yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] stan28:
This is so true. Well, lately my GPS for some reason decides to perform very well. "ONLY" occasionally, it decides to go off in some open area (eg:- show me driving on the lake, when I'm actually on lakeshore rd).

For those that keeps say that Google Map is the problem, it's not Google's fault. I've been using Google Map on my HTC Vogue (aka HTC Touch) from Bell. It's always spot on, for that device. Let's truly hope that this is a software issue and not a hardware problem.

Either way, I'll decide to (stay or leave) Samsung once I get the official Froyo update for specific to Bell Mobility customers.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ehe12:
yes,me too. if official froyo cannot fix the gps, i will leave samsung and ask orange to replace a htc desire for me.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Landorin:
Finally got an answer from German Samsung support.

Froyo is being released soon. However, they're not aware of any problems with the GPS. :P

I decided to keep the phone finally, my brain still tells me return the phone. However, as someone wrote in this forum "apart from this single flaw the phone is great" - I agree. I figured I don't need GPS as often as I used to and I can still rely on my old HTC Touch Diamond (or get a GPS mouse).

I might even use the SGS GPS as the mispositioning doesn't happen so often and not for very long. In a major town I'd rely on a more precise GPS, however.

Still it feels kinda wrong to have spent so much money and can't even use GPS really while my really old HTC shows how much better GPS could be.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ewingr:
I was pretty frustrated about the GPS. Returned my first one to wait out the fix. Finally gave in and repurchased, as I didn't find any other that matched up to this, even if I move from AT&T.

I find that if I have it mounted in a way that it gets a view through the windshield to the sky, it works very well. Perfect? No. But 98%. That should be good enough.

I haven't tested with another app yet, as I don't think there is a really good alternative yet, but I have a tendency to buy into the thought that Google Nav may be more sensitive than other GPS progs; that maybe the others 'stick' to the driven road more. The argument against that is it is not 'truely' accurate. But I think that if it sees you on the wrong road for 5 seconds, and keeps you on the right road by 'sticking', who cares, if it keeps me on the right road. I suppose the price to pay might be when you turn where it doesn't think yhou should, it may take 4-5 seconds to realize you have really turned. I don't know...

Anyway...I'm happy I have it, even wiht the GPS frustration. Now, get me in New Jersey where I get lost easily, and send me down the wrong road, and I'll be quite pissed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] hiroshige:
I've tried out the GPS on a few journeys now and haven't really had any problems either (yet!)

Or, at least, the problems I've had have been down to Google Navigation rather than the GPS tracking - it's as if the underlying data is targeted at 'correct mapping' rather than 'effective driving instructions' - which would arguably make sense given that presumably Google Maps didn't start off from a Satnav point of view. For example, it often gives confusing instructions when navigating (eg) roundabouts, intersections, or other places where road names/boundaries merge strangely, rather than having straightforward start/end points. (Which happens relatively often in the UK, not sure about other countries). So instead of just saying "head over the first roundabout, then take the second exit at the next roundabout", it'll say "stay on the A1234, then turn onto the A67 for 5 metres, then turn on to the A1234, then..." etc. So might be technically correct, but impossible to understand properly from the voice descriptions alone.

In addition, the voice instructions for an upcoming turn are slightly too late IMHO - quite a few times, I've been passing the junction when it gets round to telling me I need to turn - the GPS position has been tracking accurately enough, it just hasn't given the voice instruction soon enough in advance.

Also, the actual routing itself has been a bit bizarre on a few occasions. Moreso than my old Nokia N95, which although it had a maddeningly frustrating interface in some aspects, took care of the actual routing and guidance to a better degree. At least, in my experience so far.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] android53:
I have had some very strange experiences with my gps, this was done a month or so ago on jm6.

In the uk I can get a lock but in a vehicle it will be inaccurate and when surrounded by tall buildings even on foot the signal will jump around.

On planes I cannot get any signal, only 1 satellite is ever visible when moving at those speeds.

In south korea I could not get a gps lock atall, even with a clear sky with no obstructions. I even tinkered with the damn gps settings to try and get it to work there with no luck.

In japan the gps worked absolutely amazing, 0% errors and 5m accuracy everywhere, on vehicles and even by foot when navigating alleyways with skyscrapers either side. I was very impressed!

In korea and japan I had data disabled by apn settings.

Once back in the uk I cannot get an accurate signal again, having to put the phone right on the dashboard and getting frequent tracking errors.

Now I have jp6 but I do not believe the gps has changed much if atall from jm6. Jm6 was the first firmware I had that the gps actually worked and locked more then 8 sats
[Galaxy S I9000 General] robbiev80:
It works flawlessly while driving too. Trust me, I used to think it was the biggest POS gps ever, but now I'm so happy. A bunch of us at work updated to JPM and everyone reports that the GPS is working just fine now.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] robbiev80:
I drove for an hour last sunday and it had no bug whatsoever.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TravUK:
Message removed.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boliveira2:
Then I ask again. Whose fault is that? Samsung or Broadcomm's? Sorry for being such a pita but I would like to know if it's possible that the Galaxy S can have a working GPS with froyo or another software update. If you know something, please feel free to share with us :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ewingr:
Just chiming in...I don't know squat about it:p

But I have given up on it being fixed on this phone.

That being said, as long as I keep it mounted where it will get a good view through the windshield, it seems to work adequately. Absolutely not perfect, but adequate.

It did require that I put the Jupiter fixes in.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Are you in the US? Perhaps WAAS is kicking in?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Beards:
Well it must be bad.... My Dogs still refuse to carry my phone around in their mouth when we are out walking.

Woof!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] boliveira2:
As a consumer I would like to know if a fix is possible or only half a fix is. We can try some sort of encryption codes for you, if that's a problem :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
Yep, it is a mystery to me why there are people on this forums claiming that GPS is working fine or that we should not expect it to work as well as on other phones when even Samsung themselves have acknowledged there is a problem.

The fact it, GPS on the Galaxy is broken. Whether it is the Broadcomm chip, or the aerial, or the design of the PCB I don't know, but the performance of GPS compared to other phones is not satisfactory.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Because each phone works slightly differently than others. Some SGS just have a tad bit of better reception than others. Each argue the subject of GPS from his or her own experience with his/her own phone.

That's why I suggested a few pages back to post your GPS SNR readings when you post your own GPS experience. We can comparing thses SNR readings to see which phone works and which doesn't.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Unless there is an official tally, there is no way to tell what percetage of SGS have the GPS problem. It could be big, it could be small. Only Samsung knows but it won't tell us. Forum polls are from a small samples of owners and may not always accurate. However, given Samsung has officially acknowleged the GPS problem many times now, we have to assume there is a problem and pretty wide spread problem.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
The poll here show nothing real.

If this was a big problem on all the 5 miljon sgs that has been sold you can be sure Samsung have made it prio one to fix it.

Well its not. Its just a minor bug on a small procent of the sgs.

If people don't understand this its just sad..

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
Minor bug?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
How do you know that?

Maybe it affects all the 5 million of them and Samsung can't fix it without recall them back? How much money Samsung has to lose recalling all 5 million of them?

Again why you keep ignoring samsung's own admission of GPS problem and keep making up stuff like that?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
Well, something effecting some function of some device doesn't qualifie as a "Major" bug, the device still fonctionning (event the GPS is) more than anything...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
Ah, only of the phone doesn't start can be called major bug.

That you can use the GPS for car navigation as is intended is only a minor bug
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
Exactly, an "annoyance"

Like, if in your brand new car, the climate control would be around ± 5 C degres off. It's anoying, but still the cars work fine, you won't freeze or be burnt by the climate... juste an anoyance.

Still, it's something that need fixing, as a minor fix...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Samga:
So if there was a problem millions of users would have complained here :rolleyes:

How about this:

5'000'000 SGS

85% have unreliable GPS (result of this poll)

50% of them use GPS actually

20% of those use it in a way that they are unhappy with it

10% of the unhappy go to a forum anywhere in the whole wide world

3% of them take part in exactly this poll

=1275 votes! (OK, there are still missing 16 at the moment of writing this) :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
Bad analogy, if is off by 5º you can put it lower or higher to have the right temp.

I can't use the GPS because I can't have right navigation or position.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
First you need to take the phones in this poll. You can't take all phone That has been sold.

But to follow your theory.

If 85% of the people that has bought this phone was unhappy and complain about the so called gps bug and demanded it be fixed or they will return the phone.

You can bet Samsung would make it a major prio to fix it.

It would cost them alot not to this.

But the real true is that you can bet its under 0,01% that even complain about this and less that would return the phone.

Take iphone 4 and the flaw in antennas design. That's is on every iphone 4, but if you have a good radio cover you will not have any problem. If you have bad radio cover then u can use a shell on the phone and make it good.

Did apple loose many customers on this? No.

It still iphone.

The right thing to do is to return every bad phone. Only then will phone manufactur make it a major flaw.

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] darkoroje:
99% of Galaxy owners do not know that this forum or this site even exist.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] betoNL:
Who needs tracks? I posted 2 videos where the sgs is running all kind of gps software like Motonav, Navigon, gps status and more...

On the first video it is using an external gps receiver( with a sirfstarIII chipset) and another video using solely the internal one...

The problem with sgs's gps is the SAME of the majority of smartphones nowadays: they rely on one of another kind of A-gps

When I am in an open area the internal gps of the sgs finds and locks to the satellites quite fast.

In a crowded area (with more buildings, interference, etc.) it will struggle more ( in my case it's offline navigation)

The good news is that the internal gps of the sgs is better than all other devices I tested, like the nokias 5800xm, N97 and some HTCs

Once again I dont use the kind of A-gps from trilateration from cell towers and I dont use Google Maps

Another good thing ( at least for me) is the fact that on my last 4 trips I didnt have to use the aid from my external gps receiver...running iGo motonav flawlessly

Funny thing no big difference in time for acquiring the first satellite during first start hot or cold.......evry start is a warm one

http://www.gsmarena.com/glossary.php3?term=gps

« »
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ehe12:
just admit it, you are working for samsung aren't you?

You live in your fancy world where samsung is perfect and every galaxy s has great gps signal. Guess what? I already had mine replaced yet it still is not working properly! My friend also got the same problem. How did you know people didn't return their phones? I already did, my friend also did.

I believe gps won't be fixed on uk froyo update. After this update samsung won't have any excuse to reject me returning the phone. I will call orange and tell them the whole problem. They will send me another replacement and it won't work and i will send it back again until i get a fixed one or they agree me to exchange a different phone.

I will then post my experience and tell all people using galaxy s to do the same thing i do. I believe at least half of the 800 people who voted in this thread would be very happy to get a new phone.

We will see if samsung can still hide the problem.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] raf2k:
I have read all the comments in this thread ( it took almost 2 hours) and i have to admit, it was very good reading. Better than Dan Browns books.

The story wasnt so exiting, but it included so many characters :D

P.S DamianGTO You are the villain in this story :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] SkinBobUk:
From a legal point of view according to the sale of goods act, after you have received three replacement units you are legally entitled to a refund if the goods are not fit for purpose. Of which for the purpose of satellite navigation the phone is not fit.

But i don't know how it relates to phones which were free with a contract. They cant refund us for something we didn't technically pay for in the first place.

I imagine that unless the carriers and Samsung admit the problem, that a lot of us are gonna be stuck with faulty gps and not a lot we can do about it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
Is it? If it goes only a static 5 degrees, that's doable, but if it's within more or less 5 degrees, not the same eh? You mostly suffer from the same issue, inconsistency of an option of the phone... that's it!

On another note, I've notice that the way the phone is setted, the signal is more or less consistent.

By any means, is there a way to tell if the user is left or right handed?

Might be a wild guess here, but iPhone 4 "antena-gate" was mainly suffered by left handed folks because the antena was in the wrong place for left-handed.

I don't have "that much of an issue" and the GPS' antena seems to be on the upper left part of the phone. Exactly where a right handed would hold it...

I "used" to have massive inconsistency when I first got the phone while using it in Sporty pal but I remembered I put the device screen facing outward (so GPS' antena facing inside) but I only did one run with the device in this position.

Since then, I've always put it the other way around, so that the antena was facing outside. Haven't got massive inconsistency since even while staying on the same rom.

Also, all my tracks where made with a pretty descent "sky view" on my car and they are still pretty close. Once I've "played" around with the device while in the passenger seat (device in hand, not so close to the windsheild) and it took waayyy longer to get a fix...

Maybe some things to look for while testing GPS

To resume:

-Antena facing outside

-Clear view
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
I think it a sad reading. After all many people still belive that this place is huge and Samsung listen on them.

Well 500 people of the 5 miljon...

It about 0.0001%.

I don't think any company would care much. Maby if it was a couple of %.

Vilian. ... Lol...

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
Again, posting your satellite SNR readings could help us all. Yes, SGS GPS is very sensitive to the way you hold the phone and where you put the phone. It is all satellite signal level related. Some phones had better receiption than others. A few dbs make a world of difference in the way how the navigation reacts.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foxbat121:
I don't like the word 'vilian' either. But like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] t1mman:
I don't know if those are the SNR but, here's the info from the position test:

The thing moves around a lot, and it's from inside my appartment, so I don't know if it is relevant...

TTDD/TTF: 16 sec

Accurancy: 5/10 meters

8 sat

PRN	5	Cno	35	dBHz

PRN	26	Cno	26	dBHz

PRN	21	Cno	30	dBHz

PRN	29	Cno	24	dBHz

PRN	8	Cno	29	dBHz

PRN	15	Cno	27	dBHz

PRN	27	Cno	15	dBHz

PRN	18	Cno	15	dBHz

Usualy, 5 is always 35+ and others will go from 20- to 30+
[Galaxy S I9000 General] crabjoe:
What do you mean by radio cover? Are you taking about signal?

The problem with the iPhone 4 antenna signal strength. It has to do with attenuation. The metal band, which is broken in segments, and different antennas for the phone. If the antennas make a contact with each other, then that's when the iPhone will lose the signal. The antenna goes out of tune... It's easy to keep a couple of fingers apart so one doesn't cause the antennas to connect. You can also place a cover once the antennas so you never have to worry about how you hold the phone. The best part about this known issue is that some Apple users swore that there was no problem with their iPhone 4.

The SGS issue isn't even similar. The reason is because, if someone has a GPS problem, holding the phone in a different way or a case won't fix it. This is an internal issue with the SGS and it looks like Samsung is trying to sweep it under the rug!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] crabjoe:
It was bad! A better analogy would be like this.

The cars AC doesn't work when it's turned on or it turns on some times. And lets say it turned on ... You start driving and all the sudden the AC starts blowing hot air then all the sudden it works as it should again. Basically you don't know what to expect when you turn your AC on. That's like the GPS issue on the SGS, not a +/- 5 deg variance.

A 5 deg variance, on a car AC, is more like the GPS on the SGS showing a accuracy of 5 meters then jumping to 30 meters then back to 5 meters, which can be normal for a FUNCTIONING GPS and wouldn't put me on a different street few blocks away, causing the GPS to do a re-route.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
You really missed the point.

The point is that its a big flaw and still people buy it. Some will complain about it.

That's a real hardware error that will effect 100% of The phones.

Sgs error is not a hardware error end it effect very few.

But still there is people that think it very big and want to compare this to things.

Iphone4 = big flaw but is still a minor prio.

Sgs gps= little flaw and very little prio.

Do you see the picture??

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] crabjoe:
I'm not missing your point. I just have a different point of view!

I don't agree that there is a hardware error on the iPhone 4. The problem with the iPhone is a design issue, not a hardware flaw. Some dummy at Apple approved a design where a user could ground out the antenna. That's not a hardware flaw, but an issue with it's design. The saving grace to this design flaw is that the user had control over where they put there hand so it doesn't affect the use of the iPhone.

As for the SGS, there hasn't been any proof that it's not a hardware or design flaw. The SGS issue could be a quality control issue for all we know, but I think you wrong on it affecting few users. In fact, I think it affects the most Galaxy S variants ... I9000, all the different US versions and so on. There has been reports from every Galaxy S variant that there's a problem with the GPS and a user can't just fix it by using it a specific way or putting a piece of tin foil around it. Also if it's not a hardware issue, why has Rogers stated that there version of the Galaxy S will not have the GPS bug like other Galaxy S versions? If it was just a software issue, why does yours work and others not?

I'd say Samsung screwed the pooch on this and it's a hardware issue and that's the reason none of there software updates work on all the Galaxy S phones.

So being that the iPhone 4 antenna issue has a user workaround, I'd say there's really no problem with it as long as the user know not to connect the different antenna on the bottom left hand side together. On the SGS, it's a major problem because it's not a simple fix. If it was, Sammy would have had this fixed. It's not like they haven't put out multiple updates to fix it.

BTW, I'm still waiting to see if Roger's Galaxy S really has the GPS fixed like they said. If they do and Samsung doesn't put a software update out, for the rest of the Galaxy S phones, we'll know it's something to do with hardware.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
And looks like we are back to useless speculation again...

For starters, has Froyo started worldwide deployment yet (because JPM was apparently pulled). Secondly, unless someone is willing to initiate a lawsuit, this is a waste of time. Has ANYONE here been to their local consumer affairs bureau about this?

I agree the GPS is problematic, but I hardly see how repeating the same speculations in an endless loop on XDA will improve the situation
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
So the iphone flaw is not hardware?????

You say its no problem, but sgs gps is a big problem?

Well i can solve that for you in your way. Buy a external gps modul and hock it up to sgs.. Problem solved...

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
The iPhone has plenty of problems (including "lag"), but buying an external gps module only alleviates the symptoms. I was on a bus the other day sitting by the door, and my GPS picked up nothing the entire trip. But when i stepped out it worked. I am not going to carry around GPS devices on the off-chance I might need it personally...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
Sorry. It was an answer on crabjoe post.

I just think that was funny how he can accept iphone flaw and say he adapted to the flaw. But with sgs he can't at all for its the bad Samsung that must fix his phone.

His argument is flaw..

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
And the big proof about not being a hardware error/bad desiign is ....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
Well i got two shall here that works without any problem.

Alot of people has no problem.

If it was hardware/ design it would be same on all sgs, like iphone 4 flaw.

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] alijones:
My GPS always worked very well.

Great accuracy!

I'm sorry for yours....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
No, the problem can be hardware o antenna design and affect more some phones than others.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DamianGto:
Lol

Sent from GT-I9000 Jpm OS kernel with z4mod
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Oletros:
Lol?

It there is a problem with noise it can affect more some phones than others, it is a problem with GPS signal reception it can affect some phones more than others.

Lol? hte thing that makes lol is your blindly defense.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] compuse:
Very very fast gps "lock" althought he's prolly a few feet off =/

Soh far only once a problem with a parallel road