yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
It goes out the window if I suspect the information is faulty - like when you think you can connect a Bluetooth GPS to android.

Even if the information is true - which Im not convinced it is at the moment, we see issues with GPS Test and stability even though that constantly polls, and you can set MyTracks to 20second intervals without the GPS icon going off - then the HTC Desire would have to be absolutely incredible in getting a warm start fix as soon as the request is made.

But in blaming the app developer, I think you're missing the bigger picture.

As a programmer, you shouldn't really care about the underlying hardware. What you care about it that the OS and the underlying API's will effectively make everything standard and work in the same way.

I don't care what make and model of hard drive is present, or what speed it is, or if power saving turns the disks off, all I trust is that if I issue a write command, the OS wakes the drive up and writes the information to disk.

Same with Android. It shouldn't be down to the app developer to do different things depending on phone model.

The Default two second interval on MyTracks works fine on lots of other phones as far as Im aware, as does the constantly polling GPS Test.

Perhaps Samsung should fix their warm start routines or allow a greater timeout before shutting down GPS.

Not that Im convinced GPS goes down in 2 seconds, as remember, the NMEA data was produced in more frequent intervals and that also displayed the problem with no disconnections.

If the GPS had disconnected after two seconds, I surely would have had many more GPS log files to wade through.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Janis:
I want to take my vote back.

So far my location detection has been fine, but I generally have Wifi on when it's plugged in, and I plug it in when I use GPS-intensive apps.

I used GPS Test, and sure enough, the couple of times I checked it, it sucked.

I know people were having trouble with reception by having their hand covering part of the phone, so I thought I'd do some weird stuff.

I noticed that I get somewhat taller grey bars when I put the phone face down (yes, I'm standing underneath it dork-style). I just thought that was curious. It would indicate a less-than-ideal general design, or maybe that they put the chip in upside down.

So I tried checking it again tonight. 2 grey bars. No lock. Then I stuck the phone in the freezer (icebox, whatever) for about a minute and a half. I pulled it out, and I got a lock in about ten sconds, that lasted about 30 seconds. So I enabled leave screen on, and put it in the freezer. It got a fresh lock inside the freezer. In other words, it worked better cold than it did by a big window.

In the course of this goofing off, I realized I put my phone right in front of an air conditioner vent when I hang it in my car. Voila, great GPS. (Now I just have to figure out where to put the thing in the winter....)

I have yet to own a phone that didn't have some hardware shortcut somewhere, but maybe if we gripe enough about this, HTC and Samsung (that's all I've tried) will stop thinking we're idiots/won't care.

EDIT: That crack I made about the upside down chip? Would that expose it to more heat from inside the phone?

Also, I'm getting more success with GPS Status (both of them) right now than GPS Test. There might be some hope.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
no, that's a misinterpretation. You can always suspect that the person is missing some knowledge or has a wrong information source, that's true. The point of the principle is that you put that suspicion between brackets and that you are giving the speaker the benefit of the doubt, until you're sure enough that there is enough evidence. The clue is not always attributing more knowledge to yourself than the speaker you are trying to interpret. Only that can make a forceless, bi-directional conversation possible. ;)

Remember there are no truths that aren't possible canditates for refutation or falsification, including what you think or say yourself.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Janis:
OK, this was just a stupid post.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Janis:
Totally off subject, but I read this, and this is absolutely the best social-psych article I have ever read. This is exactly why you shouldn't nod and smile and say no when she asks "does my butt look big in these pants?"
[Galaxy S I9000 General] adoois:
Anyone investigated the small round gold connector under the back cover?

(It's next to the snipped off corner of the sim card, as seen in this review, the fourth picture down.)

I've read it might be for fitting an external antenna for phone signal, but maybe it's for fitting a GPS antenna?

Might be worth a try for the GPS problem. You never know. Something to play with as we wait for some long lost update to come out of the jungle!

Always wondered what it is, and why is it there? Anything that fits onto it would have to have a modified back cover.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] peterlan:
Apples solution to "Antennagate"

Samsungs solution to "GPS-gate"
[Galaxy S I9000 General] milsjg:
A GPS error however very short (in time)

Well if you read my earlier comments you know that I am satisfied with my GPS. However a peculiar thing happened yesterday. I downloaded a lot of GPS programs from the market just for fun and tested them and they worked. I do not remember which I used as the last program but after the testing I used GPS test and did not get a lock (i tried for a minute I usually get it after 5-10 sec). I restarted the phone nothing happened. I then got to the test menu and choose MS assisted and it started to work normally. I changed back to standalone and it still works.

That may indicate that programs may alter something (register etc) so the lock is made impossible (or at least harder). I would suggest that if you have a problem you could test using different programs before starting the GPS. Earlier in this forum somebody said that the problem was connected to compass conflicting with the GPS driver. My little mishap support that theory.

There were also rumors about a solar storm that would hit the earth yesterday. So as always there are alternative theory's for every problem.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Christ, no. I do not have it. This is one of the very rare occasions when I actually manage to find a swearing-inducing problem before I've part up with the money and can no longer have it back.

So it is a bit of a sweet-sour feeling as in a way I feel lucky but in other ways it annoys me because I like the rest of the hardware and could actually live with the the lag, the lack of flash or LED notification.

Yet, deep down I want to get it because you are right, I will find plenty of details to blame samsung and their friends (Broadcom and so on) for obvious and less obvious fishy design decisions.

Perhaps it is because I am a professional SQA/Tester (mostly working on the mobile networks and not on these terminals tho). It is a very rewarding job where you make your money basically pointing your finger at people's errors and laughing wildly while opening yet another bug report.

Maybe I'm being too theatrical here but I'd still ***** about Samsung's sloppiness, pretty much like I ***** about any brand or product I get to play with for long enough.

Ohhh.. but look at the pretty SAMOLED... so pretty. Must have one. Must have one... /walks away in a trance.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
Exactly, the screen is awesome and yeah, far too much drama in your post :)

The phone has its flaws but also its strengths, havent seen a phone out there without its issues or weaknesses and only one android phone has a decent flash as far as I know.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
This actually does not affect GPS at all, or cure its underlying problems. It enables Skyhook, an ancillary service that uses non-GPS means (war-driving WiFi maps) to estimate location.

Actually, just going throught the *#*#1472365#*#* configuration menu and making any change at all may cause some temporarily apparent miracle in behavior because it resets the low-lelvel GPS drivers. But many users of such snake-oil fixes later report that their phones have reverted to poor GPS performance. That is part of the general pattern of this pernicious flaw.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
I'm normally pretty picky about my purchases, and often disappointed with them after getting them home and playing with them. But this phone has for the most part been very satisfying. I've had it for other a month now and I'm still being surprised by it, and pleased I bought it.

Sure this GPS mess is a pain, but once they finally release the driver that should have shipped with the phone in the first place, that will all be forgotten :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Well, TrekBuddy can use external GPS, as far as I know. But in general the external GPS is not really supported on Android, yes.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Hydrostatic:
There are so many pages in this thread that I didn't read everyone of them, but most anyway...

Has it been mentioned that also Samsung's other Android devices, at least, Galaxy Spica i5700 has similar GPS problems. It's actually totally unusable. Short routes saved with MyTracks or other programs are kilometers longer than in reality. According to GPS I have been circulating around and jumping 300 meters from the route etc. I have Galaxy Spica and Galaxy S. I bought Galaxy S, because thought it would be better. If Samsung won't admit this problem and it won't be properly fixed, quess am I going to buy anything from Samsung ever.

By the way, it's quite embarassing that Samsung made jokes about iPhone 4's antenna problems, but is itself struggling with serious quality issues. I don't like Apple's products, but I don't like these kind of problems either.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Samsung have said they are going to fix it, with separate announcements from Samsung in the US, UK and Korea.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
I know what you mean. But if I knew a rotten driver as the reason I'd go to the store right next door and spit out the 460€. What makes me have to control the urge is the possibility that it might need a new hardware revision (board, antenna design, shielding, mojo hyperdrive controller or whatever). I've seen it happen in the past with faulty products that ended up needing changes to the physical manufacturing process.

I'm not grumpy at Samsung for not having fixed it yet. I'm grumpy at them for not sharing some clear unambiguous information on if the fix will require unit servicing/recalls. The second possibility would hurt current sales and spawn a crowd of complaining lost people so maybe, just maybe that's why they're not opening their mouth on it and will quietly roll out updated hardware... or maybe not at all since previous Samsungs also seemed to be quite bad at knowing where they're going. Maybe it's an asian cultural issue; Some people don't mind a funny loop here or there or a graveyard-running detour while you're actually driving on the highway.

Maybe we're just too picky.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] FITRS:
I took off the crappy screen protector on my SGS yesterday and put on a pic of a babe...:D

The SAMOLED...... beautiful. ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Doesn't make any difference. Even if you call her and she sends you her coords I don't think you're gonna find her... not without asking for directions anyway :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
If that's true, then I could come up with some half baked theory about why the GPS isn't working - ie, "the sensitivity of the GPS is a double edged sword. as well as providing fast fixes to weak satellites, it is also more sensitive to Rf and magnetic radiation, as well as passing objects in the sky that causes the signal to distort and bounce around". You'd have to take my word for it without knowing anything further.

No I prefer not to do that.

Let me see if I can explain where I am coming from further and why I disagree with your application developer friend.

I've taken a quick look throught the API for Android, and while I confess that I have never developed any programs for android, I cannot see anything about a two second timeout for GPS. I find the idea that Android would kill the GPS after two seconds of inactivity quite laughable when the average GPS takes much longer than that to acquire a fix.

The second thing, is my experience. MyTracks by default uses One Second polling, and GPS Test polls more frequently, yet we still see problems. So two seconds cannot be the reason here. I've also set MyTracks to poll every five seconds today and I had a near perfect track. Work that out!

Additionally, if the GPS was turning itself off after two seconds, I'd have very many more GPS NMEA log files showing itself powering up, spitting out NMEA data and shutting down. I don't think this two second idea is true.

If it is true however, then I would pick up on your observations where you think application developers should come up with functions to keep the GPS open, yet in a previous post, I think you applaud Google for coming up with this idea while criticising developers for not closing the port.

I really do not think that this is down to the developers to develop workarounds for several different types of hardware and to keep ports open. It is upto Android and everything below it, to ensure correct tracking.

As far as I know, the API call is "requestLocationUpdate" which should poll the GPS for location information. I would suspect that when the calling thread/program closes or sleeps, then so does the Location Update. Which is why we see when we close our programs, or press the home key, the GPS icon disappears.

The only thing developers should ned to know are the API calls. It is the API calls that create a standard programming interface, the API talks to the OS, the OS to the Samsung drivers, the Samsung drivers to the Broadcom hardware.

This two second theory doesn't ring true in theory, doesn't appear true according to the Google API, and doesn't happen in Practice.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Here is an interest observation: I was having terrible GPS accuracy problem in the past week or so doing various test. Then, some posts in this thread inspired me to do something different: charge the phone while try out the GPS. I did a test this morning during my 25-mile commute with phone plugged into the charger. From the Google MyTracks map, I can see the GPS has been doing quite well for over 90% of my trip. There are still a few jumps and weired loops but overall it is doing quite well. My phone was sitting in my center console cup holder with only sun roof to view the sky.

So, I'm thinking, may be put the phone in external power causes the GPS chip to work in non-power save mode and get better sensitivity and hence better accuracy.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
The BCM4751 has built in power management and draws directly from the battery under its own control. I think what you've seen is just co-incidental.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Someone else said it best. The GPS has a schizophrenic personality.

Here's another reasonable track I did this morning:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...2.465318,-1.766052&spn=0.056579,0.181789&z=13

I thought, great, maybe it's working now. I can go back to Waze and start doing the road updates.

Only I get:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...2.492397,-1.742792&spn=0.014136,0.045447&z=15
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Hey that's really good. I'm glad I did something semi-stupid and finally bought an SGS today. 16 GB model. Only brought it home because the guy at the store assured me that they would take it back (if it was in good condition, no scratches and so) up to 30 days after purchase... he was aware of GPS issues and said he heard of a fix coming out. The usual vapor and no clear facts.

My, what a fine track. That's quite motivational now that the money is gone.

Holy mot"#4ie, godd"#$m. That's really quite a good piece of #"$E=....

What did you do between the two tracks? Did it warm up a lot? Ran some more apps? Didn't do the reboot? Forgot to kill the sacrificial chicken as before?

I already loaded My Tracks, ndrive, google navi and GPS Status (and not much more) on the phone and will try to save a path tomorrow on my way to work.

PS: Comes with I9000XXJM1, build number ECLAIR.XWJM2. Won't bother with updates until Froyo final comes out... if I haven't returned it by then due to poor GPS performance.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] tejajuloori:
Does the gps show incorrect location only during tracking? Or is it the same evn during navigation and at a fixed location?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Kilack:
You sure you don't just have some medical condition? blackouts... crazy driving... have you gone back and checked the properties for damage? :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nicoloco:
Yesterday I did a quick test with imapmyrun

I got a lock pretty quick ( less than 30sec) and the location was quite good ... Even if I was not in the blue circle displayed

So I stayed still for couple of minute to see what was going to happen ...

And forst of all the I lost the lock every so and then and I have been located very far from where I was and with a very bad accuracy
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
JF3? That's ANCIENT though..When I purchased my phone a bit longer than a month ago, even it came with JF4. Maybe try again with a later firmware?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
about the poll

Isn't it remarkable to see that I use GPS a lot and sometimes it's Ok, other times unusable and I use GPS a lot and it's really bad. do have both the most votes and the same scores?

Isn't it an idea to change those options to more discriminating options like:

- The GPS is accurate most of the time, but sometimes it is practically unusable

and

- The GPS is unusable most of the time, but somtimes I have a great accuracy.

It may exclude the factor that users vote for the really bad option when it actually is really bad sometimes.

I started another poll with these options together with an option to indicate which firmware one is running: new GPS Poll
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
The problem with the poll is people cant change their vote afterwards. I'm pretty sure a number of people voted for Ok, and have later discovered they also have GPS issues. I also think there were too many options. Simply, it works fine, it partly works, it sux, would have been sufficient. :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] appelflap:
For simplicity I've created a new poll with 13 options :eek::) I just wanted to take firmware into account also (3x4 options + 1).

You're right it would be nice if users could change their votes afterwards. To take different results after a few weeks of use into account, I changed the instruction of the poll (like that will work... )
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gadjet0:
Sorry if its been asked before I did look through a lot of posts. Is it possible to use an external bluetooth GPS receiver with the SGS?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Not at the moment, its a limitation of Android rather than the phone though.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wheelboy:
i have another poll .i have a samsung galaxy s and it wont connect to kies ore my pc .it runs on w7 x64 other pc w7 x32 and another one w7 x64 with no programs on it .none connects whatever i do .i run an unrooted xxjf3 firmware .

so far i have reinstalled kies reinstalled the drivers have done an intern and extrn mount and remount sd card .anybody some suggestions .

btw gps works sometimes very fast sometimes not at all (yes outside the house) and isnt accurate at all some times .
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bynar010:
I have another poll, should I go for a pint after work or not?

Btw gps works crap.

Stay on topic ffs, there's loads of other kies threads you can post this on.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pharaohdk:
is there a app that will track the route you are driving/walking/running trough the gps.

Since I would like to see if my phone is far o, trough and around town.

---edite---

never mind read trough the topics and fone one, my tracks. tho are there any better ones?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't "location was quite good" and "I was not in the blue circle" mutually exclusive?

If I'm not mistaken, TrekBuddy supports external GPS on Android just fine...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
It could well do, but that's supported from the app itself. Android doesn't support overriding the default GPS with an external bluetooth one.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Ah, then we both understand the statement "it's a limitation of Android" differently - I understand it as "you can't do that on Android at all", therefore my answer.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Here are the first results with my new SGS 16 GB (XXJM1)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...254,0.046434&z=15&iwloc=00048d2c278fbc21e8849

Deplorable. Tracks are quite poor and car navigation was also extremely unreliable (google/ndrive) to the point of being useless.

I noticed the usual details that were already mentioned... no more than 8 locks, no locks at under 20 SnR, frequent loss/hopping and so on.

I don't think it will take me 30 days to return it. If there are no major news in the next days, I'll probably go for my money back next week.

It might be drivers/firmware indeed but I'm also suspicious of hardware design and antena sensitivity.

Otherwise it has actually been a pleasant unit so far.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sjdean:
Here's two maps I've done today using XWJM5. Still an old version of the GLL driver, so maybe I just got lucky and had some good satellites overhead.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...550985943901485575.00048d2cca9db218063ab&z=12

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...550985943901485575.00048d2cc512303b94795&z=13

A few niggles, but looking better.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] thunderstruck!:
Holy crap, that's pathetic. 500 bucks for that?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jonidroid:
All is working without any problems , im so happy i have working GPS :D

Im on JM5 firmware
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boomerbubba:
sjdean,

Just for reference, when you run your tracking tests, are you running in Standalone (pure GPS mode), or do you have aGPS enabled (MS Based mode) as the ubiquitous pseudo-fix threads recommend?

I am wondering if this makes a difference not only in the intial Time To First Fix, but also in subsequent recovery or reacquisition at those points where the lock is lost and the track wanders.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Case_:
Well, I envy all the people with JM5 that they're not having problems with GPS or that it's at least better than JM2 for them. I've got exactly the opposite - tried MyTracks during a short walk today after being very happy with JM5 in all the other aspects...and ended up getting one of the worst track recordings with my Galaxy ever (and I even had some from the very same path):

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8504,17.256206&spn=0.005851,0.013937&t=h&z=17

Blue is the actual track. I walked the same path in both directions.

Note that this is the stock GPS config of JM5. No fixes, no changes, nothing.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beowulf_pt:
Indeed better. But you just caught the bipolar silicon on a good day. Tomorrow it will again look like something a 2 year old drew with crayons.

Not sure if I'll bother flashing JM5 tho. Seems a build is being kicked out daily and well, I get the impression that not of the past ones had any major impact on the GPS bugware.

I'll hold on to it for another week or so. What is the current point on all the snake oil fixes? Anything worth trying (right now I'm using the out-of-the-box JM2 setup, untouched) while waiting?