GPS on Verizon Blackberry 8130 (Pearl), 8330 (Curve), 8830

Finally, Verizon has cracked their door just slightly and deigned to allow its users access to the GPS chips in their BlackBerrys without have to pay $10 a month for the privilege of using their aesthetically poor VZNavigator program.

As of this writing, you can easily upgrade your Verizon BlackBerry Pearl or Curve (LINK) to the new BlackBerry 4.5 operating system and finally get GPS working on the BlackBerry maps program. However, Google Maps and everything else is still left without access to the GPS chip.

But those using the 8830 "World Edition" have been left out in the cold without an official upgrade. Rumor is that the 8830 is going to be the first of the current Verizon BlackBerrys to be phased out and that there won't be an official upgrade to the 4.5 operating system. But there are working versions of Beta upgrades out there--do a search for "8830 4.5.0.101" and you should be able to find a "pirate" download site with a copy or go here for example. Very nice thing is that it does seem to work and it unlocks GPS for BlackBerry Maps. About time.

I have to say that people would be shot at dawn at a place like Apple for allowing leaks like this to occur. But further, people would be shot at dawn for allowing such a completely haphazard, rumor strewn way of releasing OS upgrades as BlackBerry has of late. I fear for the health of RIM.