google maps- annoying permission message; does not us GPS receiver

BrianZ-W760,

I am in a similar position as you.  While I do not care about the data charges because I have the medianet unlimited plan ($15/month) I do care that the map changes cannot keep up with you while you are driving.  Sure it can keep up is you are looking at a high level map but look at a detailed map while drigving at 65mph and google maps is not keeping up.  I definitely will not use he AT&T navigator function.  Therefore I think it would be best to have the maps loaded onto the phone.  Becasue of this desire as well as the mail client problems I have posted about elsewhere, I am still considering debranding.  If debranding will solve both problems to my satisfaction, I will debrand otherwise there are relativel simple work arounds that get you there most of the way. 

I was more concerned about voiding the warrantee before a recent experience with AT&T warrantee on another phone.   My son's phone, a Samsung he got in July, was turing off when he closed it.  I called AT&T, they sent me to a special phone number where I learned that as long as the moisture patch (under the battery cover) was white the phone was covered for a year...regardless of the insurance plan or not.  That this warrantee was from the manufacturer not AT&T.  I could either have them send me a phone replacement (remanufactured or new, their choice) or go to an AT&T warrantee center.  Note that  the warrantee service centers from AT&T are not colocated with their phone stores making me think that they are further disconnected from AT&T's phone service.  I went to the warrantee center and they told me the same thing as the people on the phone did...the manufacturer is providing the warrantee.  

It seems to me that based on the above, that debranding is just about loading software onto the phone which SE encourages you to do (they do so by having s/w on their website, talking about A/B gaming buttons when there is no native use of them, having a developers forum for software onthe A2 platform, etc.)  If this is so, they would have to have something specific in the warrantee to say that debranding or loading certain types of software voids the warrantee.  I find nothing in the material I got with the phone to say this.  Maybe someone else can find such a warning but I did not.  Based on this information and assessment, I am less concerned about voiding a warrantee, especially a threat/warning  based on the vagueness of the Sentry's.  I would, however, encourage you to call your local AT&T phone store or warrantee service center and ask them rather than rely on the Sentry's vagure reply.

Hope this helps.    

Anyway      

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BrianZ-W760 wrote:

For example, in the link you provided, what is considered "Off-Net Usage" and how can one control the amount of such usage?  How can you reconcile those percentage usage limit provisions with "no roaming charges"?

 

Can you explain what you mean by "could potentially... void your warranty"?  Will debranding a phone void the warranty or not?  Are you saying that the warranty will not be honored for a hardware failure on an otherwise previously functioning, but debranded, phone?

 

Thanks.

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Off-Net usage refers to the use of another carrier's towers to supplement areas where AT&T does not operate directly. The vast majority of our customers use service in areas where we offer broad network coverage, but there are areas we do not -- in which we obviously don't sell service. A very small amount of our customer base sometimes verges on using more off-network usage than on-network usage, whether it be because they have moved or their calling locations have changed. In these cases, we have provisions and customer service groups specifically in place to assist those customers. If this ever became an issue, you would be contacted by AT&T with a variety of options.

Regarding the debranding process and its impact on warranty, what has been suggested by w760a is accurate. You should call Sony Ericsson (1-866-766-9374) directly and inquire with them about the process you're intending to perform. See if they will support the device's warranty if you decide to debrand. The caveat I offered above is a general warning with the foreknowledge that our customers understand the potential risks involved in downloading any software to or for your handset.

Thanks for your inquiry.

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@mrmartin86 wrote:
This maybe more addressed to Sentry, but is there an AT&T rebranding package that we could download? I ask this for a few reasons. The debranding has been tossing in my head for sometime, but I need to know a few things. Such as when you update your w760a via the SE update service, it shows the package software as something like 3563-14CINGULAR06456 (Cingular with a bunch of numbers) showing the carrier specific branding.Then it downloads the software and updates it. This leads me to believe that the software should be available to reload onto our phone if the debrand isn't to our liking. I know when I had a pervious phone, the Cingular 8125 (aka the HTC Wizard), I was able to debrand it with user designed UIs, but also if anything went wrong, I could download the Cingular, then AT&T package from the HTC website with all the company branding stuff. Could this be the case, and if so, what do we need to do to get our hands on the AT&T rebranding software??

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Try Nav4all it's a free GPS software that has voice turn-by-turn guiding (try to the fun female british voice!) and works with my Holux SlimGPS BT receiver and my K850 so I'd imagine it should be able to work with internal GPS.

www.nav4all.com straight from your phone. 

i just found the answer on  a Google Site.  I had google maps working fine until my phone locked up. I had to reset and then reload software using the S/E updater.  When I tried to re-install G-maps it came up untrusted.  The answer is, believe it or not, When your phone says "Do you want to download from an Untrusted Site?" say no. Keep trying, after about 7 tries, all of a sudden it changed to "Trusted".

Now it works fine.

Wayne W580i

Snowmelt,

Yes that is the hard-to-beleive answer.  This was cited in the posting labeled "problem solved"  Even today, however,  after several months of trying I cannot get any external application (of which google maps is one of many that I tried) to access the GPS in the phone.  People who have debranded report that they have no problems accessing the GPS with applications but I am not yet willing to cross over to the debranding paradigm.  Especially since google maps has the "little blue dot" that is an approximation of your location.

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@w760a wrote:

Snowmelt,

 

Yes that is the hard-to-beleive answer.  This was cited in the posting labeled "problem solved"  Even today, however,  after several months of trying I cannot get any external application (of which google maps is one of many that I tried) to access the GPS in the phone.  People who have debranded report that they have no problems accessing the GPS with applications but I am not yet willing to cross over to the debranding paradigm.  Especially since google maps has the "little blue dot" that is an approximation of your location.

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On the unbranded Z750a the latest Google Maps app that I downloaded can not access the GPS, even though it came from a trusted site. However the one preloaded and accessible from location services menu can use GPS, but it's an earlier version. Too bad 😞