Earlier this month, we reported how Verizon has hindered the GPS on the XV6800, their version of the HTC Titan.
Essentially, Verizon has disabled GPS access to all but “signed” applications. These are applications that Verizon has approved to access GPS services. The Sprint Mogul, Alltel PPC-6800, and all other overseas variants of the device do not have this restriction. However, Verizon confirmed to PhoneNews.com that they are willing to work with third-party applications to approve them for using the GPS services on the XV6800.
This week, hackers at the XDA-Developers forum have released a software patch, which can be applied to an unmodified XV6800, running the latest official firmware. It enables any GPS application, with a few settings changes, to use GPS without needing to be hacked with a third-party firmware.
LOL you did it again. First a VZW 6800 on a Sprint blurb, and now this. What’s the deal showcasing a competitor’s version of a device with an article? Definitely worth a few chuckles, but I’m not sure I would be all that amused if I were Sprint or Verizon. I suppose we’ll see a T-Mo phone pictured on an AT&T article and vice-versa soon eh?
Jim, while we too get a few laughs from it, the reason is mostly technical. See, if you click on that phone, you’re taken to the Phone Encyclopedia article for the XV6800 and the Mogul. Both are the same device, and thus they have a single page.
Usually, this isn’t an issue as different carriers have different devices. But, when two carriers have the same model, we basically go with the first quality image of the device available.
Having to have an image base of every carrier variant would take far too much of our time. We would encourage the industry to stop wasting money, and start using single-design references for each phone… a la iPhone, Treo, etc.
hey, just updated my phone with the gps patch. it works great. screw verizon, all there phones should be open source. now no one will buy their stupid software
[…] Verizon is locking down the GPS receiver to only work with their VZ Navigator service. Fortunately, there’s a workaround for the XV6800 (which is already down with Windows Mobile 6.1) that should also work on the […]
[…] Verizon is locking down the GPS receiver to only work with their VZ Navigator service. Fortunately, there’s a workaround for the XV6800 (which is already down with Windows Mobile 6.1) that should also work on the […]
[…] Verizon claimed that they weren’t hindering it. Then hackers deleted the hindrance. Then they admitted that they were hindering their customers. Then they claimed that they […]
[…] the XV6900 can only be used through the Verizon’s premium navigation service. Although, a little hacking magic might allow you to free your XV6900’s GPS receiver from Verizon’s mis-guided […]
can someone send me that cab file for the gps?? i keep running into dead links thanks!!!
this is beat. all the links over at xda dev are dead.
Hey I have a XV6800, and cant get it to update to 6.1 so currlently im stuck at 6.0. Can somebody help
hey snoochie, you stupid fuck, shut the fuck up. It is stupid ass munchers like you that make the average IQ score drop so much. Maby you should take a candy cane and stick it up your ass!
i hate this bull shit!!! does any know of working links for all this jive?? i google for hours on end… any help would be great!!
stupid ass verizon and the Pathetic gps!
‘m not sure what crawled up Killah’s butt, but snoochie is quite correct. All the links in the referenced xda-dev article are broken. The cab file and the zip file. Anyone know what’s going on with this?