Verizon iPhone GPS issues

[kch50428]

Some interesting reading...
GPS in a smartphone? -- page 2 has the best stuff... and
Verizon Developer Community - Go to Market -- goes into developer level detail on Location Based Services - and how & what Verizon supports.

And for those who are serious about GPS - you might want to consider an add-on GPS - capable of stand-alone operation. TomTom sells an iPhone4 cradle that includes a GPS receiver in the cradle itself to supplement the phone's GPS capabilities. Or, the BadElf device, available on Amazon.com - which will, with the right app - make an iPod-Touch, or wifi iPad a stand-alone GPS, as well as add supplemental GPS capabilities to the iPhone4.

 

[Icyhot1966]

My iPad already is a great GPS device. I used the built in Google Maps on my way home from work tonight. A 25 minute drive and not once did it lose GPS signal. On this same trip, over the past 2 weeks, ANY 3rd party app...Navigon, TomTom, MotionX, Mapquest and even a speedometer app has lost GPS reception. There is nothing wrong with the GPS in the Verizon iPhone, but it does not play good with any 3rd party GPS apps on some Verizon iPhones, mine being one of them.

 

[rihamy2nd]

That's what I figured, too, since the Maps app never seems to lose signal. Problem is, it leaves so much to be desired as a real-time navigator. Apps such as MotionX are a large part of why I gave up the Android phone for this one and unless Apple or Verizon had announced that their version of iPhone would have seemingly, second rate GPS performance compared to AT&Ts model, then they should be obligated to rectify the issue. There's no good reason why if it works satisfactorily on one network, it can't work (or be made to work) just as well on another.

 

[Icyhot1966]

I am going to try (and you should too) to put the phone in Airplane mode to take the cell portion out of the equation and just use Navigon as a stand alone GPS and see if that makes a difference. But you can't do that if you don't have one of the GPS that has the maps stored onboard. I am going to try it with Navigon on my way home from work tonight.

 

[rihamy2nd]

I had thought of that. My Eris kept the GPS receiver on while in airplane mode, but it seemed like I read in the iPhone user manual or somewhere else that the iPhone GPS is disabled in airplane mode. It's worth a try, though. And MotionX allows you to pre-load your route and set an amount of memory aside, up to 2 GB, to cache that data plus anyplace you've previously driven, as well. So, I'll try it with that one. Good tip.

 

[Icyhot1966]

Just tried it in my house in Airplane mode and it wouldn't get a lock in Airplane mode, but neither would my Incredible. I went into settings and network and turned cellular data off (which is probably close to the same thing as Airplane) and got a lock withing 3 seconds. So that is how I will test it tonight.

 

[rihamy2nd]

Just tried that. As soon as I put it into airplane mode, it shut the GPS off, too. Looked it up in the iPhone user manual and it verified that it does kill the gps signal. Pffft... Oh, well.

 

[rihamy2nd]

Just read your update (I didn't refresh the page before I posted mine). I'll try that, too.

 

[rihamy2nd]

OK, not a long enough trip to truly verify it, but it worked on this short 6 minute ride I just made. I've got a job after my current one that will be a good thirty minutes away, so I'll know a little better if that's part of the problem.

However, after I turned cell data back on and tried to post this update, I got prompted that Safari was not connected to the Internet. Tried restarting safari and refreshing the page - no go. Had to reboot the phone to get network function, again. So, even if this works, (and I'm only willing to accept it as a temporary, short-term solution, at best) it's going to ba a major pain in the butt to go through all of that.

 

[Icyhot1966]

Probably just need to double tap the home button, "close out" Safari and then reopen it. That may work instead of rebooting the phone. I am JB so I can respring in a matter of seconds so that won't be an issue for me. Hey, maybe this is this issue. It sure would be nice if we could pinpoint it.

 

[rihamy2nd]

I'm on the laptop, so I'll go into more detail. I got two separate prompts, one from Safari and another one that popped up just before that one that said something like, "Not subscribed to any 3G networks." Also checked email and it wouldn't connect. Maybe just a one-time glitch because I just gave it another test (20 minute drive home for lunch) and the phone reconnected to the network just fine at the end of this trip.

As for the GPS, the little globe that indicates GPS signal in MotionX turned red within 15 seconds of initiating this last route, but was only like that for about 5 seconds or less, then it worked flawlessly all the way home. MotionX will verbally announce loss of signal if it loses it for longer than about 30 seconds, I think. On that previous 6 minute trip, the globe turned red just as I was turning into the parking lot of that destination. I failed to mention that because of the distraction over the 3G network not connecting back up. That seems more like "normal" occasional signal loss like I've gotten from time to time with just about any of the past GPS systems I've ever used. It's the 30-60 seconds at a time every 3-4 minutes like this thing has been doing that's unacceptable to me.

I still have another job with about a 45 minute drive coming up after lunch to test this further and then, of course, the return trip home. Hopefully, you'll get similar results, as well. My fingers are crossed that we'll have some substantial information to tell the "Geniuses." I fully expect them to fix this or they can have their iPhone back and I'll expect Verizon to give me another Android (I traded mine in) without incurring any extra fees.

 

[rihamy2nd]

Had to stop off to get parts for the job about 8 or 9 minutes short of my destination. I got a good 35 minutes or more of uninterrupted GPS signal. Instead of leaving MotionX running while I went in the store, I decided to try a couple of things to satisfy my curiosity. Stopped navigation in MotionX and didn't touch the 3G settings (left it off). Went in the store. Came out and turned MotionX back on and selected my previous destination - at this point, I'm testing to see how well the cached map data in MotionX works. Unfortunately, it said it couldn't calculate a route without network connectivity. I turned 3G back on, got the "No active cellular plan" prompt again, but it connected anyway, this time. MotionX routed me. And, with the 3G left on, I lost GPS signal 3 times in the 8 minutes or so that it took to get the rest of the way here.

I'm still going to give it the "3G off" test all of the way home from here, but it looks pretty conclusive to me. Hopefully it's just a firmware bug. Or, I don't know, if the iPhone 5 rumors are true for a June or July release, then maybe I hope it's a hardware problem. I could wait until then if they'd upgrade us all for free. I know, wishful thinking, right?

 

[Icyhot1966]

I tried the Navigon with Cellular data turned off but my speed kept going back and forth from 0 to current speed like it's always done. So I stopped it. On my way home from work tonight I am going to try TomTom. Under normal conditions. And then maybe tomorrow with data turned off. I'm gonna turn this into a week long test session and see if I can determine anything.

 

[rihamy2nd]

Mixed things up a little on the way home, based on your speed findings. I forgot that MotionX has a display that shows your speed, so I downloaded a free GPS speedometer app, just to try that with and without data on on my way home. It had a LOT of lag updating my speed, so I didn't really trust it. So, with data turned on, I fired up Waze because it shows speed on the main display and it dawned on me that, even though it's another live updating GPS app, it was the one I was using the other day when I was in the very remote area and noticed that my GPS signal never turned off there. I figured it must cache quite a bit, if not all, of your route. First ten minutes I had it going with data enabled, same old story - GPS is on and off repeatedly. Turned data off while Waze is still going and Waze indicated that it was searching for network, but GPS stayed on constantly for the remainder of my ride home (about 25 minutes). And, Waze had all map data stored, including side street names and the whole lot, all the way to my driveway. As for the speed reading, I never saw it fluctuate a bit from what the van speedo was saying.

 

[Icyhot1966]

Well I just got home from work, used TomTom with data on, and it never lost signal. It too shows speed, and it never showed anything different than what my car was. I remember someone saying last week that TomTom had updated their app for the Verizon iPhone. More testing is needed I think...perhaps TomTom IS reliable.

 

[rihamy2nd]

I don't know all the specs on the TomTom app. Does it have live traffic or any other type of live data updates (weather, construction, etc)? If so, is that turned on in yours? I'm just wondering if an app that is completely self-contained (or maybe I should say fully cached) and needs no network data versus one that is fully cached, but has to poll the radio occasionally for traffic, etc would behave differently.

I'm going to try Waze and MotionX again with all of their live update features that can be turned off, disabled. Since MotionX has the ability to preload an entire route and Waze has exhibited that it caches your route, too, I just want to see if I can leave data on while using them. I know there's no guarantee that they won't have something going on in the background that's trying to use data, but if it even cuts back on the frequency and the length of time that the gps gets disabled, it'll be a small victory for me, since I don't rely completely on those traffic updates, anyway. It beats having to turn the cell data on and off all day long.

Since the built-in Maps app seems to track ok and it needs constant data and your TomTom app worked ok with data on, then maybe there's some truth to the third party apps being at fault. I wouldn't call them buggy like the Apple genius did, but maybe they need to be patched to deal with Verizon's radio. I'd still put money on the OS needing to be updated to give the same functionality to the apps that they had in the AT&T phone, though.

 

[Icyhot1966]

I was coming to work today, same route I went home on last night where TomTom worked without hiccup, and within 6 miles I lost GPS 3 times, albeit just a few seconds each time. So I remembered what I had done last night....closed out all apps that were running in the background. So once I did that today, I went the other 8 miles without losing reception. Could that be the issue I wonder. Please try that and let me know the results.

TomTom has live traffic updates but I haven't paid for that feature yet.

 

[Icyhot1966]

On my way home from work tonight, I used TomTom again and again it worked great. Its about 17 miles. I made sure I closed all the other apps out. I am beginning to strongly believe that has something to do with it.

 

[rihamy2nd]

I got a notification on the phone yesterday that my network settings would be reconfigured. I let it do its thing. Just made a 75 mile trip using MotionX without a hiccup in GPS signal the entire way.

 

[Icyhot1966]

Dude!!! Did you close everything in the background prior to that???