I've got an unlocked Cingular Pearl that currently is working on T-Mobile but with all the Cingular themes and menus and settings and such. Is there a way to load the firmware from the T-Mobile so that all the internet settings and themes and such work?

Welcome to the forums,

Use this thread to add all the other available themes to your Pearl.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/ring...-4-2-only.html

Ah, very interesting - and thanks for the welcome. Now tell me about the rest of the T-Mobile options on their firmware, like the MyFaves program and internet wap/mms settings and such. I'd imagine the normal T-Mobile OS comes preset with all of these things for their network instead of the Cingular settings the phone currently has. For example, with the Cingular OS right now the phone says "Data Connection Refused" at the top, I'm guessing because the phone is still pointing to the Cingular servers. Details?

I believe MyFaves will work with any OS. I am running this OS and I have the modules for my faves. I don't have my faves on my account but the OS is ready for it.

Data Connection Refused means that you don't have a Blackberry Data Plan on your account or that there is a problem with the network you are on. All that info is on your sim card/account provisioning-not in the OS.

There are no special settings required when loading other carrier's OS's on the BB. I've used many different carrier's OS's on my Pearl with no problems whatsoever. All the OS's are produced by RIM and given to the carriers. The carrier's decide what OS to release to their customers.

Ok, so I'm going to load my T-Mobile .alx file into my (unlocked Cingular) blackberry using the instructions on http://www.blackberryforums.com/medi...-4-2-only.html, and that should make My Faves work. Correct? Or are those just profile options, and when you mention My Faves modules, do you mean other files from somewhere else?

Just to clarify, MyFaves will work, whether or not you have the MyFaves application running on your phone. The way that it works is that when you're making or receiving a call, it checks to see if that number is in your MyFaves list, which is stored on T-Mobile's computers somewhere. The application just makes it easier to see that you're calling or getting a call from someone on that list, and set up who you want to be in that list. I used to have my MyFaves application on the home screen, but I hid it since the people I have in that list I call all the time from my Address Book anyway.

The .alx file you load depends on the OS version on the phone, not which carrier the phone is branded to. Look in Options >About and get the OS version from there. Then go to the thread you linked above and use the .alx that corresponds to the OS version you have installed on your BB. Pay no attention to the carrier names.

Sig.Steve: good point about the My Faves working in substance without the little whirly faces. I would imagine I need the My Faves application in order to set up or modify my My Faves list, which is a big part of why I'm undertaking to replace software on my cingular branded pearl.

I have lots of experience loading and unloading software on palm devices (and obviously computers) so my questions seem like they must be stupid ones, but I just don't have enough platform understanding yet - here goes:

In laymans terms, I need the MyFaves program and it would be dandy if T-Mobile was the name I saw instead of Cingular (though that isn't critical), but the icon arrangements etc. I don't care about (I actually like Cingular's 'themes' better).

I am imagining that the blackberry.alx file is sort of a system-wide, all encompassing user interface program, and that platform.alx is the base operating system. So, to be sure everything is compatible, I ought to load both of them onto my unlocked Cingular branded phone, and it should look and act like a T-Mobile purchased phone. But I fear I am imagining incorrectly because of your comment John about ignoring the branding designations.