[gshine666]

After 2 years of my girlfriend being on Verizon and us being irritated because they crippled her RAZR so I could not put ring tones on it I have her convinced to:
1. Get a BB, and
2. come over to Tmobile with me.

She has been waiting for the 8200 to come out. Then, today, I told her about the 9500. Showed her some pictures. She likes this phone also.

My question is: Does Verizon cripple thier BB's in any manner? I have heard the Verizon Curves GPS is fixd so you can't use Blackberry or Google Maps and have to pay for their similar service. Is this accurate? And is there any hope of them not doing this on the 9500?

[jsconyers]

Cripple the device? Not really. Yes they lock GPS and will unlock it to work with VZNavigator. It isn't really crippled, per say. However, it will be an additional charge to use it.

I would imagine the same would go for the 9500. I have not heard anything definitive on this.

[juwaack68]

^^ agree with jsconyers

[DallasFlier]

Well, this has been talked to death - but nice that someone is doing their homework BEFORE buying the phone this time! I'd argue that it IS crippled, to a great extent. On my AT&T Curve, I pay for AT&T Navigator (Telenav) and if I had a Verizon Curve I could similarly pay for VZNavigator. So far, so good. But, I ALSO have a golf application on my Curve, which gives me yardage from my ball to the pin, similarly to the expensive golf GPS units. If I was using a Verizon Curve instead of the AT&T one, I'd not be able to use that application, even though Verizon has nothing competitive with it. Sorry, that's crippled, in my opinion.

[Dawg]

yep beat bad

[complexx]

Originally Posted by DallasFlier

Well, this has been talked to death - but nice that someone is doing their homework BEFORE buying the phone this time! I'd argue that it IS crippled, to a great extent. On my AT&T Curve, I pay for AT&T Navigator (Telenav) and if I had a Verizon Curve I could similarly pay for VZNavigator. So far, so good. But, I ALSO have a golf application on my Curve, which gives me yardage from my ball to the pin, similarly to the expensive golf GPS units. If I was using a Verizon Curve instead of the AT&T one, I'd not be able to use that application, even though Verizon has nothing competitive with it. Sorry, that's crippled, in my opinion.

If you couldn't use ATT and had to use Verizon, would you stop playing golf?

Just curious

[matrix2004]

Originally Posted by gshine666

After 2 years of my girlfriend being on Verizon and us being irritated because they crippled her RAZR so I could not put ring tones on it I have her convinced to:
1. Get a BB, and
2. come over to Tmobile with me.

She has been waiting for the 8200 to come out. Then, today, I told her about the 9500. Showed her some pictures. She likes this phone also.

My question is: Does Verizon cripple thier BB's in any manner? I have heard the Verizon Curves GPS is fixd so you can't use Blackberry or Google Maps and have to pay for their similar service. Is this accurate? And is there any hope of them not doing this on the 9500?

She can't put ringtones on her Razr? How's that possible? Does she not know how? You can put ringtones, pics, movies, etc. on Verizon phones.

[Ennjay]

I think he might be reffering to home made ring tones. Not purchased vcast tones. Although I did know a work around before I used a smartphone, I'm not sure if it works anymore.

[gshine666]

Exactly. At one point I had a Tmobile RAZR. I could make my own ringtones and put them on the phone via bluetooth. She got a RAZR for her verizon account and I could not do that. That time, like someone said above, I didn't do the research first and when I did I found that Verizon specifically shut out that ability, allegedly so they could make you pay for any ringtones.

I don't like that practice, and I'm not interested in supporting it. I've heard that Verizon is backing off that practice, but that has come from REPS and from what I've learned on BBforums they are not always the most accurate source. ;)

Thanks for your replies.

Originally Posted by Ennjay

I think he might be reffering to home made ring tones. Not purchased vcast tones. Although I did know a work around before I used a smartphone, I'm not sure if it works anymore.

[DallasFlier]

Originally Posted by Dawg

yep beat bad

Dawg, you have to give him credit, he's doing his homework BEFORE he gets the phone, just as you say everyone should do. And as for the GPS, without *****ing and moaning about it, the simple fact is that it IS crippled in the Verizon BlackBerry's, it will only work with VZ Navigator. Even if you pay for VZ Navigator, it will ONLY work with that, not with other programs like my golf program.

Better he find out all the details now, and make an intelligent, informed decision - one way or the other, right?

(And I knew you'd show up in this thread! That's about as reliable as the sun coming up this morning! )

[matrix2004]

Originally Posted by gshine666

Exactly. At one point I had a Tmobile RAZR. I could make my own ringtones and put them on the phone via bluetooth. She got a RAZR for her verizon account and I could not do that. That time, like someone said above, I didn't do the research first and when I did I found that Verizon specifically shut out that ability, allegedly so they could make you pay for any ringtones.

I don't like that practice, and I'm not interested in supporting it. I've heard that Verizon is backing off that practice, but that has come from REPS and from what I've learned on BBforums they are not always the most accurate source. ;)

Thanks for your replies.

Maybe i'm not making myself clear and maybe none of you have Verizon dumbphones but the fact is you CAN put homemade ringtones on your Verizon phones. I've been doing it since i had the Moto V710 and that was like how many years ago? Everyone does it, i very surprised to hear you don't know how. If you search Howard Forums you can find out how or PM me. I don't want to stray off topic.

[Ennjay]

True, no reason to stray off topic, but yes if you need to know, it's not hard to find. Matrix, it's been a while, does the texting an attachment still work?

[matrix2004]

Originally Posted by Ennjay

True, no reason to stray off topic, but yes if you need to know, it's not hard to find. Matrix, it's been a while, does the texting an attachment still work?

Texting is hit and miss. Sometimes it goes through, sometimes it doesn't ,sometimes it goes thru but it takes a day or two. However, on the LG's that i've used since i had the Moto, you can just copy and paste the 'homemade' ring tone into the 'My Sounds' folder on the memory card then text it to yourself and save as ringtone. Not sure if the Moto file system has changed since the V710 was out but if the phone has the 'USB MASS STORAGE' option, it basically makes the phone act like another drive you can write to. The newer phones allow Bluetooth file transfers and phone to phone Bluetooth transfers. The last of the 'crippling' is just about gone. The other method of course is BITPIM.

PS. You can also make and use homemade video ringtones.

[gerudas11]

I dont know why you would pay for ringtones Ive had verizon for 4 years now I have an older samsung like the flipshot the e815 and the curve and every phone Ive made my own ringtones. all you have to do is send them in a text message save them as a sound if you want others to have it then save it as a ringtone. so verizon being cripped. nonsense. sure they have stuff locked but you can get around it with ease and you can have google maps on your bb. You can do just about anything you can do on all the other carriers. plus its the network.

[TroyDBrown]

Originally Posted by gerudas11

sure they have stuff locked but you can get around it with ease and you can have google maps on your bb. You can do just about anything you can do on all the other carriers. plus its the network.

Ok without paying the $9.99 a month to use the GPS feature for the phone on Verizon. Show me and everyone else here how to get Google Maps to work with the buil in GPS. I can't wait to see this work around "with ease".

[Dawg]

Originally Posted by DallasFlier

Dawg, you have to give him credit, he's doing his homework BEFORE he gets the phone, just as you say everyone should do. And as for the GPS, without *****ing and moaning about it, the simple fact is that it IS crippled in the Verizon BlackBerry's, it will only work with VZ Navigator. Even if you pay for VZ Navigator, it will ONLY work with that, not with other programs like my golf program.

Better he find out all the details now, and make an intelligent, informed decision - one way or the other, right?

(And I knew you'd show up in this thread! That's about as reliable as the sun coming up this morning! )

Not always. There are quite a few GPS threads I haven't posted in.

But to me crippled is not being able to use it at all. kinda like the sprint curve and MMS now thats crippled cant use any MMS program paid or not. But You don't here as many people *****ing about that now do we. They only want to ***** about vzw.

[gerudas11]

Originally Posted by Dawg

Not always. There are quite a few GPS threads I haven't posted in.

But to me crippled is not being able to use it at all. kinda like the sprint curve and MMS now thats crippled cant use any MMS program paid or not. But You don't here as many people *****ing about that now do we. They only want to ***** about vzw.

Preach Dawg. I don't understand why everybody complains about vzw. but can't make everybody happy.

[jsconyers]

Originally Posted by TroyDBrown

Ok without paying the $9.99 a month to use the GPS feature for the phone on Verizon. Show me and everyone else here how to get Google Maps to work with the buil in GPS. I can't wait to see this work around "with ease".

I believe he is referring to cell tower triangulation. That is NOT GPS. If he does mean actual GPS, I would love to know this work around as well.

[robotpedlr]

Even if you Pay the $9.99 for GPS use on your vzw bb, you still cant use it with Google Maps...you can only use it with their Navigator...which is kinda lame. There are many that argue the $9.99 for GPS use...but even if you are fine with paying the fee...you still dont have the option of using it with 3rd party apps...which bites. Oh well.

[JSanders]

If you pay for the VZW Navigator, many users report that the third party apps like Google Maps do work.