[vivalaliberte]

I'm being kicked off my 2G network, so sadly must retire my trusty 2g dumb phone. So, I bought a pre-owned Blackberry 9720 that works with 3G network in England.

A few questions:

Q1. Are blackberry / RIM still providing services for BBBOS 7.1 handsets? Can I still use Blackberry World to download apps?

When I try Browser, or BBM it says the app is blocked?

Q2. What 3rd party apps did the 9720 come with from the factory?

Q3. My pre-owned device has 3rd party apps / spyware including Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo Messenger pre-installed. One reason I stuck with 2G is that Android does not allow the user to delete apps / malware fully because once Facebook app is installed, it saves malware on your device that stays on the phone to transmit your informations to Facebook forever even if the app appears to have been deleted. Is it the same with Blackberry? Has complete removal been verified / how do you trust it?

Q4. Why does the app author for Facebook and Youtube show as RIM? Did RIM work with Facebook, and other tech companies to produce the apps? Does this mean RIM would have stopped malware being included or would RIM add malware or backdoors themselves, etc?

Q5. How is it possible to trust the GPS and wifi are really turned off, or even if the phone is really off? Has anyone independently verified the Blackberry does not snitch behind your back?

Q6. I don't use social media or instant messaging and use my PC for email so does it matter if Blackberry shuts down it's servers? What will I be missing?

Q7. Will Blackberry server shutdown make the device more secure? Presumably, backdoors might depend on ongoing support/ infrastructure?

Q8. What are certificates shown in the settings? Why are they from credit company Equifax? (I did not need a loan to buy the phone.)

Q9. Do third party apps like youtube/ facebook still work? If I delete them, can they be put back?

Q10. Is the Blackberry World app store still working in England? If not, is there another place to get apps from? How to sideload apps?

Q11. The Blackberry Desktop windows program does not recognise the phone and cannot transfer files or do anything. It seems to try to connect to BB server for information about the phone but fails. How do I fix this?

Thanks for helping. I love the look and feel of the phone so much already!

Even after the shutdown, it could be like a super duper feature phone = great for calls and texts with simple apps like calc and memos but no Smart garbage or spyware would be perfect for me!

[conite]

All services to your device will be shut down at the end of this year.

Many apps and services have already stopped working - including social media and mapping. Browsing is hopeless.

BBOS went EOL in 2018. No support.

Talk and text should continue until the shutdown of 3G in your area.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I'm being kicked off my 2G network, so sadly must retire my trusty 2g dumb phone. So, I bought a pre-owned Blackberry 9720 that works with 3G network in England.


Even after the shutdown, it could be like a super duper feature phone = great for calls and texts with simple apps like calc and memos but no Smart garbage or spyware would be perfect for me!

A lot of good information on using a BBOS phone can be found here... The Bold Explorer He has a list of Working and Dead Apps. But many are links pulled from BBW... so some won't work after the shutdown. Not sure if he is going to host them somewhere or if that's even worth the effort at this point.

I'd put using a BBOS phone in 2021 right up there with trying to run Windows 98 with an always on internet connection today.... Most the standards are outdated, key programs not longer work on it, and has a number of known security vulnerabilities.

[anon(10512033)]

A lot of good information on using a BBOS phone can be found here... The Bold Explorer He has a list of Working and Dead Apps. But many are links pulled from BBW... so some won't work after the shutdown. Not sure if he is going to host them somewhere or if that's even worth the effort at this point.

I'd put using a BBOS phone in 2021 right up there with trying to run Windows 98 with an always on internet connection today.... Most the standards are outdated, key programs not longer work on it, and has a number of known security vulnerabilities.

The vast majority of BBOS apps are proprietary. I'm not interested in doing the work to track down the programmers or companies, many of which are now defunct, to get permission to host them.

My advice to anyone who is interested in using BBOS at this late date is to backup your apps. It's easy to do and as far as I know, the apps can be restored to any compatible device.

OS7 devices are still great -- if

• you still have 2G or 3G service
• you don't need multimedia messaging (or you have mad hacking skills)
• you don't need email, social media, or (usable) maps
• you're trying to avoid being constantly online. OS7 will definitely solve that problem!
• you're a desktop Outlook user and you don't mind syncing your calendar, contacts, and tasks by bluetooth or USB
• you do a lot of writing on your phone (the office apps are still great)
• you don't mind reading a small screen

Hardly anyone fits that profile any more. Essentially, if you're after one of the nicest dumbphones you can buy....

[anon(10512033)]

Answers:

Q1. Are blackberry / RIM still providing services for BBBOS 7.1 handsets? Can I still use Blackberry World to download apps?

A: Some carriers still provide BIS. I don't know if they still let people start BIS accounts though.

When I try Browser, or BBM it says the app is blocked?

A: If you don't have BIS, see: The Bold Explorer

Q2. What 3rd party apps did the 9720 come with from the factory?

A: Never owned one, so I don't know.

Q3. My pre-owned device has 3rd party apps / spyware including Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo Messenger pre-installed. One reason I stuck with 2G is that Android does not allow the user to delete apps / malware fully because once Facebook app is installed, it saves malware on your device that stays on the phone to transmit your informations to Facebook forever even if the app appears to have been deleted. Is it the same with Blackberry? Has complete removal been verified / how do you trust it?

A: To the best of my knowledge, none of those apps work any longer. I doubt there's anything to worry about.

Q4. Why does the app author for Facebook and Youtube show as RIM? Did RIM work with Facebook, and other tech companies to produce the apps? Does this mean RIM would have stopped malware being included or would RIM add malware or backdoors themselves, etc?

I believe RIM created the apps. Youtube was just a browser shortcut.

Q5. How is it possible to trust the GPS and wifi are really turned off, or even if the phone is really off? Has anyone independently verified the Blackberry does not snitch behind your back?

A: I don't think it is possible to trust anything in a smartphone. You can verify that the phone is really off by pulling the battery.

Q6. I don't use social media or instant messaging and use my PC for email so does it matter if Blackberry shuts down it's servers? What will I be missing?

A: See Conite's response too. You need to either never sign into a BlackBerry account and BlackBerry Protect, or sign out of them and THEN reinstall the OS before the end of the year if you intend to keep using the phone after the shutdown.

Q7. Will Blackberry server shutdown make the device more secure? Presumably, backdoors might depend on ongoing support/ infrastructure?

A: I'll leave that to someone who knows the infrastructure. I never used BIS.

Q8. What are certificates shown in the settings? Why are they from credit company Equifax? (I did not need a loan to buy the phone.)

A: They're security certificates used in making SSL/TLS connections. Many are expired. The SSL/TLS is sadly out of date.

Q9. Do third party apps like youtube/ facebook still work? If I delete them, can they be put back?

A: No, they don't work. You can put them back if you back them up first, find the installation files on the internet (hard to do these days), or reinstall the OS.

Q10. Is the Blackberry World app store still working in England? If not, is there another place to get apps from? How to sideload apps?

A: Many people have had difficulties with BlackBerry World. There are a lot of threads on the topic here at CrackBerry. I'd suggest you research that problem.

Sideloading apps requires you to have the .jad and .cod files for the app. The files must all be in the same folder. Then you click on the .jad file and an installation dialog will appear. You can also sideload OTA (over-the-air) from websites. Check out my site (http://darkstar.x10host.com/nibble). There are a number of apps that you can sideload from there. Remember that the device's functionality is very limited these days and you shouldn't expect much.

Q11. The Blackberry Desktop windows program does not recognise the phone and cannot transfer files or do anything. It seems to try to connect to BB server for information about the phone but fails. How do I fix this?

A: Idk. Is the phone showing up at all as a USB device?

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

The vast majority of BBOS apps are proprietary. I'm not interested in doing the work to track down the programmers or companies, many of which are now defunct, to get permission to host them.

My advice to anyone who is interested in using BBOS at this late date is to backup your apps. It's easy to do and as far as I know, the apps can be restored to any compatible device.

OS7 devices are still great -- if

• you still have 2G or 3G service
• you don't need multimedia messaging (or you have mad hacking skills)
• you don't need email, social media, or (usable) maps
• you're trying to avoid being constantly online. OS7 will definitely solve that problem!
• you're a desktop Outlook user and you don't mind syncing your calendar, contacts, and tasks by bluetooth or USB
• you do a lot of writing on your phone (the office apps are still great)
• you don't mind reading a small screen

Hardly anyone fits that profile any more. Essentially, if you're after one of the nicest dumbphones you can buy....

Are there any other site still up offering info on BBOS devices or that have apps archived?

One option might be using the https://archive.org/web/....

But I agree, if someone using a device and understands it's limitations now and to come... fine. But someone just now finding a BBOS device and thinking about making it work as a modern smartphone or even a basic feature phone... is looking at an uphill battle.

[anon(10512033)]

Are there any other site still up offering info on BBOS devices or that have apps archived?

One option might be using the https://archive.org/web/....

I've searched out the links that are on my site. The vendors/creators still have the apps online.

There used to be a lot of OTA applications sites, but they seem to have slowly disappeared. Even the theiexplorers.com is gone.

Archive.org works well when people have posted the apps to the archive, like this: https://archive.org/download/Facebook_OS7. (non-functional app)

A lot of times, the Wayback Machine doesn't work as well because the webcrawler has only downloaded the .jad file, because it was linked to the main page. The .cod files are not in the Wayback Machine, because the links to the .cods were only inside the .jad file, and not listed on the web page. So the crawler couldn't find them.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I've searched out the links that are on my site. The vendors/creators still have the apps online.

There used to be a lot of OTA applications sites, but they seem to have slowly disappeared. Even the theiexplorers.com is gone.

Archive.org works well when people have posted the apps to the archive, like this: https://archive.org/download/Facebook_OS7. (non-functional app)

A lot of times, the Wayback Machine doesn't work as well because the webcrawler has only downloaded the .jad file, because it was linked to the main page. The .cod files are not in the Wayback Machine, because the links to the .cods were only inside the .jad file, and not listed on the web page. So the crawler couldn't find them.

Yeah I actually found them before I found CrackBerry...

[Lex24]

Q11. The Blackberry Desktop windows program does not recognise the phone and cannot transfer files or do anything.

The fix is described here:

https://forums.crackberry.com/deskto.../#post13455809

[TamarahBryan]

I just bought a 9720 phone for Canada. So, what you're saying is that we cannot even access the internet on these devices anymore? I was going to start a thread asking about it. I find that everyone else's internet at home is being impacted, but the device isn't connecting to wifi at this point. I should add that I need to go out and get a SIM card, so let me get that settled and report back.