New Maps update 3.4

You probably have GPS turned off, the blue ring has always been a feature. It shows how precisely it think it knows your location. If you use GPS it should return to just a dot or arrow.

Starred items are just like bookmarks. If you search for a place in maps and click on it (on a desktop at least) you can click a little star next to the name to save it.

I doubt you will get anywhere with your third issue but it would be nice to have configurable options. Those kinds of updates though, if they do come out, will take awhile.

1) The big blue circle is your approximate location when cell tower triangulation is used instead of GPS. Make sure your GPS is set to ON. Once you get a GPS lock, you should just see the blue dot indicating your location.

2) Log into your account on maps.google.com (The same as the primary google account on your phone). Search for an address, point of interest, whatever. When the results come up, choose the appropriate pin on the map and when they options box comes up, right next to the address or place name, there will be a blank star. Click the star and it will become a "starred item" Check your Droid and maps should now show that as a starred item.

3) No idea on the pinch zoom.

Update: looks like alostpacket beat me to the punch on this one

if the dish is flashing away, you don't haver a GPS lock. The green "satellite waves" of the icon (for lack of a better term) should be on solid, not flashing if you have a GPS fix. Download GPS status from the Market and you can tell if you have a good fix.

Go to Settings > Location and Security > and uncheck Use Wireless Networks and make sure Use GPS satellites is checked. Keep in mind that if you are anywhere that you can't get a good satellite fix, you will get nothing at all of you turn of the Wireless Networks assist.

Ah, your GPS probably just need a bit of time to recalibrate. You might try the trick to spin it on 3 axies so the accelerometer and other sensors can "help" the GPS so to speak.

Also you should try downloading GPS Status from the market. It's a free app that will show you how well the GPS is working.


You should see star when you search for a place on either the phone or desktop. Places you have already saved to your maps wont have a star option usually.

To re calibrate your GPS try this trick:

First download GPS Status from the market. It will help you see if things are working properly. Start it up and check the number of satellites you are connected to. I just did this and it showed 0/5. After I finished calibrating it showed 10/12 (much better!).

What we're going to do is spin the Droid 3 times on each one of it's axises, X, Y and Z. ( AKA Yaw, Pitch, Rotation).

Go outside and hold your Droid flat on your hand, with the soft keys (back, menu, home, search) towards you, and the screen facing up.

Now turn the phone over three times making sure to try and keep the soft keys towards you, and the screen turning over left to right. Full 360 degree rotations.

Now hold the phone in your hand and tun it so it's perpendicular to you. Where the soft keys are on the right. Now flip the phone again 3 times left to right. Full 360 degree rotations. This time the soft key will be flipping over but the phone will remain perpendicular to you length wise.

Finally, hold the phone in your hand with just the edge sitting on your hand and the screen perpendicular to your body and facing you. Just the edge with the soft keys should be sitting on your hand. Now again flip the phone over three times left to right, full 360 degree rotations. The screen should always face you and be perpendicular to you as you turn the phone.


This should help the phone get a lock on the GPS satellites. Some people may come here and complain this trick does work because it's to calibrate the accelerometer/magnetometer, but that is exactly why it DOES work. GPS uses information from the accelerometer to help it get a lock.

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alostpacket said:

To re calibrate your GPS try this trick:

Click to expand...

Do you need to be hopping on one foot and chanting or burning sage or something?

j/k if it works, it works, it just sounds like some sort of GPS voodoo

unknowndroid said:

Do you need to be hopping on one foot and chanting or burning sage or something?

Click to expand...

That's for the advanced class.

You'll have GPS issue from time to time, it's just the nature of the technology and that your always moving around and in and out of places. This will be especially true if you fly somewhere and it has to figure out it's location from scratch I think. But the above trick should almost always help. (as do going to a window/outside). Glad you got it working though.

I had some issues getting starred items to sync properly with the desktop. Note that right now, that is a known issue.

To fix it, sign in/join latitude (and then turn it off if you don't want to use it), but that seems to fix the syncing issue with starred items.

More available at google support.

alostpacket said:

To re calibrate your GPS try this trick:

First download GPS Status from the market. It will help you see if things are working properly. Start it up and check the number of satellites you are connected to. I just did this and it showed 0/5. After I finished calibrating it showed 10/12 (much better!).

What we're going to do is spin the Droid 3 times on each one of it's axises, X, Y and Z. ( AKA Yaw, Pitch, Rotation).

Go outside and hold your Droid flat on your hand, with the soft keys (back, menu, home, search) towards you, and the screen facing up.

Now turn the phone over three times making sure to try and keep the soft keys towards you, and the screen turning over left to right. Full 360 degree rotations.

Now hold the phone in your hand and tun it so it's perpendicular to you. Where the soft keys are on the right. Now flip the phone again 3 times left to right. Full 360 degree rotations. This time the soft key will be flipping over but the phone will remain perpendicular to you length wise.

Finally, hold the phone in your hand with just the edge sitting on your hand and the screen perpendicular to your body and facing you. Just the edge with the soft keys should be sitting on your hand. Now again flip the phone over three times left to right, full 360 degree rotations. The screen should always face you and be perpendicular to you as you turn the phone.


This should help the phone get a lock on the GPS satellites. Some people may come here and complain this trick does work because it's to calibrate the accelerometer/magnetometer, but that is exactly why it DOES work. GPS uses information from the accelerometer to help it get a lock.

.

Click to expand...

I have been on every forum I could find, tried the reboot, etc, and this is what worked for me. Thank you so much.

Sweet, glad it worked

alostpacket said:

To re calibrate your GPS try this trick:

First download GPS Status from the market. It will help you see if things are working properly. Start it up and check the number of satellites you are connected to. I just did this and it showed 0/5. After I finished calibrating it showed 10/12 (much better!).

What we're going to do is spin the Droid 3 times on each one of it's axises, X, Y and Z. ( AKA Yaw, Pitch, Rotation).

Go outside and hold your Droid flat on your hand, with the soft keys (back, menu, home, search) towards you, and the screen facing up.

Now turn the phone over three times making sure to try and keep the soft keys towards you, and the screen turning over left to right. Full 360 degree rotations.

Now hold the phone in your hand and tun it so it's perpendicular to you. Where the soft keys are on the right. Now flip the phone again 3 times left to right. Full 360 degree rotations. This time the soft key will be flipping over but the phone will remain perpendicular to you length wise.

Finally, hold the phone in your hand with just the edge sitting on your hand and the screen perpendicular to your body and facing you. Just the edge with the soft keys should be sitting on your hand. Now again flip the phone over three times left to right, full 360 degree rotations. The screen should always face you and be perpendicular to you as you turn the phone.


This should help the phone get a lock on the GPS satellites. Some people may come here and complain this trick does work because it's to calibrate the accelerometer/magnetometer, but that is exactly why it DOES work. GPS uses information from the accelerometer to help it get a lock.

.

Click to expand...

Just FYI...(not 'complaining', but there is a lot of mis-information here)... the rotate-on-each-axis routine is for calibrating the accelerometer (not the magnetometer) and it has nothing to do w/ getting a GPS satellite lock. GPS Nav will use the accelerometer for dead-reckoning of your vehicle, such as when going thru a tunnel, so that your location on the map keeps moving along your course, but it has nothing to do w/ getting Sat lock. It measures acceleration...that is it. GPS receivers do not require acceleration data to get a Sat lock. They only require timing signals from at least 3 satellites in view.

Doing the wave-the-phone-in-figure-8-pattern will calibrate the magnetometer (compass) which will help w/ accuracy of the direction your location marker is pointing in Maps or other location apps, but it also has nothing to do w/ getting Sat lock. It determines your heading relative to true north...that is it. GPS receivers do not need heading data for Sat lock.

I highlighted the 1 key bit of info you gave that has everything to do w/ getting Sat lock.

What many people don't realize is that having a clear view of the sky is very important when you use the GPS receiver for the 1st time and also if you haven't used the GPS chip for a couple days (if you've had it set OFF) and if you travel a great distance (100's of miles) while the GPS chip is turned OFF. All of those scenarios require the GPS chip to recalibrate (relocate as if it were it's 1st time locating) itself, and pull down lots of (ephemeris) data from the satellites in view. The network assist (aGPS) is supposed to help w/ TTFF (time to 1st fix) in those scenarios (feed ephemeris data to the chip), but I've noticed it doesn't always kick in right away, and sometimes you just need to be out in open sky and give it a minute or 2. Having to wait a couple mins isn't bad tho. Many years ago when I 1st got into GPS receivers, you might have to wait 10 mins or more when doing a cold start to get a Sat lock.

Happy GPS'ing.

Have you tried it Gunner? It's not that I don't agree with you, just that last i tried this the sat lock came up the instant I finished. Could very well be coincidence, I'll grant you, but I'm not the only person this trick has worked for.

I'd be appreciative if you would actually try it and compare it to just going outside. I'll see if I can find a way to force my droid to forget by rebooting or clearing cache or something to see if this works or is just something fun to do while waiting outside.


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I have done both of the calibrations, because I needed to for the accelerometer (for a level app) and the compass (compass app). But not for the GPS receiver. I've never done either of those routines if I'm just trying to get a Sat lock. And my phone gets a Sat lock every time, given enough time w/ a view of the sky.

I think that you're seeing a coincidence due to the fact that you're either outside or near a window, or in a room w/ lots of windows, and eventually the receiver gets ahold of at least 3 sats and you're good to go.

And while I try to spread some facts about GPS, you won't see me discouraging people from trying what you said, because the thought of people running outside and then flailing their arms or spinning their phone around while the neighbors look on is hilarious.

Haha, as funny as it is, I honest to God believe it works and am not trying to trick people, but I'm no GPS expert so I know when to back off an assertion if I think I might be wrong I'm gonna keep trying it on an off till I get a feel for it, but for now I'm glad the Go outside part will help some for sure

And just for kicks, I'm posting the GPS icon.

Just to let you guys know there's a new google maps 4.0