Verizon Q9c GPS Hack

[MBK2]

Well I'd basically need the GPS when I'm traveling, which is about 5 or 6 times a year..... so some areas I might not be very familiar with and may need to watch my surroundings carefully while driving, so wondering how easy it'd be to look down at Windows live to know which way I'm supposed to turn when it beeps, does the graphics show a big arrow...lol

As for the Garmin software, what software is that 5k1ttl3? How much did it cost? Turn by trun voice prompts? cost to update maps yearly?

VZNav does work superbly, but paying $50 - $60 a year, or possibly more, would get old real fast.... especially when the years add up!!...

[n99hockey]

Originally Posted by MBK2

Well I'd basically need the GPS when I'm traveling, which is about 5 or 6 times a year..... so some areas I might not be very familiar with and may need to watch my surroundings carefully while driving, so wondering how easy it'd be to look down at Windows live to know which way I'm supposed to turn when it beeps, does the graphics show a big arrow...lol

As for the Garmin software, what software is that 5k1ttl3? How much did it cost? Turn by trun voice prompts? cost to update maps yearly?

VZNav does work superbly, but paying $50 - $60 a year, or possibly more, would get old real fast.... especially when the years add up!!...

it doesnt show a large arrow it shows your route with a line and below says what you do next

i have a mount for my phone that uses the air vent so its pretty much eye level...

i travel for work alot and use it sometimes 2 times a week to my different construction sites

[MBK2]

Originally Posted by n99hockey

it doesnt show a large arrow it shows your route with a line and below says what you do next

i have a mount for my phone that uses the air vent so its pretty much eye level...

i travel for work alot and use it sometimes 2 times a week to my different construction sites

So if you're using your Q9c with Windows Live for your GPS navigation needs... it must not be a Verizon Q9c ...huh?? LOL

[n99hockey]

Originally Posted by MBK2

So if you're using your Q9c with Windows Live for your GPS navigation needs... it must not be a Verizon Q9c ...huh?? LOL

no it is
i just have a bt gps receiver
one time cost of 50 bucks...had it for nearly 18 months...(used on my Q1 as well)
that would be 180 bucks on vznav for the entire time i had the receiver
or got the Q9c in june so 4-5 months would have been 40-50 bucks with vznav or the exact same cost of my receiver

its just not worth it to pay 10 bucks a month...i dont see how vzw doesnt see that or anyone else for that matter who wants to get it
not to say that anyone who gets it is wrong or whatnot but why pay 120 a year when you can get a one time cost of 50 or less and use it on many different phones

[5k1ttl3]

Originally Posted by MBK2

Well I'd basically need the GPS when I'm traveling, which is about 5 or 6 times a year..... so some areas I might not be very familiar with and may need to watch my surroundings carefully while driving, so wondering how easy it'd be to look down at Windows live to know which way I'm supposed to turn when it beeps, does the graphics show a big arrow...lol

As for the Garmin software, what software is that 5k1ttl3? How much did it cost? Turn by trun voice prompts? cost to update maps yearly?

VZNav does work superbly, but paying $50 - $60 a year, or possibly more, would get old real fast.... especially when the years add up!!...

The software is Garmin mobile XT. I think the software runs about $100. And to be completely honest, it kind of sucks. Or maybe I just don't know how to use it. It does have voice prompts, and it has a nice database of restaraunts and gas stations and what have you. Its pretty cool I guess.

Like, i wouldn't *pay* for the software, certainly not the $100 they're asking, but having not paid for it, I can't complain. It beats the pants off google maps. Especially because it doesnt use data.

I have no idea what it costs to update maps. I have the latest maps for north america as of this year.

You can actually Go to Garmin's website, and download Garmin Mobile XT from their download section. it doesn't seem like a demo to me, it ran fine. But I never connected it with GPS, and I dont think It came with any maps.
*shrug*.

Anyway. Garmin mobile XT is pretty BA.

-EDIT- OH. and if you're going to get a bluetooth GPS receiver, DO NOT go cheap. I bought a $30 BT-5721 from geeks.com and its easily the worst investment I've made all year. I think i was able to connect it successfully ONCE. the rest of the time it just sits there and blinks. It's garbage, stay away.

[darkdomino]

VZnavigator is very handy, especially version 4 with the weather, traffic, movies/events, and more.

I am just annoyed that I can't use the GPS for other stuff like Palringo's new location feature, Google Maps, and stuff like that.

What Verizon doesn't know is that even if their GPS were unlocked I'd still use VzNav, it's a good program.

[hackules]

Originally Posted by MBK2

VZNav does work superbly, but paying $50 - $60 a year, or possibly more, would get old real fast.... especially when the years add up!!...

You can do the $1.99 per 24hr period I think. I personally love VZNav, but I'd really like to find an alternative to $10 a month. Actually, I too would be ok with $10 a month for VZNav as long as I could use it as a GPS for hunting and fishing purposes!

[MBK2]

Originally Posted by hackules

You can do the $1.99 per 24hr period I think. I personally love VZNav, but I'd really like to find an alternative to $10 a month. Actually, I too would be ok with $10 a month for VZNav as long as I could use it as a GPS for hunting and fishing purposes!

The daily rate wouldn't work for my case because I'm on the road 5-10 days anyways, so just paying for the month is more efficient. VZNav's voice prompts are the biggest deal maker for me, so even if we were to get access to the GPS chip in the Q9c, I'd still want a software that would give me that function.

I've been test running it for the last couple days, and purposely went off track to see how soon it would reroute me... and in less than 5 seconds it was recalculating, and within under another 5, it navigated a new route for me... to me that's pretty fast. My friend has an expensive standalone GPS unit and his barely gets that kind of reaction. His $200 or $300 unit has nothing over VZNav... nada.... So the way I'm thinking, until we can hack the GPS chip in the Verizon Q9c, I could travel 5 times a year for 4 years and still pay less than my friend paid for his unit...lol

BTW, anyone using a voice prompt software with their Sprint or other Q9c GPS?? Which software? And how much was the software?

[5k1ttl3]

Progress!

Vazguard was kind enough to dump his sprint ROM. not only that, but he dumped specific reg entries for me.

We're very close. like "the first person to set the registry correctly wins" close.

Here's what I found out last night.

Sprint's q9c doesn't have motgpsapi.dll. as far as I can tell, motgpsapi.dll is the poisoned, broken dll file from verizon.

Sprint's phone, however has a file that my phone doesnt - gpsgenericdrvr.dll. My guess is that this is the standard, working GPS driver.

Sprints phone also has alot of reg keys relating to GPS that mine doesnt.

I copied gpsgenericdrvr over, and I changed my registry to match the regdumps that Vaz got me, but no joy. Of course, it's freezing outside so I didnt wait around long for google maps to get a lock. I need a better GPS test application. One that will tell me all the minute details of what it's doing, instead of just "looking for satellites"

I'll upload that DLL file and those regdumps soon, I'm taking them from my FTP server now.

I need someone who knows how GPS settings are tied to the registry, and what keys we need to set. Other than that, I think we might have a fix.

Thanks again to Vazguard

[5k1ttl3]

Here, check these out.

Also, I had another idea - Is there any technical reason why I cant flash my phone with the sprint firmware and still use it on the VZW network?

If it's a bad idea or is going to brick my phone, someone should talk me out of it fast. The sprint update will be done downloading in like 5 minutes.