Sprint Apps Stripped and Installed on Canadian Palm Pre Phones 20
When the Palm Pre came to Bell Mobility, many people were upset to see much of the added Sprint flavor missing, with nothing special added by Bell. Some of the core programs of the Sprint Pre were in fact limited to Sprint. However, if you aren't afraid to do a bit of command line, it's now possible to hack programs like Sprint Navigation and AmazonMP3 onto the Bell Pre!
Outlined by Diov in out forums, the process is thankfully easier than it sounds. Doiv has extracted the Sprint ipk files from the Sprint webOSDoctor (warning: these need to be installed differently than normal ipks, so just don't try it). Essentially what you'd need to do is send the file to the Pre, and install it via command line. Full details can be found the the forum thread.
Currently Doiv has AmazonMP3, Sprint Navigation, and Sprint Link working on his Bell Pre. Sprint Navigation requires signing up for an account, though apparently just entering you first and last names works and Sprint Navigation won't bug you about it again. Unfortunately the Nascar and NFL apps don't work.
Now, the apps are part of a download Palm makes available to anyone and the apps are 'free' on Sprint, but that doesn't mean that we're looking at a pure-as-the-driven-snow act here. But hey, we tell you about efforts to make those Sprint apps go away, worth noting that others are clamoring to use them.
20 Comments
I'm pretty certain that using sprint navigation on bell will throw some red flags at palm since that app is telenav sprint is paying for. Amazon mp3 just means more business for amazon but can bell's network handle the extra bandwidth of downloading tunes??
Point is we should see these apps on bell soon, as soon as both palm AND bell OKs them. Tread lighty on this is my point....
I would doubt we will see Telenav on Bell, legitimately, unless Bell is paying Telenav. I'm sure Sprint puts a portion of their revenue towards Telenav to pay for this service.
Is Amazon MP3 available outside the US? I know media companys are crazy about where they can sell and what rights each have by company. It is stupid, but I could see that being a factor that might make Amazon fight this too. That would be pretty stupid, because it is just increasing revenue for Amazon.
"...but can bell's network handle the extra bandwidth of downloading tunes??"
I pay $360/year for a data package, ask me how much I care. =P
my guess is, sprint nav won't work past the usual 7 day trial found on other mobile devices, without signing up for a regular account and paying $10 a month.
this sprint nav app is different then the ones on other cell phones as well as the sprint TV where they are always accesible. This makes sense since sprint forces you to sign up for an everything package so they still get revenue for their services
I sense a cease and desist coming. It would have to be a generic Telenav app and not the actual Sprint Navigation for a Sprint not to say anything. Also, I'm pretty sure Amazon MP3 is not available in Canada as of yet. There might be some issues if enough Bell users start downloading from Amazon MP3.
So, I don't have a Pre (yet), but Bell's website says the Pre has GPS navigation, but will cost $3.50 per day or $10 per month to use. Apparently using the Sprint Nav on Bell is free (Just shows up as data being used). Amazon MP3 is not available in Canada.
That is BS. I have a Bell Pre and I don't pay a penny more to use GPS. I only need a data connection and it works flawlessly (trust me I use it a lot)
Sorry, you are correct. I just checked and I was looking at GPS Nav from Bell. (I incorrectly read the supported devices.)
I think the extra fee is not for the GPS, but for "turn-by-turn" navigation... I didn't bother with it, since I've got a GPS in my car anyway.
Please share how you can usr Navigation systeme in Canada without paying extra!
I love my nfl app! i feel sorry 4 u canadians! atleast ya have better healtcare!
I think the link is supposed to say "in our forums." And is it Diov or Doiv?
I think this is actually a bad idea. So far Sprint and Palm have looked the other way to patching and messing with the core internal of our phone. If we start digging into the Sprint apps, there's a chance Sprint is going to come down on Palm, who will in turn come down on us and make life hell on us patchers.
Thus why we need to tread lightly on this. Posting this is gonna screw us in the big picture and make development more difficult. This is a nice find and would be great for our Canadian neighbors but the sad truth is this cannot be legit and dont wanna see anyone get in trouble for this :(
I'm not meaning to have palm crack down or get anyone in trouble. It is simply a because you can type deal. Being a homebrew developer, I would hate to see that happen.
Considering the level of technical ability and courage you need to install it, I doubt either Bell or Sprint are going to care about it.
After all, it's not like it was broadcasted on Engadget, so I doubt too many will do it.
So my question is can Palm survive the droid. The technical specs look good and I am concerned that the Pre will be outdated before it even hits VZ.
http://robbknie.com/
Bell's website is pretty messed up, as is their customer service's knowledge of anything related to the Pre. For instance, you can add features like the GPS nav, and their media pack option (TV shows, satellite radio) to your plan with the Pre, but as of yet the applications needed to make use of these features are non-existent. I originally had the media pack option included with a text messaging feature bundle, but when I phoned Bell to ask about the application back in September nobody seemed to even understand what I was asking. When they finally clued in that the application wasn't yet available on the Pre, they would just say that the phone was too new, and that the application would probably be available in "about a week".
Ha. It took me an hour to modify WebOS Doctor to NOT include all the Sprint Customizations. I left only Telenav and required carrier information. Working great so far. To those interested:
Delete the packages you don't want from /resources/sprint.tar
Delete /META-INF/JARKEY.RSA
Delete /META-INF/JARKEY.SF
Change the heading of /META-INF/MANIFEST.MF to
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Created-By: 1.6.0_04 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
Main-Class: com.palm.nova.installer.recoverytool.RecoveryTool
Still in /META-INF/MANIFEST.MF, delete every line beginning with SHA1.
Thanks pEEf, for this info http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Patch_webOS_Bypassing_Activation