The odd thing is that you may need UMB first if you cannot connect over WiFi. ( I've had the odd glitch like that over the 2 years i've been on SO with the 9000.

Nimbuzz chat sorta works last time i used it a year ago, Maybe they've improved it since.

GPS for me is a complete waste of time trying get it to work properly. Maybe when SO rolls out a real Data plan maybe i'll revisit it.

As for the locking ex-RIM BB9000, maybe the answer can be found here:

http://mobiles.bigresource.com.....#XZez1N6jg

I DL'd and installed the app through my browser (over wifi). First launch it took about 10 minutes to initialize, since then about 20 sec to launch and acquire satellites. Works really nicely.

PS. I have the IT policy. Am using an ex RIM demo phone. It's left me with a password protected screen lock every 5 minutes. It's super annoying & I don't think there is any way that I can turn it off. It hasn't affected my GPS though.

As an aside I have found a website which covers many BB phone GPS problems and will attempt to see if anything posted there will work.

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.....HelperImpl

Have been doing a fair amount of researching on the web and I think I have found the problem. There is something called IT policy by which the GPS can be turned on or off. Have yet to figure out how to get into that. By the looks of it the GPS is turned off in my 9000. I bought it used, so have no idea where it was previously.

But here are a couple of websites explaining it.

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.....HelperImpl

http://www.blackberryforums.co.....phone.html

I was able to get a program called SportyPal running today. It worked like a charm, and is still supported (while MGmaps) is not. I did not use the map feature though. I started loading the maps but it was taking too long. For keeping track of distance, time, elevation, climb, etc., it worked flawlessly.

Tried everything, in the Advanced settings, the option it shows under GPS settings is NONE with a blue dot to the left of it.

I have scrolled down to Internal put the cursor on it and also check marked Assisted GPS, then hit the BB button and selected save. Then did a restart and nothing changes at all.

I had left it with the the maps on as well as in the GPS mode. In neither one does it ever show a live internal GPS. This was overnight and for a few hours again on a separate try.

Maybe mine is euchred or was never in there as part of the Bold 9000.

Reply: No, with WIND I did not have a data plan, it was never explained to me by the salesman in the Scarborough Town center store that that was a requirement.

I have a BB Bold 9000 and my GPS works with SO.
It does take a long time to locate the satellites.
Do you 'enable' "Location Aiding" in the GPS setup ?

What do you use the GPS for? Have you found any useful programs? I've played with MGmaps a bit but would like to see what else I can do.

I have a BB Bold 9000 and my GPS works with SO.
It does take a long time to locate the satellites.
Do you 'enable' "Location Aiding" in the GPS setup ?

I have a nokia N8 with offline maps so I don't need a data connection.

However, without A-gps, it will take a long time to 'rebuild' the present GPS sat locations as it sits and listens to all the gps signals floating out there. 10-15minutes is not uncommon. This will happen when you turn off the GPS overnight and next morning there is a different set of sats out there.

With a-gps, your data connections loads a 'map' of where the sats are in orbit and your phone knows which satelites it should lock in on.

Think of it as a cold and warm reboot of the gps. Cold can take up to 10-15 min, warm reboots within hours/minutes can take less than a minute.

I too had not checked here for a little while.

Just trying to see if I leave the Bold facing in a southerly direction for a while to see if it actually may pick up any satellites. It would come in handy where I spend my winter in Mexico. I carry my phone with me with a Mexican SIM card in it. To carry my GPS would be a bit more bulky and also the battery would die sooner.

BTW: Before getting hooked up with SO, I was with "WIND". Bought a Nokia 5230 with a GPS in it. Those D A M N shisters presented me with a $ 200.00 bill a month after I used the GPS in my car for about 30 minutes.

Thanks again for the replies, all appreciated.

Was it an unlimited data plan or was data extra?

It pays to read the contract.

Plus you can download maps for free from nokia. A province is only about 30mb.

If you download the whole world (except japan) that could add up to a couple of GB

Just trying to see if I leave the Bold facing in a southerly direction for a while to see if it actually may pick up any satellites. It would come in handy where I spend my winter in Mexico. I carry my phone with me with a Mexican SIM card in it. To carry my GPS would be a bit more bulky and also the battery would die sooner.

BTW: Before getting hooked up with SO, I was with "WIND". Bought a Nokia 5230 with a GPS in it. Those D A M N shisters presented me with a $ 200.00 bill a month after I used the GPS in my car for about 30 minutes.

Thanks again for the replies, all appreciated.

June 17th added:

I downloaded the maps but unfortunately the Bold does not seem to have a GPS included. All options mention GPS but in the GPS setting it can not find any satellites.
The maps show up though.

But thanks anyway, it was worth a try.

As a footnote, there is a GPS feature to this phone. You can find it in advanced settings. Presumably there are apps that can make use of this function, however, I'm not sure what ones. I do plan on playing around with it (the GPS) to see what I can learn when I get a chance & I will post back here if I find anything interesting out (that works without a data plan).

http://www.mgmaps.com/ is a pretty good mapping program that should work with your bold.

If you have not updated Opera for a while, it is time to get the new version. It is a lot better now.

Within the last week I installed a wireless router to my system and yes I found out that I can connect via WiFi. But unfortunately I will need a super powerful magnifying glass to be able see and to browse the Internet.