A week back, the “hybrid” version of 5.0.0.230 was released. It involved a little more work to install on the phone than a normal leak. Yesterday, the actual full version of 5.0.0.230 was released. Pretty straight forward, install the file, then go to c:\program files\common files\research in motion\app loader and delete delete vendor.xml and then load it using the loader.exe in the same folder. (you may have installed the file in a different place).

Before I installed the “new” OS I did a wipe (delete everything on the phone) and also backed up all my information (using Desktop Manager).

the differences

So far though, I haven’t really seen much of a difference between the hybrid and actual versions except while installing there was an application i never noticed before called CityID.

This service app (free to try for 15 days, 2 dollars a month afterwards) displays the city of the origin of the incoming call. It’s not where they’re calling from but where the number is located.. like where the phone number is billed. I suppose it’s a nice little app except it runs all the time. Also, Poynt already has a reverse call number option which makes CityID even more useless.

A technical difference is that this version of the OS contains all .230 files where the hybrid one had some files from .191 and from thr tour.

Download

The download for the new leak can be found at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WUUK4TB0.

I can’t believe we’re already 3 weeks into the football season. It goes by way too fast.

If you’re a Yahoo Fantasy Football junkie like me, you can access your fantasy team on your BlackBerry Storm by going to the mobile site m.yahoo.com/fantasy. It’s not as cool as the app that the Storm’s ugly brothers, Bold, Curve 8900 and Tour have, but it works, and works relatively well.

From the site you can:

- access your team
- view your matchup
- pick up players
- check your league standings

Because yahoo is offering stattracker (following your players stats) for free this year, all the stats are available on the mobile site as well.

One thing that seems to be missing is the league’s message board. I guess I have to go on my desktop to smack talk.

I was perusing the tech books at Borders and prominently displayed at my eye level was this book, BlackBerry Storm for Dummies. And I, of course, had to pick it up to see if there were some great things I was missing for my phone.

After skimming over more than a few pages, I wondered if the writers of this book had even picked up a BlackBerry Storm. Most of the information could be either found in the manual that came with the phone or were simply features that didn’t exist for the phone.

Putting the book back on its shelf, I found it a little funny that even the BlackBerry Storm on the cover of the book was displaying an app that doesn’t come with the phone.

I feel sorry for the poor souls who spent money on it.

I few weeks ago, I took the plunge and downloaded the newest OS leak at the time, 5.0.0.191, even though I knew it came with camera/video issues… (using it would almost instantly reboot the phone). Aside for this issue, I loved the OS’s speed and consistency. I even contemplated buying a separate camera with bluetooth just to compensate for the lack of one on my phone. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait long for a new OS that had a camera that worked.

Last week, OS 5.0.0.230 came out and I almost immediately uploaded it onto my phone. I hadn’t blogged about it yet because I wanted to make sure it was something I was going to keep.

So far, I love it.

Features:

• A working camera – both the camera and the video recorder work and work extremely well. The lag when snapping pictures is significantly shorter. (There still is a little lag though, and taking motion pictures seems almost impossible without getting blur)
• 3rd Party Themes work – previous OS 5.0’s had an issue with running themes that weren’t the default theme. When an email was received, there would be no notification sound.
• Flick Scrolling – like every OS 5.0 after .141, flick scrolling is available on all apps, pages and sidebars. This means, kind of like the results page of Poynt (if you ever used it), if you flick the screen, the page will scroll up and down as if you, flicked a paper. Pretty cool to see.
• Vibrate and Ring – There’s a setting to both vibrate and ring at the same time when the phone gets a call.
• Tabbed Browsing is gone – not sure why but they got rid of this feature that was available for .141

Few other things…

More than a few certain apps still don’t work or have issues with 5.0 (like tweetgenius, yatca, twitterberry) and a few more do work but need certain workarounds (like good maps and opera mini), but in the last week, a lot of RIM apps came out with updates that work with 5.0 (like FaceBook, App World).

The only app I feel I miss is BBM 5.0 which a fix hasn’t been found for.

Download

I downloaded .230 from the above link. The installation process is a little different for this one than it has been for other leaks. For this one, the user has to copy these files into the 5.0.0.191 installation folder. (The folder can probably be found in C:\program files\common files\research in motion\shared\loader files\…)

A new version of the leak came out that doesn’t involve having to copy the files in the .191 folder. I talk about it here

Of course, before doing any changes to my phone, I backed up all the data using Desktop Manager.

I also wiped my phone before I installed.

The process took a few more steps but so far, it’s been well worth it.

Yup, the new FaceBook update 1.6.0.22 comes with exciting news for people running OS 5.0 on their BlackBerrys… compatibility. I’ve personally tried it, downloaded it and am now using it. It started out a little sketchy because right after the install, my phone immediately crashed but now it seems to be working like usual. Go to http://mobile.blackberry.com using your BlackBerry browser to download the newest update. Click on Social Networking under Communicate.

While you’re there, you can download the newest version of BlackBerry App World; it works on 5.0 as well. Yes, I’ve tried it.

Hurray! Now all I want for this phone is BBM 5.0 compatibility.