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All Things GPS

Did JI5 fix your GPS?

  • Yes, totally fixed my GPS!

    Votes: 15 35.7%

  • No, still having problems with GPS!

    Votes: 21 50.0%

  • Worked at first, then performance declined once again!

    Votes: 6 14.3%
  • Total voters
    42
MaxPowers said:
Well I just got my 3rd vibrant, took it outside and drove around and the GPS still does not work.
3 vibrants and none of them has the mysterious "my GPS works fine" How are people saying that their GPS works fine? Do they just have low standards? "Oh, I am 30m off going the opposite direction. It has my state correct, I am satisfied."?
I exchanged my other 2 vibrants for GPS and other issues.
Click to expand...

Well a fix is suppose to be coming soon. I figure at least when 2.2 is released to us but if GPS is the most important thing to you, then maybe you should get the Garmin phone. GPS on that HAS to be right on :)
 
Gee I wonder why Samsung is downplaying the gps problem, could it have to do with customers not even knowing their phone has GPS built in? Why make a big deal out of something, when your customers will never even find out.

So today I went to get a smoothie. As I was waiting in the pick up line for my smoothie, I noticed the girl next to my texting away on her new Captivate. So I sprung up a conversation.

Gorgeus screen I said. She looked up with a huge smile, clearly happy about her new phone. I have the Vibrant I said, pulled it out to show her. She kinda looked at me thinking to herself "ya so" and instead she said "oh cool" out of politeness. I don't think she realized I was implying that we both own Galaxy S phones.

Anyways, so then I ask "How's your gps working for you." Again she looks at me bewildered for a split second. I say again... "The GPS in your phone, is it working okay?" Boy does she get happy, "my phone has gps?" she asks excitedly. "Yes it does...you didn't know?" I replied.
"OMG NO!" she says. At this point I'm thinking to myself "oh goodness, how could you not know your smartphone has GPS."

So I was really curious if her GPS was working or not, so I offered to show her how to turn GPS on and use Google Maps, while secretly checking out her GPS performance. It actually took about a minute to locate us, which is better than my phone, but the location was really off. It didn't even place us anywhere near the shopping center. By the way, we were in line standing near the glass exit doors, so there should be a good enough GPS line of sight.

Well, she was so excited she never asked me why I was asking about her GPS performance. I figured I won't tell her the GPS on her phone is performing poorly, she thinks the phone is great and will probably never even notice the location is wrong, so why ruin a happy moment.

Anyways, this is exactly why Samsung uses verbage like "a few customers" or "a couple customers".."some customers." Imagine the high percent of captivate and vibrant owners, who like this airhead have no clue their phone even has GPS. Now on top of that imagine those who do know of the GPS function, but assume its poor performance is normal of all GPS units. None of these people are obviously ever going to complain.

So Samsung is going to end up releasing some stupid statistical data, similar to what Steve Jobs did, saying "look at the data, customers don't call in complaining about GPS, so it must only be on a "few" phones." Actually I take this statement back, I doubt the CEO of Samsung is ever going to hold a press conference like Steve Jobs did.

You know, the more Vibrants I come across and Captivates, every one has the problem. I'm more than convinced EVERY captivate and Vibrant has this issue. In my opinion, no doubt, it is 100 percent accross the board.
 
SamsungVibrant said:
Gee I wonder why Samsung is downplaying the gps problem, could it have to do with customers not even knowing their phone has GPS built in? Why make a big deal out of something, when your customers will never even find out.

So today I went to get a smoothie. As I was waiting in the pick up line for my smoothie, I noticed the girl next to my texting away on her new Captivate. So I sprung up a conversation.

Gorgeus screen I said. She looked up with a huge smile, clearly happy about her new phone. I have the Vibrant I said, pulled it out to show her. She kinda looked at me thinking to herself "ya so" and instead she said "oh cool" out of politeness. I don't think she realized I was implying that we both own Galaxy S phones.

Anyways, so then I ask "How's your gps working for you." Again she looks at me bewildered for a split second. I say again... "The GPS in your phone, is it working okay?" Boy does she get happy, "my phone has gps?" she asks excitedly. "Yes it does...you didn't know?" I replied.
"OMG NO!" she says. At this point I'm thinking to myself "oh goodness, how could you not know your smartphone has GPS."

So I was really curious if her GPS was working or not, so I offered to show her how to turn GPS on and use Google Maps, while secretly checking out her GPS performance. It actually took about a minute to locate us, which is better than my phone, but the location was really off. It didn't even place us anywhere near the shopping center. By the way, we were in line standing near the glass exit doors, so there should be a good enough GPS line of sight.

Well, she was so excited she never asked me why I was asking about her GPS performance. I figured I won't tell her the GPS on her phone is performing poorly, she thinks the phone is great and will probably never even notice the location is wrong, so why ruin a happy moment.

Anyways, this is exactly why Samsung uses verbage like "a few customers" or "a couple customers".."some customers." Imagine the high percent of captivate and vibrant owners, who like this airhead have no clue their phone even has GPS. Now on top of that imagine those who do know of the GPS function, but assume its poor performance is normal of all GPS units. None of these people are obviously ever going to complain.

So Samsung is going to end up releasing some stupid statistical data, similar to what Steve Jobs did, saying "look at the data, customers don't call in complaining about GPS, so it must only be on a "few" phones." Actually I take this statement back, I doubt the CEO of Samsung is ever going to hold a press conference like Steve Jobs did.

You know, the more Vibrants I come across and Captivates, every one has the problem. I'm more than convinced EVERY captivate and Vibrant has this issue. In my opinion, no doubt, it is 100 percent accross the board.
Click to expand...

I am just beginning to not care. It has already been pointed out that the GPS on our phone is directly related to a software/firmware issue. This phone is HUGE, there is going to be so much modding done to it, I can confidently say, I believe we will have a developer fix this issue for us, if not already have. So at this point, I could careless what Samsung does, and just be supportive to all the nerds out there making this phone awesome for us.

Samsung fixing this is only a bonus to me at this point. I am fortunate to have a phone better than 99.9% of the population and really careless about an official GPS fix from Samsung. I will gladly take it, but at least we have no real issues to worry about, other than battery life. (for most of us at least)

Which I am in the process of fixing. I am enjoying having the best phone on the market, everyone is jealous.:)

So sit tight, I am sure there will be an exponential growth in developers when this phone hits sprint and verizon.
 
Well this is great - from att forums:

Re: Captivate GPS issue







08-11-2010 09:12:33 AM
IT IS LOOKING WORSE FOR A SOLUTION.

This is the response I just received from Samsung. Note that now when has been replaced with when/if. This is not good. Also, "should this become available" adds no level of comfort.

We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
 
jfogs1 said:
Well this is great - from att forums:

Re: Captivate GPS issue




08-11-2010 09:12:33 AM
IT IS LOOKING WORSE FOR A SOLUTION.

This is the response I just received from Samsung. Note that now when has been replaced with when/if. This is not good. Also, "should this become available" adds no level of comfort.

We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Click to expand...

[STOCK ROM] I897UCJH2 (Captivate) - xda-developers

Can finally put you trolls to rest. Ta da. Fixed GPS. Now it is a waiting game.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ65sS8nbRE


Don't even try to debunk it.
 
SamsungVibrant: EM+ is the Even More Plus plan that I am on.

VegasTech: I agree with you, GPS is a nice feature to have, it works, but I am too more anxious for 2.2.


  • $500 upfront, or $199 + a 2 year contract. Essentially the same thing if you're stuck with a phone missing important functionality.
I'm sorry, that is correct, but every phone has an underline cost doesn't it? So if you're not EM+, consider yourself luckier than me, I had to pay more. I agree there is an issue here, I am pointing out the logical side of the argument. It isn't missing functionality, it functions, but the standards are poor right, we don't get the full scope of enhanced reception right? You open up any app that tests, even the built in app, if you see anything that shows a signal, the GPS function works, it just may not be software/drivers working to interpret the signals to get a lock.

Lets get to the core here. I have tested this at work today, I have a GPS Repeater in the hangar where I work. At home here in the house, I was getting signals of 20-30 for the best signals. In the hangar with the repeater I was getting 40-50. I doubt there is a hardware issue, otherwise, there wouldn't be any signals reported at all. You wouldn't see them, I wouldn't see them, bob, john, jacob, joseph and mary wouldn't see a signal if the GPS receiver wasn't working. Lets cut to the point and get to what is actually causing our problems and work on solving those instead of arguing over what we think is causing the problem.


  • There has been zero confirmation that BH_Man's flash fixed the GPS issues. Besides, one would have to root their phone for this..
There might not be any confirmation, but he seems to be putting more hard work into it than anyone else I know, maybe even Samsung, how would you know how much he has accomplished or not? Right now unless someone confirms it, it is speculative. I do however trust in what he says more, following him from the Behold 2 era of problems, that he knows what he is dealing and talking about. If he sees there is something that can be done, I sure hope he is right. It gives testament to a software fix over a hardware issue in that case.


  • I think you misunderstood me. I'll state my point again: Which do you think would compel Samsung more to RUSH a fix out? A bunch of calls, emails, and complaints which can easily be ignored (or replied to with a canned response)? OR Samsung getting 90% of their flagship Galaxy S phones returned?
Lets see, return a phone and pay more fees, or wait for a fix to come which is acknowledge, has been stated by the company (manufacturer), to have a fix coming. I don't think they will or feel compelled to work any faster, no matter how many they get returned. They already know by what you and others stated that if it gets fixed you'll buy it again. Yours and others' loss in fees elsewhere in the end, not their loss. And I doubt you could convince 90% return rate, maybe a 10% but you're dreaming for 90%, that's not how it works. When you vote, voting ends up being a good 50/50, when it starts to get to 60/40 then you better start wondering about other things, but it usually is a good 47/53 for heated races. That is because people are equally divided in their opinions and thoughts. The logic still exists with merchandise, but the return rate I bet you, will never see 30%.


  • I, among many other users rely on GPS for a multitude of things. Convenience of not having to lug around a separate GPS unit, for one. By your reasoning, why have a smartphone? You could just as well carry around a netbook/ipad. Granted, the GPS works intermittently...but that's just as bad as saying the phone will make calls half the time. Would it be as acceptable if Samsung acknowledged it, but not give a definite answer otherwise? I think not.
Hmmm...SamsungVibrant stated it well when he did a real world experiment, how many others do you think use their phone for GPS, if they didn't even know they could? GPS units aren't really an inconvenience if you are really needing a GPS unit, again, you can't get maps in remote locations with no data service, what do you use then? I am just wondering, these things I say to you are not to be meant to be taken personal. There is logic here and I want some good proof of how this GPS issue is the end of the world? Samsung has given a definitive answer, maybe not to what you and others are expecting, but they have stated a fix is coming. They don't have to say when or how long, they have their reasoning, and I'd rather they take their time to get it right. I mean, I wouldn't want a GPS issue to come up again after a software fix was released, don't know about anyone else. But if it has caused this much of an issue and outcry, is there really a need to rush the situation?



  • Did you just compare Sims 3 to a non-working feature of a smartphone? Rather, let me retort; Would you return your phone if the data/internet worked only about half the time?
Yeah I gave a good logical, valid question to you! If Sims 3 didn't work, or hey, how about Avatar, if those features didn't work, would you return the phone? They are supposed to work, they came with the phone, they are exclusive to T-Mobile. You'd return a phone for a issue that has a fix coming, but not for an issue that might not get fixed? The logic doesn't make sense. I would return the phone if it had real legitimate problem and issue. I am not going to return it over the compass issue, but if the GPS receiver did not function I would return it for that.

The thing is, the GPS receiver is working. I have proven it, others have proven it. I am sure you can run your Vibrant now and prove it again, looking at the signal levels, not a map. The issue comes down to an issue that seems to be it only wants to lock on maybe 4 satellites. I haven't really looked, but are there people getting more than 4 satellites, that haven't done anything to the phone to try and get more? Again, testing in the GPS Repeater environment, it only locked on 4 while the signals were all in the 40-50, except the one over the horizon. It appears that the software is setting a limit of what it will look for, once it has gained the limit set, it stops acquiring other satellites. We can see that the GPS receiver is seeing up to 8, 12, 13, whatever, it sees them all in the atlas, if you have GPS test, the atlas is the world view with the dots all over it, it sees them all. Maybe the software should be tweaked to use the best satellites with the higher signal too.

Comparing to Garmin for a minute, because I have seen real GPS issues. They have non-WAAS units for navigation. Before a software update to 3.03 of the GPS software, the unit would look for a full range of satellites, totalling about 16. After the software, it only looks for maybe 8 at first, then it will open up the receiver more and acquire if there is 12-13 total in the atlas. They did the change through software, it wasn't hardware. I am more than certain the software will address our issue. If you can prove that it is not software, I'd love to hear your talking points.

dietcoke, yes we are experiencing this, the phone is only acquiring about 4 at most, which is good enough for 3d navigation. Probably why the set a limit on the receiver to only lock and acquire on 4 satellites. Maybe it was their idea to begin with, to hey, help save power. Not protecting their downfall but there is a reason why, we may never really know.
 
SamsungVibrant said:
Gee I wonder why Samsung is downplaying the gps problem, could it have to do with customers not even knowing their phone has GPS built in? Why make a big deal out of something, when your customers will never even find out.

So today I went to get a smoothie. As I was waiting in the pick up line for my smoothie, I noticed the girl next to my texting away on her new Captivate. So I sprung up a conversation.

Gorgeus screen I said. She looked up with a huge smile, clearly happy about her new phone. I have the Vibrant I said, pulled it out to show her. She kinda looked at me thinking to herself "ya so" and instead she said "oh cool" out of politeness. I don't think she realized I was implying that we both own Galaxy S phones.

Anyways, so then I ask "How's your gps working for you." Again she looks at me bewildered for a split second. I say again... "The GPS in your phone, is it working okay?" Boy does she get happy, "my phone has gps?" she asks excitedly. "Yes it does...you didn't know?" I replied.
"OMG NO!" she says. At this point I'm thinking to myself "oh goodness, how could you not know your smartphone has GPS."

So I was really curious if her GPS was working or not, so I offered to show her how to turn GPS on and use Google Maps, while secretly checking out her GPS performance. It actually took about a minute to locate us, which is better than my phone, but the location was really off. It didn't even place us anywhere near the shopping center. By the way, we were in line standing near the glass exit doors, so there should be a good enough GPS line of sight.

Well, she was so excited she never asked me why I was asking about her GPS performance. I figured I won't tell her the GPS on her phone is performing poorly, she thinks the phone is great and will probably never even notice the location is wrong, so why ruin a happy moment.

Anyways, this is exactly why Samsung uses verbage like "a few customers" or "a couple customers".."some customers." Imagine the high percent of captivate and vibrant owners, who like this airhead have no clue their phone even has GPS. Now on top of that imagine those who do know of the GPS function, but assume its poor performance is normal of all GPS units. None of these people are obviously ever going to complain.

So Samsung is going to end up releasing some stupid statistical data, similar to what Steve Jobs did, saying "look at the data, customers don't call in complaining about GPS, so it must only be on a "few" phones." Actually I take this statement back, I doubt the CEO of Samsung is ever going to hold a press conference like Steve Jobs did.

You know, the more Vibrants I come across and Captivates, every one has the problem. I'm more than convinced EVERY captivate and Vibrant has this issue. In my opinion, no doubt, it is 100 percent accross the board.
Click to expand...

Sigh. Unfortunately I have no trouble at all believing this story. I know a lot of people like this girl who will buy something like a smartphone *cough* iPhone, and have no idea why it is they are buying it other than all of their friends have it etc. I had one woman tell me she bought an iphone so she could text! Damn I hate to hear that! All that money going out the door each month just to text? What a waste.

I have personally thoroughly tested the gps on 4 separate Vibrants and all have performed EXACTLY the same. I can guarantee that every Galaxy S has the same problem but because so many people are either clueless or just complacent about it Samsung has been very slow to react. Actually so far they've yet to react at all except the usual "we're working on it and a fix is coming..."
blahblah.gif
The thing I worry about though is why would Samsung even worry about it at all when what I can see is the majority of Galaxy S owners don't seem to care?

This kind of ignorant complacency is why I dumped my Motorola Cliq XT for having a woefully outdated version of Android (1.5) on it. Motorola promises they'll get a 2.1 update out for the Cliq and Cliq XT, but keep missing deadlines and setting new ones. Let's face it though, Motorola wasn't getting much backlash from 98% of their customers regarding the update, so 1.5 still to this day is gracing the Cliqs. Ignorance is bliss to most of the owners. In the meantime I was missing out on a lot of apps that would no longer work with Android 1.5 and had enough.

I ended up selling it to a guy on Craigslist. When he came to pick it up he was amazed when I told him it didn't have a physical keyboard, just the touch keyboard. He'd obviously not even researched the differences between the Cliq and the Cliq XT. I let him know that one of the reasons I upgraded to the Samsung was to get a newer version of Android. He gave me a deer in the headlights look and told me he was just buying this for his girlfriend "cause she needed to be able to text him at work." Hello $30 a month data plan? I bought my daughter a $30 phone off Craigslist that she texts like Wonder Woman on all day long.

I've gone OT again. Anyway I hope I'm just being overly pessimistic because of my previous dealings with cell phone companies like this but I'm starting to lose hope on this one.:(
 
Mark27 said:
[STOCK ROM] I897UCJH2 (Captivate) - xda-developers

Can finally put you trolls to rest. Ta da. Fixed GPS. Now it is a waiting game.


YouTube - Samsung Captivate. GPS Fix now WORKS!!!


Don't even try to debunk it.
Click to expand...
I really hope this is the case, but unfortunately mine also worked great after I flashed the phone only to degrade as time went on. Also, standing still by a window doesn't really do it for me. I want to see the phone tested while in motion. I hope that it doesn't jump around, put you on different roads etc. Fingers crossed.
 
So I was so happy about the leaked firmware. Yet it seems GPS may actually not be fixed. If you guys follow the xda-developers thread on the new firmware, seems like the gps works at first, then degrades fast, just like before :(

I don't understand, how can our phones work at first, then GPS degrades with time, makes no sense. (unless it is actually hardware, and as the chipset warms up GPS fails.) This is analagous to computer cpu's. If your cpu does not have a heatsink and fan on it, it will work for a few mins, but as soon as it gets hot, your computer freezes and stops functioning. Pop on a heatsink and fan, keep the cpu cool, and it works. Personally my phone gets really hot at times, could just possibly be that the phone gets too hot and the gps chip fails.

Now people are messing with the gps settings again over at that xda-developers thread, seems like the gps mess started all over again.
 
I used mine with Navigator today and it seemed to work fine. GPS test indicated 14 birds in sight and 6 in use. 15 foot accuracy. That seems pretty good to me.
 
The permanency of this leaked firmware means nothing. For one it is a leaked firmware. Not official, you have not idea what stage it was leaked at. Two, it shows that via firmware, the GPS can be FIXED. This is extremely important to many of us, because we are wondering if the GPS is fixable or not. This clearly shows that this GPS will be fixed, if the time is put into it.

This is a very important discovery in trouble shooting problems. No one showed 6/6 7/7 lock before this fix came out, and it is not even done.

So whether or not this is a permanent fix, or a step closer to it, this is great news. People really need to stop using theory and their knowledge on the problem, unless they plan to assist/make a firmware for us. This is not a hardware problem, no offense to anyone but unless you are the engineer designing these phones, your speculations will never be right in full.

I think this new firmware LEAK, shows that we can put our worries aside and agree that this can be fixed. Which as I said, was the biggest worry for most of us.
 
Big-Dog said:
I used mine with Navigator today and it seemed to work fine. GPS test indicated 14 birds in sight and 6 in use. 15 foot accuracy. That seems pretty good to me.
Click to expand...

Is this ROBO21? Did you change your screename? Or does this new user Big-Dog just happen to also call satellites "birds"
 
Big-Dog said:
I'm not ROBO21. I can't spell satellite so I use bird. It's fun! :p

It's a common nickname for satellites.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, I had never heard anyone call a satellite a bird except for Robo21 and now you. Well welcome to the thread :)


So If you look back into the thread you see many of us posted pics of our GPS TEST.

You say you get 14 "Birds" in view with "6" locked in. This is great! Please provide us with a screen shot or take a picture of your GPS Test showing this please. It will help everyone to figure out if this problem is wide spread or isolated.

Thank You and I look forward to your pictures showing 6 out of 14 locked in birds!
 
SamsungVibrant said:
Oh ok, I had never heard anyone call a satellite a bird except for Robo21 and now you. Well welcome to the thread :)


So If you look back into the thread you see many of us posted pics of our GPS TEST.

You say you get 14 "Birds" in view with "6" locked in. This is great! Please provide us with a screen shot or take a picture of your GPS Test showing this please. It will help everyone to figure out if this problem is wide spread or isolated.

Thank You and I look forward to your pictures showing 6 out of 14 locked in birds!
Click to expand...

I'm a noob, so tell me how to do a screen cap.
 
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