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Verizon GPS Fix - Available in App Catalog
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Jonathan I Ezor
at: 11:49 AM 07/19/2010
As one of the many who are suffering with VZW's GPS problems on my Pre Plus, I have noted that, once I've woken the GPS using the VZ Navigator splash screen, the GPS will stay awake as long as it is actively being used (e.g. by Minimap or another GPS program) and for some time afterwards. After an undetermined duration, though, it "times out," goes back to sleep, and most be woken again with VZ Navigator, the *only* reliable method that works for just about everyone.
I'd love to just leave the GPS running in the background, ready for any app to access it, once I trigger it with VZ Navigator, without either a major drain on the battery caused by an open card or overheating due to heavy duty GPS radio use. I would *really* love someone to code a very small background app that, once toggled on (or even automatically when VZ Navigator was launched!), would just request info from the GPS every couple of minutes or so without any further operation, and would keep going until the app was manually stopped, the GPS radio turned off, or the Pre Plus was reset. Ideally, either there would be no on-screen notification during operation (my preference) or putting one up would be an option.
While I struggle to get VZW to fix this issue (I'm working on it, I promise!), having something keep my GPS alive would go a *long* way toward ameliorating the functional problem, and allow me to use apps like Foursquare/Zipsquare or other GPS-enabled features without having to guess whether it's been too long since the last time I started VZ Navigator.
What say you? Anyone willing to take this on and make *many* VZW customers happy? {Jonathan}
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First of all, THANKS! Second, I'm in the midst of testing this, and after some early oddities, it *seems* to be working as follows:
Some GPS apps (Google Maps, Zipsquare, YPMobile) seem to be fine pulling cached GPS data when they can't get live location information; they can show a fix where there isn't one, and a location that is past. Two of my other apps, though, are not that tolerant. Navit (still homebrew) and Minimap (now in the App Catalog) both need a live fix to get location, and both have in the past needed me to launch VZ Navigator to successfully wake the GPS and give them a fix.
A few minutes ago, I launched VZ Navigator and then Minimap, getting a fix. I then closed both and turned on your new GPS Fix app, then relaunched Minimap after a few minutes. For a long time, Minimap just sat there "Waiting for GPS." Then, I saw the notification on the bottom of my screen that GPS Fix had triggered (I had it on a 5 minute interval), and almost *instantly*, Minimap had a fix as well. Navit too found a fix where it hadn't earlier.
It's difficult for me to test this methodically. I'd like to set the GPS Fix interval to 1 minute, or to trigger a GPS Fix "fix" manually, but the former doesn't seem to work and the latter isn't available (yet).
I will keep GPS Fix running today with a 5 minute interval and check Minimap throughout the day, but for now, this may *just* do the trick. Thanks again, James! {Jonathan}
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