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.

BlackBerry Storm gets the nod

BlackBerry Storm gets--surprisingly--a pretty positive nod from MacWorld (LINK).

I finally got a chance to play with one the other day when I noticed one on the table of the person next to me at the coffee shop. I was both pleased by how easy it was to type on the thing--seems better than an iPhone to me--and shocked at the lag time for various functions, most noticably the switch from portrait to landscape mode. Felt very much like Beta software to me. This was before the recent 4.7 upgrade was available which apparently fixes some or all of these lag time issues.

Gorgeous Honda Super Cub

Gorgeous Honda Super Cub at night on the streets of San Francisco. Among the very top designs of all time (perhaps along with the BlackBerry 7200 series!).

Old Design vs. New(er) Design (BlackBerry)

My BlackBerry 8830 (the one on the right, below) started crashing a few days ago, so while I'm waiting for its replacement from Verizon I've been using my old BlackBerry 7250. It's been a pleasure to remember the good elements of this design that were lost when RIM made choices in favor of other priorities.

This device came out over four years ago, perhaps even more than five years ago. I found a review from April 2004 but couldn't easily find when the 7200 series was first announced.

First, it's amazing that the new release of the GMail for BlackBerry application works perfectly on the old machine. Certainly it's slower, but it's still perfectly functional. Isn't it wonderful that a device from almost five years ago can run one of the newest of applications?

Second, design of the old machine has a classic simplicity that I miss. It's simple black and silver. Its round shape fits well into my hand in a way that the newer BlackBerrys don't. (Admittedly my hands--and those of my wife who still uses her 7200 series--are relatively large and so smaller hands would find it less attractive.) It's lacking the SEND and END buttons that RIM added to BlackBerrys with models that followed (added so that they could appeal to a broader audience who were switching over from traditional mobile phones). Finally, its keyboard is designed for typing. Look at how much more closely spaced the keys are on the newer models. The 7200 series is a great example of elegant, purpose driven design in which form follows function to the benefit of both form and function. The 7200 series reminds me of Bang and Olufsen stereos or some of the classic designs from Braun.

I wish RIM would launch a special edition of the 7200 series, with the case and keyboard of the 7200 and the speed and screen of the 8830--or better yet, the new Bold. That would be a special device. Of course they never will. I wish I had time, skills and money on my hands to do a real mashup of the two. That would one worthwhile mod.

BlackBerry Storm and GPS

I've written before (LINK) about Verizon's egregious locking out of Google Maps and other applications from the GPS chip on the BlackBerry 8830.

With the new BlackBerry Storm on Verizon, fears have been that they'd do the same. It appears that they haven't quite done this, but who knows? Until I hear definitive proof that Google Maps works on this device, I'd be suspicious. Here's what PC Magazine has to say in their review of the storm (LINK).

"Two GPS applications are on board, Verizon's $9.99 per month VZNavigator, (which gives you spoken, turn-by-turn driving directions) and the free BlackBerry Maps (which doesn't). The camera app is also GPS-enabled, so you can geotag your photos. I found the GPS to be unusually good at swiftly locking onto satellite signals. When it can't get a signal at all, the system resorts to a rough estimate based on cell-tower locations. The GPS is "unlocked," meaning that third-party programs on the phone can use it to find locations. But apps have to be written specifically for the Storm—the generic version of Google Maps for BlackBerry, for instance, couldn't get a GPS fix."

One of my personal connections with Obama

From the always brilliant, Joy of Tech (LINK)

Nice little clock app for BlackBerry

If any of you have older BlackBerrys (most of us at this point) and are envious of the new clock application you've seen in the newest BlackBerrys (shown at left on the new Pearl flip) you can buy from Vorino Software a very nice clock app that provides similar functionality (LINK).