Help "Assisted" GPS?

[mnemonicj]

So the Captivate has aGPS or Assisted GPS, correct? Does that mean that the "Assisted" can come from anywhere other than the GPS (like WiFi) or does that mean the GPS gets assistance specifically from the cell towers?

After the update, my GPS is still not working, and if I turn off WiFi location, Google Maps cannot find my location. My point is, my Captivate has never been able to find my location using the cell towers like other aGPS devices. My Nokia N95 didn't use Wifi, but Maps was able to locate me in 2 seconds because of the cell tower location, and then in 15 seconds with the GPS.

Can anyone else get a location with WiFi location disabled and without a GPS lock?

 

[sremick]

So the Captivate has aGPS or Assisted GPS, correct? Does that mean that the "Assisted" can come from anywhere other than the GPS (like WiFi) or does that mean the GPS gets assistance specifically from the cell towers?

Assisted GPS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[mnemonicj]

I guess I should have been more specific... Is the GPS on the Captivate considered a true aGPS by Samsung or do they consider the WiFi to be the Assisted in aGPS? Even when I have aGPS enabled, the cell towers don't help me get a faster location. Does anyone seem to get a location from the cell towers?

 

[sremick]

Yes, I've gotten approximate location positioning from strictly cell towers, wifi off, and no GPS fix.

 

[Infinite-t]

That is actually a good point for everyone to take into account. The Captivate is advertized as having aGPS, or Assisted GPS. Which mean the "assistance" is intended to be used in conjunction with GPS satelite info. It is not designed or intended to be used as a stand alone GPS.

I am not saying there isnt, or wasnt a problem with the GPS on this phone, but is what I am saying is that when folks complain they turned off the wireless assist feature and their GPS is taking forever to lock,isnt working, is inaccurate, etc, you are no longer using the GPS as Samsung has designed it to be used.

In a nutshell, assisted GPS is designed to use wireless signals such as cell and wifi signals to get a rough location of where you are, then using this data accesses the assisted server to get information on your location and the estimated location of where the sats should be in the sky near X location at X time to then connect you to those sats to give you a more accurate reading of your location, Turn off the "assisted" mode and you are using it as a stand alone GPS, which is not how Samsung intended it to be used.

That being said, I am not sticking up for samsung, I am not sayign there wasnt/isnt a problem with it. Mine, after the first few weeks, and before the update, didnt work at all, no where no way.. so there was a problem. It now seems to be working quite well for me now.... for now. It is just important for people to understand what the aGPS function our phones are said to have and how it works, and what to expect from it when you dont use it how it was intended to be used.

Now to answer you question. I have gotten locations returned to me with GPS and Wifi OFF using only cell tower triangulation, it is usally off by a few blocks and up to a few miles.

 

[AvengerBB]

That is actually a good point for everyone to take into account. The Captivate is advertized as having aGPS, or Assisted GPS. Which mean the "assistance" is intended to be used in conjunction with GPS satelite info. It is not designed or intended to be used as a stand alone GPS.

I am not saying there isnt, or wasnt a problem with the GPS on this phone, but is what I am saying is that when folks complain they turned off the wireless assist feature and their GPS is taking forever to lock,isnt working, is inaccurate, etc, you are no longer using the GPS as Samsung has designed it to be used.

In a nutshell, assisted GPS is designed to use wireless signals such as cell and wifi signals to get a rough location of where you are, then using this data accesses the assisted server to get information on your location and the estimated location of where the sats should be in the sky near X location at X time to then connect you to those sats to give you a more accurate reading of your location, Turn off the "assisted" mode and you are using it as a stand alone GPS, which is not how Samsung intended it to be used.

That being said, I am not sticking up for samsung, I am not sayign there wasnt/isnt a problem with it. Mine, after the first few weeks, and before the update, didnt work at all, no where no way.. so there was a problem. It now seems to be working quite well for me now.... for now. It is just important for people to understand what the aGPS function our phones are said to have and how it works, and what to expect from it when you dont use it how it was intended to be used.

Now to answer you question. I have gotten locations returned to me with GPS and Wifi OFF using only cell tower triangulation, it is usally off by a few blocks and up to a few miles.

Assisted GPS has nothing to do with the "use wireless networks" option in Android. That option is to allow programs to get an approximate location without using GPS at all. Assisted GPS logic is built into the GPS software and will always be used when available.

To get a true GPS lock, you must have a certain number of sats as well as the GPS "data" that tells the phone where the sats are. Without that lock, even an approximate location using cell towers does not help. There is a lot of misinformation running around these forums (by a select few individuals) which is confusing people.

So yes, using the "Use Wireless Networks" option does "Assist" the phone by giving you an approximate location while it's working on a GPS lock, but it will not help with a true GPS lock and is not aGPS.

 

[Infinite-t]

Assisted GPS has nothing to do with the "use wireless networks" option in Android. That option is to allow programs to get an approximate location without using GPS at all. Assisted GPS logic is built into the GPS software and will always be used when available.

To get a true GPS lock, you must have a certain number of sats as well as the GPS "data" that tells the phone where the sats are. Without that lock, even an approximate location using cell towers does not help. There is a lot of misinformation running around these forums (by a select few individuals) which is confusing people.

So yes, using the "Use Wireless Networks" option does "Assist" the phone by giving you an approximate location while it's working on a GPS lock, but it will not help with a true GPS lock and is not aGPS.

Actually my may be partially, or completely correct. Apon further thought, cell phones use A-gps as well as wifi and cell triangulation together in a system refered to as "hybrid positioning". I dont know for sure if the "use wireless networks" is part of the "assist system" or part of the "hybrid" system or what Samsung would consider it to be a part of (maybe i need to read into that). Maybe part of the GPS problems this phone has/had was the assisted part was broken so that only the hybrid part was finding a rough location. Then the GPS system was not being able to find or lock onto the satelites to get a solid location. So when people had the "wireless network" turned on, they were only getting rough locations, turn it off and they werent getting anything... dunno, just trying to make sence of this all and hope the "pros" get it figured out so this damn thing works (mine seems to be now).

 

[ewingr]

So in the captivate, what exactly is the way to turn on A-GPS?

 

[AllergyDoc]

So in the captivate, what exactly is the way to turn on A-GPS?

I think the point was it's not true aGPS on the Captivate.

 

[BookLover]

Turn on BOTH Wireless Network *AND* GPS Satellites.

I've done that from day 1 and never had an issue with my Captivate.

*AND* I keep all of that checked all the time. It doesn't use up any battery when it's not being called on to Navigate or get position fixes (e.g., Weatherbug Follow Me).