Verizon Q9c GPS Hack

[5k1ttl3]

Originally Posted by tjericson

I have called Verizon and complained a bunch of times. I suggest that everyone else do so as well. How do they expect to compete with the iPhone when they are charging extra for location services on phones that have GPS built in?

This can be a class action lawsuit. I bought this phone almost soley for the GPS technology, knowing that it works on other networks like sprint with no issues. Their advertising and sales associates are misleading in the way they sell the phone claiming it has full GPS technology. I worked for a class action law suit firm and will take it to them to see if it is a possible case. Lets get Verizon to give us what we paid for!

Hey, Love your enthusiasm . Call me a pessimist, but I don't see any of that working. Complaining wont do a thing - Verizon sees this as a profitable business model. If it becomes unprofitable then they'll stop. Of course if enough people call them and tie up their customer service reps long enough, it might drive a point home. Minimum wage * n amount of callers * time spent with the rep could easily == a decent chunk of money. but you're forfeiting your cash (time) there as well.

We don't have a class action suit - Verizon never advertized GPS (atleast I cant recall them doing that) if they did, yeah. you might have grounds for a lawsuit. But they're pretty good at covering their asses - remember they've been doing this crap (breaking their phones) for a long, long time.

Even though VZNav authenticates with the GPS chip, the data coming from the chip isn't standard GPS information - they encrypt the Lat and Long. information, so your app can't understand it.

This paper is a very good primer on how they did the lockdown on the 6800. They probably did something very similar on the q9c:

http://www.milw0rm.com/papers/236


I'd say our best bet is hacking through this thing. I'm not holding my breath for verizon to stop being horrible Bastards.

[nero]

I looked through the Q9c on the Verizon website, didn't mention GPS once. We can't to anything because we bought a phone, and they have disabled part of something we own and should have the full right to use?

[5k1ttl3]

Originally Posted by nero

I looked through the Q9c on the Verizon website, didn't mention GPS once. We can't to anything because we bought a phone, and they have disabled part of something we own and should have the full right to use?

Probably not. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you 100% this is wrong. But on the other hand, Verizon isn't selling you a stock q9c - they're selling you a Verizon q9c by Motorola or some such nonsense.

Combine that with the fact that you do have the full right to use the GPS chip. It's your hardware. You can (ab)use that hardware however you see fit - But verizon isn't under any obligation to *help* you enable the GPS chip, because they didn't sell you a device with a GPS chip - they sold you a device that works with VZNavigator. Unfortuantely.

I spoke to a Verizon rep who swore up and down that the q9c didn't even have a GPS chip.

[5k1ttl3]

Well... I think I've pretty much given up on ever finding a solution myself. I have no idea how I'd go about debugging a windows Mobile device, and I just don't have that kind of time on my hands. When they broke the locks on the 6800, I assumed we were close. Then I started looking around, and saw that even on the blackberries, nobody has unlocked the GPS yet. And they've been out for something like a year. The longer a device is out without being cracked, the less likely a crack is going to be. It will eventually fall out of favor, and everyone will move on to a new, shiny phone and try to crack it, leaving our q9c's and BB curves as merely a peculiar footnote in the history of "horrible things verizon has done".

I ordered a bluetooth GPS receiver last night. $30. hopefully it'll do what I need it to. . verizon should die.

[nero]

$30 is pretty cheap to handheld systems out there. But put next to the fact that the phone has GPS in it already, it's a rip off.

[5k1ttl3]

Originally Posted by nero

$30 is pretty cheap to handheld systems out there. But put next to the fact that the phone has GPS in it already, it's a rip off.

Oh yeah, i agree. and the inconvenience of having to charge and carry around 2 devices. I'm still messing around with the internal GPS. I'm currently talking to the guy who unlocked GPS on the 6800. Does anyone have a copy of motgpsapi.dll or know how I could dump mine? It would really help I think.

[hijacker54]

***NOTICE***

i found this on another thread idk if this helps at all but i think its a pretty good lead if its dealing with the same situation as does the motorola Q








"Quote"

hi guys
first of all i wanna say that im new to the forum and i dont even own a q9c yet (but will hopefully in a few days)
anyway cutting to the chase...
ive been looking around and one of the big features that i want in the phone is the ability to use google maps or windows live maps for gps functions but unfortunately ive seen that the verizon network locks down their gps
but....
i noticed these articles and i was wondering if you guys could check them out and see if its legit or not
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=423231 <--This is the link that has the instructions on it

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=36444 <-- This is where i found the first link on

can someone test to see if it works (ive even searched the everythingq forums and couldnt find a fix but maybe i missed something)

[Wizzer]

I'm getting a "generic" q9c. One that doesn't have any software loaded yet...unbranded..

I wonder if starting from scratch like this would help anything. Maybe make a custom ROM out of part of Sprint's and Verizon's...FrankenROM.... :D

[rudeboy]

Originally Posted by Wizzer

I'm getting a "generic" q9c. One that doesn't have any software loaded yet...unbranded..

I wonder if starting from scratch like this would help anything. Maybe make a custom ROM out of part of Sprint's and Verizon's...FrankenROM.... :D

if you have the knowledge and the tools go for it.

potQ9c

[5k1ttl3]

Originally Posted by Wizzer

I'm getting a "generic" q9c. One that doesn't have any software loaded yet...unbranded..

I wonder if starting from scratch like this would help anything. Maybe make a custom ROM out of part of Sprint's and Verizon's...FrankenROM.... :D

That may be helpful. Do you know anything about dumping ROMs?

I've been figuring it out these past few hours. I was able to dump everything as far as I can tell, but I cant seem to extract everything from the 3rd dump.

I'm in need of Verizon's motgpsapi.dll

I have 85 or so system files extracted, but it's unfortunately not one of them.

Anyway, yeah. lets see what we can do with your virgin phone