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WiMax and GPS?

G

gogogut

Newbie
Hi all,
I just got a new HTC Evo V and am starting to get used to the ins and outs. I haven't turned on 4G much as everything seems to be going so much faster than my old LG Optimus. I plan to play with the 4G aspect this weekend.
So my question is about when 4G/WiMax is most useful. I am guessing it doesn't improve texting and emailing much. That it is better for internet and down/uploading.
What about for GPS? Does it help/hurt/interact in any way with navigation? I wasn't sure of using GPS while driving would be better/worse/same if I turned on WiMax.
Any clarifications of when to best use WiMax would be great.
Thanks,
RJ
 
I believe the handoff between towers on wimax is not as seemless as 3G

that is to say, it wont be able to constantly pull data while your driving about.

Google Maps now has a feature where you can save all the maps of a particular area to the SD card, so it doesnt have to load them off the network while your driving around.

I saved the entire los angeles county area so I don't have to worry about lack of signal preventing the area ahead from loading over 3G.

I did this on my Triumph and theres no reason not to on the Evo.


Try precaching your area and then the phone only relies on wimax/3G/any data connection for initial route info. after that it only uses GPS to track your location. saves battery in the car too.
 
gogogut said:
Hi all,
I just got a new HTC Evo V and am starting to get used to the ins and outs. I haven't turned on 4G much as everything seems to be going so much faster than my old LG Optimus. I plan to play with the 4G aspect this weekend.
So my question is about when 4G/WiMax is most useful. I am guessing it doesn't improve texting and emailing much. That it is better for internet and down/uploading.
What about for GPS? Does it help/hurt/interact in any way with navigation? I wasn't sure of using GPS while driving would be better/worse/same if I turned on WiMax.
Any clarifications of when to best use WiMax would be great.
Thanks,
RJ
Click to expand...

Anywhere you're not moving and don't get WiFi, but you get 4G, it's fantastic. Streaming HQ YouTube at a pretty reasonable time (3-4 sec at the beginning, took one break of a second or two) while my bus broke down = amazing.

Also, if you're in a 4G covered area (when it's WELL covered), it's okay to use on the move too :P
 
Thanks for the replies. But I am still unclear. Is there a benefit to having WiMax on while driving? Does GPS/Navigation benefit from it? Or is it just draining more battery?
 
gogogut said:
Thanks for the replies. But I am still unclear. Is there a benefit to having WiMax on while driving? Does GPS/Navigation benefit from it? Or is it just draining more battery?
Click to expand...


WiMAX drains more battery than 3G. and GPS drains battery on its own.

my reply told you how you could only use ONE radio rather than TWO or all 3.

that should be enough to understand how it is less battery use.

also wimax doesnt like to hand off towers so you lose connection faster if your moving. how does that make it good for use with GPS?

you can draw your own conclusions to your question.
 
Sorry, but I didn't understand your original post. It sounds like the best thing to do is precache where you know you are going to go, but my question is more general. I know WiMax and GPS are battery hogs. That is why I do not want to have WiMax on while using GPS. UNLESS it improves performance. I live in a strong WiMax area so perhaps the handoffs would work better. So if WiMax will make GPS better, I will use it. But if you are telling me that WiMax doesn't help GPS, and all it does it help drain the battery, then I will obviously leave it off.
I guess my ignorance is tied to the fact that I am not sure how all the radios work. Does the GPS work through the 3G radio if WiMax is off? Is GPS its own radio that can do navigation even if both 3G and WiMax are off? I just want to make sure I use the best combination of radios while driving without draining my battery too quickly.
Does that make sense?
 
GPS and Wimax do different things you don't benefit from flying by wearing football cleats Wimax is data GPS is for finding your locations on maps Wimax doesn't have to do anything with texts
 
Yay! So the answer is that there is no benefit to having WiMAX on while driving!
My assumption was that the gps radio can determine your location but you need a data connection to speak to the google maps servers. So even though those radios do different things, they work in tandem to navigate. With WiMAX being faster than 3G, I thought it might be better for navigation. But it seems like I should leave WiMAX off while driving. Is this an accurate summary? I am just trying to become a little more educated on how this all works.
Thanks for your patience,
RJ
 
It would be good if wimax could stay on reliably like 3g, but since it can't it's not a good idea to have it on when driving. You may lose connection, which is why you should just use 3G when driving (or pre-cashe)
 
Gps doesn't use your 3g or 4g data connection, it uses the 2g radio just like sms, MMS, etc... No effect except for battery drain if you leave any other radios on while using gps.
 
Ok. So it seems like the consensus is to only use 3G while driving. No reason to use the extra battery power to use WiMax for navigation.
So today I did a lot of driving using my new Evo V as my GPS unit. On several occasions, the GPS was off by a block or two. Rather than being accurate to my street, it would say that I was two blocks parallel. This caused havoc as it was constantly telling me to turn to get to the correct path, which I was actually already on!
The solution was to exit navigation turn of GPS and WiFi radios, task manage swipe quit navigation, turn radios back on, and then start the entire maps/direction/navigation process from scratch. Needless to say, this is a horrible workaround that I certainly don't want to have to do each and every time I want to use GPS (which is often).
Is this a common bug? Anyone heard of this before? Any quick fixes?
I will now do a little googling to see what I find, but I thought I would post this problem here first.
Thanks again,
RJ
 
gogogut said:
Yay! So the answer is that there is no benefit to having WiMAX on while driving!
My assumption was that the gps radio can determine your location but you need a data connection to speak to the google maps servers. So even though those radios do different things, they work in tandem to navigate. With WiMAX being faster than 3G, I thought it might be better for navigation. But it seems like I should leave WiMAX off while driving. Is this an accurate summary? I am just trying to become a little more educated on how this all works.
Thanks for your patience,
RJ
Click to expand...


You are correct but as I pointed out, the BEST way to use your device would be to precache your city or county (menu in google maps, youll see the option)

it basically saves the entire map area to the SD card so while you are driving around the phone will ONLY use the gps radio to get your location, rather then the gps AND 3G to download the map data as your driving. see the benefit?

the map app is not totally reliant on data connection. if you have your county that you drive in precached on sd card (usually under 50 mb total) then the only time it uses data is when the phone hits up google servers to ask how to get from point A to B. then that info is saved onto the phone and you don't need a data connection anymore.

its better to have 1 radio on rather than 2. ideally you want as little interference with the GPS as possible. I know they say different frequencies wont interfere, but it also saves battery to not have both on so why NOT do it this way?
 
gogogut said:
Ok. So it seems like the consensus is to only use 3G while driving. No reason to use the extra battery power to use WiMax for navigation.
So today I did a lot of driving using my new Evo V as my GPS unit. On several occasions, the GPS was off by a block or two. Rather than being accurate to my street, it would say that I was two blocks parallel. This caused havoc as it was constantly telling me to turn to get to the correct path, which I was actually already on!
The solution was to exit navigation turn of GPS and WiFi radios, task manage swipe quit navigation, turn radios back on, and then start the entire maps/direction/navigation process from scratch. Needless to say, this is a horrible workaround that I certainly don't want to have to do each and every time I want to use GPS (which is often).
Is this a common bug? Anyone heard of this before? Any quick fixes?
I will now do a little googling to see what I find, but I thought I would post this problem here first.
Thanks again,
RJ
Click to expand...



if you understand how GPS works you can understand this problem and why it happens.

your phone sends a signal out to space and whatever GPS satellites are nearby ping it back, the phone calculates the time between all the responses and where those satellites are to determine where it is. its called triangulation.

sometimes the phone can only get 2 satellite responses while you are driving and it relies on a secondary location method. it pings all the nearest Cell towers and triangulates its location off those. its not as accurate which is why sometimes you appear a street or two off.

usually within a minute the real GPS system will find another satellite and your true location will be fixed on the map.

this is just the nature of how these things work.

you have to have FORETHOUGHT, read the directions before you head off. realize what turn is coming up and what street your supposed to be on so IF and WHEN the gps loses your location you are not totally lost.


I used GPS on my phones since way back in the Sidekick days before it could follow you, and I was a delivery driver, and i didnt REALLY learn how to use these systems effectively for years.

the truth is, do NOT RELY on the device. use it as a tool, but trust your own guts first. look at the maps on the phone, study the directions before you leave and make sure you understand what streets and roads to take. you CANNOT predict software bugs that pop up in the middle of a trip, but if you know the path your SUPPOSEd to be on, you wont be led astray.
 
Thanks again for the advice. Today was so surprising because nothing like this ever occurred over the past 2 years with my LG Optimus V. Sure there were times where it go no signal, but never off by blocks like today. And I had driven in these same neighborhoods with the LG. I am in Washington, DC with plenty of coverage.
Could there be a problemM How can I check or calibrate?
 
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