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But, it is still the case that Verizon phones (like my Storm) are still blocking third party apps from using the GPS?
If so, someone please give me a good reason (besides the Almighty Dollar) for such ludicrousness. :mad:
Thanks for indulging a short interruption!
Grumpy Old Tom
As far as I know, the Verizon Storm GPS is supposed to be unlocked. The storm is the only Verizon phone that has an unlocked GPS.
Why do the lock it? I don't know, but I have heard something about it being because of security. People can hack your location. But it is more likely money related.
Thank you.
It'd be interesting if it was possible for one's location to be hacked. But wouldn't this be a widespread problem on other phones with unlocked GPSr's?
So I guess if I set my GPS options on my Storm as follows
GPS Data Source: Device GPS
GPS Services: E911 only
Location Aiding: Disabled
Then I should be able to download Blackstar or something like it and see my location more exactly. I mean, after all, a Garmin is simply a GPSr chip, a bunch of SD memory for the maps, and the firmware to handle display/navigation etc. Seems like this should be possible on the Storm easy enough.
Man, I'd l love position, heading, speed, altitude, and a playback track for Google Earth!
Thanks again,
Tom
You might need Location ON instead of E911 Only. But I am not sure. But when you do turn it on, you should be able to Click Refresh GPS in the menu and see your current location displayed.
Try BlackStar navigation. It is a pretty basic GPS compass for Geocaching, but it does show the lat long.
Interesting. I don't have a "refresh GPS" menu option on my Storm. Remember, I have Verizon. :confused:
I did the Options, Advanced Options, GPS and nothing on that screen or on the "menu key" popup menu gives me the option to "Refresh GPS", nor is there any coordinate display. Verizon...:rolleyes:
Thanks,
Tom
Unfortunately I do not have a Storm and fortunately I do not have Verizon. So my help would be limited to suggestions. Have you tried installing BlackStar or some other GPS software? Other than that maybe Verizon Support can help, or post a new thread in this forum to draw some attention to the question.
Yeah, maybe I'll try that. That's kinda what gets me. This thing IS a GPS. It should be able to work without "teh intarwebz" as the geeks say. If you can "see" satellites, have maps on your chip, and the requisite software, you should be good to go. Why clutter bandwidth up, really?
Where's our "beating a dead horse" smiley? I really need one here!
Thanks again,
Tom
Iv got a Storm and it seems to run fine for me. Although im in the UK, with Vodaphone and iv got a 9500 so this must make the difference. sorry couldnt be more help
I have the Verizon Storm and run Blackstar on it. It works flawlessly. THE GPS ON THE STORM IS NOT LOCKED!! First change your GPS settings from E911 only to Location On. In fact, I leave Location On all the time so all my GPS programs work. The "Refresh GPS" menu function is not on your Storm, it is part of the BlackStar program. "Refresh GPS" is found in the BlackStar menu. I would also recommend disabiling compatibility mode after you install the program.
You mentioned maps. The Storm does not have maps preloaded on the phone. That's why you normally need a Data Plan. Blackstar doesn't use maps however, so it doesn't matter (the only preloaded maps program is TopoExplorer for Blackberry by Skylab mobile systems).
For anyone else who asks:Blackstar works well on the Storm. The GPS is not locked. Just last weekend I went geocaching and had a reading of a foot from my waypoint location. Can't ask for much better than that.
Hope this helps.
I've only had the BB a couple of weeks and appear to be lost. I went out to the Blackstar Navigation web site and followed the download instructions. On the phone, first I enabled WiFi and logged into my home wireless router. Then I opended WAP browser and entered the tinyurl link. The download took just a couple of seconds. I received a successful load notification but I don't see it anywhere on the phone. Where will it be and what does the Icon look like?
Note, phone is Bold 9000 running v4.6.0.167
EDIT: OK, I finally found it laying around in the Downloads folder, who would have thought? Well I told you I was new at this. Now I need to figure out how to use the S/W.
I just found this app this week after signing up on geocaching.com. Tried using it the other night for my first cache with no success (finding the cache, not the app!) The app seems to work very well on my Storm. Is there any other apps I should try for a Storm on the Telus network?
I installed Blackstar a few weeks ago after it appeared on the BlackBerry AppWorld site. It works nicely on my Storm under Verizon - as long as I'm in cell phone range. But I was in a canyon and out of cell phone range one time, and Blackstar kept displaying the "Searching for satellites" message, with no luck.
Does this mean Blackstar requires the GPS assist from the cell phone tower, or is there hope of it working when out of cell phone range?
Related question: You also mentioned TopoExplorer. Over the past week I've devoted about 30 hours to trying to get this to work. No luck so far - it fails to get a GPS signal. Have you tried it?
It is not a BlackStar requirement, but an GPS Chip/OS requirement. I believe the Storm has an option under Options/Advanced/GPS called Location Aiding. Try setting this to Disabled and see if it works. If you try it, please report back if it works.
I have not tried TopoExplorer so I can't help you there. But there is a whole separate thread where it is being discussed. http://forums.crackberry.com/f134/topoexplorer-194230
I just tried setting Location Aiding to off, and it still does not work.
News Flash: I finally heard back from the vendor (MobileSoftMarket) that sells the TopoExplorer maps. They finally came clean and let me know the real story. Here's their reply:
"Unfortunately, Verizon deactivated the built-in GPS receiver by default. For a monthly fee they may be able to activate it like they do with the 8703e. .... Alternatively, you can purchase a Bluetooth GPS receiver, ...."
Bummer! I'm trying to get a refund now on the maps I bought.
I've read many Verizon user posts about the disabling of GPS in apps. It sucks that you need to pay $10 per month to get it working with third party apps. Try cacheberry, I've been using the trial.
just downloaded it to my bb bold 9000 thanks
You could check our Compass Lite for the Storm if you haven't yet. The full version of Compass is in Beta now and *should* be out shortly. It stores WayPoints and can show them in BB Maps.
Hello. Will this file work with all black berries. I have an 8330 and probably getting the 8530 soon.
Also. is there a way to choose a point.. say put a lat long in and then just have it show on compass style which direction you need to go to get there?
I havnt downloaded this yet because I am at work so I dont know all that it does but it sounds perfect. Between hiking and sailing im always away from land and cool to know what direction to head to my dear blind or so.
THanks
after I posted this it sent me to the last page.. i missed there was more. and I read blackstar. so i went to app world and downloaded it. Then something caught my eye and so I went back to the beginging and started reading. I was hooked like it was a dan brown book. I have never read a thread in that much detail. This is one of the best things I have seen in technology. ANd it is amazing that the writers were so responsive.
Thank you to every one that worked on this project. You have made something that is amazing and I think did it in a way that is amazing. I hope more people (or you) have similar projects that go this well.
If there is anything else your working on let me know.
I am running the most recent version but I am having an even bigger MGRS problem. I am at Fort Hood so all my cordinates use:
14
R
PV
for the fields. Whenever the program saves a waypoint it changes the R to a P putting the point way down off of Mexico. I tried other known locations that I have and they get even more screwed up. Something is really wrong with the MGRS functionality. Any ideas how to fix?
at a loss at this point.
Crossposting from the blackstar forums
I spent a lot of time this weekend looking at the conversion. The problem I have is that I can find several conversion programs, but the only one I have the code for is the one I am using. I can compare pieces to a spreadsheet conversion I have, but the sheet is protected and I cannot get to all pieces of the conversion formula.
Does anyone know where I can find the actual conversion formula for converting MGRS to decimal degrees? It is really messy, but if I had something to compare to, it would make it a TON easier.
I just don't know of the conversion is the problem. I got out my military GPS to check over the weekend. The program pulls the right point every time and is not off at all. Same thing when you go to save it. It only messed it up once you save it. It saves the point as something other than it should be. Then when you go to load the point later it loads it with the incorrect info. But as I said up untill you Actually try to save a point it converts properly. So if tyr conversion is the problem it is only a problem in regards to saving waypoints
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
BlackStar stores everything in dd.ddddd format. It is also the format that it receives coordinates from the GPSr. We convert every coordinate to the specified format to display. When you enter in a coordinate, it converts it to dd.ddddd for storage, then back to MGRS to display it.
The conversion FROM dd.ddddd to MGRS seems to be working fine, but the conversion FROM MGRS TO dd.ddddd is where the problem is. It only needs to convert from MGRS to dd.ddddd when saving the waypoint, that is why that is the only place you are noticing the bug.
I can see the code where it reads the MGRS coordinate from the input screen and it is reading it correctly, but the MGRS to dd.ddddd conversion is resulting in an incorrect coordinate. As I stated, I have a spreadsheet conversion, which is converting properly, but it is protected and I cannot get to the formula. Which is why I was hoping someone knew of a resource where the conversion formula is documented.