I am wondering about Garmin's program if anyone has used it because I am thinking of getting it when I get my Tour later this year.
DJ
XtremeBerry - Thanks for the suggestions - it's always nice to have something new to try. I checked the GPS settings, and Location Aiding is set to "Enabled". I couldn't find the Data Services setting you mentioned - can you help?
Justin (and everyone) - Thanks again. Since I last posted, I had an interesting call-back from Verizon tech support - a very knowledgable, friendly person. He said mine was a very frequent complaint about GPS not working right with many third-party apps. He said that Verizon cannot disclose the specifics about which third parties have been "unblocked", and acknowledged that sometimes developers can be clever enough to get things working in the GPS department. Sounded very nebulous. I also asked him a related question: If Apple ends its exclusive arrangement with AT&T, and if Verizon starts offering the iPhone, what are the chances that third-party GPS apps that work OK under AT&T will not work under Verizon? His response: It's possible that they won't work for the same reasons that Trimble Outdoors won't work outside of cellphone range (and TopoExplorer won't work at all under Verizon). That's when I decided: "Time to switch to AT&T & iPhone". So I researched the iPhone, and like you mentioned, Justin, they waited til the 3GS to add some features that were there originally in the Storm (video camera and sound recorder are other examples).
However... it looks like I'll be sticking with Verizon for a while anyway - we had a family finances meeting, and I checked the costs of changing over to AT&T, and it would amount to several hundred bucks to cover early termination fees for all of us and for buying an iPhone. Plus, at our family cabin, Verizon's 3G signal comes through, and AT&T's doesn't. No surprise that Verizon has better coverage.
I got a bit lost on another remote mountain bike ride again earlier today, with no cell signal. I whipped out the ancient Garmin GPS, and it gave me my location in about a minute. The surprise: BlackStar on the Storm was also able to give me my location! (But it took about 10 minutes.) So it looks like some apps will eventually work if you give them extreme amounts of time to find the GPS signal.
Looks like I'll limp along like this for another few months, making sure I print out lots of topo maps and take my ancient Garmin with me. But someday, I hope to have an app that works on a smartphone to show topo maps and my location, even out of cell phone range. In the meantime, I'll continue to be envious of iPhone users who have that available now.
My other gripe: When is the Storm going to get a decent calculator that contains the trig functions? (All my physics students are showing me their free calculators on their iPhones, LG's, etc., and I'm getting jealous.)
Sure go to manage connections>mobile network options>data services>make sure it just says ON and not "off when roaming".
There are all kinds of calculator apps out there. Try Blackberry app store,Handango,Crackberry there are several places to get em.
I have a software company and am encountering the same problems. My software works in patrol vehicles similar to police cars and I use Verizon for my wireless broadband, the tracking is accomplished by using a gps receiver hooked up to the usb port and the software has the gps tracking built in.
We are making a mobile version to be used with windows mobile and with the Iphone but we are having problems getting the gps info from the phone to utilize with our software, it is just not available although with sprint, it works perfectly.
If anyone who has a great deal of technical saby on Verizon, I sure would like to chat with you regarding the gps functionality of third party apps.
From what I can tell I can get GPS pinpointed on everything but Google Maps. That is the new blackberry Curve 8530. My understanding is it just hasn't been added to the Google Maps list for GPS or whatever it is they have to do. Apparently they stopped blocking the GPS but made it so that the apps have to be approved by Verizon to get certain information.
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