[Captivate Android Development] poormkp:
Aleadam and Used2hvatreo:

No problem - gps is so variable for everyone its hard to figure out if you're comparing apples to apples. I had documented in my earlier post near the top of page 10 that with my current setup (Assonance 5.0 and Da_G Tweaks) while my gps is vastly improved as far as seeing satellites and getting locks, I was still having trouble getting Gmaps to work very well, and I noticed that My Tracks when running in the background always was tracking very well for me, but if I kept it running in the foreground it would not track. But with the cover removed I found that Maps started working for me, and MyTracks began working in the foreground as well (foreground as I'm using the term is describing keeping MyTracks visible on the screen so track is seen in real time). The two driving tests that I described in that earlier post showed MyTracks running in the foreground with the cover on vs off, result being not keeping a lock with it on, then solid stable tracking with fix staying in place the entire route with it removed. After that bit of success is when I decided to do the signal tests in the later tests to see if my real-world success could be seen in any solid data.

Having said all of that, I am not at all saying that the cover being off is a gps solution, or even that the cover is the root cause of our galaxy S gps issues, because I do not believe that to be the case. I think the improvements many of us have seen through different ROMS, modems, jupiter file mods, and the latest work by Da_G all point to software and configuration issues that can be addressed to provide improvements. I only provided the above testing and data because Da_G's conclusions so far in this thread are indicating antenna reception flaws, plus the likelihood of some sort of interference going on during certain processes that impact the gps tracking. My logic is that the antenna deficiency and potential interference likely go hand-in-hand, so that improvement in either one could be enough to improve the tracking. In my case by doing the cover removal I feel I was able to get just enough better reception to allow Gmaps, MyTracks, and Copilot to work in the foreground when I had not had success with those applications before that. Ewingr, in his post also on page 10, confirmed using the Seido Innocase and not the back cover, in addition to ROM and modem choices has yielded best results for him.

As for the signal testing, I agree that getting results for accuracy, TTFF, no. of Sats, etc would provide much more complete conclusions. I just decided to start with raw signal strength variations because I believe the signal/reception is the most significant factor. I don’t now how much of a signal improvement is needed to make our apps work better, I just know that mine are working better (YMMV, and probly does). I deleted gps data before each 60 second run to try and mitigate any cumulative effects. I wanted to see if any signal differences could be observed with just the cover removal, and did in fact see it in each of the runs. A higher quality test would be to set up logging under both scenarios, with the phone in a holder, over an extended timeframe. (not sure I have the skill to set up the logging, maybe someone else could ). Or, also would be good for a few different folks to run Maps or another nav app under both scenarios and use MyTracks to record differences.

Summary – this is just one small piece of the puzzle. Either it does impact performance or it does not. For my phone, it does. If it does, it would be good to know how much. I think the goal we all share is to find and implement the combination of things that make the phone perform best.