I was thinking of buying a BB pearl for my daughter and was wondering if AIM, Yahoo messenger, google maps is available for this model. I currently have the 8703 and have all these apps and wondered if the pearl is the same.

Thank you

As I understand it AIM and Yahoo are available but Google Maps won't work with the GPS, only Verizon's proprietary GPS program that you pay for. I forget what it's called. With the IM client included you use SMS txt for each message. Or you can pay for software that uses IM messages as data.

I have an 8130 on Telus and google maps 1.6.1 designed for the 8800 works wit the internal gps. There's links to it on this forum which is where i found the solution for my own unit. I tried about 4 versions of gmaps but this one specically for hte 8800 v 1.6.1 works great for me. the one that google sent me initially when i went to google.com/gmm wouldn't even run at all.

Go with version 2 now - works good

Google maps v2 is out now and works very well with the 8130 (even without paying for the vznavigator). As far as AIM, there isnt really a free client other than Ramble (don't like), so you would probably want to go with JiveTalk

for the sprint 8130, you can download AIM, Yahoo, and Google Talk for free.

Google Maps v2 works fine on the Verizon Wireless Pearl 8130 as well.

As for the IM you can also use IM+ All in one that includes those three and more. That can be found on handango.com.

yeah it work with google maps but still i like to use blackberry maps it's free and it works great

After further usage, I've determined the new google maps does not use the internal GPS.

Does Google Maps use GPS to figure out where I am?

It all works like your 8703. Thats what I had before this 8130.
Loving it.

Sorry, I'm confused.

When you say free, Do I put blackberry maps on the 2G SD cards and the phone GPS pulls map data from there?
I believe this phone requires a data plan for the map data... no?

I wish we could put base maps on our SD cards and have it work that way.

Cheers,

Chris (Bell, yes still waiting for the OS to be able to load apps)

Funny, I have a Blackberry 8120 running Google Maps 1.6.2 with a bluetooth GPS puck and it certainly does use GPS to find my location.......

It's version 2 and above that uses Cell Mast location as an option

Hey, I installed 1.6.1 and yeah the internal gps works great, however I can't figure out how to zoom in. The instructions say to hit "o" to zoom out and "i" to zoom in. Out works but In doesn't. So how do you zoom in? This is a bit of a problem.

I have an 8130 with the latest version of google maps and it only finds my location by towers. If this gm 1.6.1 thing works, is there a link i can go to to download it?

Verizons gps is locked down to just vznavigator.

You can download JiveTalk for the Blackberry, which will run all the major IM networks (including AIM and Yahoo). If AIM isn't crucial, the Pearl will run Yahoo for free.

Google Maps works great on my Pearl.