I had my eyes on HTC Sensation from the date it was announced.  So, needless to say, I got my hands on it as soon as my contract expired and I renewed to a new one.  So far, it has not let me down and has scored on every count.  However, there was one thing that always bugged me and if you have one, I am reasonably confident that you don’t like either: Having “HTC Locations” as the default navigation application (paid product!), rather than the free “Google Maps/Navigation”, which are also present on the device.  What’s worse is that you don’t get a choice!  There is no option to switch the default to Google Maps/Navigation!

Well, if you are also annoyed with this problem, fear not as there is a solution.  Techno Bobbins have solved that problem for us in their post here.  Please note that the title is a bit misleading: Following the process results in “disabling” HTC Locations as the default navigation mechanism.  The application still resides on the device (although it’s also removed from the application list).

I can confirm that the process works as advertised.  Here I should add that it’s not for the faint-hearted and you must know what you’re doing before following the process.  You should be comfortable with the command-line interface, be able to install JDK (Java Development Kit) and Android SDK, and have some familiarity with ADB (Android Debug Bridge).  There is a fairly good tutorial on the latter two here.  Once you have the pre-requisite software installed, you can go ahead with the rest of the process as mentioned in Techno Bobbins’ post.

The process goes pretty smoothly as mentioned.  However, I found that after running the “fre3vo” tool and getting the # prompt, “adb devices” returned my device twice, with the older instance “offline”.  That meant any commands run after that were by default going to the offline device, resulting in errors.  If you get that, “adb kill-server” will kill that service and running “adb devices” again, will result in the # prompt showing the device only once and connected.  You can continue with the rest of the process after that.  This is a “temporary root” process, meaning that direct access to your device will cease once the device reboots at the end of the process.  I think that’s good as it prevents any unintentional damage to your phone.

Once done, Google Maps/Navigation will automatically become your default navigation option.  With this, the only issue I had with my new HTC Sensation is gone and I am enjoying its company every day! 🙂