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All things GPS

Is this a poll?

  • Yes, it looks like a poll.

    Votes: 42 26.3%

  • No, there is no way this is a poll.

    Votes: 31 19.4%

  • Why in the world is there a poll here?

    Votes: 87 54.4%
  • Total voters
    160
JayC said:
I can't see myself returning this phone and going back to the fruit just because of GPS issues. The phone is great and the pros outweigh the cons. It gives me directions from point A to B when using navigation but it wont track. Not a big deal. Apple still can't even give us Widgets with jailbreaking.
Click to expand...

I understand fully. Other than this one issue, tis is the perfect phone for me IMO... especially with how easy it is to unlock for foreign sims.

However for me getting turn-by-turn directions accurately when lost in a foreign city or being able to accurately geotag my photos, is more important than having animated snowflakes depicting the weather in some cutesy widget.

I'm tempted to get a Nexus 1 for now or maybe order a G2. At least the N1
a) gets OS updates in a timely manner. And
b) has all functions working.
 
All Samsung has to do is be honest and proactive, they've failed to do both miserably. I don't even mind waiting a month if the issue could be addressed via an update. Problem is they never stated what the issue is or what causes, other than to say, we are aware of it. Then AT&T spreads the word that an update is coming but their documentation never mentions a GPS update but lines up with end of the month. Then Samsung goes on the offensive claiming it was included with the fix, which we all know is a lie.
 
WoW really? Didnt you know:

Every time someone creates a new thread regarding issues about GPS in the Captivate.
An iPhone 4's "Indestructible Gorilla Glass" shatters....

iPhone-death-ijustine.jpg
 
Segfault said:
I don't see anyone but Galaxy S owners complaining about having a broken GPS. This has nothing to do with Android or with AT&T. Samsung has pushed out a busted product and now based on their own public announcement on facebook they aren't going to bother to try to fix it anymore. Apparently they have better things to do than support their customers.
Click to expand...
My, such anger, assumptions, and arbitrary judgement based on pure guesswork.

Feel better now?
 
My Captivate's GPS ceased locking again just now and I brought it back to life by clearing GPS data out in LBSTestMode then rebooting. It's pretty obvious that the drivers just don't know how to manage this thing.

I contemplated returning the phone but I am going to keep it. When I need the GPS I can generally get it working again by changing settings/clearing GPS data etc (who knows what really gets it going again). Not optimal but it'll do for now. The main thing is the screen. IMO nothing else in the smartphone market comes even close to the AMOLED. Most other phones feel like a downgrade screen-wise. I'll keep the faith that Samsung will eventually give us a fully functional GPS.
 
In other news: the world is round.

Check the forum for various fixes as it's been discussed to death.

Edit: D'oh! I just saw how many posts the OP has. Joke thread!
 
Cuerbo said:
All Samsung has to do is be honest and proactive, they've failed to do both miserably. I don't even mind waiting a month if the issue could be addressed via an update. Problem is they never stated what the issue is or what causes, other than to say, we are aware of it. Then AT&T spreads the word that an update is coming but their documentation never mentions a GPS update but lines up with end of the month. Then Samsung goes on the offensive claiming it was included with the fix, which we all know is a lie.
Click to expand...
In the world of big business, this is a rather common approach. There's nothing unusual or unique here. Nor is it the evil angle, some users here seem to take great delight in conveying.

Apparently no one has paid attention to other corporations handling of similar situations. Apple, Toyota, AIG, are just a few that come to mind. Wake up people, the sky is not falling, you will survive.... :)
 
lordhamster said:
I understand fully. Other than this one issue, tis is the perfect phone for me IMO... especially with how easy it is to unlock for foreign sims.

However for me getting turn-by-turn directions accurately when lost in a foreign city or being able to accurately geotag my photos, is more important than having animated snowflakes depicting the weather in some cutesy widget.

I'm tempted to get a Nexus 1 for now or maybe order a G2. At least the N1
a) gets OS updates in a timely manner. And
b) has all functions working.
Click to expand...

The downside to the N1 is the very small Rom partition in memory (512 mb for OS and apps), if you root it (which isn't hard) you can get an altered partition and put all apps on SD, but stock it is very limited in that regard. Flash (full, yes you have to download an "app" to enable it) is a 10 mb download by itself, then expands to around 25 mb on the phone, and Google Earth is like 20+ mb. I have/had an N1 and left it for the Captivate just because of the 2Gb partition size for the OS and apps. On the N1 I found myself constantly deleting texts and choosing which apps I can do without, and it was a huge pain.

I will admit though the GPS is always a nearly instantaneous lock with an accuracy down to 6.6 feet (not meters), sometimes better, and tracks and maintains lock perfectly. Because I came from the awesome GPS's of the G1 and N1, I really took the GPS feature for granted. The lack of a competitive GPS is my ONLY complaint about the Captivate- and compared to nearly everyone else's posts my GPS works great at 16.8 feet accuracy (still realistically unacceptable when compared to the Captivate's competitors though) and 2-3 minute locks.
 
Cuerbo said:
All Samsung has to do is be honest and proactive, they've failed to do both miserably. I don't even mind waiting a month if the issue could be addressed via an update. Problem is they never stated what the issue is or what causes, other than to say, we are aware of it. Then AT&T spreads the word that an update is coming but their documentation never mentions a GPS update but lines up with end of the month. Then Samsung goes on the offensive claiming it was included with the fix, which we all know is a lie.
Click to expand...

If AT&T were to come out right now and release a statement saying: "To all Captivate customers, rest assured a GPS fix is pending, in the mean time your return window has been extended by 60 days."... then you would not hear another single complaint from me.

If they were just a little more communicative I think many customer fears could be taken care of.


To S.M. Knipe. I'd give my left nut for 16.8 foot accuracy even with a 3 minute wait on the captivate.
 
Cuerbo said:
All Samsung has to do is be honest and proactive, they've failed to do both miserably. I don't even mind waiting a month if the issue could be addressed via an update. Problem is they never stated what the issue is or what causes, other than to say, we are aware of it. Then AT&T spreads the word that an update is coming but their documentation never mentions a GPS update but lines up with end of the month. Then Samsung goes on the offensive claiming it was included with the fix, which we all know is a lie.
Click to expand...

Are there any Developers/Coders on here? We need someone to examine the 12Mb update file and see if there really is anything in there about the GPS...

Here is the JH7 update as a flashable zip, that can be extracted and examined, if anyone has the know-how and time... It certain would answer the question and end a lot of the confusion...
 
Not sure if this is a repost but a guy at my work showed me this and said it makes a good difference. I just did it and am stuck in work for a few hours so I cant test it yet. But I trust this guy when he says it works at least on his captivate.

More info can be found here but in a nutshell



Crap sorry, the numbers are for some reason NOT showing up in the quotes correctly, might have something to do with pound and star signs. Just click on the above link
 
bigtuna said:
I work at Sprint ...

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Do you have both the Network Assisted and GPS Location options checked in the Location settings?[/FONT]
Click to expand...

You clearly have no connection to device deam and the group at Spritn looking at this scince that is the same EXACT questions set low level was asking on Sept 2 -- and they are well byond that.

Do you realize that "network assisted has no positive affect on agPS o Epic? The device team knows this.

Pleas do not tell people to turn on network assistance. that is a separate highly inaccurate location system that doesn't inter operate with aGPS at all and Sprint already knows that.
 
lordhamster said:
If AT&T were to come out right now and release a statement saying: "To all Captivate customers, rest assured a GPS fix is pending, in the mean time your return window has been extended by 60 days."... then you would not hear another single complaint from me.

If they were just a little more communicative I think many customer fears could be taken care of.


To S.M. Knipe. I'd give my left nut for 16.8 foot accuracy even with a 3 minute wait on the captivate.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, a little customer service would go a long way for both companies, but all this smoke and mirrors does little to build my confidence in them.
 
I thought my GPS was working well... but today I couldn't get a lock. My friend with an iPhone 4 was going to use his GPS to find this new thai place we were going to for lunch. I figured I'd pull out my phone and show him how much cooler Google Nav is.

I looked so bad when my phone sat there "waiting for location" for about 6 minutes. When it finally found me, it was laggy and would freeze every 3-4 seconds. Then it would jump back to where I am.

First time it's acted this way... and I do not have network assistance turned on.
 
lordhamster said:
If AT&T were to come out right now and release a statement saying: "To all Captivate customers, rest assured a GPS fix is pending, in the mean time your return window has been extended by 60 days."... then you would not hear another single complaint from me.

If they were just a little more communicative I think many customer fears could be taken care of.
Click to expand...

Well said. In fact an excellent business practice. Many folks will be patient and live with longer times for product/fix deliveries, and not even grumble, if only the vendor would do a good jot at setting expectations, and if necessary, resetting those expectations as soon as they know that original expectations cannot be met. Once they do that, and become known for that type of service, customer complaints will dry up and business will improve. I know from the experience of having greatly improved customer satisfaction for an employer of mine by following that very concept some years ago.
 
lordhamster said:
If they were just a little more communicative I think many customer fears could be taken care of.
Click to expand...
Let's look at some facts. The poorly designed external antenna on the iPhone 4 cannot be fixed, its a integral part of the phone. Look at the justifiable outrage that caused. Further exacerbated by the arrogant, flippant comment by Steve Jobs, "you're holding wrong".

This affected far more users than any fault on any other current smartphone. AT&T was silent. Why should this be any different?

Don't get me wrong I agree, this could be handled quite easily with proper communication. But unfortunately American companies like Apple have set the precedence, they can treat their customers like crap, and iPhone sales continue to grow. Apple fanboys suck up to their idol, Uncle Steve, and buy anything with an Apple logo on it.
 
3gAndroid said:
Let's look at some facts. The poorly designed external antenna on the iPhone 4 cannot be fixed, its a integral part of the phone. Look at the justifiable outrage that caused. Further exacerbated by the arrogant, flippant comment by Steve Jobs, "you're holding wrong".

This affected far more users than any fault on any other current smartphone. AT&T was silent. Why should this be any different?

Don't get me wrong I agree, this could be handled quite easily with proper communication. But unfortunately American companies like Apple have set the precedence, they can treat their customers like crap, and iPhone sales continue to grow. Apple fanboys suck up to their idol, Uncle Steve, and buy anything with an Apple logo on it.
Click to expand...

You really have a hardon for apple. Every single thread you manage to bring apple into it. This isn't an Apple forum, you are preaching to the choir here.

That being said... to the best of my knowledge the Captivate and the iPhone4 have been out roughly the same time? The Apple customers all got free cases, which while not solving their issue certainly mitigates it.

The issue I brought up in this thread is for those who still have time to return their phone, not those stuck with it. If I'd had an iPhone4 in the 30 day window and was not happy with the "free case solution" I'd have returned that as well.


BTW, the only reason Apple faced the music on their antenna issue is because angry customers in forums wouldn't stop griping about it. Which is exactly what you are telling us NOT to do.
 
Sounds interesting, what were the original settings and how long has this fix worked for you. I have had many "wow" days after changes only to have it suck again a few days later.

My 3rd captivate should arrive today so I am hoping for the best out of the GPS.
 
NEW STICKY:

All Things GPS This is a universal thread to discuss the GPS on the Samsung Captivate. If you are having trouble, need help or simply want to discuss the GPS this is the thread for it.

Please keep in mind the rules as well as the zero tolerance policy when posting.

All new GPS threads will be merged into this one.
 
lilo said:
That's because Galaxy is probably the first (and only) phone on the market with the latest version of GPS chip from Broadcom. iPhone 4 has the previous generation chip. I read some place that the new chip has different achitecture which requires that more software be executed on the CPU (but this saves power). It appears that Broadcom is still working out their issues with the chip driver which is regrettable. But if they do manage to fix it, the chip should be a very good thing. Among other benefits it can actually use more satellites (different navigation system) than iPhone 4.

And no, this statement from Samsung does not say that GPS has been fixed.
Click to expand...

And the most valuable and interesting piece of information (which has been posted before but I'm glad it was again)...seems to go unnoticed as people lunge for throats and throw people under buses. Thank you lilo
 
Jack45 said:
NEW STICKY:

All Things GPS This is a universal thread to discuss the GPS on the Samsung Captivate. If you are having trouble, need help or simply want to discuss the GPS this is the thread for it.

Please keep in mind the rules as well as the zero tolerance policy when posting.

All new GPS threads will be merged into this one.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Now that there is one, it only makes sense that a 100% GPS wonder-fix is put out instantly and there is nothing to say about it ever again. :)
 
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