BlackBerry OS 4.5 Now Officially Available From Verizon

by Robb Dunewood on November 4, 2008 · 22 comments

Verizon BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and BlackBerry Curve 8330 users may be happy to know that BlackBerry Device Software v4.5 is now officially avaialble for download.

{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }

1 gquaglia November 4, 2008 at 11:20 am

Yawn. This release has been out for months.

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2 bluehorseshoe November 4, 2008 at 11:41 am

Well, after beating up my Pearl the past year, it finally caved. Tried installing 4.5, which was going perfectly fine, however the reboot on the device killed it because the battery wasn’t recognized. It’s been an issue for me the past few weeks after banging it around a bit. I could use the storm now. I’m even up for an exchange. Well, the phone is barely under warranty (just 4 days left)…

Saw Documents to Go on the new release. I believe it’s just a free trial if you want to edit documents. Let me know if that’s true if anyone has upgraded. Thanks in advance.

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3 joe schmoe November 4, 2008 at 11:46 am

How do i get this update if i’m a mac user? i have the curve from verizon…

thanks!

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4 gquaglia November 4, 2008 at 12:05 pm

How do i get this update if i’m a mac user? i have the curve from verizon…

You will have to either have to use Boot Camp, some type of emulation software, or buy a cheap PC. You can not do software upgrades directly from the Mac OS.

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5 Ben Pike November 4, 2008 at 12:18 pm

***NOTE***
To get HTML email after you install 4.5 you need to resend your service books from your BIS and set it under messages > options > email settings in order to receive HTML emails.

Which is really just like looking at email via the Blackberry Browser… nothing amazing, but better than nothing…

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6 Richard Ward November 4, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Mac users will need to either go to a Windows-powered machine or run Windows under a virtual machine such as VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

RIM is working on a native BlackBerry Desktop client which will finally give us Mac users the ability to upgrade our BlackBerries (and properly encode media) using Mac OS X Leopard. The main reason behind this is to steal away iPhone users with a Storm.

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7 Robb Dunewood November 4, 2008 at 1:36 pm

It know that you’ve been able to get this for a while, but, this is the first time that it is officially released from Verizon.

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8 Dan November 4, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Robb-

do you have any info on what we can expect for the 8830?

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9 Sulli November 4, 2008 at 3:08 pm

It looks like Verizon might have opened the GPS. Has anyone been able to it working. BB Maps and Google seem to see that its there, they just can not find satellites. (And yes I have location on)

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10 Robb Dunewood November 4, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Unfortunately Dan, I don’t. I am not quite sure why there has been such a delay with the 8830.

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11 Ben Pike November 4, 2008 at 6:15 pm

Sulli,

I’ve ran into the same thing and I’ve yet to have any luck. I SERIOUSLY doubt they’ve unlocked GPS, though..

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12 gquaglia November 4, 2008 at 10:53 pm

It know that you’ve been able to get this for a while, but, this is the first time that it is officially released from Verizon.

Again, so what. The Verizon version is no different then the version that has been out in the wild for months.

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13 jhp2 November 6, 2008 at 12:40 am

What improvements does 4.5 have? Downloaded and installed it but do not see much difference.

BTW, the place looks great Robb.

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14 Robb Dunewood November 10, 2008 at 8:56 am

Thanks jhp2,

HTML support is probably the main new thing.

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15 Michael November 10, 2008 at 12:25 pm

I have a Verizon Curve and ever since I downloaded OS 4.5 I have lost the ability to use some of my favorite apps. For example, every time I try to access the CNN or New York Times web sites via my CNN or NYT downloaded shortcuts, I get rerouted to some sort of Verizon search page. Anybody got any advice?

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16 jhp2 November 10, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Michael,

I have the same issue with ESPN Mobile and Fox news mobile. Thought it was just me. Anybody out there with ideas?

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17 Ben Pike November 10, 2008 at 8:19 pm

Michael & jhp2,

I too have encountered the same problem… but I don’t see at as an issue because I can just as easily get to their sites from a bookmark in my browser…

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18 Breanna November 12, 2008 at 11:02 am

Ben,
This is in regards to your previous post:
“To get HTML email after you install 4.5 you need to resend your service books from your BIS and set it under messages > options > email settings in order to receive HTML emails.”

I have the 8830 Curve and just updated the software to version 4.5. The main reason I did this was for the HTML emails. How do I go about resending my service books?

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19 Ben Pike November 12, 2008 at 11:18 am

Breanna,

Log into your Verizon BIS account located here:
http://blackberry.com/go/vzw

go to Service Books > Send Service Books and any emails you receive after that will be HTML (if you have it turned on in your email settings).

Hope that helps!

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20 jhp2 November 13, 2008 at 11:22 am

Ben,

Thanks for the directions. I followed them and the HTML viewing works great. Thanks again.

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21 ingrid November 24, 2008 at 4:15 pm

I downloaded 4.5 a few wks ago. just read this post to get the html to work. however i have to click get image each time to get the image to show. i did not see an option for this “under messages > options > email settings in order to receive HTML emails.”

Please help, or is this how it is designed to work…
Thanks

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22 ingrid November 24, 2008 at 4:24 pm

nevermind…i found it!
thx!

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