[stratman103]

Let's remember, though; the VZW Storm slide presentation mentions AGPS for use with Blackberry Maps. Then it also talks about VZNavigator. The VZNavigator is a good program, in my opinion, and it has many features that BBMaps does not have. I think Big Red will offer VZ Navigator as an alternative to the free, but less feature-filled, Blackberry Maps.

That would be cool. I could tolerate that

Hey I've never used a BB before... the 9530 will be my first. What's BB Maps like? Similar to Google Maps? Is there a "satellite" view function? I thought that was kind of neat on the iPhone, when you're in GPS mode you can turn it into satellite view and get a birds eye of where you are.

[Rjsumthin]

You know that's a great point. They're charging you for a free, government provided service. That can't be legal.

GPS is locked down, not disabled, there is a big difference. Also the government doesn't pay for the usage and upkeep of the network it is getting used by **if it's using cell towers, not saying my knowledge of gps is the greatest but still**

This isn't a GPS debate thread, there are reasons it's done, deal with it and move on, you can pinpoint your location with blackberry maps, google maps, I can get directions, I just can't use it for my audible turn by turn directions for other services, that is a luxury, not a requirement, therefore not illegal.

Also it's not a "Free" service, the government personally taxes you for the e911 compatability, so that's a miscalculation there as well, it's not even a vzw surcharge or anything, the government just CHARGES, and it's different rates for different locations, so it can upkeep it's own personal GPS tracking capabilities for emergency situations, not for you to have a flashy way to get from point a to point b.

Not saying I wouldn't want GPS enabled for everything, but don't turn this into a thread of how VZW is some evil empire that is force feeding you their GPS, it's enabled, you don't get the flashy pretty stuff you WANT, but it is usable, just not to your standards, doesn't make it illegal.


Now onto topic

I want this phone like whoa. Boohoo probably not being able to get it for some time, it's going to make me sad seeing everyone walking around with it but me!

[stratman103]

GPS is locked down, not disabled, there is a big difference...

Yeah.. you're right on all points. I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around subscribing to a GPS service. You know? GPS in my mind is one of those one shot deals. You buy a unit, then you use the taxpayer subsidized service (notice I didn't say 'free' ) to operate it.

But... like you suggested... if you can access just general GPS function... I'm happy. I still have my primary GPS for turn-by-turn when I need it.

[Rjsumthin]

Yeah.. you're right on all points. I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around subscribing to a GPS service. You know? GPS in my mind is one of those one shot deals. You buy a unit, then you use the taxpayer subsidized service (notice I didn't say 'free' ) to operate it.

But... like you suggested... if you can access just general GPS function... I'm happy. I still have my primary GPS for turn-by-turn when I need it.

Oh I understand but I look at it like this.

Purchase a Garmin, A device DEDICATED to GPS. Maybe Tomtom, im not sure, but you pay annually to get updated maps etc. I mean the whole machine is a GPS device, but people don't raise a ruckus about that, no one compares apples to apples anymore, it's always apples to oranges. For whatever reason paying for services, updates, etc for a standalone GPS system, that is dedicated to only GPS, that you spent 2 - 300 bucks on or more, people don't mind that. But lock it down on a CELLULAR COMMUNICATION DEVICE.... and it's the end of the world? ;d

again not flaming, saying anyone is wrong, just wanting to put a hush on that point, i'm done, im not helping the situation, call me pot, kettle, black!

[jakeh0]

lol still no zoom info wtffffff

[Rjsumthin]

lol still no zoom info wtffffff

Gauging by the intuitive nature of the way RIM is approaching the device on the limited information we have so far. I would say zoom will be easy. Zooming can be done on any phone, the dares is relatively easy to me, copy and paste apple didn't even incorporate but look how easy RIM made it? I would venture to say that you can bet it's going to be easy and reliable. Maybe double tap your fingers around a certain area? That would be pretty cool and even imo cooler than iphones,

[stratman103]

Oh I understand but I look at it like this.

Purchase a Garmin, A device DEDICATED to GPS. Maybe Tomtom, im not sure, but you pay annually to get updated maps etc. I mean the whole machine is a GPS device, but people don't raise a ruckus about that, no one compares apples to apples anymore, it's always apples to oranges. For whatever reason paying for services, updates, etc for a standalone GPS system, that is dedicated to only GPS, that you spent 2 - 300 bucks on or more, people don't mind that. But lock it down on a CELLULAR COMMUNICATION DEVICE.... and it's the end of the world? ;d

again not flaming, saying anyone is wrong, just wanting to put a hush on that point, i'm done, im not helping the situation, call me pot, kettle, black!

Oh no no... I didn't think you were flaming

Lowrance wants $35 a month to keep my aviation handheld GPS updated!! They can go bite me! The unit is not legal to use for primary navigation anyway, so why should I pay that amount of money for a backup device?

I keep current maps and stuff like that, but I just update my handheld once a year.

Sorry all, this is rapidly getting pretty far off topic

I'm done.

[stratman103]

Gauging by the intuitive nature of the way RIM is approaching the device on the limited information we have so far. I would say zoom will be easy. Zooming can be done on any phone, the dares is relatively easy to me, copy and paste apple didn't even incorporate but look how easy RIM made it? I would venture to say that you can bet it's going to be easy and reliable. Maybe double tap your fingers around a certain area? That would be pretty cool and even imo cooler than iphones,

I'd have to go back and check... didn't the one leak (the "WOW" factor leak, I think) show a note that said "Volume/Zoom."

???

[BigVDawgy]

lol still no zoom info wtffffff

Stop-N-Go mentioned the zoom is done by "clicking" on the screen. It would be similar to the way Opera Mini works, click on the screen and it zooms in, hit escape and it zooms out. Doesn't get any easier than that.

[stratman103]

BGR has been down all morning... at least every time I've tried. Wonder if he posted something new or if his server finally puked from all of Sunday's Storm-ness.

[RobUM2011]

Maybe double tap your fingers around a certain area? That would be pretty cool and even imo cooler than iphones,

The iPhone actually does that as well. If you don't feel like spreading or pinching your fingers, if you double click on a certain area, it zooms to fit the text or whatever is in that section of the website.

[toastyz71]

BGR has been down all morning... at least every time I've tried. Wonder if he posted something new or if his server finally puked from all of Sunday's Storm-ness.

it's been up/down/slow/all of the above.

no new storm info, but the monday rush is hitting... in addition to an iphone firmware info post.

[GregMargie]

Getting the error! Still can't acces his site!

An error occurred while processing your request.
Reference #97.2cbfb746.1223313007.4a7633e

[Rjsumthin]

Getting the error! Still can't acces his site!

An error occurred while processing your request.
Reference #97.2cbfb746.1223313007.4a7633e

Honestly just be patient, eventually it will settle, be posted in these forums, or on the crackberry homepage, or even engadgetmobile.com . So you don't need BGR, just know where it came from and give credit where it's due is all,

[stratman103]

Honestly just be patient, eventually it will settle, be posted in these forums, or on the crackberry homepage, or even engadgetmobile.com . So you don't need BGR, just know where it came from and give credit where it's due is all,

Yeah it's not like Crackberry is down. Now THAT is a tragedy

[ag5bpilot]

Lowrance wants $35 a month to keep my aviation handheld GPS updated!! They can go bite me! The unit is not legal to use for primary navigation anyway, so why should I pay that amount of money for a backup device?

And don't even get started talking about the price for the 2-week updates for IFR-certified aviation gps sets!

For me, my family's already paying for Verizon's premium family share plan (or something like that) which includes VZNavigator for free. It's not a terrible navigator, and it's always ready in my pocket whenever I find myself lost. And it's not costing me anything extra above what we're already paying, so it's a no-brainer.

It also has real-time traffic updates, which I find comes in handy even when I'm traveling on roads I'm familiar with. (I have no idea how wide-spread their traffic coverage is; in the New York metropolitan area it seems to have pretty good coverage.)

For the occaisional user, the price Verizon charges doesn't seem unreasonable -- there's no special hardware to buy (high-end terrestrial Garmin receivers go for $500+), and you always have up-to-date maps and traffic. Not bad for a couple of bucks. If you use it a lot, though, a dedicated navigator might be more cost efficient -- but you need to figure in the subscription price for map updates, traffic-downlinks, etc.

Also, something to consider is that unlike a 'real' dedicated GPS unit, the aGPS receivers in cell-phones use telco resources as well as the actual GPS satellite constellation. Unlike buying a Garmin, turning it one, and receiving broadcast satellite signals, (which imposes ZERO load on the satellite regardless of whether there's one user in the world or 100 million users), using the cell phone navigator actually uses the resources of the cell carrier. The carrier has to provide the capacity for the data traffic too and from the phone via the cell site, as well as the server capacity to do all the route calculations and map generation.

And don't forget that one effect of this is that the initial GPS lock-on can be significantly faster on a cell phone than on a standard receiver. (I'll spare you the tech details, but you can look it up on Wikipedia if you're interested.)

I don't like paying for it anymore than anyone else. If I didn't have the premium plan anyway, I'd hardly use the navigator, mostly because I'm too cheap. But I don't think VZ is charging an unreasonable amount. Since I'm paying for it anyway, I use it a lot, and like it. Only real drawback -- and this probably applies to any phone, and any GPS software -- is that it sucks the battery down pretty quickly.

[stratman103]

And don't even get started talking about the price for the 2-week updates for IFR-certified aviation gps sets!

Oh I can only imagine!! The AF handles the updates in our planes so I have no clue what it would cost out in reality.

I spent about $300 on my terrestrial GPS and I love it. It's an HP i310. I would REALLY love it if I could have one less item to carry around and my phone/BB would be as good.

[Rjsumthin]

Hmmmmm... i swear i'm in the twilight zone, did someone OTHER than me just NOT complain about verizon and GPS?

.....

.....


Someone help me, I fear I am lost......

[Skylab]

lol still no zoom info wtffffff

Yea that's what I wanna know, too. If I have to zoom with volume buttons or something I will not buy this.

[Skylab]

Gauging by the intuitive nature of the way RIM is approaching the device on the limited information we have so far. I would say zoom will be easy. Zooming can be done on any phone, the dares is relatively easy to me, copy and paste apple didn't even incorporate but look how easy RIM made it? I would venture to say that you can bet it's going to be easy and reliable. Maybe double tap your fingers around a certain area? That would be pretty cool and even imo cooler than iphones,

OK, first of all the Dare is a piece of junk and the zooming function is terrible. I don't even see how you can bring the Dare into this discussion.
Second of all, the iphone does zoom when you double tap a certain area.