So I've had my storm for a week now. So far so good. A few hiccups, a nuke and a new BlackBerry OS and things are looking good.
I tried everything out stock until Friday when I really started getting annoyed by the stupid "Activation Required" thing on the main screen. I got a couple blue screens while attempting to read some binary data from the device.
This problem is so common on Google that it took me until last night to solve.
The problem being that the version of the Storm I have is Telus and the phone half expects to connect to Telus to activate itself on their network, I however am using it unlocked on Rogers.
So I quickly learned it needed to be manually activated by dialing an "MSL" code which in the US on T-Mo and Vodafone is simply 000000, in Canada however on Bell and Telus this code is different on every individual phone. This means ts hard-coded into the ROM and must be discovered manually.
Here's where it gets tricky. You must install uniCDMA preferably to a 32bit XP machine. You'll need your BlackBerry Desktop software installed first too.
A very important factor must be true for the following to work, Your BlackBerry OS must be 4.7.0.76 (if Your OS is newer it very likely wont work once you get to reading the memory)
Once we're this far get your Berry plugged into the computer and ensure its showing up in the Device manager COM ports on COM4 at least.
Next fire up uniCDMA and in change Mode to QUALCOMM then under setup change the port to reflect COM4. Now this is where it gets important, go to the Memory tab and enter in the starting address 0x17C455BE and length of 524288. Before you go reading Your phones memory BE CERTAIN your Berry's OS is 4.7.0.76! This is the only way to read the memory with success.
Firstly before getting dirty click the Read all button at the top mostly to be sure your Berry is connected properly. Now when all the random fields are filled in with Your Berry's info go back to the memory tab and click Read and Save to file...
If all is well at this point a box should appear telling you its reading the memory...a few minutes will pass and it will end and you'll now have a binary file to read with your favorite he editor/reader (I used HexWorkshop).
What you need to do is look for 6 numbers all together in a continuous string (easiest way is to search different single numbers in the "String search). The found number is your MSL code, disconnect your Berry and dial ##msl (msl being your 6 digit code from the bin file), Hit call, a menu will appear change the Mobile Directory Number that your phone thinks is your phone number to your actual 10 digit phone number, and finally hit your BB menu and Save.
Congratulations your phone will now bear the lovely word Rogers instead of Activation Required!
I knew smart phones were smart and BlackBerry's smarter, but this phone is simply amazing. The step up from a regular phone(a Sony W810i in my case) to a smartphone (Sony G900) was pretty significant with super fast internet,automatic email downloading and location based map services
The G900 is a great phone with a decently large touch screen, and a pretty wide variety of apps being a Java smartphone. The only issue I had with it was a less than superior signal.
Now let's talk BlackBerry. And I don't want to talk about a pearl, I'm talking storm. So far I've seen a lot of random bashing, but I love it! Funny story though I'm on the rogers network, and they do not have this phone yet, nor have support on the actual network for the phone, but surprise, I'm writing this post from my Storm. The phone is pretty amazing for almost everything, with the only exception being the web-textfield editing. Its so incredibly terrible that if you notice a spelling mistake or want to go back and change something after...you may as well backspace all the way through the post and re-type from that spot and you'll get done faster than trying to touch-navigate your way through editing it.
The reception is outstanding and its speed on the network I'd incredible. As for the touch key board, at first I didn't like it but now I'm pretty fast, and usually I get ahead of the animation following my clicking. I'm going to assume with the release of the Storm 2 that web-text navigation is one of the fixes.
I do disagree with all of the people who have criticized the movement of the actual screen (it moves laterally and horizontally within the frame of the phone). I think it is necessary to the experience of the click screen.
I world like to see a better and more featured email, on my G900 had 3 emails set up using default software. Its very important for me to have all 3 emails set up on my phone since one is my personal email, one my website admin account and the other my support address. This is the only built in feature I will be changing to 3rd party.
Nickness