Nokia N900

Tyson Sawyer tyson at j3.org
Mon May 17 10:04:30 EDT 2010


On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 9:47 AM, David Rysdam <david at rysdam.org> wrote:
> On 05/17/2010 09:39 AM, Tyson Sawyer wrote:
>> On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 8:42 PM, David Rysdam <david at rysdam.org> wrote:
>>> I was outside, I was still WiFi'd in to the house so it was using AGPS.
>>>  Result: Invalid.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> Conclusion: The N810 GPS hardware and/or software definitively sucks.
>>
>> Though I agree that the N810 is not as good a GPS is most others, once
>> the AGPS package had bee installed my experience was much better than
>> what you are reporting.
>
> But only if you start up near a WiFi point, I assume.  When I'm driving
> around, this is rarely the case.  And even if it were the case, 4
> minutes seems like kind of a long time to wait when my Garmin can do it
> in around 10-20 seconds.

In my case, we were sometimes out in the woods not near any WiFi
signal and typically had much better performance than 4 minutes.  The
AGPS package at least knows how to remember where it was last and use
that to help get it started.   I think that the use of last known
point is good for something on the order of 100 miles.

>> You have not indicated if you had the AGPS
>> package installed.  Last I knew, it was not a standard package.  If
>> you didn't make a point to install it, its not there.  Without it, it
>> is my impression that you always get a cold start.
>
> I'm pretty sure it's installed.  I definitely had it installed at one
> point.  When I read that it would improve the GPS performance, I jabbed
> the "install" button before I even got to the part about "but you need
> to be connected to the internet".
>
> The only reason I'm not sure it's installed is I had to reinstall the OS
> at one point.  However, the backups save your installed app list, so it
> probably went back on.  And the data seem to back that up (heh): there's
> the vast difference in fix times between when the network was and wasn't
> available.

You will not get me to claim or defend that the N810 GPS is as good at
getting a fix as other GPSs.  It is not.  However, my experience was
clearly better than yours and once it has a fix, it does seem to be
just as good.

However, you might double check that AGPS is installed and configured.
 There may have been some relevant setup.  Since the device belongs to
my fiancee, I didn't do the install/setup, but I think I recall there
being a setup/config step/page.

Cheers!
Ty

-- 
Tyson D Sawyer

A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent
of many bad measures.   - Daniel Webster



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