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Once I turned off my t-mobile, I noticed my GPS sucks BIG time! Why? I was using copilot live to make my way around on the mainland (in CA) and now I can bearly grab 4 sats, when before I shut off the phone, I could easly grab up to 7+ sats? Because of the low sat grabs, I can't use the program to find my way around.
If I quit t-mobile, is there still a way I can get my HD2 phone to be unlocked to be used on my ATT? I'm not worried about not getting 3g. My wife just wants the bigger screen.
starstreak said:
Once I turned off my t-mobile, I noticed my GPS sucks BIG time! Why? I was using copilot live to make my way around on the mainland (in CA) and now I can bearly grab 4 sats, when before I shut off the phone, I could easly grab up to 7+ sats? Because of the low sat grabs, I can't use the program to find my way around.
If I quit t-mobile, is there still a way I can get my HD2 phone to be unlocked to be used on my ATT? I'm not worried about not getting 3g. My wife just wants the bigger screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it can be unlocked to use on AT&T, just be sure to call tmobile and request an unlock code while you're still a customer....otherwise you'll need to use one of the numerous pay sites to get you an unlock code.
As for the GPS reception getting worse, mainly the low number of sats you can acquire, that's probably due to the fact that you need to run the QuickGPS app on your phone regularly to get updated location info...if you don't have a data connection right now then your phone probably isn't getting those updates, and therefore will have more and more trouble getting any sat locks. Just connect your phone to the net using wifi or activesync, and run the app to update the data. You'll need to do this manually this way every week or so, if you don't have a 3g or edge connection for it to auto-update.
Crud. I already had my number ported to ATT yesterday. Augh.
Gotta be something like AGPS being turned off (since I have no carrier on it) and now its pulling less signal. QuickGPS had a few more days on it. It gave trouble the moment it lost a carrier. I don't want to do a hard reset yet, but so far, soft reset did nothing.
starstreak said:
Crud. I already had my number ported to ATT yesterday. Augh.
Gotta be something like AGPS being turned off (since I have no carrier on it) and now its pulling less signal. QuickGPS had a few more days on it. It gave trouble the moment it lost a carrier. I don't want to do a hard reset yet, but so far, soft reset did nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah aGPS is data-dependent too, but it's never actually affected my ability to get a lock on the usual number of sats. In fact, when I just turned aGPS off manually and opened gmaps, I actually locked 8 sats in less time (like 2/3 less) than it took with it on.
Do you have access to a wifi network the phone can connect to? If so, hook up to the net through that and then see if your lock times and totals improve (after making sure aGPS is on of course).
hi,
is there a way if you can tell me your settings from your hd2? for the gps..
i live in calif. and i want to use the gps thats built in ,,and how do i find out if is enable?..and if is there other settings ,,to it..
thanks
Bit of an odd one. Basically at home with the phone on my home network T-Mobile I simply can't get a GPS fix. This problem has only happened in the last couple of weeks previously its been fine, a fix within seconds.
As some of you may know T-Mobile and Orange in the UK have now enabled roaming between the 2 networks. If I force the phone to roam onto Orange I get a GPS fix with-in a minute. Switch the network back to T-Mobile back to no fix.
If I'm in a different area, network on T-Mobile, fix within seconds. I thought maybe it's quick GPS wrongly loading the wrong area because of an issue in the cell db, I've set quick GPS to never update and now the GPS appears to cold start although quick GPS still says the data it has is valid for x number of days.
I've tried defaulting the phone but exactly the same with defaults and using GPS Test rather than TomTom.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is anyone else having the same issue?
I just tried another test. I roamed onto Orange and got a GPS fix in TomTom, I then set my network back to T-Mobile and the GPS fix was lost! As I switched networks I left TomTom running in the background.
A bit more testing. If I force the phone onto 3G T-Mobile the GPS works fine. My theory is what ever frequency the cell here operates on (some 5 miles away in the 1800MHz band) must be causing the some issue with the hardware
I'm thinking that most people wouldn't be able to experiment to see this, I'm just lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it that I'm in a position where I can switch networks therefore changing frequency within the 1800MHz band and I can stay in the same place to test it. I've had in the past where the GPS would loose its fix for no reason and then just come back while travelling on a motorway I wonder if this was the same thing. Also the chances of someone owning a HD2 using the GPS and being on a cell who's frequency causes a problem is pretty small, and if your travelling you're likely to just think it's dropped for some reason, and oh yes it's back again now so think no more of it.
You are getting confused between GPS and GPRS.
GPS is the satellite system that you use to pinpoint your location (as with TomTom). If your phone is indoors or has a restricted view of the sky, then it cannot receive a signal.
GPRS is a data connection between your phone and the telecoms company. It is basically 2.5G, which way a intermediate step before 3G became set up.
fred_up said:
You are getting confused between GPS and GPRS.
GPS is the satellite system that you use to pinpoint your location (as with TomTom). If your phone is indoors or has a restricted view of the sky, then it cannot receive a signal.
GPRS is a data connection between your phone and the telecoms company. It is basically 2.5G, which way a intermediate step before 3G became set up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, completely understand the difference between GPRS and GPS
I've proven with out a doubt that when using the t-mobile cell serving our house (2g) there is no GPS signal. Use another network still 1800 and there is GPS, use 3g, or move to another area on t-mobile there is GPS.
GPS was working at home while on t-mobile upto a couple of weeks ago, I can only think that the cell has had some work done and has changed frequency.
twerki78 said:
No, completely understand the difference between GPRS and GPS
I've proven with out a doubt that when using the t-mobile cell serving our house (2g) there is no GPS signal. Use another network still 1800 and there is GPS, use 3g, or move to another area on t-mobile there is GPS.
GPS was working at home while on t-mobile upto a couple of weeks ago, I can only think that the cell has had some work done and has changed frequency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Silly question, but have you got AGPS activated? Because it can give you a rough location based upon the local cell transmitter info and any GPS satelite signals you may be recieving.
fred_up said:
Silly question, but have you got AGPS activated? Because it can give you a rough location based upon the local cell transmitter info and any GPS satellite signals you may be receiving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have AGPS disabled. I doubt my operator supports it. I have tried with QuickGPS disabled and enabled but makes no difference.
If I get a fix while on Orange, leave which ever GPS enabled application I have running, running in the background, force the phone back onto my home network (TMobile), go back to the GPS application there's no fix and no satellite signal being received not even a hint.
I've also tried with the SIM card removed and GPS performs perfectly!
Thank you, I thought I was going mad - my GPS has been working perfectly since I got the phone 6 months ago but in the last week has been dropping out or refusing to start at all.
I tried a hard reset, which fixed the problem until I started driving the next day - after a few minutes TomTom lost it's way. Using a bluetooth GPS proved the signal was good, so I was coming around to the idea that the phone was broken...
I have also now read other users that have had GPS problems when roaming, although usually when switching between countries.
Looking on the T-Mobile website about the orange roaming issue it say 'there might be a few quirky side-effects' but I haven't even signed up for the Orange roaming option, sounds like T-Mobile has changed something for everyone?
I have read that fixing the network choice to manual, not auto, can help with GPS issues while roaming - I've yet to test this.
boomboomer said:
Thank you, I thought I was going mad - my GPS has been working perfectly since I got the phone 6 months ago but in the last week has been dropping out or refusing to start at all.
I tried a hard reset, which fixed the problem until I started driving the next day - after a few minutes TomTom lost it's way. Using a bluetooth GPS proved the signal was good, so I was coming around to the idea that the phone was broken...
I have also now read other users that have had GPS problems when roaming, although usually when switching between countries.
Looking on the T-Mobile website about the orange roaming issue it say 'there might be a few quirky side-effects' but I haven't even signed up for the Orange roaming option, sounds like T-Mobile has changed something for everyone?
I have read that fixing the network choice to manual, not auto, can help with GPS issues while roaming - I've yet to test this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the issue for a couple of weeks I would say. Certainly last weekend I couldn't get a fix for ages when I set off and it wasn't until I was a way away from home that the GPS got a fix. This was before the roaming got switch on, of course it doesn't mean they were not doing something with the cell/network.
I too can get a perfect fix with external GPS or with a GPS nav system, or by changing networks! I've also tried another SIM card in the phone, again T-Mobile and get the same results.
I've attached some screen shots.
1st T-mobile no satellites, you'll notice that there isn't so much of hint of signal.
2nd Changing network.
3rd T-Mobile Orange and GPS fix.
All screen shots were taken with the phone in the same place.
Just come back from a drive just to test the GPS. Basically driven 30 miles away from home fixing the phone to T-Mobile and 2G and the only time I got a GPS fix was when the phone lost signal.
Parked in a layby and switched over to orange and got a fix with in a few seconds! Just can't figure out what the connection with being on T-mobile 2g is!
What Radio version is your phone using?
fred_up said:
What Radio version is your phone using?
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Click to collapse
Have the same issue with various official T-Mobile ROMs.
I had a play with updating my AGPS settings last night using the Google settings from this thread: http://ip208-100-42-21.static.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=544421 when working on Orange couldn't notice any difference, with T-Mobile still not GPS fix.
I left the GPS running over night on T-Mobile, admittedly indoors but somewhere I know I get a fix, there was still no fix 7 hours later.
I live in a rural village covered only by one cell mast. GPS starts and runs fine at home with or without the phone turned on. if I walk over the other side of the hill, different cell mast, the GPS drops out immediately - I can't test if 3G fixes the problem as it doesn't work here. Once the GPS has stopped I can't get it to start again, even switching the phone off to airplane mode doesn't help. Only a soft reset, with the phone still in airplane mode will allow the GPS to start.
Switching the phone back on and the GPS drops, however walking back over the hill to home - back to my original cell mast and the GPS starts again.
I'm pretty sure t-mobile have rolled out a change to their 2G system, but not to all masts? rural ones maybe last done hence why my home cell still works.
How to proceed from here? T-Mobile are kind of hard to talk to.....
One thing I did notice was in Memory Map the satellite view normally flicks across satellite numbers until it finds a signal, if the T-Mobile problem occurs this process stops and it would appear to have frozen the service?
I take back the hard to talk to part of my last post, I emailed support from the website and they phoned me back within 2 hours!
As to be expected they couldn't give any instant answers but I gave this thread as a reference and the problem is to be escalated.
The call centerthen phoned me back and asked if I was happy, also to offer me 30 minutes free calls for next 3 months - very nice thank you.
Good work boomboomer. Hopefully T-mobile will find something. I'd like to know what they find, still can't understand the connection between a GSM network and GPS though. I haven't tried a controlled test with flight mode but will try that later. Out of interest what part of the country are you in? maybe it's just a pocket of cells that are affective? I'm in the BA8 postcode area.
The problem certainly only affects 2G, 3G is fine.
I'm out of the country this week but fingers crossed T-Mobile will find the problem. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with a problem.
I'm quite a distance away, DT2 here.
I've been asked to test the GPS over the next few days and keep a log of when and where it doesn't work, they said their network people will ring me soon.
At least this fault is 'interesting' in the words of their technical support guy, he'd never heard of anything like it, so there's hope they will give it some time.
On the plus side they've also given me a free month of internet, so I can't fault their customer support focus.
Incidentally, do you have SPB shell installed? This was the only change I'd made on my phone at the time this problem started.
boomboomer said:
I'm quite a distance away, DT2 here.
I've been asked to test the GPS over the next few days and keep a log of when and where it doesn't work, they said their network people will ring me soon.
At least this fault is 'interesting' in the words of their technical support guy, he'd never heard of anything like it, so there's hope they will give it some time.
On the plus side they've also given me a free month of internet, so I can't fault their customer support focus.
Incidentally, do you have SPB shell installed? This was the only change I'd made on my phone at the time this problem started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't get chance to do any testing today at Heathrow as ended up being a bit rushed. I wouldn't say your not a million miles away. 22miles ish, the Cell that covers our home is in Dorset which is pretty useless when you have to call 999 because you get connected to Dorset who then can't pass you to Somerset and you end up being in a situation where you have no way of contacting Somerset 999 not great in this day and age! But I'm not going to get started on that one on this topic.
It's quite possible its a regional problem.
No I haven't installed SPB shell, I have tried it with a defaulted phone but still had the same problem.
I'm out the country now until Friday, but will do some testing when I return on my return journey. I'll fix the phone to 2g T-mobile and keep an eye on where the GPS drops out.
Oh dear, just got a call from T-Mobile technical networks - they don't support GPS as part of their service and won't be spending any time on the problem, case closed. They did say the problem seems to be with HTC devices only, blackberrys are not effected so it sounds like they have heard of the issue eleswhere?
Looks like it's a network switch required to solve the problem, shame that as I've been with T-Mobile for over 7 years.
boomboomer said:
Oh dear, just got a call from T-Mobile technical networks - they don't support GPS as part of their service and won't be spending any time on the problem, case closed. They did say the problem seems to be with HTC devices only, blackberrys are not effected so it sounds like they have heard of the issue eleswhere?
Looks like it's a network switch required to solve the problem, shame that as I've been with T-Mobile for over 7 years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, T-Mobile sold me the phone for use on their network, the phone is sold with a GPS, that now doesn't work on their network surely they need to spend sometime working with HTC to resolve the problem.
I do have a case open with HTC under the ref 10gbc410001235 they were supposed to be taking it up with tier 2 but as yet I've not heard anything back. I'll have to follow it up when I'm back in the UK. It might be worth you also logging a fault with HTC quoting my ref. at least if 2 people call in with the same problem they may start to think it's not just one crazy with the issue!
My other half has a HTC Desire, I haven't checked the GPS on her phone. Not sure if they use the same chipset, of course one is WM the other android. I wonder if its a problem for all HTC phones or just the HD2?
I have unlocked vibrant....and i'm with ATT....yesterday my GPS died on me after working for couple of months. I mean its dead...couldn't even lock any sats. today my sister who is with t-mobile used her sim becoz her phone wasn't working and i realized that my GPS started working.
I couldn't believe that so i tried my ATT sim again and GPS was gone...!!!
i don't understand this.....how can i fix my phone to work with ATT. now i know my gps was fine its just network....giving problem....OR NOT!!! some suggestions would be very helpful....thanks
Look at Kwkslvr's fix Basically it sounds like the spring tab is not connecting with the 2nd part of the antenna
oka1 said:
Look at Kwkslvr's fix Basically it sounds like the spring tab is not connecting with the 2nd part of the antenna
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Click to collapse
I understand that but why it works on t-mobile sim though....
If it comforts you at all, two days ago my GPS died as well, it comes back to life whenever it wants, 90 % of times it won't lock at all. Oh and I have done the gps hardware fix, I have put a piece of credit card, still the gps wont work. Tried with heathens gps fix, Bionix etc...
In last week or so, I have noticed that in the Chicago area the network location stopped working for me. My guess is that AT&T is upgrading towers (4G) and Google needs to catch-up with tower location ids.
You can test by using Maps with GPS turned off. You should get the large circle for the network location. If not, you are having the same problem as I do. Network location is very important while using A-GPS.
This is a AT&T Atrix with a fresh darkside ROM on 0.1.9 kernel....
the GPS was working perfect over back home and would lock on within few seconds...
I just came on vacation here for a week and now it's taking FOREVER (from a minute to never) to get a lock. at times it'll 'see' 6-11 satellites and still can't track...
any ideas with this?
Clear data and cache for Google Maps, Mapdroyd and other such software.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
I reset AGPS on gps status
if i clear cache, i might loose pre cached maps as i ached it for walking around town
I was in Paris over the summer with the atrix. Unfortunately I felt similar issue. It takes about one minute or more to lock on to GPS. Sometimes I had to reboot the phone. Problem is I find that all phones that have GPS chips built in usually
have very cheap chips inside. Thing is I believe that phone manufactures put low end chips to save cost. Plus they rely on the fact that you are using data all time with google maps. With data, GPS can lock on very fast since it can talk to the cell towers and find out where it is. But there isn't really anything you can do since your traveling and obviously not paying for roaming. If you can get a WiFi hotspot that will make your GPS lock quickly again. Other than that you have to just wait in an area with a lot of open sky.
bummer... my dad's iphone connects well, but he bought data plan with it...
around eiffel it picked it up rather quick (open space I guess) but around buildings it was worse. much worse than downtown miami back home...
I was hoping on relying on that alot lol. too bad I gotta use maps now. omg, so old school (haha)
When the A-GPS is deactivated, which I guess it is, since you guys deactivated data (because of expensive roaming) it takes longer.
The GPS needs to "download" the Almanac and that takes time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Almanac
But once this happened, it should lock back on much faster. The case here might be that our phone relies on data/ A-GPS, so the Alamanac doesn't get stored.
Can someone with a stock-ROM confirm this?
It acquires a lock much slower because it can't use A-gps like it does in the US.
To tackle this you would need to connect it to WiFi in france, change your ntp server to a european one with FasterFix or manually, turn on gps and get it to lock on once.
After that time it will download a-gps cache relevant for European locations and things will go much faster.
Well using the wifi at the hotel. I downloaded the newest a-gps data with gps status. it's 0 days old...
at times I'd see 4-5 sats today, but still had trouble. but my dad's iphone (and my and their ipads) trac with GPS right away.
I even turned on data to check if this was the cause and it didn't help. that test cost me about 700kb which probably will cost me 10 bucks
Had the same issue in France and England last month
I was in Paris and London with my wife a few weeks ago and I saw the same thing happening in both cities/countries. I have an unlocked (free by AT&T) Atrix and I was using prepaid SIMs from Orange France and Orange UK so I had 3G data in both countries. Before I left for Europe I had pre-cached Google Maps of Paris and London as well but found out I didn't need to since it was pretty easy for me to get a data connection in both cities.
Anyway, when I tried to use GPS while walking around town it would sometimes take several minutes for it to get a lock on my position. Several times it took so long I just used the map itself to find my way around instead of waiting for the GPS to locate me.
Anyway, it's a bit off-topic from the original post but if anyone is about to go visit either of those cities/countries I would highly recommend getting your phone unlocked so you can buy a prepaid sim when you land. You can walk into an Orange store in Paris and for 10 euros you get your prepaid account setup with a remaining 5 euro credit and then you pay for a 10 euro "recharge" to your account which you can then use to get unlimited data for one month. In London you can get a prepaid "Dolphin" sim for 10 pounds and then another 10 pounds will buy you 250 MB of data (it's not unlimited in the U.K.).
no Agps. /thread
You can modify /system/etc/gps.conf to make gps start faster for the certain region, as I did (I have AT&T Atrix, but live in Russia). Here is my contents of gps.conf:
Code:
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276
NTP_SERVER=ru.pool.ntp.org
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
I think you can use europe.pool.ntp.org for France.
Hi Guys,
Lucky me, I've got 2 devices as gift from 2 different persons on an occasion. One being Tab 7.7" and the other being Tab 7 Plus
Obviously I love the 7.7 for the brilliant screen. I thought I will use one of the 2 devices in my car just for navigation but just to my shock I've found that the GPS lock is taking longer when compared to other devices (Okay, My wife has a iPad and an iPhone) ....
As far as difference in time to lock in to the satillites like the Tab 7.7 sometime take more than 5 mins (Once it took close to 10 mins) even while I am in a road with clear sky but the Tab 7+ is a bit faster may be 2 - 5 mins for the same which is still longer than acceptable.
Edit: SIM card on.
Car Navigation Application : Sygic (Singapore & Malaysia)
This application is a charm and it work beautifully on my HTC Desire HD (<5 sec for lock) and iPhone 4 (2 - 5 secs) even on a cold start. So it surely is not an issue with the version of the app in android but the problem with the device.
I am still very happy with the tab 7.7 after all what more can I ask for something that I've got for free but just curious about others experience as it could be a HW issue for me.
Let Us all share our GPS experience here wrt issues and accuracy (both good and bad) with which we can create an repository of information for others to refer with.
I have noticed that my GPS won't lock on unless I have a sim card or when I was thetering to my Samsung galaxy s phone. Also noticed that it is not really accurate its off by quite a bit. Any suggestions on how to get it to be as accurate as possible.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
I got the same problem, on my p1000 i can get a lock for 2-5 secs using copilot, i used the same on my 7.7 and it takes forever to lock..
Another this, using this as a gps device might not be a good idea, it could cause burn in issues that AMOLEDS suffers from.
Just my two cents
when i bought my 7.7 tab it has no sim in it for about a week but the GPS locks very quickly (i precacached google maps and used it as GPS device when driving), initial lock takes about <1min while succeding GPS locks <10secs, as far as the specs indicate it has the same GLONASS GPS capability as the GNote
On android, I'm pretty sure GPS is useless without a data connection. My 7.7 takes a few seconds to lock on at the most, using a sim card. Even locks on inside buildings. When I took the simcard out once, it then took forever to lock on..
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
I can confirm that my 7.7 takes only a few seconds to lock on with sim inside. Haven't tried without it yet.
Just tried mine for the first time. Enabled satellite + Wifi location tracking. Locked on within a few seconds.
I am in Muscat, Oman and Wifi isn't as eponymous as in US cities.
Edit: Just to be clear, I have a sim card with an active data plan in the device.
I got problem, on my p1000 i can get a lock for 5-10 secs using copilot, i used the same on my 7.7 and it takes forever to lock..
Guess it suffer the same problem as asus transformer prime. because of the metalic back it cause the GPS to suffer.
can anyone try GPS track program? see how many GPS satellites being lock ?
Mine locked within 10 sec for the first time while riding in a cab (it was down to 5m accuracy)
How can we increase accuracy?
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
quizesilver said:
Guess it suffer the same problem as asus transformer prime. because of the metalic back it cause the GPS to suffer.
can anyone try GPS track program? see how many GPS satellites being lock ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I used my GPS in Germany and France my data roaming was DISABLED, so I guess it only used GPS to lock on within the 10 seconds that it did so?
I have noticed that the GPS only works if you have some form of data on the tab ( either sim or wifi ) if not the GPS will not lock on and it says "data connection lost", why would this be? Is this normal or a bug?
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
adinis78 said:
I have noticed that the GPS only works if you have some form of data on the tab ( either sim or wifi ) if not the GPS will not lock on and it says "data connection lost", why would this be? Is this normal or a bug?
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tab's GPS unit probably requires AGPS data, which is downloaded from the internet. Some GPS units don't require the data but I assume this one does.
teiglin said:
The tab's GPS unit probably requires AGPS data, which is downloaded from the internet. Some GPS units don't require the data but I assume this one does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh OK, thanks for the info. Actually then how do the wifi only version work? Guessing by what you mentioned it does not require AGPS
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
The Wifi only version would use AGPS as well. Basically AGPS is assisted GPS. It uses cell towers (for 3g models) and/ or wifi hot spots to provide location data, hence assisting the GPS unit in your phone or tablet. Try removing your sim from your phone and switching off wifi, the same thing will happen. It will take awhile to lock.
I have a galaxy S, which is notorious for poor GPS reception. I use a bluetooth GPS unit (check out apps in the market) with my phone, and it works a treat.
Mine 2-5 seconds with SIM and using fasterfix for my region (China) -- accuracy is TIGHT (5m)
MrWulf said:
The Wifi only version would use AGPS as well. Basically AGPS is assisted GPS. It uses cell towers (for 3g models) and/ or wifi hot spots to provide location data, hence assisting the GPS unit in your phone or tablet. Try removing your sim from your phone and switching off wifi, the same thing will happen. It will take awhile to lock.
I have a galaxy S, which is notorious for poor GPS reception. I use a bluetooth GPS unit (check out apps in the market) with my phone, and it works a treat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Mate,
Can you let me know the Bluetooth GPS device name/price so that I can give a little life to my Galaxy S I9000 ?