADING

Open:

BlackBerry.alx
phone.alx
platform.alx
(Right-click and opt to open with notepad.)

Press Ctrl+F (Find) and type: vendor

What you're looking for is a string similar to:

<fileset Colour="True" series="Onyx" model="Onyx" Java="1.0" _vendorID="109|331">

and delete each instance of: _vendorID="109|331"

it should look like: <fileset Colour="True" series="Onyx" model="Onyx" Java="1.0">

Model and Series don't matter in the example for what you're doing; you just need to delete any reference to vendor the equal sign, the number and the quotes. This will occur maybe 30+ times in some of these files.

BlackBerry.alx, phone.alx, platform.alx are really important files. When you change them, you cannot modify the original, you have to save a copy, so make a new folderon your desktop. After you delete the vendor info, and try to close it, it will ask you if you want to save. If you say yes, you can only "Save As," so put if on the desktop, but in the new file, keep the name identical. After you have gone through all three, cut the original, save them somewhere (or I've seen people change the name of the original to Blackberry_OLD.alx, or whatever. The idea is to hold onto it. Paste in the modified COD's.

Plug your phone into computer, open apploader or Blackberry Desktop software, and it should tell you that some of the core components have been changed, or are in need of updating.

Update them. Phone reboots. unplug from computer, restart. Maybe a batt pull for good measure after it boots.

Here's the crucial part: using BBSAK, add COD's:

net_rim_bb_gps_ee.cod
net_rim_bb_maps.cod
net_rim_bb_maps_api.cod
net_rim_bb_maps_api_en.cod
net_rim_bb_maps_resource__en.cod
net_rim_bb_mapssearch_api.cod

I made a new folder on my desktop and copied each of the above .cod's individually.

They are stored in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\WHATEVER OS YOU ARE LOADING\Java

The way BBSAK is set up, if you're adding a group of COD's together, it's better to have them neatly all in one place; not like a needle in a haystack.

Add Cod's, and when your phone reboots, you should enjoy BBMaps.

Best of Luck!

Notes:

P.S. - In doing some homework, some people claimed that the "Over-Air-Download "of Maps was fiction; NO, it is a very real thing. I have .570 on my Torch right now, but whatever the latest leak before this one was(.534? maybe), I went to mobile.blackberry.com, downloaded Maps from there and it installed and worked flawlessly.

Of course, last week I had to toss the latest OS on my phone, and that's what got me in this dilemma of it being gone, and I wanted it back!

I had tried over-the-air download in the past, and it had never worked though, so who knows the reasoning why it worked with .534?

Anyways, Best of luck!

[dictoresno]

i just downloaded the OTA BBMaps launcher. although your process may work, all at&t does is block your icon. the launcher makes BBMaps available at the click of an icon like it normally would. no need to modify alx files.

[tbird]

Send BB Maps OTA installer via your device.

very simple...your done!

[Jckfrost780]

@dictoresno - You may be correct, on an unlocked phone perhaps. I've unlocked my fair share of phones in the past, but currently no situation has come up that has warranted unlocking. I got the phone legit through AT&T. If I wanted to sell it, maybe I'd spend the extra $5 to make the extra $20 on eBay, you know how that goes.

The fact is last few days I read a bunch of threads referencing "the BBMaps launcher." Regardless of what I did in the apploader, or however many times I told told BBDesktop Software to load it, it would be greyed out, or would show up in application's modules as only having one module, I want to say, "net_bb_maps_lbs" or something. BBMaps Launcher did not work for me, I went that route. AT&T wasn't allowing the program to even set foot in the door, for lack of a better phrase.

I'm thinking your method does work for a certain set of people. But there were threads in which people tried the launcher and it didn't work.

This method is not the prettiest, but I promise you, BBMaps runs as is intended. And, for someone who knows their way around a BB, it's really not that difficult.

[dictoresno]

ive run the BBMaps launcher on EVERY blackberry ive owned, locked or unlocked. i havent seen anyone not be able to use the launcher icon. the launder is one module, bbmapslaunch. i see how your way gets around it by modifying the alx, and can appreciate the work you put into it, but if the launcher does the same thing you are trying to accomplish, im not understanding your last post.

on every at&t branded blackberry ive owned, apploader or DM has allowed me to install BBMaps. it was just when you went to use it, there was no icon....which the launcher issue solves.

are you saying you were just unable to install BBMaps from the get-go?

[homer1475]

Ive never unlocked any of my AT&T branded berries and have used the launcher as Dictoresno mentioned. I can appreciate the work you put into finding a work around, but so much work when a simple launcher is all that's needed.

[Jckfrost780]

Blackberry Desktop Software would allow me to install it. What I meant by, "greyed out, or would show up in application's modules as only having one module," was that it was AT&T was succeeding in blocking it. It was there, but dormant.

I spent the weekend figuring out a workaround, figured one out and tossed it up to the community. The launcher icon is not flawless, I tried it a number of times, and it would work, but inevitably after a battpull or service books being sent, it would disappear, or stop working, or get buggy. I'm glad your experience has been pleasant with it.

Here's random quotes from random people from the first link, in the first search for "Blackberry Maps not working":

"It wouldn't work some of the time. I have another problem - icon has appeared, but when I go ahead I can see just a shaded screen. GPS is working, but I can't see the map. The launcher is just what I've been looking for, but I can't make it work. I keep getting an uncaught error message. Too bad, but its a great idea. "Uncaught exception : cannot start internal application ", & all I can do from that screen is click "OK."

Yea, a lot of people had other people come in and suggest they do one thing or another, but most people were trying to use the launcher icon, and there were a lot of problems that people were having. All I'm saying is I've done 50 batt pulls, and sent the service books over a dozen times, and BBMaps is chilling on my homescreen. If my phone explodes I'll buy you a beer.

[tbird]

Use method I mentioned in POST #3 and your done...end of story,finished,game over,you got BB Maps,after 2000 battery pulls...no need to disembowel your Torch!

[homer1475]

Use method I mentioned in POST #3 and your done...end of story,finished,game over,you got BB Maps,after 2000 battery pulls...no need to disembowel your Torch!

I just tried this, 4 times. Three of the 4 asked me if I wanted to replace the installer(obviously I chose yes). All 4 times I have no installer on my device. AT&T is still blocking it. Don't ask me how cause I supposedly have it yet I cant locate it with universal search. Sorry to say but just downloading the OTA installer doesn't work either.

[sfmccallie]

I've just tried it myself with the OTA link, then went to RIM's website and had a link sent by email for the installer. I too am not seeing anything for BBMaps?? I have unhidden everything on my apps screen and looked in every folder I have, but BBMaps is not to be found...frustrating. I am running the official ATT .526 OS.

[sfmccallie]

It does show up in my Apps management, but I can't find a way to get to it...

[homer1475]

Thats because AT&T somehow hides the launcher. Only way to get it to work is to download a launcher(I bumped the older thread so its here on the front page) and to install bbmaps with loader. Even if you load it when you load the OS it remains hidden, you need a third party launcher to actually launch it, or use the method described above.

[Jckfrost780]

@sfmccallie - So you can jump onto the mobile.blackberry.com website and try and download it. It will still be engrained in the OS to not let it launch, but sometimes this does work.

Depending on if you opted to install it when you loaded the OS, this will play a role if you can grab it Over the Air. I also tried a few different OS releases for the 9800 that I had on my computer, and that also played a role in if OTA and BBMaps Loader will let you get it to work.

I literally wasted my weekend combing forums all over the web trying to figure this out. For the single reason that BBMaps Loader worked like a charm on one OS, and then on another it didn't do a single thing. I promise you there are a certain % of Blackberry's that the BBMaps loader does not work for; it's not a universal solution.

My method sounds intense, but I went into a lot detail. Start to finish, it should take 20 min if you've messed with Blackberry's a bit before.