Help Jave and GPS questions

[gatorpond]

Our GPS just does not work, Does this tablet have its own gps receiver or do we have to link it to my wifes 4g cell phone to be able to receive a GPS signal. I have in settings for the gps turned on, but it seems to only give me a location in my house when it is connected to my wireless home network. If I go down the street, out of range of home network it always tells me it is looking for a gps signal.

Java is enabled on the internet settings, but when my wife used the internet on the tablet last night for a att meeting, she is a notarty, she type a code to get into the meeting, but it kept telling her the Jave is not on. Again, the settings say it is ENABLED.

Any help we sure do appreciate. I gave this table to my wife for christmas it seems nothing but problems.

Joe

 

[MPWheeler]

For GPS to work you need to be connected to some kind of WiFi signal. The K1 does not have a 3G connection like a phone. As soon as you move away from your home WiFi connection the GPS has no way to update your location. I'm not sure if you connected via BlueTooth to your phone, if the K1 would have working GPS. My home PC blew up and I am in the process of building a new one. I will do more research and post after I get my new PC built. I use my EVO 3D for navigation. For long trips I use my Garmon.

As for Java, the Android Os dose not have full Java capabilities, it uses it's own Java like application called Dalvik:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/51690-36-java-android-tablets-honeycomb

Oracle has a lawsuit against Google for Java implementationn:

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/bott/the-real-history-of-java-and-android-as-told-by-google/3924

This is probably why Java does not work on your wife's application.

 

[ouch1976]

Here's my experience with the GPS.

I used the Navigation app while on a wifi connection in my house. The app loaded up the map and the directions to where I wanted to go. I left the tablet outside for a few minutes to assure that I had a solid GPS signal and then started my drive.

The app re-routed directions for me when I made a minor change while on the road. Note, we did not have a Wifi connection when the app re-routed.

The GPS continued to show us travelling along the map for 100 miles and navigating the entire route.

I then put the K1 to sleep by pressing the power button and waited 5 minutes to wake it back up. When I awoke the machine, it started searching for a GPS signal but couldn't find one. I left it on the dashboard of my car searching for a signal for about 10 minutes and then gave up.

I guess the moral of my story is that the GPS will work if you get it all set up while on a Wifi connection. And it will continue to work as long as you don't put the machine to sleep.

I hope this helps!

 

[gatorpond]

Just want to say thank you to both of you for taking the time to help me out. It seems as for as the gps , its only good if you are on wifi or do not turn it off. Seems like they could have made it with its own gps receiver built in. Oh well. I hope the research turns up something.

As for as the java problem she will have to make do the best she can

Again thank you for all your help.

Joe

 

[MPWheeler]

I found out that the K1 does have GPS. My statements above are incorrect. You can run GPS without a WiFi connection. GPS on the K1 is problematic. It seems that GPS worked fine on Android 3.1.1 which came with the tablet out of the box. After taking the Over The Air (OTA) upgrade to Android 3.2.1 GPS stopped working on some tablets. There is a very long thread about the GPS problem on the Lenovo forum:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Slate-Tablets/New-K1-owner-unhappy-with-GPS/td-p/561537

I read the complete thread. They give you some things to try to get it working. There is one person in the thread who works with Lenovo engineering reporting problems. Hopefully Lenovo will get the GPS problem resolved. They are taking their sweet time.

My pc blew up and I am in the process of building a new one. After getting it built I will play around with GPS and report back on what I find. If you have GPS on your K1 and it is working you are lucky.

 

[gatorpond]

I downloaded gps test app and now works great. Took k1 in my truck down the road with no wifi or anything and it picked up 10 satellites and was using 7 of them. I went at least 4 miles in my rural area and always gps stayed locked on.

I want to thank everyone for all your support.
I then went to google maps and it showed my exact location all the way back to the house.

Joe