Database Users

Epic GPS FTW!

Originally posted by: kngyn19
Looks like the Epic's GPS is indeed working correctly! Confirmed by Samsung and Engadget!
Linky:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/18/samsung-says-gps-is-tested-and-validated-on-epic-4g-our-testi/

I wonder if they use the same gps hardware as the GSM counterparts ?

I would guess their firmware is different enough that they fixed it before releasing the Epic. Someone mentioned that may be the reason for the supposed delay.

The EPIC and Fascinate are CDMA devices. It might take a littler longer to reconfigure stuff versus GSM.

My own reaction to this news, posted in a sister forum, is more cautious optimism.
And if Sprint management did delay the release of the Epic to incorporate a fix to the GPS, good for them. If that is true, it would seem advantageous for them to make some statement to that effect. If they keep quiet on the matter, I have to wonder why.

boomerbubba said:
My own reaction to this news, posted in a sister forum, is more cautious optimism.
And if Sprint management did delay the release of the Epic to incorporate a fix to the GPS, good for them. If that is true, it would seem advantageous for them to make some statement to that effect. If they keep quiet on the matter, I have to wonder why.
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Click to collapse
Maybe they want those worried about the GPS issue to rest assured but don't want to start a discussion about it where average consumers won't buy the Vibrant and Captivate variants after hearing there is a GPS issue..

gTen said:
Maybe they want those worried about the GPS issue to rest assured but don't want to start a discussion about it where average consumers won't buy the Vibrant and Captivate variants after hearing there is a GPS issue..
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Click to collapse
The average consumers that have the vibrant or captivate don't even know it had issues.. and some don't. We here on xda are the exception..
Most sprint customers don't even know its the same phone.. let alone know about a gps issue...
Sprint really don't need to say anything to anyone.. us here at xda are a small margin of their sales..

I honestly don't care as long as the GPS is working. For the $400 bucks i'm going to be paying for this phone (Sprint wants a $150 deposit before I can get the phone), I expect the GPS TO BE WORKING.
Im happy they are saying the GPS works but i wont believe it until I see it. I am out and about on a daily basis and use GPS just as much.

boomerbubba said:
My own reaction to this news, posted in a sister forum, is more cautious optimism.
And if Sprint management did delay the release of the Epic to incorporate a fix to the GPS, good for them. If that is true, it would seem advantageous for them to make some statement to that effect. If they keep quiet on the matter, I have to wonder why.
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Click to collapse
Yes.. imagine how that would go "Buy the best phone Sprint has to offer... GPS doesn't work but we'll work on it AFTER you buy the phone!" or maybe "This phone is great, GPS doesn't work but we'll fix it before you buy it!!!" ... either way it doesn't look good for the company, so keep it hush, delay it and people will get it when it comes out. The only ones *****ing about the delay are the ones on these forums which is 0.000003 of their sales.

DirtyShroomz said:
Yes.. imagine how that would go "Buy the best phone Sprint has to offer... GPS doesn't work but we'll work on it AFTER you buy the phone!" or maybe "This phone is great, GPS doesn't work but we'll fix it before you buy it!!!" ... either way it doesn't look good for the company, so keep it hush, delay it and people will get it when it comes out. The only ones *****ing about the delay are the ones on these forums which is 0.000003 of their sales.
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That's the kind of spin Sprint would have to make if it released the phone with the GPS defect, and without fixing it first.
I was talking about a more positive statement in light of this news from Samsung. Sprint could affirm that there are no GPS issues on the Epic. And if there were issues in prerelease, but they held off to fix them first, that is a very positive thing to brag about. (And, by implication, a swipe at the two U.S. competitors who released defective products and are still awaiting new firmware in September.)

I hope this is true. I dont understand it though. I have read in many deferent places that they are working on a new driver to fix gps issues in all the other galaxy s phones. How did the fix the issue with out the new driver? If this is true then this makes me worried they will never really fix the captivates gps since the epic is fixed with the same gps driver.

I have asked multiple people who have the Epic for review purposes, and all of them state that there is no GPS problems. Things are looking good!

shep211 said:
I hope this is true. I dont understand it though. I have read in many deferent places that they are working on a new driver to fix gps issues in all the other galaxy s phones. How did the fix the issue with out the new driver? If this is true then this makes me worried they will never really fix the captivates gps since the epic is fixed with the same gps driver.
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My guess is they did fix it..but probably want to fix all the other issues at the same time before mass pushing the update..like say the lag fix and etc..or maybe they will just include the gps fix and froyo together....either way if they release it we may be able to extract the driver and use it on the others..

gTen said:
My guess is they did fix it..but probably want to fix all the other issues at the same time before mass pushing the update..like say the lag fix and etc..or maybe they will just include the gps fix and froyo together...
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Huh? In the wake of Samsung's public announcement that the GPS works on the Epic while the other brands are still awaiting new firmware, you think Sprint would secretly be planning to omit that fix and launch with the same defect they have? That is just crazy.
The implication of Samsung's statement is that the Epic firmware is already tested and installed on the units about to be sold and shipped. There would not need to be any pushing of a GPS update for Sprint phones.
If that is ambiguous to people, that is all the more reason for Sprint to make a statement about this.

gTen said:
My guess is they did fix it..but probably want to fix all the other issues at the same time before mass pushing the update..like say the lag fix and etc..or maybe they will just include the gps fix and froyo together....either way if they release it we may be able to extract the driver and use it on the others..
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Yes you are right. If they do have the gps fix we should be able to port it over to the captivate. I wil have to return my captivate before the 30 days then get the epic and see what happens. If they fix the captivate I may go back to it since I love the slim look and design.

boomerbubba said:
That's the kind of spin Sprint would have to make if it released the phone with the GPS defect, and without fixing it first.
I was talking about a more positive statement in light of this news from Samsung. Sprint could affirm that there are no GPS issues on the Epic. And if there were issues in prerelease, but they held off to fix them first, that is a very positive thing to brag about. (And, by implication, a swipe at the two U.S. competitors who released defective products and are still awaiting new firmware in September.)
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Now that would be great. Sprint launching a commercial attack on AT&T and Tmo... Go with them, you'll have phones that can't make calls and can't guide you to your destination! Not so smart for a smart phone huh?

I would lol so hard if they did a commercial like that. It is nice to see a company think of the end user and not about the $. I am testing the gps fix from the epic dump. So far it looks good. It locks the sats fast and shows me with 5m of my location(Use to never go below 30). I will test the gps when I go to lunch and see if it tracks me correctly.
Edit: I used my gps at lunch and it worked a lot better. It didnt jump from street to street and change route over and over. Its usable now but its still not as good as n1\evo. It will lag pretty bad then jump to your location. If the epic radio does not have updated code for gps that fixs lag issue then I would say gps is not really fixed just improved. I think we will have to wait till September to see if it gets fully fixed.

shep211 said:
... I am testing the gps fix from the epic dump. So far it looks good. It locks the sats fast and shows me with 5m of my location(Use to never go below 30). I will test the gps when I go to lunch and see if it tracks me correctly.
Edit: I used my gps at lunch and it worked a lot better. It didnt jump from street to street and change route over and over. Its usable now but its still not as good as n1\evo. It will lag pretty bad then jump to your location. If the epic radio does not have updated code for gps that fixs lag issue then I would say gps is not really fixed just improved. I think we will have to wait till September to see if it gets fully fixed.
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Exactly what are you "testing" here? I gather you don't have an Epic. So you are you somehow running some hacked form of what you believe the "GPS fix" is -- drawn from the Epic dump -- on the hardware of some other Samsung S variant such as a Captivate. Right? Can you please describe the steps you used to set up this test environment. What is it about the Epic dump that you are calling "the GPS fix," and how did you apply it on the other hardware? Did you flash a ROM, change config files, or what?

boomerbubba said:
Exactly what are you "testing" here? I gather you don't have an Epic. So you are you somehow running some hacked form of what you believe the "GPS fix" is -- drawn from the Epic dump -- on the hardware of some other Samsung S variant such as a Captivate. Right? Can you please describe the steps you used to set up this test environment. What is it about the Epic dump that you are calling "the GPS fix," and how did you apply it on the other hardware? Did you flash a ROM, change config files, or what?
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He is talking about this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=759976

gTen said:
He is talking about this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=759976
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Thanks. What I see there are three hacked "experimental" versions of a "fix," none of which even purport to replicate the Epic environment completely. [Edit: I gather it was the "fix" supposed to be drawn from the Epic that was tested.] (For example, shep211 himself questioned how this can be a fix without new drivers. I agree with that criticism. But how do we even know what drivers this environment has?)
So it is not valid to run this test, which showed a less-than-successful GPS performance, and declare on the basis of that test that the Epic fix is incomplete as shipped.
The Epic fix may or may not be complete. We don't know that. We can't know it until a real Epic is tested rigorously.

Stay FAR away from Vibrant/Captivate or any other Galaxy S variant

For those thinking about getting the Vibrant/Captivate or pretty much any variant of the Galaxy S DO NOT.
I contacted them via FB and this is the only answer they sent me
"We are working on it. We're sorry about this issue. Please be patient as we know how important this is. Thanks for reaching out!"
I have just received and activated my phone with dum, dum, dum... AT&T and this phone has nothing but GPS issues while I have to admit everything else works fine and is definitely fast.
There is absolutely no way of it accurately doing a turn by turn Navigation with Google Maps.
Ive even resorted to doing a supposed fix and nothing if anything it made the major problem worse.
Same has been reported with the T-Mobile version of the phone.
I highly regret leaving T-Mobile now because the reception was a lot better with them as well.
No wonder tons of people bad mouth AT&T, LOL.
Proof below, stick to the other manufacturers guys... Samsung is testing the waters and these phones should have NEVER been released prior to having it 100% functional.
---->> http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/17/samsung-galaxy-s-gps-gate-two-problems-not-one-and-what-to-do/5#comments

legend221 said:
For those thinking about getting the Vibrant/Captivate or pretty much any variant of the Galaxy S DO NOT.
I contacted them via FB and this is the only answer they sent me
"We are working on it. We're sorry about this issue. Please be patient as we know how important this is. Thanks for reaching out!"
I have just received and activated my phone with dum, dum, dum... AT&T and this phone has nothing but GPS issues while I have to admit everything else works fine and is definitely fast.
There is absolutely no way of it accurately doing a turn by turn Navigation with Google Maps.
Ive even resorted to doing a supposed fix and nothing if anything it made the major problem worse.
Same has been reported with the T-Mobile version of the phone.
I highly regret leaving T-Mobile now because the reception was a lot better with them as well.
No wonder tons of people bad mouth AT&T, LOL.
Proof below, stick to the other manufacturers guys... Samsung is testing the waters and these phones should have NEVER been released prior to having it 100% functional.
---->> http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/17/samsung-galaxy-s-gps-gate-two-problems-not-one-and-what-to-do/5#comments
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why didnt you wait for g2?

Hey OP!
Have you EVER tried the Vibrant or Captivate? I have the Vibrant and I have had no problems with the GPS. I use the turn by turn directions daily!
You need to know what you are talking about! Yes, there is a documented problem, but that doesn't mean that the GPS is unusable, and NO I haven't applied the GPS fix.

Ace42 said:
Why didnt you wait for g2?
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Click to collapse
Ive bought Samsung phone before and I haven't ran into any major issues like this.
The G2 would definitely be a better option.
Thinking Im going to jump to the Sony X10, I hear that they are going to have the CyanogenMod on it pretty soon.

rwbarnes67 said:
Hey OP!
Have you EVER tried the Vibrant or Captivate? I have the Vibrant and I have had no problems with the GPS. I use the turn by turn directions daily!
You need to know what you are talking about! Yes, there is a documented problem, but that doesn't mean that the GPS is unusable, and NO I haven't applied the GPS fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're trying to come at me like everyone is going to have a working unit Barnes.
Just because YOU got lucky doesn't mean anyone else that buys it will.
There is already a "fix" in the works for units that have faulty GPS but whether it works or if its actually able to fix the issue is another story.
Read this and please don't post again if YOU don't know what you are talking about.

rwbarnes67 said:
Hey OP!
Have you EVER tried the Vibrant or Captivate? I have the Vibrant and I have had no problems with the GPS. I use the turn by turn directions daily!
You need to know what you are talking about! Yes, there is a documented problem, but that doesn't mean that the GPS is unusable, and NO I haven't applied the GPS fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you are also confused, bring up an address and press the option that says navigation.
See that big blue area around your position THAT is not true GPS and it is only guessing where you are from cell towers.
Like others have said it will not accurately tell you where you are, you can not trust the voice directions at all.
That is faulty and yes Samsung, AT&T, T-Mobile and any other service provider should not be selling these units until it is fixed.

legend221 said:
Maybe you are also confused, bring up an address and press the option that says navigation.
See that big blue area around your position THAT is not true GPS and it is only guessing where you are from cell towers.
Like others have said it will not accurately tell you where you are, you can not trust the voice directions at all.
That is faulty and yes Samsung, AT&T, T-Mobile and any other service provider should not be selling these units until it is fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That Little blue arrow that tells me EXACTLY where I am on the map as I'm zooming down the freeway and accurately tells me every exit as I'm passing them? I know what I am talking about! And the turn by turn instructions work for me and it re-routes when I miss a street.
OK!!!! You all! You know EVERYTHING and I know NOTHING!
That is all! Sorry for putting in my 2 cents!
By the way, I've been on Android since the G1 in November of 2008. Rooted with the first Jesus Freke roms thru Haykuru and Dudes roms to Cyan and have been doing the same with my Vibrant.
But OK. You guys are THE EXPERTS.
And by the way, you guys never stated whether or not you own a Vibrant.

Deleted!
I have nothing to say!

rwbarnes67 said:
By the way, I've been on Android since the G1 in November of 2008. Rooted with the first Jesus Freke roms thru Haykuru and Dudes roms to Cyan and have been doing the same with my Vibrant.
But OK. You guys are THE EXPERTS.
And by the way, you guys never stated whether or not you own a Vibrant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only own G1 & Mytouch Slide, not interested in the Vibrant like my KB's.

buy whatever you want
ive gone thru so many phones since 09, from the g1(when it first came out), hd2, n900, x10 and finally the vibrant. the hd2, n900 and x10 in a matter of 4 months. didnt like windows mobile from being used to android. n900 wasnt what i expected it to be. loved the x10 but only running 1.6. i didnt root it because I eventually bought the vibrant.
only issues i had were facebook syncing and contacts being tripled and gps in searching for a location while in house, but GPS worked FINE when I was on the road. wish i had a car dock for it at the time but will eventually get one.
OP, if you knew of these reasons, such as lag or because of the gps not working properly, then why did you buy it in the first place? i dont think barnes was getting at you, but damn dude, someone's sensitive. no one told you to buy it despite some of the imperfections the phone has. its like people saying sony shouldnt have released the x10 with 1.6 but rather have froyo but they still buy it. and if your response is to root it to get 2.1 or 2.2, i dont think the avg. customer for phones would have any idea of what you are talking about.
you cant please everyone on here. alot of people on xda either want to be a mod or just bump stupid posts because they didnt get an answer within 3 hours.

Returned my Samsung Captivate and is officially back to the HTC Dream/G1 until further notice.
Feeling better already, I can always get that phone when and if the GPS issue is worked out.
That was pretty much the only flaw it has at least on the phone I returned.

steveruv said:
ive gone thru so many phones since 09, from the g1(when it first came out), hd2, n900, x10 and finally the vibrant. the hd2, n900 and x10 in a matter of 4 months. didnt like windows mobile from being used to android. n900 wasnt what i expected it to be. loved the x10 but only running 1.6. i didnt root it because I eventually bought the vibrant.
only issues i had were facebook syncing and contacts being tripled and gps in searching for a location while in house, but GPS worked FINE when I was on the road. wish i had a car dock for it at the time but will eventually get one.
OP, if you knew of these reasons, such as lag or because of the gps not working properly, then why did you buy it in the first place? i dont think barnes was getting at you, but damn dude, someone's sensitive. no one told you to buy it despite some of the imperfections the phone has. its like people saying sony shouldnt have released the x10 with 1.6 but rather have froyo but they still buy it. and if your response is to root it to get 2.1 or 2.2, i dont think the avg. customer for phones would have any idea of what you are talking about.
you cant please everyone on here. alot of people on xda either want to be a mod or just bump stupid posts because they didnt get an answer within 3 hours.
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Click to collapse
In that respect I did mess up.
Was expecting the Captivate to rock my socks off but all it did was make me mad due to the GPS issue.
I didn't know of these problems until after my phone arrived.
Its stupid for Samsung to not get those fixes out asap as that is their flagship phone.
I heard the X10 is very close to getting Cyanogen on there.. definitely a major advantage there vs. the Samsung development that's going on

if cyanogen is working on the x10, then the x10 will have alot of potential.
did you switch back to tmobile since you're back to using the g1?
btw, how often were you using the gps on the road? give the vibrant a chance, im sure the kinks will be worked out.

steveruv said:
if cyanogen is working on the x10, then the x10 will have alot of potential.
did you switch back to tmobile since you're back to using the g1?
btw, how often were you using the gps on the road? give the vibrant a chance, im sure the kinks will be worked out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The X10 does seem like a better choice for now mainly in part to the CyanogenMod potential.
Im still on AT&T, Ive closed my account with T-Mobile.
I was using the gps on a regular basis thats why it had to be refunded as a replacement was more than likely to have the same issue.
Samsung has always had a bad track record with updating thier phones and I didnt want to be stuck waiting for an update that may take too long to be relevant.

I've just gotta jump in with my $.02 right quick here...
Not trying to piss anyone off, but damn you all cry too much! IT's A PHONE!
And on top of all that, it has an Operating System on it! So essentially, it's a COMPUTER! And what do computers have????? ISSUES!
So, quit *****ing. Flagship phone or not...It's going to have issues. It's a new device. Duh. haha
Basically, when it comes down to it, if a device were PERFECT in every standard, then EVERYONE would have one. And sense there is no such thing as PERFECT, good luck.

tribalartgod said:
I've just gotta jump in with my $.02 right quick here...
Not trying to piss anyone off, but damn you all cry too much! IT's A PHONE!
And on top of all that, it has an Operating System on it! So essentially, it's a COMPUTER! And what do computers have????? ISSUES!
So, quit *****ing. Flagship phone or not...It's going to have issues. It's a new device. Duh. haha
Basically, when it comes down to it, if a device were PERFECT in every standard, then EVERYONE would have one. And sense there is no such thing as PERFECT, good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah its a phone that should work my G1, HTC Shadow all work with gps and they are old phones compared to the Samsung Galaxy S.
If you prefer not to hear my advisement to everyone about this phone, DONT CLICK ON THE THREAD!

legend, so you're using the g1 on at&t's network?
the captivate is using bing, correct? there's no google maps on there? maybe that was the problem.
i guess im fortunate to have my gps on point when i'm driving, but once i eventually root, etc, then maybe the gps will lock in almost my exact point, and not off 1 or 2 blocks.

steveruv said:
legend, so you're using the g1 on at&t's network?
the captivate is using bing, correct? there's no google maps on there? maybe that was the problem.
i guess im fortunate to have my gps on point when i'm driving, but once i eventually root, etc, then maybe the gps will lock in almost my exact point, and not off 1 or 2 blocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T network, Yes I am.
The captivate is using Google Maps but has the option in using AT&T's version of it and they both were not working.
I tested how many GPS satellites it picked up through the LBSTestMode menu and it got me no where even if there were 1 or 7 available.
Once rooted it was the same story unfortunately even with all these workarounds on xda and other sites.

Further proof that the Samsung GPS issues continue....
See Samsung Facinate review released for Verizon on SEP 9, 2010 here ------->> http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Samsung-Fascinate-Review-review-r_2529-p_4.html

Swapping my SGS with a new one.

So I've got one of the many Vibrants with the flaky GPS, and none of the fixes out there seem to improve the problem. My local T-Mo store is understanding and quite willing to swap it with a new one since I'm still within the 14 day policy. The only catch is I want to put the phone as close to stock as possible before I do the trade so they can't say it was something I did to it. Right now I've rooted deodexed, and I've got clockwork ROM manager going. I've also deleted almost all the stock cruft and swapped the calendar / camera apps. Because I was so eager to make it "mine", I also failed to make any backups BUT my wife happens to have a totally stock SGS from which I can scavange from but I'd like to do it without having to root it or anything. Is this possible? If not would thread 739091 ("True Stock 2.1 firmware for vibrant"; sorry I can't post links since my account here is still new) get me there?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734475&highlight=stock is what you're looking for. Just flash this with Odin and you'll be fully unrooted.

Awesome, I really appreciate that. I'm not timid when it comes to making the phone my own (I was an early adopter of CyanogenMod for my old G1) but I just returned from a deployment and the whole 'scene' has changed a lot more than I expected lol.

Hehe. you might want to give the new T-Mobile Vibrant firmware that was leaked, it fixes the GPS problem (result may vary). Returning your SGS for a new one isn't going to fix your problem. It's not hardware related, its firmware.

An exchange won't fix your GPS issues anyway so you mine as well keep the one you have. Trust me, we try to swap them out customers all the time at my store.... It's a known issue and Samsung is SUPPOSED to be sending us an OTA soon
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

ShanDestromp said:
Awesome, I really appreciate that. I'm not timid when it comes to making the phone my own (I was an early adopter of CyanogenMod for my old G1) but I just returned from a deployment and the whole 'scene' has changed a lot more than I expected lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just want to say thank you for serving.

zephiK said:
Returning your SGS for a new one isn't going to fix your problem. It's not hardware related, its firmware.
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Click to collapse
briguydj32 said:
An exchange won't fix your GPS issues anyway so you mine as well keep the one you have.
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Click to collapse
Hmmm, quite a few people I'd talked with locally that have the vibrant said swapping worked for them. Is it possible that newer firmware has been released for phones with a newer "birth" date than mine? Then again who should I trust more, people who hardly utilize their phones, or the people who drool over the prospect of new mods and hacks? hehe. I guess I'll just call T-Mo back and let them know I wont be bothering with a swap after all.
Droidicus said:
Just want to say thank you for serving.
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Click to collapse
Hey, my pleasure. If nothing else, I have the Army to thank for bringing me out to Hawai'i and giving me the chance to meet my now wife hehe.

ALL out of the box Vibrant's have the same firmware. You need to update to the newest firmware version, it works really well. GPS is better than it is on my CLIQ.

I dunno, i've heard reports of GPS working perfect out of the box for some, and the new firmware doesn't seem to do much for my GPS,
10m accuracy at most unless I leave gps on for about an hour and maybe i'll get 6-7m accuracy, but driving, it SKIPS, (still at 10m) instead of gliding along like my G1 did.
So i'm considering perhaps swapping mine.

QwertyAccess said:
I dunno, i've heard reports of GPS working perfect out of the box for some, and the new firmware doesn't seem to do much for my GPS,
10m accuracy at most unless I leave gps on for about an hour and maybe i'll get 6-7m accuracy, but driving, it SKIPS, (still at 10m) instead of gliding along like my G1 did.
So i'm considering perhaps swapping mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10M of accuracy is not bad and if you want to get technical, GMaps interprets the data differently. What shows in GMaps as 10 meters will show up as 7 under GPS test. I've got my Vibrant here at 6 Meters under GPSTest and 10 under GMaps. Get a grip people.

heygrl said:
Get a grip people.
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I wont speak for Qwerty, but in my case I was LUCKY to get 10m accuracy; usually the best I could get was 40m; usually after 5-10 minutes of 'searching' and when you're driving an unfamiliar city such as Washington DC Like I was this past week, 40m is far too inaccurate for navigation. Your 'get a grip' is completely tasteless and uncalled for in this thread.
That said, I took zephiK's advice and just flashed the new 2.1 (thread 780935), and I must say its a lot better. I can get a 10m fix indoors in less than 5 seconds from a cold start (EG without GMaps knowing where I am at all); before being indoors I would never get less than a 1000m 'fix'. As soon as I get mine fully tweaked, I'll be sure to flash my wifes phone as well since she's got the same issue.

ShanDestromp said:
I wont speak for Qwerty, but in my case I was LUCKY to get 10m accuracy; usually the best I could get was 40m; usually after 5-10 minutes of 'searching' and when you're driving an unfamiliar city such as Washington DC Like I was this past week, 40m is far too inaccurate for navigation. Your 'get a grip' is completely tasteless and uncalled for in this thread.
That said, I took zephiK's advice and just flashed the new 2.1 (thread 780935), and I must say its a lot better. I can get a 10m fix indoors in less than 5 seconds from a cold start (EG without GMaps knowing where I am at all); before being indoors I would never get less than a 1000m 'fix'. As soon as I get mine fully tweaked, I'll be sure to flash my wifes phone as well since she's got the same issue.
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No thats what im saying about.. He does have the update on his Vibrant
Sent from my SGH-T959

Anyways, Qwerty I just hope you get lucky with your swap and get a working gps and hardware recovery.I've been poking around and quite a few people are saying some of thenew vibrants have issues getting into recovery and down load mode
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Yeah, i'm still considering doing the swap, sometime this week, perhaps even today, got up this morning, and phone was off, (Charging Battery Symbol on the screen),
I'm not running any of the custom roms nor am i OCing. Just worried if I do the swap I may end up with even more problems. I don't know what it is with the Samsung phones, if perhaps a lot of the phones have hardware problems or what. I have only used the original stock rom, and the leaked samsung rom.
I don't mean to be picky with my phone, but I remember my 2 year old G1 getting easily 3m lock as soon as i open up the maps inside my room, and navigating with it, was extremely accurate as well. I also never had restart issues with the phone, till after dropping the thing really hard, and then even the restart thing went away.
Today, I'm lucky to get even 40m lock again, on that same leaked updated firmware. My gripe with the samsung vibrant is that there seems to be some sort of hardware problem with the phone and samsung is not saying a thing about it.

I'm telling you guys... don't bother with a swap... I work in a very high volume store and have seen almost every customer come back with GPS issues. We won't even swap them anymore for customers because TMO has listed it as a known issue, and Samsung has announced the firmware update soon... A swap WILL NOT fix the issue, but if you decide to swap it, don't go whining to us our TMO about how you "keep exchanging it and none of them work..." They know this, and YOU know it.

Bell Canada finally admit the GPS bug!!!

I bought a Galaxy S from Bell Canada in august. Made the update to JH2 trough kies. Had the GPS bug (locked fine, but was sometimes way off (1-3 streets off)).
I told Bell. They said they didn't know any GPS problem affecting their device.
I tried many differents things, but I still had the problem so I recorded tracks with both my Hero and my Galaxy S to prove that the Galaxy S has a bug.
I called Samsung. I told them that I had a bug with the GPS. They said that they were not aware of any GPS bug affecting the GT-i9000M (the canadian version).
I went to Bell and asked for a repair. Seems like I was the first in Canada to report the problem because they told me again that there was no report on such problem, so it must be a specific problem with my device. They give me a Samsung Omnia II for the time of the repair. Worst touch screen ever, almost useless compared to a Galaxy S.
My device came back "repaired" (what they did was a factory reset and allegedly a ROM update, but it was JH2 before and after the repair, so this is bull****). In short they did nothing but loose my time.
Of course, I still have the exact same bug, the repair guy probably didn't even test it.
I call Bell again. Shock! Horror! They admit that there is a problem with ALL Galaxy S. Finally! Not that I told them since August... And it's not only in Canada, according to the tech support agent, it affects devices from all around the world. And that I shouldn't worry because the update to 2.2 will be released everywhere in the world in November and will fix that. Great!
Oh wait. The update to 2.2 is already released in some parts of Europe. I am not even sure that it fixes the GPS. At least I have an audio recording of Bell telling me that the bug will be fixed with an update in November. Better than nothing I guess.

+1
Two thumbs up for your effort. Hopefully canadian sgs froyo update comes on November like the rest of the world....
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

Great job on the audio recording too, nice move

Good job. Please keep us posted when froyo released.
Sent from my GT-I9000M Ver. UGJH2 using XDA App on Bell Mobility Network

sorry to say but some tech reps are more informed than others because they take time to do their own independant research. One tech i talked to barley knew a thing about the galaxy S, while another rep was fascinated by it and couldnt wait to get their own. Mine is in repair for faulty internal SD, lets hope froyo will fix the gps, as i didnt send it in for that issue.

Those who know something about the Galaxy S (and other smartphones) are the so-called "data" support.
1-877-328-2123 (choose language and then select the first option in the menu)

I agree data support are the only ones that know anything. I called customer service like 5 times before they gave me someone that knew anything, ala data support.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

Well, I think that of course the response is "we haven't heard about any bugs". It's business -- they aren't allowed to admit to anything unless an order comes from the top to announce that a certain bug .. or a few bugs have been found. I haven't seen any admittals from Samsung that SGS is slow, laggy and the 2.2 update is crap. Or that there are any bugs at all. That would crash sales.

Same here
I got pretty much the same info. been through the same ordeal. I don't think I can last til the end of november for a maybe fix that might not fix anything or might get pushed back to january or even february or??? At least now with them endorsing the issue it should not be as hard to fight for an exchange, maybe get a Z.....

root your bell sgs, go to /system/etc, open gps.conf
change from:
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
To:
NTP_SERVER=xtra1.gpsonextra.net
you don't even have to change *#1472365#*. I get lock to 10 sat in Montreal within 30sec. give it a try!

sbcmp3 said:
root your bell sgs, go to /system/etc, open gps.conf
change from:
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
To:
NTP_SERVER=xtra1.gpsonextra.net
you don't even have to change *#1472365#*. I get lock to 10 sat in Montreal within 30sec. give it a try!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's not the GPS bug I am talking about. My GPS locks just fine (as already said). The problem is that it is not always precise. But anyways xtra1.gpsonextra.net seems farther aways (mesured by ping times) than north-america.pool.ntp.org, so it should not fix anything.
And north-america.pool.ntp.org works just fine on my HTC Hero.

thurtig said:
Well, I think that of course the response is "we haven't heard about any bugs". It's business -- they aren't allowed to admit to anything unless an order comes from the top to announce that a certain bug .. or a few bugs have been found. I haven't seen any admittals from Samsung that SGS is slow, laggy and the 2.2 update is crap. Or that there are any bugs at all. That would crash sales.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the thing is, when you know that there is a bug and you hide it to increase your sales, you do not deserve any customers.

zorxd said:
At least I have an audio recording of Bell telling me that the bug will be fixed with an update in November. Better than nothing I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am very curious as to what software you used to record that call?
You didn't use a Korean Galaxy S (SHW-M110S) by any chance, did you? Because its firmware has a native call recorder function that I would die to get my hands on, but unfortunately Samsung doesn't allow international Galaxy S users to flash to the Korean firmware Send me a PM if you know how to force flash it!

dillovic said:
I am very curious as to what software you used to record that call?
You didn't use a Korean Galaxy S (SHW-M110S) by any chance, did you? Because its firmware has a native call recorder function that I would die to get my hands on, but unfortunately Samsung doesn't allow international Galaxy S users to flash to the Korean firmware Send me a PM if you know how to force flash it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a proud user of the Asterisk PBX, which I installed on my OpenWRT router . I used that to record, not my cell phone.

zorxd said:
Well the thing is, when you know that there is a bug and you hide it to increase your sales, you do not deserve any customers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All companies do that. Focusing on all the bugs takes the attention from the good to the bad. Basic stuff. All the companies that made you any of the things you own operate on the same principle. This is business. This is life.
But this does not mean they are not working hard on fixing the issues -- believe me, they are. Our comments and complaints are very important in bringing these things out. Stuff that gets discussed here on XDA dev is _vital_.

sbcmp3 said:
root your bell sgs, go to /system/etc, open gps.conf
change from:
NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
To:
NTP_SERVER=xtra1.gpsonextra.net
you don't even have to change *#1472365#*. I get lock to 10 sat in Montreal within 30sec. give it a try!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting- this is one fix I hadn't seen before. Where did you read about it?

zorxd said:
Oh wait. The update to 2.2 is already released in some parts of Europe. I am not even sure that it fixes the GPS. At least I have an audio recording of Bell telling me that the bug will be fixed with an update in November. Better than nothing I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats rite live in the uk and upgraded ma android to 2.2 using kies reg mod and guess what it made the GPS worst. it wont go two streets without losing gps signal. theres no hope i heard it may even be a hardware fault.

Initial Reaction to Froyo

Hey guys, I just wanted to post a rather positive thread for a change. I know it's been a long time coming and there have been a lot of hurdles along the way, but finally we've made it.
And from my point of view, it's goood.
Seriously, nearly all lag has completely disappeared, all applications open and close super fast, and everything just works as it should. NOTE: I haven't tried out GPS yet, but since I don't use GPS, I don't care whether it works or not. So I am a very satisfied customer and can say it was completely worth the wait. Well done Samsung! Now after all this positivity and good will I'm sure the rest of you will find ample reasons not to be satisfied, please have your say and let us know what you think of the new update.
Cheers!!!

The froyo I got from kies is ok (althought it came without market, which had to be installed manually). It was still a bit laggy tho, but much better than eclair.
Unfortunately I can't get the new update because kies states 100% battery is not enough for a firmware update...

Enarca said:
Hey guys, I just wanted to post a rather positive thread for a change. I know it's been a long time coming and there have been a lot of hurdles along the way, but finally we've made it.
And from my point of view, it's goood.
Seriously, nearly all lag has completely disappeared, all applications open and close super fast, and everything just works as it should. NOTE: I haven't tried out GPS yet, but since I don't use GPS, I don't care whether it works or not. So I am a very satisfied customer and can say it was completely worth the wait. Well done Samsung! Now after all this positivity and good will I'm sure the rest of you will find ample reasons not to be satisfied, please have your say and let us know what you think of the new update.
Cheers!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the lag hasnt gone, its still there wat u talkin about

Any news on the GPS?

Soo what lag fix should I use?

is the klag gone or not?

Chad_Petree said:
is the klag gone or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definite improvement in the lag. Almost no lag at all. I have the JPO firmware.

GPS still sucks.

Fatherboard said:
GPS still sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed.
10char...

Fatherboard said:
GPS still sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disagree, gps works well as usual on mine.

If yours worked before the upgrade, then it's quite obvious it will act the same once upgraded...
Lucky you!

i dont care that much about the gps, but is the lag still there?

Absolutely...

The lags are still there
is there a fix right now availabal?

Samsung are working on it... behold.

please stop asking GPS. as I've done my research, no method to fix a crappy GPS, there's not gps fix thing in new released froyo. If you got a working GPS, it will always work, if your gps is not working, stop dreaming of getting it fixed by software update. either keep asking the retailer to replace it until you get a working one or, get an external gps instead. alternatively you can choose to return the phone and get a different one.
I'm gonna proceed the final one, return it and get a desire HD, if I'm lucky enough.

Fatherboard said:
Absolutely...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
samsung always dissapointing maybe in gingerbread? we better get used to the lag fixes

ehe12 said:
please stop asking GPS. as I've done my research, no method to fix a crappy GPS, there's not gps fix thing in new released froyo. If you got a working GPS, it will always work, if your gps is not working, stop dreaming of getting it fixed by software update. either keep asking the retailer to replace it until you get a working one or, get an external gps instead. alternatively you can choose to return the phone and get a different one.
I'm gonna proceed the final one, return it and get a desire HD, if I'm lucky enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except the retailer refused to replace it although I reported the problem and canceled the contract within 7 days. I still had to pay penalty to change the plan from SGS to iPhone 4. I know I can initiate legal action but it simply isn't worth the effort.

ehe12 said:
please stop asking GPS. as I've done my research, no method to fix a crappy GPS, there's not gps fix thing in new released froyo. If you got a working GPS, it will always work, if your gps is not working, stop dreaming of getting it fixed by software update. either keep asking the retailer to replace it until you get a working one or, get an external gps instead. alternatively you can choose to return the phone and get a different one.
I'm gonna proceed the final one, return it and get a desire HD, if I'm lucky enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clearly, you haven't got the froyo yet.
GPS indeed improved alot.
I mean a lot.
It take less than 6 seconds get a lock in now, which i consider more than good enough for a phone.

[email protected] said:
It take less than 6 seconds get a lock in now, which i consider more than good enough for a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when will people learn that lock time is completely meaningless when ACCURACY is the main problem with the gps?