Use Your Old Android Phone As A Dedicated GPS
Using your phone as a GPS is convenient but sometimes it's not the most practical thing. I'm driving my wife to the hospital because she's in the middle of childbirth. I'm using Google maps to navigate but I also want to stay up to date with what my friends are up to on Snapchat. I'm switching back and fourth between apps and this causes me to miss a turn. As usual, my wife starts over reacting to this. I really need to come up with a solution to all of this. How can I use my old Android phone to solve the problem? I'll tell ya.
To navigate using Google maps you need three things. You'll need a phone, a data connection and a GPS chip in your device. Your old phone will undoubtedly have a GPS chip but you're probably not going to want to activate a data plan for it. That's ok because there's a workaround.
You're going to want to use a trick that saves Google maps data for offline use. Follow these simple steps to get that done.
So now you'll be able to get directions even when you don't have any data. Just mount your old phone in your car and there you have it. You've got a dedicated GPS for free. Now all you need is a dash mount and you can find some really good ones on Amazon for around $20.
Bell+Howell Clever Grip-Pro Dash Mount
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Now you shouldn't run into any issues with multitasking on your phone while driving.
Nice idea so your phone isn't tied up as a passenger in a car. But, please don't multitask on your phone while driving! I've seen too many people mangled and too much damage done by people who thought it was OK for them to do something like send a Snapchat while driving, because of course they are capable or aware enough of their surroundings.
Whooosh!
That was the sound of the sarcasm in his post going over your head.
I do use my old phone (galaxy Note 2) and ZTE blade lite as dedicated gps device on my car. Why? Because every other phone I have, gps is broken or quite poorly. That is multiple devices including LG G3, G5, Galaxy S4, Note4, Note edge, ZTE obsidian (multiple if each, some rooted, some on LineageOs others stock. I have my LG G3 on LineageOS 10 for example). GPS used to work fine on all these devices as recently as last year and one day all of them quit working or work very unreliably. GPS work very well only on ZTE Blade T2 lite and galaxy Note 2 (I have several, some rooted, some running lineageOS, various carriers) and also Galaxy S3 GPS work without exception. GPS works marginally on galaxy S7 and LG G4. Really odd thing. It appears to be related to gps chip in use? Nothing I tried on make GPS work acceptably on other phones I have worked. I tried following suggestions found on XDA, such as swapping sim card, force stopping apps using gps etc. From my experience it appears that on most older android phones, GPS quit working or working acceptably well and cannot be used as stand alone gps device any more.
Related
I'm on my second X8 in two weeks, the first kept losing signal and dropping calls in places where my cheap work phone would show good signal. O2 my provider were very good and swapped it but the new one is exactly the same!
I've done a bit of net searching and found a few folk with similar issues on the X8 but not huge numbers. Anybody here have this problem? found a cure for it?
I think those magnetic things you put under the battery to improve signal are pure snake oil so won't go that route but without a solution I'm going to have to send back the X8 and go for another make. No point having a phone that can't make phone calls.
that is the weird problem..
it's diffence for me, my phone is better signal if compare with other's phone.
in my experience, have you used the battery/energy saver? it could impact the signal i think. more u reduce the signal/battery, more poor the signal u would received..
When I first got this phone, it was fine, reception wasn't a problem. But a month later, my reception is terrible and it's really hard to connect to the internet, I can only do it in certain places. Where as before I could do it anywhere.
I'm worried I might have damaged the 3G aerial when I dropped it that one time.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I have the same experince like 2 above. The signal is better than on my other phones
So the problem is unique, not common in all X8
It's not a battery issue, I keep the phone well topped up and it even happens when the phone is vehicle mounted on charge. I drive a lot and use the phone a lot, there's an area on one of the routes I take about a mile long where there is no signal at all, the X8 loses reception much sooner and gets it back much later than any other phone I've used (i.e. 2-3 mile area). This makes me think the antenna is not very good or is blocked somehow by the phone body.
It's a shame, I like the phone, I know it's cheap and I was happy to accept slow performance / lack of features but in every respect it works well, it's well built and looks good. I just can't trust it not to cut me off mid call.
Hello, I've been best friends with my Atrix since a little over a year now. We have had many experiences together and our relationship has bloomed a lot with time. I confess I haven't completely looked after my phone, I'm a little clumsy, specially if I don't get to sleep enogh. So almost a month ago, after getting up very early, I was reading a notification when my phone fell. I tried to grab it but I pushed it even more. It went straight to a cornered tile on my bathroom. This was the result:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
And trust me, it's much worst in person than you can see there. Surprisingly enough the touchscreen works just as fine as it always did, even the notification area works fine (the top of the screen has been the more affected area), although I can't use the front camera anymore because there's a big scratch on top of it. Also something happened to the headphone jack because I can't use it anymore. Regardless of all this, the phone itself keeps working like a charm. I have been unemployed for a couple of months now, have a couple of bad debts so I don't have any money to fix it for the time being, so I have no choice but to use it like this.
But I have two weird errors, which has caused me to write this. The first one is related to the proximity sensor. Everytime I answer a call, the screen turns off as it should, but after the call end the screen doesn't come back on and there's no way for me to turn it, so I have to pull the battery and reset it. I tried to mark the option for the screen not to turn off when I pick a call but it keeps doing it regardless, so I suppose what I should do is to try to take the phone apart and see what's happening on the inside.
This pulling of the battery has led me to the discovery of the second error which I think it's the most interesting: 1 out of maybe 20 times that I do that, for whatever reason, a random app gets uninstalled from my phone. The first time it happened I blamed the app (growlr was the first), but then I saw it happened to Twitter, then to Google Plus, then to Script Manager. And it's not like it gets deleted completely, if I go to the app manager I can see it on the list but not with the regular name (ie: com.twitter.whatever instead of just Twitter). I'm using Neutrino but I'm not sure if I could blame the system, I think it's caused from the battery pulling in the same way turning off a computer by force can produce errors on the file system.
So has any of you come across problems like these before? Do you have any suggestions?
Hey
I recently bought a used G900H (seller said the box was only opened and phone not used but doesnt seem right)
So it looks mint, just like a new one would. Is certainly not a fake one too, passes all the tests, works very fluently and scores 42000+ on Antutu. Just flashed lollipop on it and all is nice BUT :
I tried to use s-beam and generally nfc - toggle turns on and phone thinks it works but doesnt, cant transfer anything, nothing happens at all. Same for IR (infrared), app thinks it works but it doesnt and I looked at IR transmitter through a camera and it doesnt light up as it should when being used. Blue led indicator flashed though.
SD card works but a couple of times a day promts that sd card is blank or unsupported, then eventually starts working again. SOmetimes promts it is safe to remove by itself.
Battery cover was 10/10 but just after what was like 5 times I removed and put it back on to interchange sd cards etc, 4 small cracks appeared on it,a piece of it even has fallen out and left a hole near a side.
I was also having battery drains but disabled some google services and battery is fine (by the way I have checked and the battery is genuine one)
What is happening ? I would appreciate any information
try to do factory reset wipe data etc. then download cpuz to be sure that it is real g900h (exynos).
after all if still having issues probably the phone has been damaged from the seller ..
I've had multiple factory resets and tried multiple roms, I am not new to android and this is in fact a genuine exynos model.
Everything points to a fake unit, or at least missing some hw. Did you download antutu yourself or did it came pre-installed on the phone?
I installed antutu myself, did all the checks, phone is 100% genuine and software wise works flawlessly. Also checked with Genuine galaxy app etc - passes just fine. Camera is incredible and speed of the phone as well. Also I have flashed G900H firmwares successfully so I wouldnt have succeeded that on a fake device. So in the case that seller had the phone damaged, what might have been done to it ?
Lollipop is very bad.. It made ud return the phone for repairs as it is so bad.
The nfc is located at a weird point on the back..
Battery drains like an insane... 30 percent pr. Hour here from time to time
I have also had terrible battery drain prior to disabling some services.
Here are some screenshots of what I had, maybe someone knows what might be the cause of this activity ? Battery was draining 100 to 0% in a few hours. I have now disabled these services using Disable Service app and can get through the whole day with heavy use no problem.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
So if anyone is having similar problems here is what I found :
This was a refurbished phone thats all
and probably wasnt being used to well too
For some reason the wifi on my phone is acting strangely, it just started doing so a few days ago but before that it was all fine. Basically what is happening is that my wifi will be really slow to the point of not connecting to websites (Connection timed out etc.) however the wifi starts to work if I turn it off and then back on, but then stops. I really don't want to be doing that every 5 seconds. It used to be fine and then suddenly it started being weird. So basically my phone is quite useless now since I use my phone for everything (I log into my google account with my phone, I need to use the steam app on my phone and other important stuff). The wifi on all my other devices is fine like usual. Bluetooth also says that the bluetooth address is unavailable but I don't use bluetooth so it doesn't affect me but I think it's also to do with my problem.
Currently using Sokkoban's Deodexed ROM.
What I've tried doing:
Removed PurePerformancesX.
Cleared Cache.
Reflashed the ROM.
Flashed to the Official Lollipop update.
Flashed to the Official Marshmallow update.
Rebooted my router.
Reset my router.
Anything else to do?
Screenshots of About Device:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I've heard about this, it seems it's a common problem among P8 lite users.
Sent from my ALE-L21 using XDA-Developers mobile app
It sounds like it could be a faulty wireless card in the phone or the drivers bugged out. Blimin' shame that your warranty is void cause I am pretty sure they would have to fix that for you.
I actually had a very similar thing happen to my old iPhone 4s, wireless just completely died in the end. No regrets about that though, it brought me to android.
Really though, sorry to see you are having trouble with this and I really hope someone here can help you more.
Szabi01 said:
I've heard about this, it seems it's a common problem among P8 lite users.
Sent from my ALE-L21 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, a Google search got me quite a few problems like mine but no solutions.
Horacio55555 said:
It sounds like it could be a faulty wireless card in the phone or the drivers bugged out. Blimin' shame that your warranty is void cause I am pretty sure they would have to fix that for you.
I actually had a very similar thing happen to my old iPhone 4s, wireless just completely died in the end. No regrets about that though, it brought me to android.
Really though, sorry to see you are having trouble with this and I really hope someone here can help you more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I decided to remove the back cover of my phone to see what the problem could be, but then my screwdriver was too big to open any further. I still don't know where the WiFi + BT antennas are. And since TalkTalk are cool, they said that my warranty lasts as long as I carry on paying my contracts, which is good. However since I'm just out of the 28 day return window I'll need to give them a call so that Carphone Warehouse can repair it for me for free.
Renaldas2000 said:
Yeah, a Google search got me quite a few problems like mine but no solutions.
I decided to remove the back cover of my phone to see what the problem could be, but then my screwdriver was too big to open any further. I still don't know where the WiFi + BT antennas are. And since TalkTalk are cool, they said that my warranty lasts as long as I carry on paying my contracts, which is good. However since I'm just out of the 28 day return window I'll need to give them a call so that Carphone Warehouse can repair it for me for free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the problem is solved, isn't it?
Sent from my ALE-L21 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Sprint LS997, refurb bought Oct 2017 via Amazon, non-rooted, Android 8.0.0 for a few months now.
Searched other threads for solutions but could not find anything applicable.
Up until a few weeks ago, everything about this phone worked great. But I dropped it onto concrete sidewalk (basic case didn't do much) where the case and back popped off (battery stayed in though). Later that evening I went to use the GPS but was unresponsive. Did some Googling for possible causes and ended up buying a new top cap (LS997) for a few bucks to see if that would fix it - unfortunately it did not. Tried putting on my original factory back cover (current factory back case has magnet attached) but GPS still dead. All other network stuff work just fine (at least BT and WiFi which is all I use).
So I removed the top cap again to see if any of those tiny springs/contacts were goofed up, and noticed that my phone does not exactly match the one shown in this post:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=78264829&postcount=11
If you look at the two contacts on the right side of stevejs's H918, my LS997 only has the (EDIT) contact on the right side - the left one is not there. Could it have been knocked loose from the fall, then when I originally took off the top cap to inspect, that one contact fell out without me noticing? Both my endcaps have the same contacts as shown, so nothing appears to have been dislodged from it. Not sure if another LS997 owner can check their phone to confirm...
Besides buying another phone (V20 or otherwise) to have a working GPS again, any suggestions from this community for a possible repair?
I tried to link steve's image below with my note in yellow (link is to my photo via my Google acct), but not sure it'll display correctly - thus my verbal explanation above of the missing contact.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
So...no suggestions?
I remember I used to have a ppc6700. That was one of the original smart phones, probably 18 years ago.
Those didn't have built in GPS. However, I was able to get a Bluetooth GPS for it... Relatively cheap.
Imagine those are still available for sale and that would solve your problem on the cheap. Probably mountable in your car.
Thanks for the reply, though probably won't go that route. If a local repair shop can't diagnose or repair, I'll just buy a NOS V20 from ebay and call it a day.