Database Users

Why is location services broken in ALL 2.1 roms?

Do we have any idea how to fix this? I've had problems on literally every 2.1 ROM tried so far. This includes DamageControl 9999 and v1, DarchStar, DarchLegend v2, Toast/Flipz 2.01
Basically (and Gbhil has verified this as well) the network location isn't functioning properly. For example, I am in a suburb of Kansas City, and my location shows on EVERY SINGLE 2.1 ROM as Overland Park, which is over 30 minutes away from me.
GPS will work properly, but this messes up literally every location based app, including my own I'm developing, which grabs your location and does some other stuff with it (which I can't divulge at the moment, ha)
I am literally floored that there aren't more people reporting this. It's not always messed up, I'd say 80-90% of the time it shows as off.
Any devs or others have any idea as to why this is?
Is this a "basically we have to wait for the Sprint 2.1 ROM to come out" issue? Thanks!

kmartburrito said:
Do we have any idea how to fix this? I've had problems on literally every 2.1 ROM tried so far. This includes DamageControl 9999 and v1, DarchStar, DarchLegend v2, Toast/Flipz 2.01
Basically (and Gbhil has verified this as well) the network location isn't functioning properly. For example, I am in a suburb of Kansas City, and my location shows on EVERY SINGLE 2.1 ROM as Overland Park, which is over 30 minutes away from me.
GPS will work properly, but this messes up literally every location based app, including my own I'm developing, which grabs your location and does some other stuff with it (which I can't divulge at the moment, ha)
I am literally floored that there aren't more people reporting this. It's not always messed up, I'd say 80-90% of the time it shows as off.
Any devs or others have any idea as to why this is?
Is this a "basically we have to wait for the Sprint 2.1 ROM to come out" issue? Thanks!
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Mine's better than it was in 1.5!
It shows that I'm in Sugar land, but in 1.5 when I went to school it showed I was in Richmond.

I went out of town recently and I had to refresh it like 5 times to get it to show up. I think it was changed to help battery life. Not really a big thing to me. I just have the location saved as the second spot so I can check if it doesn't want to refresh.

I can't explain your issue, but location services with GPS off on DC1.0 with my phone is dead nuts accurate. Puts the blue dot directly over my house. I haven't tried it outside the house yet. I'll report back when I do.
J
Edit: I tried network based location at three different locations around town today and it worked flawlessly every time. I'm hoping Sprint never decides to target me with a smart bomb using GPS--if they do, I'm a gonner.

There is actually quite a bit written about this but no sure fix that I have found. Location works fine for me in Maps but in everything else it is way off in a weird way. At home it shows my location as 200+ miles away. At work, which is only 8 miles from my house, by location is shown some 30 miles away. You are right. It is only on the 2.1 Roms so I use Beautiful Home or Weather Widget both of which allow me to at least specify my weather address.

I am having the same issue. Its about 20 miles off. I do have a Airwave at home, but I unplugged it and still same thing after doing a refresh. When I go city to city it changes but for some reason I think it is 20 south of my location so when I do switch cities, it would be correct 20 miles south. With that said, my actually GPS for gmaps is dead on target.

it seems to me that its mainly the application being used that makes the location inaccurate..or is that just me?

Mine has not had any issues so far. Better than ever. I'm using DamageControl v1 with the new radio.

superlinkx said:
Mine has not had any issues so far. Better than ever. I'm using DamageControl v1 with the new radio.
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i'm using the exact same thing.. works well for me.

superlinkx said:
Mine has not had any issues so far. Better than ever. I'm using DamageControl v1 with the new radio.
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Click to collapse
ditto. Same thing here and no issues with network location.

See, and the inconsistency bothers me too. It should really be broken for everyone, not just a few of us.
GPS is fine, but with network, it's definitely broken. Weird, I guess I'll wait for the Sprint ROM versions.
I bet you it has something to do with us not having something from Sprint in these releases.

no issues here with darchdroid

kmartburrito said:
See, and the inconsistency bothers me too. It should really be broken for everyone, not just a few of us.
GPS is fine, but with network, it's definitely broken. Weird, I guess I'll wait for the Sprint ROM versions.
I bet you it has something to do with us not having something from Sprint in these releases.
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Download a rom like DarchDroid(people don't seem to get errors with it), extract the .zip and browse through the apps on the rom, find LocationPicker.apk and LocationService.apk(With their odex files) and push them to your phone from recovery, delete dalvik cache and boot cache and reboot your phone.

kmartburrito said:
See, and the inconsistency bothers me too. It should really be broken for everyone, not just a few of us.
GPS is fine, but with network, it's definitely broken. Weird, I guess I'll wait for the Sprint ROM versions.
I bet you it has something to do with us not having something from Sprint in these releases.
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Click to collapse
mines usually, but not always, accurate. hows that for inconsistancy?

in 1.5 i shut location off unless i have to use my gps I-GO app. location seems to drain the battery.

Coarse (network-based) location seems to usually work fine for me (running DC1.0). I say 'usually', because once in a while it will decide I'm in the Atlantic Ocean ~20 miles east of Miami instead of western Broward County (~10 miles west of the beach)... but I've ALWAYS had that problem, even with stock 1.5.
Has anyone noticed a correlation between tower density, signal strength, and accuracy? If the worst inaccuracies are noticed in fringe suburban areas (where you might be lucky to have a single good tower signal, let alone 3+), that might explain it. The 2.1 algorithm might work better (or at least use less power) in urban areas, but fail more often in fringe areas. This might also be more of an issue with Sprint, because Sprint's network tends to be slightly less robust in fringe areas than Verizon's.
Out of curiosity, is the algorithm known to "cheat" if you're in a fringe rural area where the service is primarily along a single major corridor (like I-75 through the Everglades, or the Turnpike halfway between Orlando and Fort Pierce), and automatically limit its estimates to locations physically along that road?

Mine seems to work fine, at least with the weather widget. I'll double check tomorrow when I drive 150 miles west, and see if it still updates. Even 1.5 wasn't all that good at updating my location without me refreshing.
I do know that my weather is wrong though. Still says it's cloudy here, and the only clouds are a good 50 miles north lol

Hmmm. flashed fresh-2.0b and also installed the new radio. With location setting and GPS on, I get the same location errors I mentioned earlier. With location setting set to '911 only' and GPS off, weather and browser location is accurate. I use GPS for Nav, but if I am not using it, this will work for me. Can anyone try with another 2.1 Rom and confirm if that works for them?

When I first installed 2.1 it was showing me in a different state. But when I flashed the new radio that fixed everything. Now it's only wrong if I'm home and connected to my Airave.

wcgbmd said:
Download a rom like DarchDroid(people don't seem to get errors with it), extract the .zip and browse through the apps on the rom, find LocationPicker.apk and LocationService.apk(With their odex files) and push them to your phone from recovery, delete dalvik cache and boot cache and reboot your phone.
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Think you could do the same with the picker and service from the 1.5 roms? I always had perfect performance before moving to any of the 2.x roms. That's the exact moment when it started happening. I can switch back to a nandroid backup of 1.5 and it runs just fine too. Still kinda baffled at all of this.

i know were sick of the gps threads but i must ask

Is anybody's working to satisfactory? Or am I the only one?
I never really used GPS till I got this device and only from the complaining here had it really got me interested . Although I use GPS maybe 3 times a year, I've made it a point to use it every drive I take to see if its still working.
I always get a lock within 5 seconds to at most a min. Stationary or moving don't matter. I've never had my phone say location not available.
My phone always sees 11 or more and only locks on to 3 or 4 once it locked 7...
When I hit navigate to then a destination it instantly finds me and routes me. While driving it every now and again has a blue circle but that's usually during lots of overpasses turns on freeways and etc. For the most part it has no circle ...
I will admit every now and again it'll lose route and not reroute so I back out and hit navigate again and back to navigating.
Its even found me in portland Oregon in the city.
So my question is, although GPS could be better I.e. faster lock, more birds to lock on and tracking while moving, it still has served its purpose and found me my way a few times when I'm lost.
On the way home I will use it again and it will find me almost instantly and navigate me all the way home...
Am I lucky? Or do others work good enough to get around, yes could be better, but is yours good enough like mine to where even if they don't fix it, its not that big of a deal cause for the most part for me it works?
Another thing is I'm beggining to think its hardware and software. Reason is messing with the settings does improve or have different results, but on the other hand the gps fixes seem to give everyone different results and why would Samsung release them all with poor GPS just to supposedly fix it in a few weeks/ wouldn't it have been easier to fix then ship em out?
Who knows, no one is for sure, but I just want to know who's is atleast satisfactory like mine? Maybe I just don't have high GPS standards cause I don't use it to get 1 meter off. If I'm atleast 50 meters away I think my eyes and brain can help me find the other 50 meters.
So are you satisfied even though it needs improvements? I am. I don't think it needs fixed, but as Samsung says "optimized".
Please no there are many GPS threads comments this is a little different ...
Is your GPS useless, or does it get the job done, not how you wish, but gets it done?
Edit: this is no gps fixes. Pure stock.

Mine isn't as terrible as some people say on here, but there are definitely problems. Latitude, for instance, often falls back to network location even with a clear view of the sky. Driving, it will randomly drift far enough that the GPS goes to rerouting mode, trying to bring me back on course. And there are times that it just refuses to get a lock for 10-15 minutes, though luckily that doesn't happen too often. Definitely worst GPS performance than my G1.
But, all that being said.. Not so bad that I'm really stressing about it. I'll give Samsung/TMO a few more weeks for an update and hopefully they patch up the issues with Froyo. If not, or if the update gets delayed, I'll start tinkering with the fixes from the forums.

mine works fine too. quick to lock, navigation works perfectly. i was locking on 3-4 satellites last time i tried.
it's not very good indoors, and often has trouble determining location, but outdoors it has been completely satisfactory.
this is all with gps on, and use wireless networks off, btw. completely stock, and the compass works fine too.

Is anybody's working to satisfactory? Or am I the only one?
I never really used GPS till I got this device and only from the complaining here had it really got me interested . Although I use GPS maybe 3 times a year, I've made it a point to use it every drive I take to see if its still working.
I always get a lock within 5 seconds to at most a min. Stationary or moving don't matter. I've never had my phone say location not available.
My phone always sees 11 or more and only locks on to 3 or 4 once it locked 7...
When I hit navigate to then a destination it instantly finds me and routes me. While driving it every now and again has a blue circle but that's usually during lots of overpasses turns on freeways and etc. For the most part it has no circle ...
I will admit every now and again it'll lose route and not reroute so I back out and hit navigate again and back to navigating.
Its even found me in portland Oregon in the city.
So my question is, although GPS could be better I.e. faster lock, more birds to lock on and tracking while moving, it still has served its purpose and found me my way a few times when I'm lost.
On the way home I will use it again and it will find me almost instantly and navigate me all the way home...
Am I lucky? Or do others work good enough to get around, yes could be better, but is yours good enough like mine to where even if they don't fix it, its not that big of a deal cause for the most part for me it works?
Another thing is I'm beggining to think its hardware and software. Reason is messing with the settings does improve or have different results, but on the other hand the gps fixes seem to give everyone different results and why would Samsung release them all with poor GPS just to supposedly fix it in a few weeks/ wouldn't it have been easier to fix then ship em out?
Who knows, no one is for sure, but I just want to know who's is atleast satisfactory like mine? Maybe I just don't have high GPS standards cause I don't use it to get 1 meter off. If I'm atleast 50 meters away I think my eyes and brain can help me find the other 50 meters.
So are you satisfied even though it needs improvements? I am. I don't think it needs fixed, but as Samsung says "optimized".
Please no there are many GPS threads comments this is a little different ...
Is your GPS useless, or does it get the job done, not how you wish, but gets it done?

I'm the same, I don't use GPS that much, but when I do it works fairly well. Its not the best I've used but it gets the job done. Only once when I was driving on the freeway could it not lock on.
I remember reading that a GPS fix leaked for the Captivate and it seemed to fix the issue. And the new SGS phones coming out for Verizon and Sprint seem to have better luck with GPS.

For me too GPS locks 95% times. However Navigation is the only application that crashes my phone once in a while....and I dont like that

Mine seems OK, with the light use I've given it. Haven't tested it out with route-tracing software like some have -- but for just getting an accurate lock, it seems on par with other phones I've used. (Maybe a little slower to lock.)

I had tested my GF's Samsung Moment alongside my Vibrant many times and the Moment hooks to GPS quickly and consistently. I cannot think how Samsung could implement an inferior GPS in their flagship phone!

My gps works flawlessly, when I read all these threads its hard to remaster because everyone I use gps it takes a matter of seconds to lock in and route me to my destination. Even in my area of living which is outside of the city it is very vet close to where I actually am and even right on. I would be frustrated if it didn't work as I do use my gps every so often but it is precise in my experience and I'm very happy with the final product.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I now have two GPS's in two of our cars. The primary reason for buying a GPS a while back was so I could meet up with guys that I often 4wheel with in various locations. I would get lost when somebody told me to meet them in a city that I didn't know very well. My wife saw how handy my GPS was and took it. I finally got a G1 and it was used as a backup in case the wife wouldn't let me use "My GPS".
Anyways fast forward a year or so. We bought a second GPS for her car. Why because she got the new one of course.
Now that I have 2 GPS's in my cars my phone has been well a secondary or I should say hardly ever used. However when I'm on foot and I get backwards its always been nice to know I could fire up my GPS and find my way somewhere. Lord knows I've been lost a few times in down town Seattle. Wandering around and firing up maps and then using the by foot option has saved me many times. Sure it didn't have to be accurate since all I needed to know was do I walk 3 blocks north then 1 to the west or is it 3 blocks to the west then 1 block to the north?
The Vibrant GPS works when I need it, but honestly I really wish it was a bit more like the G1. Its nearly useless when I use CardioTrainer and a few more apps.

I have had my Vibrant for about 45 days and the GPS has been awful since day one. I have tried some of the fixes which did help a little bit but I still have problems. The GPS cuts on and off so much that Cardio Trainer is pretty much useless most of the time. It has started to freeze on me while attempting to use Cardio Trainer today, which necessitated pulling the battery. The GPS normally shows me about 2 of 3 miles from where I actually am. The compass is just about totally useless. This is a wonderful phone and would be a fantastic phone if the compass and GPS just worked normally. I am starting to be concerned with the phone starting to freeze up as it has not done that in the past.

Mine worked great for a few weeks. Even though it wouldn't lock more than 3 or 4 satellites the performance was completely satisfactory. Then it got a little quirky with accuracy and my position started jumping around a lot. Then it started positioning me miles from where I actually was sometimes, causing Maps to lock up, causing the entire phone to lock up, and generally being unreliable.
Over the past week or so I've had to reboot the phone half the time I try to use the GPS in order to get it to work. I can usually get it to work at a satisfactory level eventually, but it's far from painless. I haven't tried any of the "fixes"...my GPS settings are stock.

On my first phone the GPS and phone in general was a disaster.
Once returned, my second phone is "ok" for driving assistance use, it takes awhile for a lock but it works. But I otherwise leave GPS turned off or else my phone will randomly shut down/reboot.
With trepidation I applied a no lag fix and it has turned my opinion of the phone from "meh" to wow (even though I was not even sure I had a lag problem, but little did I know).
So if GPS gets fixed and 2.2 deployed, and assuming 2.2 solves lag or a no-lag fix is implemented for 2.2, then I will be very happy. But it sure seems like a bit of grief to get to that point. Anything goes wrong down that path, and I'll focus on HTC or other devices... cause for similar past issues with hardware I never buy HP

mjpacheco said:
So if GPS gets fixed and 2.2 deployed, and assuming 2.2 solves lag or a no-lag fix is implemented for 2.2, then I will be very happy. But it sure seems like a bit of grief to get to that point. Anything goes wrong down that path, and I'll focus on HTC or other devices... cause for similar past issues with hardware I never buy HP
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Add a compass fix to that list and I'm there with ya.

After applying the gps fix I haven't had a problem since. I use the gps daily and have only had 1 restart. Had my vibrant since day 1. Maybe I just got lucky.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I completely understand the need to get the GPS fixed, but I have to honestly ask...why do so many people seem so worried about the compass?
Are there that many of you out there that wander around using the compass all the time ? Is it because of apps like Layar ?
Using a smartphone as a compass/gps on a hike is useless if you plan to be out more than a few hours so that can't be it.
Is it just the principle of the thing ... that they provide the feature so it should work properly out of the box?
I'm not trying to be a wise ass here...I'm honestly curious.
Sent from Samsung Vibrant

Stresa said:
I completely understand the need to get the GPS fixed, but I have to honestly ask...why do so many people seem so worried about the compass?
Are there that many of you out there that wander around using the compass all the time ? Is it because of apps like Layar ?
Using a smartphone as a compass/gps on a hike is useless if you plan to be out more than a few hours so that can't be it.
Is it just the principle of the thing ... that they provide the feature so it should work properly out of the box?
I'm not trying to be a wise ass here...I'm honestly curious.
Sent from Samsung Vibrant
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In a word: yes.
While I don't use Layar much, it would be great if it worked. I've tried to use Google Skymaps several times and gave up due to the compass completely freaking out when I hold the phone up to, you know, look at the sky. It's nice the have a working compass for Google Maps...even if it's just for street view. Yelp taunts me with directional functionality that doesn't work, and I could go on. In general I'd like to know that apps that use the magnetometer to detect orientation (and who knows what will come along that will use that functionality) will work. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Now, I also do a lot of city navigation on foot, and having a compass to figure out which way to walk when I come up from a subway on my way to a meeting is a huge help. Seriously. At that point I don't have a GPS because I've been underground.
I've used Android devices (like the G1) that are old-ish, and I've used Android devices that are not considered high-end devices with working compasses, so yeah, on principle I expect my high-end $500 device to work at least as well as they do. Had I known about the worthless compass before I purchased the phone it would have given me pause...I probably would have at least considered another device. It bugs me that such a simple piece of functionality being broken will prevent me from using apps and features that I'd otherwise find useful on my expensive device.
Now I have a Swiss Army knife with a broken saw blade. Yeah, it's just the saw blade, but I paid for one with a working saw blade, dammit, and it wasn't cheap.

dex1701 said:
In a word: yes.
While I don't use Layar much, it would be great if it worked. I've tried to use Google Skymaps several times and gave up due to the compass completely freaking out when I hold the phone up to, you know, look at the sky. It's nice the have a working compass for Google Maps...even if it's just for street view. In general I'd like to know that apps that use the magnetometer to detect orientation (and who knows what will come along that will use that functionality) will work. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Now, I also do a lot of city navigation on foot, and having a compass to figure out which way to walk when I come up from a subway on my way to a meeting is a huge help. Seriously. At that point I don't have a GPS because I've been underground.
I've used Android devices (like the G1) that are old-ish, and I've used Android devices that are not considered high-end devices with working compasses, so yeah, on principle I expect my high-end $500 device to work at least as well as they do. Had I known about the worthless compass before I purchased the phone it would have given me pause...I probably would have at least considered another device. It bugs me that such a simple piece of functionality being broken will prevent me from using apps and features that I'd otherwise find useful on my expensive device.
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that sucks dude. i just noticed what you were saying about google sky map, mine was tripping out for a little while but then it finally settled down. can't really tell if it's pointing in the accurate direction because it's daylight
my compass has worked just fine on maps though. it always points me in the right direction, and even the compass on the "gps status" app is correct, birds locked on or not

lolcopter said:
that sucks dude. i just noticed what you were saying about google sky map, mine was tripping out for a little while but then it finally settled down. can't really tell if it's pointing in the accurate direction because it's daylight
my compass has worked just fine on maps though. it always points me in the right direction, and even the compass on the "gps status" app is correct, birds locked on or not
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If I hold the phone "just right" I can usually get the compass to work ok in things like Maps where accuracy isn't terribly important. It's still painfully slow compared to other Android devices I've used, though. Most I've seen have nearly instantaneous compass updates when you turn...on my Vibrant (both of them) I have to wait a while for it to settle down before I can tell how it's reading. When I hold it in an odd position...like you do for Skymaps...it's all over the place. Sometimes it works, but it's hard to tell unless you're manually keeping track of which way is North, which kinda defeats the purpose, eh?

dex1701 said:
If I hold the phone "just right" I can usually get the compass to work ok in things like Maps where accuracy isn't terribly important. It's still painfully slow compared to other Android devices I've used, though. Most I've seen have nearly instantaneous compass updates when you turn...on my Vibrant (both of them) I have to wait a while for it to settle down before I can tell how it's reading. When I hold it in an odd position...like you do for Skymaps...it's all over the place. Sometimes it works, but it's hard to tell unless you're manually keeping track of which way is North, which kinda defeats the purpose, eh?
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true
hopefully samsung releases a fix baked into some froyo here soon. they had better do SOMETHING this month anyway

Fascinate GPS is officially useful

Not trying to start a fight, but I do want to prove that the GPS on the Fascinate is working, at least on some units.
I started out on my rooftop deck, and got a lock on the GPS. You can see I turned off wi-fi. I got 10 sats locked, ~4ft resolution. I then walked out of the building, and went around my block, purposely crossing the street at time, and even walking 3 sides of a 4 way intersection to see if the GPS would track it. Consider this is Chicago as well, with plenty of buildings around, I think it's doing darn well.
I've got a bunch of screenshots from the GPSTest utility I took during the walk, which I tracked with MyTracks from Google. I'll upload a few images here, as well as the .kml and .gpx file for those who want to break down the trip into detail. I'll post a link to the full gallery. I kept the 0 signal strengths in there, since they showed up every now and then. I assume this is normal, I don't know, I'm not a GPS expert.
The file names are by date/time so you should be able to cross reference signal strength / sat lock at a given time with the track data from the gpx/kml file.
Hope that helps encourage a few people, perhaps you just need to exchange your unit for a new one, instead of return it for a different phone?
Happy to answer questions.
Brandon
Edit - Gallery Link - http://picasaweb.google.com/111158456836091222310/GPSWalk#

Been using it since yesterday and I havent had a GPS problem at all. Google Maps is amazing on this thing, as it always is

namebrandon said:
I started out on my rooftop deck, and got a lock on the GPS. You can see I turned off wi-fi. I got 10 sats locked, ~4ft resolution. I then walked out of the building, and went around my block, purposely crossing the street at time, and even walking 3 sides of a 4 way intersection to see if the GPS would track it. Consider this is Chicago as well, with plenty of buildings around, I think it's doing darn well.
I've got a bunch of screenshots from the GPSTest utility I took during the walk, which I tracked with MyTracks from Google. I'll upload a few images here, as well as the .kml and .gpx file for those who want to break down the trip into detail. I'll post a link to the full gallery. I kept the 0 signal strengths in there, since they showed up every now and then. I assume this is normal, I don't know, I'm not a GPS expert.
...
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Thanks for the detailed test data. The GPS Test screens do look pretty good to me except for that bizarre example that is all zeroed-out. Recurring cases of that do not seem at all normal to me. But at least the unit recovered.
As for accuracy of the track -- and walking tracks are among the more demanding tests you can do -- I would say it is mixed but at least understandable given the conditions. Seems okay on the north-south streets. But it goes a little wonky on the east-west legs, especially near the end along the north side, when I guess you were in the shadow of those high-rise buildings, and the track wandered maybe as much as 15 meters into the block interior.
The pragmatic question about such tracks, which are never perfect, is: How accurate is acceptable? Sometimes it is useful to carry another known, good device recording a simultaneous benchmark so the two tracks can be compared. Also, when walking, it is good to set My Tracks to its maximum granularity of only 1 meter between data points instead of the default of 5 meters. I think the reasonable issue is how this performance compares to competitive smartphone devices.
Do the aberrant part of the track coincide with the places where GPS Test showed the satellites zeroed out? I am guessing that is true for the portion near the end of the circumnavigation.
In any case, this is the sort of test that users here can sink their teeth into, far better than andecdotal impressions.

Hey man! Thanks for the tips on how to correctly (or I guess, usefully) test the GPS. Thanks for taking the time to check the data too.
You can see if you look at google maps the buildings are a bit tall in some areas, so it certainly killed some signal. The zeros seemed to happen when I shook the device, which I had to do to take a screenshot (shaking is the trigger for the program). I think that is when the device lost signal every once and a while.
You'll notice I was on the sidewalk, which I think is portrayed pretty accurately. I was originally confused why I wasn't dead on center to the street.
It also caught when I purposely cut across the street at one point in time to see if it would track to the other sidewalk, and it did.
Regardless, it's accurate enough for me, and hopefully, accurate enough to give confidence to others out there that at least some Fascinate units have a good, working GPS.

Great news! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to pick up my Fascinate tomorrow and try this out myself where I live.

I've had nothing but good performance from my GPS so far. On the way home from work 2nite I copied a myTrack of it and did a little meandering through a parking lot to see how accurate it was. GPS Test could saw up to 12 satellites at one time, but mostly 10 and locked onto 10 of them for most of the drive home. Accuracy was down to 3.3ft as well, but fluctuated up to 9ft from time to time. highest SNR I saw was 37, while most hung around 27-34. No screen shots of the GPS Test unfortunately, but I do have my tracks. I did stay in the right lane on the free way most of the way home, but had to go around traffic once I hit Modesto. I did go into the fast/left lane just before Jack Tone Rd and again after Briggsmore Ave and it captured that pretty good. I got off the freeway at one point just to mess with Google Nav and it handled it great. Once I got off on my exit I did some driving around the parking spots in a large parking lot. Pretty close to what I did. I'd say with in the 4-10ft estimated accuracy the GPS Test was showing.
Its been about a day since i rebooted the phone, so we'll keep it going to see if has the problem where it will work after rebooting or changing settings and then stop after a few days.
since I cant post links yet, here the map of myTrack
maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113114085618005181110.00048ff7980f2df305ac9&t=h&z=12

I haven't had much chance to use it on mine, but I will say that the first time I enabled it, it took about 10-15 seconds to get a lock. After that, it appears to lock virtually instantly every time an app activates it. Also, it seems to be very accurate within Google Maps and Navigation. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've also had generally good results from the GPS. The only problem I've seen is that it is sometimes slow to lock on, especially indoors or inside a car. Once locked on, accuracy has been perfect. I tried out Google's new "walking directions" feature, and it announced "You have arrived" right as I stepped up to my mailbox.
Even the slow lock-on hasn't always been an issue. I was rather amused on Saturday night when I stepped outside with a friend who has a Droid X so I could show him how to use the walking-directions feature. My Fascinate locked on as soon as we got outside, and the X was still searching several minutes later.
I'm sure the GPS issues are real, since lots of people are seeing problems (and Samsung has acknowledged the issue). But for me, it has worked well enough; after Samsung ships the fix, I can only assume it will be even better.

My phone arrived today and the first thing I tested was the GPS. Seemed to lock on much quicker than my previous Android devices.
After leaving the phone's GPS alone for a while, I went back into GMaps and it would not lock on...which is not to say its a phone problem. It would lock onto the wifi signals, so it was locking in my general area. However, I also experienced this on my other phones (it actually locked to the exact spot my other phones would). A simple exit of Maps and reopen and it locked to my location in 2 seconds.
For now it seems to behave as it should. I do have all three settings checked, btw.

Compass affecting GPS? My Thoughts.

Here are some observations I have made in dealing with the GPS and compass.
Applications I used during this observation include:
GPS Test
Goolge Maps
MyTracks
Trapster
Compass
There are a few things that led me into looking into this. It started with my first Vibrant.
I bought it at the beginning of September and during that time I was working 6 12 hours days and didn't have a whole lot of time to play around with it.
In the middle of September I went out of town for a week. I went from Oklahoma to South Carolina. Basically on the trip my GPS worked pretty much spot on even though GPS Test showed a few in view and 1 or 2 in use. My compass never really worked all that good and it was real slow to update.
I used Google Maps for nav and was running Trapster. If you never used Trapster it shows your location with an animated radar wave emitting from it showing your direction of travel, this is important as you will see later in this post. I ran MyTracks a few times just to play around with it and it pretty much worked as expected. The arrow would correctly show which direction you are traveling, again important. So after traveling about 2600 miles round trip my GPS worked about as good as my Wife's MyTouch 3G. Sometimes it would take a while to lock, but once I had one it worked well.
On to the next phase. I was able to update to JI5 when it was available on Kies and tested the GPS right away. When I fired up GPS Test I had 12 in view and 8-9 in use and it locked in pretty fast. I thought to myself awesome, it's fixed! or was it? After updating I noticed that the accuracy was not as good as it was stock.
Later that night my wife and I went somewhere and I let her drive so I could mess around with the GPS and apps. I wasn't too happy with what I was seeing. Remember earlier how I said Trapster and MyTracks was showing correct direction of travel? Well after the update the arrow on MyTracks was going crazy and could not figure out which way to point and Trapster was showing it's radar icon as a circle around me as if I wasn't moving but my location on the map was moving. My position on the map was off at times and when we stopped my location would jump around. When I was stock I never had that issue. I flashed back to stock because I would rather deal with a longer fix but have the accuracy and my apps work right. After flashing to stock Trapster and MyTracks still could not show a correct direction of travel.
Around this time I came across the "hardware lock" issue and found out that phones were being replaced so I went down to the store I bought it from and exchanged it. When I was in the parking lot I loaded up the apps mentioned in the beginning of this post to test. Accuracy was still off a little and Trapster and MyTracks still could not display direction of travel. Google maps could display it correctly. GPS Test showed a few visible and 1 or 2 in use.
I figured I would just deal with it until the update came out. That day was today. I did not get the update OTA but did flash JI6 since that was what the OTA was showing on others phones.
I wiped everything after flashing and did a master reset. I then installed the mentioned apps again for some testing. GPS Test 12 in view 8-9 in use, accuracy was still not as good as my first Vibrant stock. Google Maps found me pretty close to where I was, but not spot on like the last phone and drifted a little bit. MyTracks arrow moved when I rotated the phone but did not point in the right direction. Started the compass app and it was way off and barely moving, I did the calibration and it actually started working pretty good even though it was a little off. I started MyTracks and low and behold the arrow was pointing in almost the exact direction i was facing. I though great everything should be ok!
I had to run to the store so I tested while driving. Accuracy was pretty good, Trapster and MyTracks could still not display correct direction of travel so I fired up the compass and it was all over the place and shaking around a lot trying to determine which way it was facing. When I got to the store and stopped the compass was working like it was at the house and MyTracks was pointing in the right direction again. I though how odd and tested more on the way home.
Here is where I think it gets interesting. As I was driving and in GPS Test I hit the button on the bottom left of the screen. That brings up a compass view. It was showing my heading correctly. Google maps showed my arrow pointing in the correct direction of travel as well but Trapster and MyTracks could not.
I made 2 observations that I think may be important. When I stopped and had GPS Test open to the compass part I noticed that the heading was now off a little. Google maps was the same, the arrow was just not stable. When I started driving again both apps started showing the correct heading. That is when it hit me. When stopped GPS Test and Google Maps must be relying on the compass when not in motion to get it's bearings and that Trapster and MyTracks must be relying on the compass alone for it's heading information! I confirmed this by opening the Compass app while in motion and taking a note on which way it though I was going and then opened MyTracks and would you believe it, the arrow was pointing in the same direction that the compass showed me going!. I was traveling straight west and the compass along with MyTrack were pointing south! I confirmed this after driving around for a while that whatever way the compass was pointing that is the direction the arrow in MyTracks pointed. When I stop everything points correctly, or at least close to being correct.
So now the million dollar question is since GPT Test and Google maps fall back on the compass when stopped could that affect accuracy? If it is pointing in an incorrect position but thinks it is pointing in the correct position could it think the satellites are in a different position in the sky thus some of the jumping around when you are stopped and once you are moving it gets it's bearings straightened out and is able to track you correctly? I am thinking it might have some play in it since sometimes when I am sitting still out in the yard and I rotate my phone my position will jump 1/4 mile away and move all over the place but if you click the arrow it shows accuracy to 10 or less meters.
What would make the compass show the correct postion when stopped, but all over the place when moving? Are the compass and GPS tied that close together?
Thoughts?
I tried to email this to Samsung but the web form was messed up and I'm not sure if it went through or not.

Interesting. It would seem that the compass has no place with driving directions. It should ideally be ignored unless you are walking or on street view.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Another thing I just found out after messing with it more is that when I have the compass app open and hold the phone in my hand horizontally and shake it gently up and down the compass goes all over the place. Do the same thing in MyTracks and the arrow goes bonkers.
I didn't think of street view until you mentioned it. When I launched it, it was way off and not working well. I held the phone in my hand horizontally with the back of the phone facing the floor and it got it's bearings and started working. I am starting to think that the sensors are still screwy.
Edit to add that the compass and MyTracks acts the same on my MyTouch 3G when shaking it but not as bad. It still doesn't explain why the compass would be so far off on the Vibrant when driving. I will have to test the MyTouch and Vibrant side by side while driving when I get the chance.

New Google Maps has issues

I'm not sure how much of this, is the phone or the ROM or google maps. I'm using MOAR ROM.
Any way first issue:
1) If you are Navigating and receive a call after a few minutes it will squawk that it can't find your location !!! This never happened with old google maps (prior to V7) on my HTC M7. Nor this phone with old google maps. Why would the GPS stop locating you while on a call. I thought it might be this phone, in how it works. But my wife just got the message on her M7 today. I know all about assisted GPS. That is for getting initial lock. Once locked it should be just GPS tracking.
2) It's been hoping location like crazy. The route will take you say on a exit ramp but the Software assumes you didn't take the ramp. Reroutes, then reroutes back when sees it's way off. It's been really bad lately that I almost don't want to use it. I swear it's Google MAPs though. Your location isn't always accurate enough to know what lane your in and it should assume you are on the route. I've seen it jump to parallel side roads while Navigating on the highway. It shouldn't do that and your location isn't always accurate enough for it to differentiate that and should assume you are on the route it gave you.
By the way I have been running the old version for quite some time. But past few months it's been having different issues, like search not working well because I think it was getting too old to work anymore. My wifes M7 was having the same issues. I actually like the new version now, when it works. I finally talked her into switch and she saw issue #1 today. Don't know yet if she has 2nd issue or not yet.
Anyone else have these issues.
I wasn't sure if there are some hidden setting or specific ways I should set my location settings.
I had "High Accuracy" on and I just switched it to "GPS Only" and see if that helps.

I have been experiencing #2 since the last few app updates on both my GS5 and my GS3. So I've been pretty convinced its not device dependent.

I see this #2 on my S5 and my S3. It also makes Waze not find my location until the Google Maps force closes itself. Then it all works. Prior to the force closing, an app like GPS lock will show that it has a very good GPS lock despite what Google Maps thinks. It's google maps and just keep reporting feedback through the google maps app.

Are you ABSOLUTELY sure you did a full clean wipe before flashing? I once dirty flashed on v1.1 and that is the exact problem I had.
I mean....no offense, bro. Even if you did a full wipe before, do a full wipe again. Always TiBu your apps, it'll take less time to set back up.
Version 2.1 does seem the best yet. Also remember to set up everything BEFORE enabling Xposed Installer. Less chance of any FC's.