[MaryJane197]

What is the best free application for gps that works on a verizon blackberry phone?

[jeffh]

With a Verizon Tour, you have a lot of choices, all free: BBMaps, Nav4All, amAze, Google Maps, and GPSed are five I have used. There are others. What's best for you will probably be a personal choice. They all have strengths and weaknesses. I encourage you to try them all. Here is my personal assessment.

BBMaps
Pros: rotating maps, satellite display, speedometer
Cons: visually unappealing graphics, no voice nav

Google Maps
Pros: Google Latitude, beautiful maps
Cons: no rotating maps, no satellite display, no speedometer, no voice nav.

(If you conclude that I probably use both Google Maps and BBmaps because I find their strengths complement each other, you'd be correct.)

Nav4All
Pros: voice nav
Cons: odd, unintuitive user interface

amAze
Pros: voice nav
Cons: unappealing maps (for me, lots of people like it)

GPSed
Pros: an interesting mapping app
Cons: I haven't used it enough to find cons.

[MaryJane197]

I downloaded amAze and im trying it out now. I downloaded Nav4all but cant seem to get it work. It also helped that i went into the advanced options and turned GPS from 911 only to Location on, LOL. Thank you Jeff, you have been a big help to me!

[SeeD65]

Helllo!

I tried finding AMAZE and I could not seem to find it in Blackberry World. Where did you download it from??

Thanks!

[jeffh]

www.amazegps.com

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[SupaBlackB]

LifeInPocket....

[Claros]

So these are all free apps? I've been using the Google Maps, without the gps, because I thought that Verizon had the gps locked. I just bought a $140 Garmin a couple weeks ago, because of this. Did I waste my $ ?!

What I am wanting to know, does the Google Sat Nav work on the Verizon Curve? When I go to the Google sight, it says that it needs Android 2.0. Anyone know anything about that, I'm unfamiliar with it?

Thank you,

[jeffh]

All the apps I listed in my post above are free. None of them will work with the internal GPS in a Verizon 8330. All of them (including Google Maps) will work with the internal GPS in a Verizon 9630.

CORRECTION: BBMaps will work with the internal GPS in a Verizon 8330 if you are using OS 4.5 or later. It is the only app other than VZNav that does.

[cook46933]

Verizon blocks the GPS for all phones except the tour and the storm. The tour and storm have dual mode gps and they cannot block the autonomous GPS. If they could I am sure they would

[golfer393]

Amaze does nothing in the free version. I hate to purchase something that I can't try out. How does it work with a Storm 2 and VZW?

[jeffh]

The free version of Amaze works on the Verizon Tour. It's possible they don't have a Storm 2 version out yet.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[golfer393]

Version 5 is no longer free. The "free" version doesn't do anything. I'd like to try 5.0 before buying it @ $40 per yr. I did download 4.5 which is still listed for free. The verizon version worked OK on my Storm 2. I'm not that impressed with it... but it does offer turn by turn with voice for free.

[jeffh]

I have not used LifeInPocket, but characterizing it as the only free GPS nav app may be too strong. BlackBerry Maps, Google Maps, amAze, and Nav4all are all free nav apps with various strengths and weaknesses. Poynt is a useful search engine that can map directions using either BBMaps or Google Maps.

[Fuzzballz]

You can still get v4.5 for free

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[JoelTruckerDude]

Version 5 is no longer free. The "free" version doesn't do anything. I'd like to try 5.0 before buying it @ $40 per yr. I did download 4.5 which is still listed for free. The verizon version worked OK on my Storm 2. I'm not that impressed with it... but it does offer turn by turn with voice for free.

You can still get v4.5 for free

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Help me understand what you mean by "the free version doesn't do anything" as I'm using it daily with full features, including weather and full POI searches, the map views (3D,Satellite,etc) are awesome as well, the turn by turn voice is much better than the other freebies out there. I did get a chance to try "Lifepocket" as well, while it is a great app, the only part I didn't like was the lack of map views and the voice instructions need some work (robotic sounding), all in all it seemed like it could go places with a little work. That being said, if the UI was a little more friendly with Amaze it would be quite comparable to Garmin or Telenav, but doesn't keep me away though.

EDIT: I assume you was talking about 4.5, or is it 5.0 that doesn't do anything??

[Fuzzballz]

Keep in mind there are 3 versions:

4.5 which is still free and fully featured
5.0 evaluation which is free and has few features
5.0 paid which is not free and (I guess) has lots of features.

[JoelTruckerDude]

How did you get Amaze work? I tried to downloaded several times while couldn't get it work, The display is slow, hard to control, POIs could not find restaurants nearby and I could not get gps. Can you provide the download link of the free and working version?

I downloaded the latest version of LifeInPocket, it's impressive, a lot of features such as cheap gas finder, traffic report, news, video, events, etc. and the navigation voice is very nice and beautiful.

The version of 4.5 I have is b4 they went pay, had a backup on my pc. I do agree with you on the "LifeInPocket" except the maps and voice commands are very primitive still, the voice commands are "blunt and choppy" while they do get the job done, I would like it to be more fluent with it's commands. Example, other GPS voice commands are " Just ahead, turn right" LifeInPocket's voice "Ahead.......Turn................................. ..NOW" the delay between words and I find it rather amusing they use "NOW", it almost sounds like its shouting @ you All in all if they keep improving on it, I think it will become a great app.

[GooTz66]

All the apps I listed in my post above are free. None of them will work with the internal GPS in a Verizon 8330. All of them (including Google Maps) will work with the internal GPS in a Verizon 9630.

Verizon blocks the GPS for all phones except the tour and the storm. The tour and storm have dual mode gps and they cannot block the autonomous GPS. If they could I am sure they would

Curve 8330 does allow GPS for use with BBMaps only

[yoodontknomi]

Does anyone have a link to 4.5? I pay for the VZnavigator and I'd like to get rid of it if possible, It would free up another 10 dollars verizon sucks out of me...

[Fuzzballz]

It's a text link at the very bottom of the screen at amazegps.com

[DoctorNeutron]

Google Maps 3.2.1 on my Storm 2 is very fast and totally whippy. It can tell which part of my house my S2 is located in. I checked its accuracy by walking to the center of a street in front of my house. It was dead on in the center of the street.

In a recent trip in the Texas Hill Country, between College Station and Austin, I launched Google Maps and it locked my S2 up, requiring a real battery pull ! An error message to the effect that somebody was asking to disarm some security feature, affirm or deny. Neither would release my S2. I could not use the BB button held down for an extra count to work. Looks like a simple bug related to signal strength or the like. Could not figure out how to report this to Google directly.

Doctor Neutron