Milestone 3 Support? (ME863)

So I've found myself in China for the next six months and ended up buying an unlocked Milestone 3 (ME683) from Chinese amazon for the low low price of 1,700 RMB stupidly thinking I'd be getting a real (not that this isn't genuine motorola, it's just not the genuine Android experience) Android phone and equally stupidly assuming there would be ROMs-galore for it.

What I've ended up with is the Motorola has gotten in bed with China and their oppressive great firewall and released what can only be described as a complete and total bastardization of the Android OS. I've got no Market, no Google apps, no way to get any Apps in English. (And before anybody goes off on me about "well you should have known China blocks Google" I'll have you know this isn't the case. They block G+ and some Google search resultes and apps, but the majority of it is fine)

Basically, I'd do anything to be able to use something - anything else. I realize that these ROMs are built for CDMA Verizon phones, but I was wondering if anybody knows of any options for me. Best, and thanks.

 

So I've found myself in China for the next six months and ended up buying an unlocked Milestone 3 (ME683) from Chinese amazon for the low low price of 1,700 RMB stupidly thinking I'd be getting a real (not that this isn't genuine motorola, it's just not the genuine Android experience) Android phone and equally stupidly assuming there would be ROMs-galore for it.

What I've ended up with is the Motorola has gotten in bed with China and their oppressive great firewall and released what can only be described as a complete and total bastardization of the Android OS. I've got no Market, no Google apps, no way to get any Apps in English. (And before anybody goes off on me about "well you should have known China blocks Google" I'll have you know this isn't the case. They block G+ and some Google search resultes and apps, but the majority of it is fine)

Basically, I'd do anything to be able to use something - anything else. I realize that these ROMs are built for CDMA Verizon phones, but I was wondering if anybody knows of any options for me. Best, and thanks.

 

Search for people using the XT860, it's a GSM version sold in Canada (as well as a few central and south american countries), looks like the hardware specs may be the same, it may be possible to flash the rom from that on the ME863, but don't do it based solely on my word, since I don't know if it will actually work.

 

Sorry my English is so-so.
Though it means little, I still cannot help telling you that you should have bought XT883! In fact XT883 shares same roms with XT862. About ME863, if you can get little info here, you can join our forum. It's not a good news, I got XT883 as I thought xt862 would get help around the world. ME863 maybe there are fewer developers. Besides, our forum is in Chinese of course, I don't know whether google translation will be helpful.
Here are two ways. One is to install two system together 2.3.6+4.0.4,ME863 2.3.6+4.0.4, here is the link. However, whenever you download a rom (such as CM9),you must change some of the rom file about the categories.(I hope the passage you will understand.)
Another one is to flash XT860, however it is very dangerous, I just know this way. Most people believe that cannot be undo!
I don't know if you still want to use ME863 now, so if you need further info, maybe I will come to this page. Since I am not familiar with English, I don't see this forum frequently, and might forget to see this message again. Also I am afraid that you throw away your phone, so I was just wasting time typing this.

 

I read your message totally, it seems that you need google service?
Oh, I've been searching GMS for you.
http://bbs.gfan.com/thread-2797797-1-1.html
Here it is! You have to register an account for free. Download ME863_update_r7_zip.part1.rar.apk and part2,then change the name, delete ".apk"
And unrar it to a zip file, then change name to update.zip, and if you do not know how to use. Copy it into your ME863, keep touching it in your file manager(I cannot describe it well) and you will get the menu for the file, choose update system(系统更新 in Chinese) or you may know how to flash it.
Good luck!

 

Oh, I may never be back. Maybe I cannot get access to this page someday. U may know, we don't have facebook, youtube, twitter... Good luck, you can reach our forum anyway. I believe u can just ask your question in English, in our forum many people will be friendly to answer. By the way, I'm not the runner of that forum, I do so maybe because we like to use English if having a chance, or we were wasting time learning it! Haha, maybe you speak Chinese? Or how can you use that phone, oh, if it is true, I've been wasting time, you can just see our forum...