GPS issues

[xliderider]

Interestingly enough, this is one feature of the Fascinate that really doesn't matter to me. Being an avid geocachers (Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site), my wife and I have dedicated GPS receivers (a Garmin Vista HCx and an older Magellan eXplorist 500) as well as a Tom Tom One XL for the car. I'll be interested in comparing the accuracy of the Fascinate's GPS function with that of the handheld GPSr's and the Tom Tom.

Once you try Google Navigation, I believe you will find that it beats many dedicated GPS units. I find it better than my Garmin Nuvi because it will indicate traffic along my route. For this reason alone, I use GPS every day.

 

[tystevens]

is there anyway to get Voice Nav on the Fascinate?

If you mean access navigation thru verbal command, yes. Just download Voice Search and put an icon on the home screen. I tap the icon, the Google voice search window comes up prompting me to talk, and I say "navigate to ...". Works great. One touch, just like the Google search widget.

Oh, and I haven't had any issues w/ the GPS. I have all three boxes checked. Takes a few minutes to find me if I turn it on for the first time inside a building. If I turn it on outside, ie, in my truck, it locks on w/in 30 seconds and doesn't lose me. I have no idea if this is better or worse than other phones, ie, DX or Dinc, but it is more than adequate for my purposes. I really like the Google Nav program, too, by the way.

 

[Don S]

... Just download Voice Search and put an icon on the home screen...

FYI, the (Google) Voice Search app comes with the phone, it's called "Voice Search".

 

[Lodingi]

I'm finding the gps issue more frustrating by the day. It's taking way too long for the gps to lock. I took a 3 mile trip this eveing during Long Island rush hour. This trip took approximately 15 minutes. The program didn't start navigating until I entered the parking lot of my destination. Pissed me off it did.

 

[Destination: Moon]

Interestingly enough, this is one feature of the Fascinate that really doesn't matter to me. Being an avid geocachers (Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site), my wife and I have dedicated GPS receivers (a Garmin Vista HCx and an older Magellan eXplorist 500) as well as a Tom Tom One XL for the car. I'll be interested in comparing the accuracy of the Fascinate's GPS function with that of the handheld GPSr's and the Tom Tom.

Not sure how it compares to the units you have but the DINC and the Fascinate blow my Garmin C60 out of the the water. The phones are quicker, see way more sats and get better signal indoors.

 

[wtherrell]

Used google nav on the Nate today. Took maybe 30 seconds to lock on to 7 satellites and it used all of them. I held the unit in my hand and if I moved it further toward me, the blue nav arrow would change to a dot with a gray circle around it. (I think this means it lost some satellites and was using cell tower approximation. ) As soon as I moved the unit back toward the dash area the blue nav arrow came back. The voice turn by turn directions with spoken street names (Although the voice sounds like she had a mouthful of grits when she said the directions) were right on. The visuals were quite good. Routing was excellent. I took a little detour to see if it would recalculate. It quickly recognized and announced the new road I was on and told me to take a left turn in 1.4 miles on Hiway 73 to get back onto my route. It even showed me visually and spoken that my destination was ahead on the right. It knows which side of the street you want, --something that many dedicated units don't do. This thing is as good or better than many of the low to medium end dedicated GPS units I see out there. No lane guidance or 6 million POI or AAA tourguide. Not as much detail about names of nearby streets. No popup POI or exit POI like on my Magellan. Also the voice volume needs to be louder. Voice command did not work well. I tried to speak my destination but it kept trying to take me to Russia or somewhere so I gave up and just typed it in. All in all, this is a superb free app. on a pretty good GPS unit. Gets my vote for best free app of all time. Oh, and did I mention---it's FREE!
I am overjoyed to get this kind of functionality from a phone!

I have no GPS problems at all! Not even any "issues"