LOL, well I needed my GPS to work since I was in a state I've never been to and was not in the mood to get lost. Now that I'm back home I can do some testing and see if I can repeat this anomaly.
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Is the iPhone 4's GPS supposed to be this crappy?
- Thread starter LincolnsiPod
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LOL, well I needed my GPS to work since I was in a state I've never been to and was not in the mood to get lost. Now that I'm back home I can do some testing and see if I can repeat this anomaly.
strange when i went to japan this worked with my iPhone 3G running iOS 3.0
I'll have to find it and see if it works, perhaps 4.0 got rid of the ability to use the GPS in airplane mode
My "old" AT&T iPhone always would GPS me approximately 1.2 miles west of where I was at when I was at home. This was exactly where the tower was at. This happened with both my 3G and IP4 over the years
It was particularly annoying when using apps that didn't resolve the "fine" GPS such as IM+. Using the location feature in that was always wrong at home.
This also meant that the accuracy got better the longer the app ran.
It's spot-on with my Verizon iPhone.
It was particularly annoying when using apps that didn't resolve the "fine" GPS such as IM+. Using the location feature in that was always wrong at home.
This also meant that the accuracy got better the longer the app ran.
It's spot-on with my Verizon iPhone.
The Verizon iPhone also uses a single baseband/GPS chip. It could be simply the baseband is turned off in airplane mode. This would disable GPS on Verizon iPhones or the iPad 2 which have the integrated GPS.
AT&T = Flawless. Verizon = Schizo.
I used a third party app to test my GPS signal. With the Verizon iPhone 4 under my windshield with full view of the sky and flat farmland around as far as the eye can see, it lost signal for 15 seconds with all the information on the app reading "Invalid". Then it would lock again. Then a few minutes later, "Invalid". I think the Verizon iPhone is sending GPS apps bad data every now and then. It's just that some GPS apps can hide the iPhone's crazy ramblings long enough for it to come back to its senses.
Navigon is flawless on the AT&T phone and schizophrenic on a Verizon phone. You'll be stationary and Navigon will show you in the correct position, the facing sideways, then 50 feet to the left, then in the correct position again...
I've done a lot of testing on my Verizon iPhone and AT&T iPhone and have come to the conclusion that it is either a firmware, OS, or hardware problem. The drop of signal happens with any GPS app I use, excluding the Google Maps app. While the same GPS apps work flawlessly on an AT&T iPhone 4.
I used a third party app to test my GPS signal. With the Verizon iPhone 4 under my windshield with full view of the sky and flat farmland around as far as the eye can see, it lost signal for 15 seconds with all the information on the app reading "Invalid". Then it would lock again. Then a few minutes later, "Invalid". I think the Verizon iPhone is sending GPS apps bad data every now and then. It's just that some GPS apps can hide the iPhone's crazy ramblings long enough for it to come back to its senses.
Navigon is flawless on the AT&T phone and schizophrenic on a Verizon phone. You'll be stationary and Navigon will show you in the correct position, the facing sideways, then 50 feet to the left, then in the correct position again...
I've done a lot of testing on my Verizon iPhone and AT&T iPhone and have come to the conclusion that it is either a firmware, OS, or hardware problem. The drop of signal happens with any GPS app I use, excluding the Google Maps app. While the same GPS apps work flawlessly on an AT&T iPhone 4.
Yup, this is pretty much the behavior everyone else is seeing. The reason why I'm personally dubious that it is hardware is for one reason: I've done GPS comparisons from the 3G through the Verizon iPhone 4, and the sort of problems I see with the Verizon iPhone 4 don't line up to a hardware design problem.
1) It's very rare for a hardware problem to have a 100% repro rate, and at the same time be intermittent. Your likely causes are things like low signal (not the case), or a loose cable (not 100% repro).
2) Situations that made the weaker GPS units in the 3G/3GS lose lock have no problems on the iPhone 4 (either model). So say, being under a bridge or being in skyscrapers makes the 3G(S) lose its lock. It doesn't handle diminished signal or multi-path problems all that well. The GSM and CDMA 4 on the other hand, blasts through the normal bridge tests and skyscraper tests equally well. The fact that the Verizon iPhone does so well under bridges and near skyscrapers tells me the signal is plenty good enough. The other fact that the Verizon iPhone can actually get better accuracy indoors over the AT&T iPhone in the same location is another sign that the signal itself is fine.
That tells me the processing is where it is falling over. If Qualcomm is doing the processing in hardware, they are doing it wrong. If they are doing it in software, it's likely the baseband got rushed a little bit and this fairly large bug was left in it. I wouldn't be surprised if the GPS data being sent over the serial link was turning up garbage or shutting off randomly.
I recently made a trip of over 300 miles round-trip with my Verizon iPhone using Navigon and I didn't lose the signal once. I was in the middle of Kansas on I-135 for most of it though. Can't complain.
Krevnik, was wifi disabled while you were testing it? For some reason I haven't had a problem since keeping it enabled, but it does concern me that this might indicate too much reliance on wifi triangulation to maintain a good lock. If I remember to do it I'll disable wifi one day on the way to work and see how well Navigon fares then, and report back here with the results.
I keep WiFi turned on at all times. I get ~9-10 hours of battery life with it on, so I only turn it off if I need to.
Yes. In fact, you get signal lock in many places the 3GS doesn't get it, and to a higher degree of accuracy. The annoying side is that you don't know when it will lose lock acting like it has low signal (when it doesn't). With the 3GS it is more predictable.
My GPS was so bad that I returned both vzw ip4's and went back to AT&T. Not sure if they have a quality issue, but the phones I had were useless as a gps. Wifi was always on on my ip4s. Some in this thread say turn wifi on others say turn wifi off. I just returned the phones. Getting credited back from vzw was a nightmare (that's another thread).
I'm hoping this is ultimately a firmware/software issue that can be resolved in a future iOS update. Why they had to mess around with the GPS chip to begin with though is beyond me. I thought only the antenna had been changed.
Because the CDMA iPhone is a preview of the components in the iPhone 5, at least that's my bet. Dual band and one phone for all carriers.
Mine's always been rock-solid. Much better than the 3GS. I get a solid GPS signal even with the phone stowed in the little dash compartment just under my CD player.
I admit I am rather disappointed with the GPS as it is 75% chance of working remotely well when I use it even with Full bars. Having a 25% chance of not working whatsoever is disappointing, imo
That's an interesting point. I do hope that doesn't mean the iPhone 5's GPS is going to be a pile of ass though.
That's an interesting point. I do hope that doesn't mean the iPhone 5's GPS is going to be a pile of ass though.
I'm almost 100% sure that the current Verizon CDMA version of the iPhone is a "preliminary test run" of the components to make sure that the "world phone" iPhone 5 works as near to perfect as Apple can make it. Hopefully by the time the 5 comes out Apple will have all the issues fixed with iOS 5.
Personally, I've had no issues with my CDMA iPhone at all, it's worked perfectly from day 1.
The CDMA chipset they used had it built in. Why not use it and not waste space and money on a second chip that may not even fit on the board?
I imagine the CDMA probably didn't have a powerful enough GPS, as ironic as that sounds.
I imagine the CDMA probably didn't have a powerful enough GPS, as ironic as that sounds.
If it was simply a matter of power, the loss of lock would be more predictable.