gdgt

Is anyone else having GPS issues with their Pre+? This has been mentioned on several forums, but there hasn't been an acknowledgment by Palm. I've got a way to duplicate the problem and some notes below:

forums.palm.com­/t5­/webOS­-Hardware­/GPS­-temporary­-wo...

forums.precentral.net­/palm­-pre­/227582­-palm­-pre­-plu...

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- New Palm Pre Plus from Verizon

- webOS 1.3.5.1


First:

- How to stop the GPS location issues

o Location Services -> Turn ‘Use Google Services’ Off

o Reset/Power Off

o Google Maps and VZ Navigator will now only use a straight GPS lock and not use triangulation. This results in an exact (correct) pinpoint on Google Maps. Google Maps will take up to several minutes to report location while it gets a lock.

Second:

- Details on causing the GPS issues

o Starting in an area with GPS covered:

§ Location Services -> Turn ‘Use Google Services’ On (as well as ‘Use GPS’)

§ Open Google Maps

§ Note that it uses cell tower triangulation to get your position

§ Check with ##GPS# that the device only produces LAT/LONG to four decimal places as well as no Altitude and Heading

§ Walk outside – note that Google Maps does not switch to the GPS signal and continues to use tower triangulation. It may update your general position, but it keeps the large blue circle.

§ Verify this with ##GPS# - the device still reports to other programs an approximate location.

§ Press ‘Get Fix’

§ Verify that it still reports a four decimal place lat/long and no Altitude and Heading

§ Open VZ Navigator

§ Verify that it can pinpoint your exact location

§ Go to Google Maps, verify that it will not pinpoint your exact location – even while VZ Navigator will

§ Go back to ##GPS#

§ Press ‘Get Fix’

§ Note that after a moment it will get a precise location fix with altitude, heading, and ~10 decimal point Lat/Long

§ Go back to Google Maps – verify that it will now switch to your exact location

Third:

o I’ve had times when Google Maps wouldn’t pinpoint me when I started it within view of GPS satellites.

o I’ve also had times when VZ Navigator would report ‘No GPS’. Google Maps would also only use tower triangulation at these times. I was in clear view of the sky.

o These two occurrences have yet to happen after I turned ‘Use Google Services’ to off

Fourth:

- Other notes:

o It seems to be issues with Google Services and tower triangulation. It could also be an issue with the Google Maps application making a depreciated call to the GPS module.

o If you are in an area with no GPS reception with ‘Use Google Services’ Off, the phone will tell you that you are where the last GPS lock was. Using ##GPS#, the LAT/LONG position was 30 miles away when inside a building. I’m not sure if you want the GPS to return a ‘no signal found’ type response to applications, but this could cause some confusion.