[kaldereta]

Just an update for you guys....IT WORKS. OMG IT WORKS. BRICKED TWO PHONES TO GET HERE BUT IT WORKS! Now I just gotta watch and make sure VZ doesn't charge me for those two...lol. To my fellow noobs the most important things i've learned in this process:
1.) Make sure that you terminate your data connection if it's still existing before doing anything. I strongly believe this is the reason why folks end up with no data initially...your session ends up getting hung up. I also turned off the phone radio just to be sure.
2.) Do not let customizations run. Once you upgrade radio just leave the screen on the "Tap to Begin" screen and plug the phone to your computer, activesync will still recognize and from here you can flash whatever ROM you like.
3.) Calling VZ isn't a big deal to get re-authenticated.
4.) Once you run google maps or any other GPS program and see it run in all it's glory....IT MAKES IT ALL WORTHWHILE!