It is normal for GPS to take some time to lock in signal during a "cold" boot. There are several parameters that affect spped of lock that GPS can achieve. They are:
1. time of day,
2. your location (downtown of the big city with high scrapers vs. suburban)
3. your speed upon attempting to lock the signal.
I downloaded GPS Test and noticed that while stationary I am able to lock satellite signal within 2 - 3 min with 16 - 20 feet accuracy. Whenever moving, it takes about 3 - 4 min (which is basically twice as long) with the accuracy of about 100+ feet. But even while driving, accuracy of the GPS improves as soon as at least 5 satellites are being locked.
I am in total consent with you. The GPS was very nasty for me to get use to. It loads very slowly and it's just very hard to use.the lagging is soooooo annoying.
Though I have to agree that GPS cold boot is somewhat slow. Performances of the GPS while locked are outstanding. Recently, I was on 200+ miles trip through a lot of a new development neighborhoods (2 years old or less) in Northern California and my standalone GPS Mio DigWalker C310 (which is 4 year old) of course didn't have map for all those streets but Google maps worked perfectly. On the freeway, Fascinate GPS performance is also on par with my other GPS and more.
I have a high hopes that with 2.2 upgrade GPS cold lock issue will be resolved.
I have downloaded 3 different gps apps (Gps Status, Gps Test, and a GPS status and toolbox) none of them seem to work on my phone. The toolbox one will show me north in the south direction when I rotate my phone. The gps test one show gps on but zero in view and zero in use, satelites I assume. This test app never seems show anything. Finally the gps test never shows me a latitude and longitude no matter how long I wait.. my gps is on and the taskbar on the top shows the dish rotating. Google maps does seem to get some informaton but is never accurate to less than a block.
Anyone else have issues with GPS ???
Well, Abysmal would be about right... my Fascinate has been "Worthless" in GPS Loc right from the word go... I looked around and found numerous complaints about this issue and just as many suggestions about the "New" Android Bios update which has been out for some time... Yet the phone out of the box didn't have it last week, and some how I don't see it on the "Update" list either, WHY...?
Needless to say, when I came across the discussion here about this issue and the GPS Status/Tools download... I buzzed over to Market and downloaded it pronto. The first thing I noted was but a "SINGLE" satellite on my screen.... No Wonder the Verizon Bloatware was not allowing my phone to get a GPS Loc... I also just for giggles checked to see what the VZ Nav product cost a month... TO ACCESS A FREE SERVICE provided by Our Tax Dollars, up in Space.... Out Rageous...
Anyway, the moment I pressed "Clean Cache" and Reset.... Bang, I had at least 10+ satellites on my screen [and yes I walked outside...] With in about 10 sec. I had full GPS Loc, calibrated the Compass, and cleaned up the Lousy Settings or what ever Verizon loaded as preset spam for their GPS service... I have both Google Earth, and their Nav products loaded... Both FREE, and neither was working properly.... Until Now!
I would highly recommend getting this Free Download, and when I'm done here I'm going to look into what they are offering as their "Paid" app... doubtless it looses the micro ad on the bottom of the open screen, and maybe even gives you a bit more for your generosity. I can't believe Verizon puts this High End Droid out there... with dismal or abysmal settings, doubtless for $10 a month they would be willing to fix it, for those who don't bother to look into solutions on their own...
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Done Deal... a $2.63 donation to the cause, and I'm ad free... not to mention having "FULL" access to All the Features of the Full App.. settings, presets, and a whole plethora of other goodies that alone are worth the minor donation... doubtless Google will get their "$1.00" on top of it... Overall though, considering how much it "IMPROVED" the GPS Signal Strength and Lock... Immediatly... l literally watched all the satellites suddenly appear, where at first there was but "One!" Its no wonder the GPS was not working... This app gets 5 Stars from me.... if that is worth anything, hope others out there get the same results.
Scout, where did you press "Clean cache" and reset?
Thank you. I would like to get this working too.
After downloading the GPS Status app... the first window suggests you "Clear/Clean Cache" and then warns you it will remove ALL pre-sets & history, and it did in fact do that ; the app cleared out the pre-loaded p*^%-poor settings. Once I cleared them all out via the app I was good to go. I also was notified of a couple app "updates" over the past couple days and found that they did in fact improve matters as well. So i don't doubt over the course of time this functionality will get better and better. Neither was from "Verizon" for the sake of noting that....
I was actually testing it out yesterday, and was finally able to Navigate with Google in real time.... it also worked with voice commands for the find & navigate functions. The whole GPS feature was up to speed & functional, following my progress on the highway to and from the locations I was going. the one complaint I have is the phone volume was almost unintelligible, so I don't know if hooking it up to the vehicle audio or a blue-tooth would be better, but as for graphics & directions it worked perfectly.
Now, bare in mind... you NEED to have a Data Plan for this to occur on the road... and it is running the whole time, so if you have a limited data plan its going to be racking up usage. I've got the Unlimited Plan so its not an issue, but if your paying by the bit & byte... it could burn through your limits pretty darn quick if your using it as your GPS device while driving every day!
It's not really an end all be all solution though as the GPS will start lagging again over time so you'll need to go back into the app. I did notice that disabling Verizon location services and leaving the other 2 enabled under Location & Security does help decrease lock times. I'm currently running the leaked DJ05 update and if my experiences are any hint at the upcoming maintenance release, the gps woes will be a thing of the past. Hopefully Verizon gets it or a newer release out soon to tide their customers over while they wait for Froyo.
I would expect that your cache does need a clean out regardless now and then, as it gets chock-a-block full of temp files etc. it will doubtless need to be dumped.
I'd really like to see that "Improvement" to the bios, it would appear by all measures of the word Verizon is way behind the curve on this update, doubtless working on how to stuff their bloatware into the cleaned up package... what ever the moniker it happens to have from Android... Sadly, that appears to be the way they do business and its no wonder people do things to limit this annoyance. Its not like they are not making any dough off of us, but they want it all... in the end the carriers are no better than Apple with their behavior in this regard. They can't or more factually won't rely on the quality of their programs, and let the market decide... NO they have to limit the Consumer's Free Choice, to their own restrictive domain... Typical Predatory Behavior, sadly if one does it they all have an excuse... When will they learn, no time soon I contend...
Hopefully they grace us with the pleasure of a fully functional GPS, not to mention the many other niceties that these Very Capable Phones are designed to provide... rather than limit & impede them.
I have to say, I have the Verizon locator, standalone GPS and Google locator all active. And my GPS response is much faster than my Garmin standalone device (which is pretty much a paperweight at this point) - I usually lock onto my location within 30 seconds. From my perspective, this device is the most-useful GPS device I've ever used, since you can get mapping or satellite imagery useful both in walking and driving modes.
Maybe my expectations were lower, or maybe my usage pattern just suits the capabilities of the Fascinate, but I love the thing.
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