Saturday, October 20, 2007

N95's GPS Stronger Than Expected

So lots of you have been complaining about the usability of the GPS.. Well, this will certainly surprise you.

Today i went out for a little bike ride, i wanted to have Google Maps on and use the Nokia Sports Tracker program, so i did. However, i was afraid of mounting such a device on my bike. Instead, i waited for it to get a lock (which took only about 7 seconds), CLOSED the slider, yes, closed it! and as if that wasnt enough, i kept it snug in my pocket. It was also kinda cloudy outside.

...So the signal would be lost right.... WRONG.

To my surprise, the Sports Tracker program succesfully tracked my entire route!!

Here's the thing. Nokia reccomended:
1. keep slider open
2. clear skies and good weather
3. do not block the keypad
for better GPS usage. But i crossed all of those and the GPS still managed to pull through.
I'm guessing the A-GPS has provided a certain degree of feedback for the GPS to function properly.

Anyone else experienced this? Feel free to leave a comment.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei seu blog pelo google está bem interessante gostei desse post. Gostaria de falar sobre o CresceNet. O CresceNet é um provedor de internet discada que remunera seus usuários pelo tempo conectado. Exatamente isso que você leu, estão pagando para você conectar. O provedor paga 20 centavos por hora de conexão discada com ligação local para mais de 2100 cidades do Brasil. O CresceNet tem um acelerador de conexão, que deixa sua conexão até 10 vezes mais rápida. Quem utiliza banda larga pode lucrar também, basta se cadastrar no CresceNet e quando for dormir conectar por discada, é possível pagar a ADSL só com o dinheiro da discada. Nos horários de minuto único o gasto com telefone é mínimo e a remuneração do CresceNet generosa. Se você quiser linkar o Cresce.Net(www.provedorcrescenet.com) no seu blog eu ficaria agradecido, até mais e sucesso. (If he will be possible add the CresceNet(www.provedorcrescenet.com) in your blogroll I thankful, bye friend).

Simon said...

Same here, but it dosen't need the A-GPS to do this.
I've used it cycling and walking on earlier firmware with the same result. I have made sure I get a lock before packing the phone away, and having the slider open speeds this up.

A-GPS does help get a quicker lock in certain situations, but I'm seeng some odd power usage while it is in use, getting a proper GPS lock is better, but has rarely been a problem.