[crackofdoom]

i received a playbook 4G/LTE for christmas from a RIM employee who presumably purchased it internally
thru their rim store.

it has OS 2.0.1.668 on it.

the check updates button does NOT find a newer (2.1) update.
the appstore app does not find the os or blackberry bridge software.

presumably, the OS updates are dependent on a telco carrier since this is a 4g/LTE device.
i do not wish to throw dataplan money at a carrier, wi-fi is good enough.

i also assume this is 'unlocked.'
i bought a Bell Canada microsim, but not registered it, and inserted it to see if it makes any difference.

i presume when checking updates, or available apps, some sort of identifying information such as
current OS, carrier, model, "region", etc are passed along to the servers.
is there any on-device way, or appstore app way, to determine what it *thinks* my device is???

i tried appstore via PC web browser, with their plugin installed. it asks for a device password, but
refuses to accept the correct password -- another forum entry implies this it's perverse way of saying
that you cannot download apps via PC. definitely a perverse way of saying so, asking for a password
but refusing it no matter what... but anyway, no luck in using a PC web browser in seeing if the appstore
would reveal what it thinks my device information is.

how do i determine what the device thinks it is?
how do i get os 2.1 ?

email to support got me the non-thinking response that i need to get it via my carrier, even though
my message to them said i have no carrier.

sigh*

[FF22]

On WIFI units, the only way to get to the appworld is via wifi. It does not work over Bridge. I don't know about the cell-versions. You can only get the OS update on those versions through the carrier from what I've read. altho, I do think someone out of country was able to acquire a sim card (Rogers????) and was able to proceed. Bridge is generally already installed. You need the Bridge app for a BB phone (except at&T, you need to go another route).

[crackofdoom]

i'm afraid if i bite the bullet and actually pay a carrier for some data, i'll find out it still wont update because i have a some odd-country version or something... who knows what shows up in the rim employee store...
but still, it's annoying to *have* to pay a carrier to not have a machine that ends up being a software dead-end.
there are hardware reasons, not just 4g/LTE to want the newer playbook (faster processor, NFC, etc), and presumably all future models will have a telco stack, so why the arbitrary limitation? obviously they didnt need to know the carrier when the factory installed the original software. (or did they assume a particular carrier?)
all questions which make me wonder if there is a way to find out exactly how this thing identifies itself to update and app servers.

ps: i should of in the original message stated that i *also* tried the PC web browser appstore, after trying the wifi/app method. it was a usb cable connect, not bridge. basically i was hoping to get something, somehow, to tell me what it thought i had connected.

[JeepBB]

I can't claim to be a PB4G expert, and I'm happy to defer to someone who knows more, but I didn't think that it does OS updates any different from the (WiFi only) PB.

The PB gets its OS updates direct from RIM servers (over WiFi), so I doubt that any carrier is involved in that process. Similarly ordinary PB's connect to AppWorld over WiFi and are served appropriate Apps for the region your PB finds itself in. The AppWorld server uses the IP address of your PB's WiFi connection to determine where you are - specific IP address ranges are allocated to specific countries, so that's how the server knows where you are, and how it can serve the Apps available in your region. The OS isn't an App, so it doesn't come through AppWorld.

I'm not sure why you would need the Bridge installed on your PB4G... I'm confused... isn't the "phone" an integral part of your PB4G?... what would you be bridging between?

As for the OS being .668... it might be correct in reporting that .668 is the latest version for your PB4G. When 2.1 was released, it was only for WiFi PB's and I don't recall seeing a post here saying that 2.1 has yet made it to the PB4G, but I guess I could have missed it. (Actually, I recall there was one post back in November claiming OS2.1 was available, but nobody else saw the update... and it may have been a cruel joke. )

[crackofdoom]

an official support help response from RIM said i had to go thru 'my carrier' (even though i explicitly said i dont have one)
i tripped accross somewhere a Bell canada announcement of 4.1 being available.
my wi-fi regional tries with the update button were on two different networks
- one my home Rogers broadband in southcentral ontario
- one from tim hortons wifi in southcentral ontario (wi-fi operated/managed by Bell)
both say no update is available.

bridge was a slightly unrelated issue, it already has an (older) version from the factory. the 4g/LTE does not provide
classic phone cabapilities (voice or SMS), just data over 4g. the bridge not only provides access to your text messaging (SMS), etc
on the phone, but allows your phone keyboard to be used as a playbook keyboard, allows you to access/sync
contacts(phonebook) info, etc. and of course if your phone has cheaper (or unused quota) data, why not bridge through that link as well?

os2.1 may just be a cruel ghost

i really wish there was a way to find out how my device is 'identifying itself' to the update server
it simply saying "you have the current version" does *NOT* tell me it is saying that for devices running
in the region of Jupiter or locked to some telco carrier in Idaho.

[crackofdoom]

problem solved. well, not really. but sort of.
this device was a RIM internal employee purchase.
turns out, the internal devices sold to employees are pre-assigned to Rogers as a carrier.

they have internally some low-priority trouble tickets to make this issue fixable/avoidable. but dont hold my breath.
so, i can either wait until they fix the low-priority issue, or
i can find someone with an active Rogers micro-sim to do my OS update.

the update procedure does, as some people think, download directly from RIM, but (always a big b.u.t.t. <-- hey, the forum edited the 4 letter rear-end word to ****. wow, gotta watch peoples sensibilities wrt language)
the carrier must be checked by the update process to see if they have given a "go ahead" for a particular update.

and there is no tool, even for the support guy, to get the device to identify itself as to it's carrier-lock, etc.
he had to ask and poke around with other people internally to get the answer.

[crackofdoom]

wonder what the forum nanny software thinks about putting a cigarette **** into an ashtray?

[JeepBB]

wonder what the forum nanny software thinks about putting a cigarette **** into an ashtray?

And now you know...

[MobileMadness002]

AND a donkey is known as a jackass. Don't know if this will be edited or not, have to press the submit button, but ultimately I feel this to be thread hijacking or in the least a useless post to the thread intent. Sorry.