[ywbyun]

I suggest the following for all Verizon customers here on CB. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there really pissed off about the fact that Verizon locks the GPS on the Pearls. I can understand them charging $10 to use VZ Navigator but even if we choose not to use VZ Navigator, we should be able to use the GPS functionality with other applications of our choosing since we purchased the phone and the GPS is part of the phone.

Everyone knows this is Verizon being greedy and trying to nickel and dime their customers so they can be $10/month/customer richer and I'm all about businesses making money but this is a little bit overboard in my opinion. It's almost like buying a brand new vehicle with a CD player but the dealership charging you a monthly fee to use it. It's just absurd!

Getting to the point, go to https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=vcDsVE_y and file a complaint. Don't worry about putting any real values in the required fields but just make something up and post the complaint. I'm going to do it whenever things get slow at work and I have nothing to do.

Perhaps it won't make a difference but at least they'll know how their customers feel about their absurd decision and at least we get to annoy them a little with complaints.

[ywbyun]

The link doesn't seem to work. No worries.

Go to verizonwireless.com, click on the Contact Us link at the top right and select which type of customer you are and you'll be taken to a web form to submit "feedback".

[robind21283]

Maybe someone who is more detailed into the issue (as far as device capability - what other carriers have it unlocked could type something standard up for us to send.

Please?

[fonebrkr]

OR, since there is a whole board of BB users with the OS on their pc's, we could figure out how to unlock the GPS pucks.. And we could also figure out how to enable vibrate AND ring.
Many people over the years have been begging and petitioning to open up the interface and ringtones on vzw phones with no luck, maybe with the promised open network things might get better, but for sure you'll get GPS faster with a couple good hackers and the os.
Just my .02

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ywbyun]

I read somewhere that this is controlled on their servers somehow. I'm not sure how accurate this is since it's off of a forum but according to this post, there is a flag on each account that automatically gets enabled when you sign up for VZ Navigator, which then unlocks the GPS.

This then brings up another question of, how does Verizon block GPS even if you get their VZ Navigator service? I pay $10 a month to use VZ Navigator, which means that GPS is enabled on my device but when I use Google maps, I still get my location based off of cellular triangulation.

If there are hackers out there working on it, that's great news, but no one has been able to hack it yet. Being somewhat technical, the java modules are .cod files, which I believe are compiled java files. I'm sure someone who knows what they're doing can decompile them and fix this on the software level but I think that's not enough because there's a server aspect of it as well. That's just my assumption.

In any case, if you don't want to file a complaint don't worry about it. Wait for your miracle hacker to save the day...I'm just trying to do everything possible to speed things up, if at all.

[ywbyun]

Found this article back from 2007. Verizon's explanation of why they disabled GPS is ridiculous.

BlackBerry 8830 GPS disabling- Verizon responds

[ywbyun]

And finally, a thread on CB that started in 2007 regarding a lawsuit for misleading advertisement.

http://forums.crackberry.com/f61/ver...0-s-gps-11079/

Not trying to spam or anything but want people to have the details so they know when they're being bullied around. Besides, there's more BB users now than there were back in 2007...

[John Clark]

This is futile. It's a drag that they cripple the built in GPS. You won't change their minds. It's been tried, tried, and tried again. You can't hack it. That too has been tried, tried and tried again. The best thing to do is just buy a bluetooth GPS puck. They work great on Verizon BB's. I use one with my 8320 on TMo.

Good luck.

[ywbyun]

The famous John Clark known for his memory freeing post on blackberry forums~

Thanks by the way for that...I have about 23 MB free when I reboot thanks to your instructions.

I understand this has been an on going issue but it's the principle that counts. Don't give up on us that are new to the BB world!!

It's kind of like that story with Wal-Mart. Communities that don't want Wal-Marts in their town fighting back and actually preventing a Wal-Mart store from opening proves that little people like us can make a difference. The fact that Wal-Mart would just move on to the next town and build a Super Wal-Mart is a slap in the face but that's beside the point. The point is that you get enough people worked up and complaining to large corporations and they're bound to buckle at some point.

[fonebrkr]

The voice of reason.
My holy grail was the stinkin red bars on my first razr, bricked it, but got it flashed on my second one..

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com