No BIS or BES plan Gmail, Facebook, Google maps errors. Bypass or alternative?
I have a BlackBerry bold 9000 with the latest v5 firmware and only a regular 3G DATA plan / package. This is regular, honest to goodness normal 3G data, I don't have a proprietary RIM / BES / BIS plan (and frankly, shouldn't have to for third party apps!)
This is probably a horrible sin on a blackberry forum but in my mind, TCP data and a connection to the internet, is surprisingly TCP data / connection to the internet. Forcing traffic through a particular protocol and ignoring wifi or regular 3g data is frankly ridiculous!
Anyhow, my rant aside, you've probably seen this problem before, it's mentioned here and across the web - such as the google forums.
I know the official Facebook application has the same problem, (error message is)
"You are currently on a service plan that does not support this application. If you want to use this application, please contact your service provider to upgrade your data plan"
but pleasantly surprisingly you can use an app like snaptu without the silly restriction.
Also the official twitter app works on the BB also - as does Google Contact and Calendar sync.
My exact error message from the official gmail app is
"This program requires a working data connection" "please check your signal strength"
I know this isn't an APN thing, I'm trying to just use plain old wifi.
Google maps produces the error
"This application requires a data connection, and some blackberry devices require reconfiguration to work properly"
I have heard of an application which tricks apps into thinking they are using the BES / BIS data plan, does that exist? or is there an older version of Google Gmail and Google maps to get around this? I find it frustrating and silly