Location settings - battery - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

OK, google Maps/Now is taking a fair bit of my battery every day. The problem is that I use Latitude (as does all my family and friends) and Google Now's location based features
Does anyone know a good balance for these?
I've started turning off "Report From This Device" and "Enable Location Sharing" in Latitude and I have Backitude running which updates my location and uses a lot less battery, I switch these 2 options back on when I want to see where others are.
Does anyone have any other tips I can use to help?
I'm using the Modaco ROM and matrix kernel

if you turn off the gps when not in used it saves alot too. cause google now poll location alot.

I'm using Latitude nonstop since my Nexus One, S, GN, N4
Currently my settings are - Latify for Google latitude (for it's profiles). Home profile is set to check if I moved 100 meters once in half-hour (optimal for home-work lifestyle ) via Cell+WiFi and if I do - post it to Latitude. If not - repost same location every 5 hours.
When I'm in a car - detected by Tasker - switching to Driving profile witch is using GPS every 30 second for better tracking.
I know that settings is very personal but I'm finally able to correctly track "At home" "At work" weekly time statistics in Latitude without using Google Maps location autoupdate.

xenjke said:
I'm using Latitude nonstop since my Nexus One, S, GN, N4
Currently my settings are - Latify for Google latitude (for it's profiles). Home profile is set to check if I moved 100 meters once in half-hour (optimal for home-work lifestyle ) via Cell+WiFi and if I do - post it to Latitude. If not - repost same location every 5 hours.
When I'm in a car - detected by Tasker - switching to Driving profile witch is using GPS every 30 second for better tracking.
I know that settings is very personal but I'm finally able to correctly track "At home" "At work" weekly time statistics in Latitude without using Google Maps location autoupdate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate, not used Tasker before, how does it know you're in the car?
the auto update every 30 seconds sounds good for when I'm in the car/on the bike

There are not much options to let Tasker know that you are in the car. First one is NFC tag in a car, second is a car dock, and mine option is a bluetooth connection with a car hands free system. Not a common option though :/
But you always could just use a widget to toggle profiles.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

xenjke said:
There are not much options to let Tasker know that you are in the car. First one is NFC tag in a car, second is a car dock, and mine option is a bluetooth connection with a car hands free system. Not a common option though :/
But you always could just use a widget to toggle profiles.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah, cheers, I have NFC in there already and a bluetooth car stereo

Nice! Go ahead and make some sexy Tasker profiles
Mine is switching bluetooth on when there is no active wifi connection so I could connect to a car automatically and switch to a GPS related stuff
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Related

Software Idea

Can someone make an app like the parking app on the iphone, would this be straight forward to do, basically when you park your car you load the app and press a button and this adds a pushpin to google maps, then when you want to find your car you can reload that push pin.
Is this something that would be hard to do?
Park the car, and wait for a fix ...
but surely if you were already using something like tomtom you'd already have a fix.
WEll, I mostly drive in places I already know
* well * there I would remember where I have parked the car though
You got a point
But it won't work in parking garages.
But you could take a GPS foto ?
obviously it would be pointless for places you know but if you drove somewhere you didnt know you'd probably use the sat nav and have a gps fix, how do u take a gps photo?
The app on the iphone lets you press on button and that saves the location, then when you want to return to the car you can either see the location on google maps or get directions to the location, I thought that was quiet a good idea and was surprised there was nothing like that for windows mobile.
I did this at the weekend, not because I wouldn't be able to find my car, just because I thought of the idea and tried it out.
I used garmin to navigate to my destination and then once I parked simply added current location to my saved locations as "car" then later plan a route back to it, works a treat.
For GPS photos you need to activate the GPS photo mode in the camera which is mysteriously disabled by default along with sport mode and burst! The easiest way to do this is to install Advanced Config Tool and activate the setting in there
if you use gps photo to take a photo how do u get the coordinates off and into a gps program automatically.
Much easier to just park the car, save the location as a favourite in your sat nav app like TomTom, when you need to find the car, just navigate to a favourite called car , been doing that for a long time and it works just fine, last time I did it was when I parked my car in London when I went there for a day trip, first time I have driven to London, TomTom showed me the way back to the car, would never have found it otherwise
Riel said:
Park the car, and wait for a fix ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMFAO best read off the day.!
Anybody remember the Seinfeld episode, in which they forgot where they parked the car?
It was in a parking garage, so no gps, but hilarious anyway.
MikLSP said:
I did this at the weekend, not because I wouldn't be able to find my car, just because I thought of the idea and tried it out.
I used garmin to navigate to my destination and then once I parked simply added current location to my saved locations as "car" then later plan a route back to it, works a treat.
For GPS photos you need to activate the GPS photo mode in the camera which is mysteriously disabled by default along with sport mode and burst! The easiest way to do this is to install Advanced Config Tool and activate the setting in there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry must be going blind. Any change of pointing out where th eGPK photo option is in the advance config tool?
Thanks
tried the gpsphoto today but could not get a gps signal, kept saying initialising gps, any ideas?

Alternate: Bluetooth on, WiFi off

I was hoping for a mod or app that would alternate Bluetooth & WiFi because I only ever need one at a time and want to save power! Eg: I leave the house, my WiFi signal is lost as I move away from router, so WiFi turns off and Bluetooth turns on - as I would be leaving in my car and use BT handsfree... then, when BT connection is lost after engine is, turned off... you have an option to have WiFi switch back on! (or not!)
Anyone heard of such a thing, or know how to create it as a profile?
Thanks!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
I use Battery Saver for WIFI control and TASKER for (1)bluetooth on (2)screen always on (3)max brightness when phone on charge in the car (for me I need bluetooth off the moment I get out of the car as I use speakerphone. When I''m in a customers home I don't want phone still connected to car).
Battery Saver, like many other apps (inculding TASKER itself), uses cell phone positioning rather than GPS to determine where the rememebered wifi point is. It will turn it on when in range. TASKER and bluetooth control is very basic, based on USB/AC charge.
For me, what you want is achieved flawlessly with the above 2 apps. TASKER is an excellent app, with the potential to do far more than the bluetooth control I use it for.
Cheers mate! I'll give them a go!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
You can use Locale for that and for so much more.
My locale is set-up as to when i enter my house it detects which cell tower i'm locked on to and enables wifi and autosync, if the battery is higher than 20% and i'm in the 8:00am-01:00am schedule.
Use widgets? Does it for me. Go into settings if you do in Widgets or use the Power Control

[Q] gps tracking - auto start

I use Setting Profiles (awesome app for automating your phone) It knows if I am at home, at work, in my truck, or on my motorcycle, it can launch(or shut down) applications, like music or navigation.
I have not been able to find an app that will just record a gps stream or track waypoint list. GPS Essentials comes close but the api? or list of start command will not allow the track function to begin
Maybe there is an app that just detect if the gps is activated it will start recording location/speed
link for Setting Profiles
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.probeez.profiles&feature=search_result
link for GPS Essentials
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mictale.gpsessentials&feature=search_result
Have you tried tasker? It works wonders for these issues. Trigger by cell tower uses less battery. But I'm going to guess you have probably heard about tasker already. Give it another shot if so.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

GPS alternative fix for android, mac, pc, phones, laptop tablets via bluetooth gps

* This involves setting up connection via bluetooth to external GPS sensor. If you already know about this, just skip this post. No flaming needed
If not and still frustrate with GPS accuracy with all the latest ROMs, then read on.
I'm just posting so late researcher and newbies are aware of this quick and easy option too instead of the soldering or other alteration that involves open up the physical device. I've been using it for almost 2 years but did not have time to read around much so did not know about this option until recently. I'm slow...I know...lol
Recently, I've been researching for better solid GPS solution and how to cut down battery drain on ICS & JellyBean and ran into a video that involve using external bluetooth. (I did tried the Corrected GPS hardware fix, didn't really help...)
Anyway, I found several external sensors out there, but the ones that are cheap and small are $12 TomTom MKII or $25 Globesat BT-368i at ebay/amazon.
I thought globesat has more capability and longer rechargeable battery life (10+) so I got the Globesat. But MKii probably will do just fine.
Vibrant built-in GPS sensor works great for Froyo, but so-so or OK for GB, ICS, JB, CM7, CM9, or CM10.
When the built-in works, it has all kind of restriction such as does not work after CPU goes into deep sleep or you must do full lock immediately after reboot and before deep sleep & cannot toggle the gps off again.
So any solution that work ON/OFF on demand that is locks quickly with accuracy of within 30ft is perfect to me. You need accuracy of 30 ft or less or else google map or some other program will jump around on locking where you are and give false/wierd direction.
Fortunately, the option of using external GPS sensor via bluetooth is available in most Android and does the job well. I use GPS almost daily to check if there is traffic jam or other quicker alternative detour so the external bluetooth is always available in my car is perfect.
Not only that, it can save your battery too.
I gained about 5 hrs of battery time with Wifi & GPS off most of the time. I get even more battery time when I put the phone on Airplane mode and use GPS exclusively via bluetooth - meaning only bluetooth enable. I don't know how to explain it but I noticed it does. I guess the external sensor does most of the work and just relay minimal data to it and built-in radio/wifi/gps not running so it saves ton of battery.
So far, the coolest thing that worked now is I got more battery out of the phone under ICS or JellyBean ROM (not using built-in gps with wifi off) under Airplane mode and offline turn-by-turn navigation (google maps & Sygic) that still work with external sensor via bluetooth. In essence, that is like having the traditional garmin or tomtom gps anywhere you go as long as you have map available stored locally on your phone (aka offline). Sygic allows you to buy entire US map or the world and put it on your phone for offline navigation. Google maps allow only 6 offline map where each map is around 70-82mb or less. I got entire Orange county in my offline map and can use external gps to pinpoint where i am. The only sucky thing with google maps is you have to get the turn by turn navigation first then you can toggle gps off. Sygic does not rely on built-in gps enable in order for it to work. This is all great the next time I go to Yellowstone National park, since cell signal there sucks for T-mobile. With the external gps, you can put it on your hat and go hiking and still get gps to work wether you use online or offline Google maps, Sygic, Locus, or Orux....
To get your device able to use external GPS sensor via bluetooth, all you have to do is:
1) buy the bluetooth GPS sensor
2) download & install Bluetooth GPS app on android market ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=googoo.android.btgps&hl=en ) by Googoo Android
3) run it, checkmarked "Enable Mock GPS Provider", click Connect
4) go to device Settings, checkmarked "allow mock locations" or equivalent.
5) that's all...use any map software online or offline kind.
The lock I got with this is within 1 second and accuracy of around 6-15ft (on globalsat BT-368i)
You can use this device during hiking to save your cell battery.
You can also use it with mac, pc, windows phone, laptop, tablets that do not have gps sensor built-in with it...all for $12-25...worth it
WHILE DRIVING w/ ext BT GPS configued as Source GPS on CM10 Preview w/ ext bt option...11 out of 12 birds locked and accuracy down to 11ft...
The moment you turn on, it can lock 6+ satellites almost immediately
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EVEN ON AIRPLANE MODE (where almost everything is shutdown including DATA except for GPS & BT), it still saw 10 out of 12 birds with similar locking and was still able to navigate w/ ext bt gps
Navigation turn by turn under AIRPLANE mode
inaccurate signal for car navigation
kobesabi said:
* This involves setting up connection via bluetooth to external GPS sensor. If you already know about this, just skip this post. No flaming needed
If not and still frustrate with GPS accuracy with all the latest ROMs, then read on.
I'm just posting so late researcher and newbies are aware of this quick and easy option too instead of the soldering or other alteration that involves open up the physical device. I've been using it for almost 2 years but did not have time to read around much so did not know about this option until recently. I'm slow...I know...lol
Recently, I've been researching for better solid GPS solution and how to cut down battery drain on ICS & JellyBean and ran into a video that involve using external bluetooth. (I did tried the Corrected GPS hardware fix, didn't really help...)
Anyway, I found several external sensors out there, but the ones that are cheap and small are $12 TomTom MKII or $25 Globesat BT-368i at ebay/amazon.
I thought globesat has more capability and longer rechargeable battery life (10+) so I got the Globesat. But MKii probably will do just fine.
Vibrant built-in GPS sensor works great for Froyo, but so-so or OK for GB, ICS, JB, CM7, CM9, or CM10.
When the built-in works, it has all kind of restriction such as does not work after CPU goes into deep sleep or you must do full lock immediately after reboot and before deep sleep & cannot toggle the gps off again.
So any solution that work ON/OFF on demand that is locks quickly with accuracy of within 30ft is perfect to me. You need accuracy of 30 ft or less or else google map or some other program will jump around on locking where you are and give false/wierd direction.
Fortunately, the option of using external GPS sensor via bluetooth is available in most Android and does the job well. I use GPS almost daily to check if there is traffic jam or other quicker alternative detour so the external bluetooth is always available in my car is perfect.
Not only that, it can save your battery too.
I gained about 5 hrs of battery time with Wifi & GPS off most of the time. I get even more battery time when I put the phone on Airplane mode and use GPS exclusively via bluetooth - meaning only bluetooth enable. I don't know how to explain it but I noticed it does. I guess the external sensor does most of the work and just relay minimal data to it and built-in radio/wifi/gps not running so it saves ton of battery.
So far, the coolest thing that worked now is I got more battery out of the phone under ICS or JellyBean ROM (not using built-in gps with wifi off) under Airplane mode and offline turn-by-turn navigation (google maps & Sygic) that still work with external sensor via bluetooth. In essence, that is like having the traditional garmin or tomtom gps anywhere you go as long as you have map available stored locally on your phone (aka offline). Sygic allows you to buy entire US map or the world and put it on your phone for offline navigation. Google maps allow only 6 offline map where each map is around 70-82mb or less. I got entire Orange county in my offline map and can use external gps to pinpoint where i am. The only sucky thing with google maps is you have to get the turn by turn navigation first then you can toggle gps off. Sygic does not rely on built-in gps enable in order for it to work. This is all great the next time I go to Yellowstone National park, since cell signal there sucks for T-mobile. With the external gps, you can put it on your hat and go hiking and still get gps to work wether you use online or offline Google maps, Sygic, Locus, or Orux....
To get your device able to use external GPS sensor via bluetooth, all you have to do is
1) buy the bluetooth GPS sensor
2) download & install Bluetooth GPS app on android market by Googoo Android
3) run it, checkmarked "Enable Mock GPS Provider", click Connect
4) go to device Settings, checkmarked "allow mock locations" or equivalent.
5) that's all...use any map software online or offline kind.
The lock I got with this is within 1 second and accuracy of around 6-15ft (on globalsat BT-368i)
You can use this device during hiking to save your cell battery.
You can also use it with mac, pc, windows phone, laptop, tablets that do not have gps sensor built-in with it...all for $12-25...worth it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello everybody,
I have an Ainol Novo 7 Fire Tablet with the feiyu 1031 rom , and I just installed Sygic Maps on it yesterday, I also downloaded the bluetooth gps app by googoo android and when I connected my external bluetooth gps ,I got a lock on my position within seconds. My problem is that when I open Sygic maps, I get the error " Inaccurate Signal for Car Navigation" even though the bluetooth gps app shows me all the available satellites , I have enabled mock location in my setting also but still have no luck in sygic catching the gps signal
Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated
Thanks
Prakash
praks_khemlani said:
Hello everybody,
I have an Ainol Novo 7 Fire Tablet with the feiyu 1031 rom , and I just installed Sygic Maps on it yesterday, I also downloaded the bluetooth gps app by googoo android and when I connected my external bluetooth gps ,I got a lock on my position within seconds. My problem is that when I open Sygic maps, I get the error " Inaccurate Signal for Car Navigation" even though the bluetooth gps app shows me all the available satellites , I have enabled mock location in my setting also but still have no luck in sygic catching the gps signal
Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated
Thanks
Prakash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.
venky4rhyme said:
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same tablet with the same firmware and...
thanks for your answer! It works
AW: GPS alternative fix for android, mac, pc, phones, laptop tablets via bluetooth gp
Where do you get the globesat so cheap?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app
I'll have to give this a try and get back to you on the results. Thanks!
testomat said:
Where do you get the globesat so cheap?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. I would like to know this as well. I'm seeing the 368i for about $60 and the mkii for about $25.
smithmal
Test
test
---------- Post added at 10:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------
venky4rhyme said:
@prakash, i have ainol novo 7 fire tab with 4.0.4 version i would suggest you to install gps test and see if the app on your tab show the gps status as On in green color and also shows the gps coordinates. one thing i had to do with my tab is downloaded build prop editor app from appstore and edit the gps.enable propery from false to true (requires root access, and my ainol tab had default root access).
remember the ainol tab does not have a build in gps chip which is why you need to turn the above prop to true.
i am successfully using the below combination for my my ainol fire tab
nokia phone with built in gps. using extgp app from nokia to transmit gps coordinates over bluetooth. on my tab using gps bluetooth mouse and i now have gps location shown on google maps, navigator etc.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Everyone
Thanks for all the great info.
I have a Novo8 Discover with 4.1.1 trying to connect to a Samsun Captivate via bluetooth. I have tried all the fixes above except couldn`t find gps enable property so i changed gpswithwifi from 1 to 0. This allowed GPS Mouse to show connected but says unable to compute gps data. Also have GPS NMEA Sender installed on phone but on trying to connect says java.io IOError. Seems that I am close but am still doing something wrong. I have tried all sorts of things and spent a lot of time on this.
Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and best regards,
Robin
I use a Nokia LD3W with my Vibrant and it works fantastic. I use it while racing my motorcycle and the data refresh rate is so much higher and accurate than the internal, it works excellent.
Thanks for the reply.
My Discover doesn't have internal GPS so there is a bit of trickery involved to make it work. How is your battery life?
Truth is I bought the wrong tablet for my intended application. The company I bought it from said it had GPS and I took their word for it.
Haven't had time to mess with it lately but will keep you posted when I do get it running.
Regards
Robin
GPS problems
Hi everyone,
I realize the I don't have the time or skill to make this work.
I have an External GSP model BU-353 w/USB. I have ordered a female USB to male Micro USB.
I hope to make this work on my Novo8 Discover.
First, is it possible to make this into an accurate, reliable GPS?
Second, how much would it cost to have some pro help to make this work?
Thank you and regards,
Robin

Bluetooth does not connect automatically

I've been using the Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit for the last year with my Nexus 4.
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Bluetooth-Hands-Free-BlackBerry-Smartphones/dp/B004CLYJ2I
For the most part it has worked great. However, my new Note 3 will not connect automatically to the device, I always have to turn the screen on and select the bluetooth device to connect to it. My Nexus 4 would simply connect to it automatically if the bluetooth was switched on.
Any ideas?
hfuizo said:
I've been using the Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit for the last year with my Nexus 4.
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Bluetooth-Hands-Free-BlackBerry-Smartphones/dp/B004CLYJ2I
For the most part it has worked great. However, my new Note 3 will not connect automatically to the device, I always have to turn the screen on and select the bluetooth device to connect to it. My Nexus 4 would simply connect to it automatically if the bluetooth was switched on.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had similar issues with my bluetooth headset. When I would press the connect button on my bluetooth it wouldn't automatically connect, and the only solution I found was re-arranging my quick toggles in the notification bar so when I pull it down I can quickly access bluetooth settings and devices.
Yep am having problems with note 3 bluetooth. For a top of range phone, this bluetooth is crap. 2 headsets works when it wants and 6 works wagons only works in some! Am surprised no one else as commented on the bluetooth
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda premium
I had the same issue that my N3 didn't connect automatically to my BT-devices. I stumbled over a thread where I found some one else having the same issue who recommended the app "Bluetooth auto connect". I downloaded the app and now it just works. If you have the BT-scan dialog enabled, you see how it switches between the different paired devices in the list until it locks on to the one that's in range.
If you don't like that dialog, you can disable it using wanam (I think). Hope this helps.
Mikegrmn said:
I had the same issue that my N3 didn't connect automatically to my BT-devices. I stumbled over a thread where I found some one else having the same issue who recommended the app "Bluetooth auto connect". I downloaded the app and now it just works. If you have the BT-scan dialog enabled, you see how it switches between the different paired devices in the list until it locks on to the one that's in range.
If you don't like that dialog, you can disable it using wanam (I think). Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try. Does this app have any affect on your battery life?
hfuizo said:
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try. Does this app have any affect on your battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for me. But I may not be the average user. I'm getting 3 days of battery life out of my N3. I only turn wireless (3g / wifi) on when I need it and do the same with BT. But I found it really inconvenient to have to select my connected BT device. For switching BT on and off, I use tasker. I have a setting that checks for the music app of my choice, and when I start it and have no headphones connected, tasker turns on BT.

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