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Any way to force google maps/kaiser to use wireless traingulation instead of the GPS

So the internal GPS is one of the primary reasons I wanted the Kaiser, but when it comes down to it, it's the rare occasion that I actually use the GPS for much, especially stuff outside of basic "where am I" and "how do I get there" with gmaps...
Even when using quickgps, sometimes when I need to know where I am in relation to somewhere I'm going, quickly, it can still take way too long to pick up sat signals. I was in the car with a friend the other night (this is a guy that I constantly harass for having an iPhone (and he harasses me for the opposite)) and when we both pulled out our phones with gmaps, he knew right where we were, instantly, while all I could do was sit there and try my hardest to not make excuses about why I wasn't picking up a sat signal quickly.
Unless I'm using other GPS software, for my uses with gmaps, I'd really rather just be able to use the triangulation that non-GPS phones use. I tried turning off the GPS (GPS program port: None) in settings, but gmaps just searches anyway, not finding any hardware and/or sats.
Is what I want to do possible? I'm sure I'll get several responses on how I can speed up my sat signal pickup, which is NOT what I'm looking for. I just want to be able to use gmaps "My Location" without using the internal GPS, thus saving battery as well as getting a quicker pickup on where I am...
TIA
Geo

Yes, what your asking for is just using "My Location" without GPS. I use "My Location" all the time it does not activate my GPS. Here is an article that confirms "My Location" does not use GPS.
http://gigaom.com/2007/11/28/google-my-location/
-McMex

mcmexican said:
Yes, what your asking for is just using "My Location" without GPS. I use "My Location" all the time it does not activate my GPS. Here is an article that confirms "My Location" does not use GPS.
http://gigaom.com/2007/11/28/google-my-location/
-McMex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that My Location can be used without GPS, I'm just wondering if it's possible on a Kaiser. Assuming you have a Kaiser device, what and how do you have it set up so that gmaps doesn't activate/use GPS, but instead uses the cell towers?

On my device using GoogleMaps 2.0.0.11 the option for My Location works separately from Use GPS. The location (within 1.7KM) is picked up within seconds, GPS does take longer but is accurate to individual rooms within my home. The Cell based locator is obviously dependent on your Carriers Cell towers and I know in the past I have been unable to get a location over HSDPA or 3G but GPRS worked. Now though on TMobile UK at home I can get my cell based location using any non Wifi data connection.

Smack! Smack!

wizzzard said:
On my device using GoogleMaps 2.0.0.11 the option for My Location works separately from Use GPS. The location (within 1.7KM) is picked up within seconds, GPS does take longer but is accurate to individual rooms within my home. The Cell based locator is obviously dependent on your Carriers Cell towers and I know in the past I have been unable to get a location over HSDPA or 3G but GPRS worked. Now though on TMobile UK at home I can get my cell based location using any non Wifi data connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, my apologies. Turns out I was not using the latest version. I've installed v2 with separate GPS/My Location, and My Location without GPS works great!
Thanks to all.

bananachunks said:
I know that My Location can be used without GPS, I'm just wondering if it's possible on a Kaiser. Assuming you have a Kaiser device, what and how do you have it set up so that gmaps doesn't activate/use GPS, but instead uses the cell towers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default My Location DOES NOT use GPS. You have to enable GPS from the menu.
Yes I have a Kaiser (actually 2at&t Tilts) and use Google Maps (v2.0.0.12)

kyphur said:
By default My Location DOES NOT use GPS. You have to enable GPS from the menu.
Yes I have a Kaiser (actually 2at&t Tilts) and use Google Maps (v2.0.0.12)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I found this out by installing the latest Google Maps (after my last ROM flash, I installed gmaps from a cab I already had on sd, which was apparently not a recent version).
Thank you - I love the fact that I can use gmaps without GPS now for the quick "where am I" without having to wait, but can still use GPS when I feel like it, and also still have it enabled in Settings for use in other GPS programs.
Thanks again

Location problem with an interesting twist

Hey guys.
Here's the interesting problem i have:
When i open google maps (and not only, this happens with the weather widget) it shows my location for a minute. After that minute it moves my position to my EXACT address in my home town that's 250 km (156 miles) away. After another minute it moves again to my current position and stays there.
To fix this i tried to look into my google profile/account settings and i don't have an address stored there. Even if i did, i would have never inserted the exact address, only the city. So its not related to this.
The next thing i did was to change my wireless network ssid because both wireless networks from home and current city have the same ssid. The assumption is that the phone stored the location of the wifi network once connected to it. That's fine, but why would it happen when the ssid of wifi network of my current location has been changed?
Factory resets don't help and this happens on 2.1 and 2.2 too.
Please give me some suggestions. Thanks.

Anyone...?

I think nexus one does store this somewhere on the phone.. because i now have problem on 2.2
Now agps wont work... i cannot locate myself if i m indoor
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[Q] Your location is currently unavailable.

Sorry for another GPS question. I know that the GPS is meant to be inaccurate, but I can't get it to work at all with Google Maps. I always get the "Your Location is currently unavailable" message when I try to find my location with it. I upgraded to the latest firmware over KIES but that didn't fix it. It sometimes works with other apps, and the tests seem to show it connecting (if slowly and inaccurately). Does anyone know how to fix this?

"Your Location is currently unavailable" doesn't come from the GPS, but it comes from the Tower Network Location Service that is the other check box above the GPS settings screen

Just fixed his very issue
I had no blue dot in Google Maps.
I needed to disable wifi. Enable data through 3G.
The blue my location returned with my towers position.
I disabled 3g, enabled wifi.
All fixed now, very relieved

thanks but neither of these methods work.

Maybe your telco does not provide tower info

it actually started working again randomly. this might be a stupid question but why does google maps not use the Gps?

TNStrangelove said:
it actually started working again randomly. this might be a stupid question but why does google maps not use the Gps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it can use both
Towers and/or GPS

i too have some issues with google maps and my location:
ignoring how long it takes to get my location (sometimes really fast, sometimes too long) ... it seems that it get the position using just wifi (gps ans gsm disabled), with gps, or just with the gsm on ... cool
but: sometimes i don't get my location in google maps (location unavailable!), even though i can get it in other applications that use google maps : like a tracking app ... or in google earth ... or in antennas ... etc
how can i fix this?
thank u!

[Q] Location Services Down?

My new Vivid used to show the city where I am located in the home page, along with weather.
As of today, the city is no longer named; and it just says "Current Location" with a current weather that does not seem to be relevant to where I am or no weather at all. See attached.
I have both Use Wireless networks and Use GPS checked in the Settings>Location.
When I try to Sync Weather, it says that it is "unable to contact location services" to determine my location.
Has the Google Location Services database gone upside down?

I have not been able to get any websites to find my location. I realized this the other day when NextBus gave an error "Sorry, but we could not determine your location. Error: Failed to start Geolocation service." I've tried other websites as well and none of them can access the phones GPS location. "Enable location" is selected on the settings (I tried turning it on and off). Has anyone else had this problem? The maps application does find my location correctly.

I think there's an issue with Goggle Location Services. Everything worked fine for a while today, but now we're back into the "unable to contact the location service" error message when starting the weather app; and Goggle Maps puts me in the right place just fine.

I think my home WiFi is preventing the Vivid from contacting the Loaction Service. When I turned WiFi access off in the Vivid, the Location and Weather seemed to work A-OK. When I turned WiFi access back on, it no longer gave me my location or weather.

Could Be AT&T
I have not had this problem with the Vivid, but I had the problem a time or two with my HD2 on T-Mobile and AT&T. Sometimes, the phone cannot locate enough towers to get a good triangulation fix for your location. A tower may be out of service. I had the problem last for a day or so on T-Mobile before it started working again.
As to WiFi, I wonder if turning on the WiFi causes the data connection to shut down or switch connection from the "3G/4G" radio to the WiFi. I have not tested it.
I recall seeing in another thread where someone questioned the accuracy and completenes of the Google Location Serrvices data, but I think it is a tower porblem. If you can, try it from a different location later in the day.

brucegil said:
As to WiFi, I wonder if turning on the WiFi causes the data connection to shut down or switch connection from the "3G/4G" radio to the WiFi. I have not tested it.
If you can, try it from a different location later in the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any locations where I do not have a WiFi connection, even though it's turned on and not connected, work fine for location and weather. If I log on to a WiFi network - no matter where, the location and weather stop syncing and properly displaying.

DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
Any locations where I do not have a WiFi connection, even though it's turned on and not connected, work fine for location and weather. If I log on to a WiFi network - no matter where, the location and weather stop syncing and properly displaying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like a question that needs to be sent to HTC. IF the WiFi connection is shutting down the data connection, that could be a problem. Of course, it could be something else. I installed the HTC weather widget with WiFi running and the weather widget immediately displayed the current temp for my location.

brucegil said:
That sounds like a question that needs to be sent to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done. No response.

this could be a tower issue with your cell provider. When i had the HTC Aria location worked great then all of a sudden i only got Current city or a location about 20 miles away which was near my work. location worked at work but not at home.
I called att support and they did a engineering ticket or something and it was resolved within the week.

That is a common problem with att android phones.
Sent from my Inspire 4g using xda premium

DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
My new Vivid used to show the city where I am located in the home page, along with weather.
As of today, the city is no longer named; and it just says "Current Location" with a current weather that does not seem to be relevant to where I am or no weather at all. See attached.
I have both Use Wireless networks and Use GPS checked in the Settings>Location.
When I try to Sync Weather, it says that it is "unable to contact location services" to determine my location.
Has the Google Location Services database gone upside down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using a different APN? My location service got all jacked up when I changed my APN after I got throttled.

Dawakat said:
Are you using a different APN? My location service got all jacked up when I changed my APN after I got throttled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Stock out of the ATT box. No changes.

If you are near wi-fi turn on your wi-fi and try refreshing the location you are at and make sure your phone is actually connecting to the internet by trying to go to a webpage if it isn't try restarting the phone and or doing a factory reset. Sometimes the UI will completely glitch out so I would try those and if still nothing return it because at that point I would say it's an actual hardware issue if you go all the way to the point of restoring the phone.

malickie said:
If you are near wi-fi turn on your wi-fi and try refreshing the location you are at and make sure your phone is actually connecting to the internet by trying to go to a webpage if it isn't try restarting the phone and or doing a factory reset. Sometimes the UI will completely glitch out so I would try those and if still nothing return it because at that point I would say it's an actual hardware issue if you go all the way to the point of restoring the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC Support wanted me to put the device into the Safe Mode (prevents 3rd party apps and drivers from loading) and observe it for 24-48 hrs to see if the problem persists. I have not done that yet, as a battery pull is hard work with the phone in an Otterbox Defender case.

[Q] Constant "Searching for GPS" in Canada (Virgin Mobile)

Hi all. Getting "Searching for GPS" non-stop whenever I use a location-oriented app or Google maps. Tried rebooting, turning GPS on/off, etc.
I'm in Canada, bought the Z from UK. Have the correct APN information for Virgin Mobile.
Any other suggestions?

swooks said:
Hi all. Getting "Searching for GPS" non-stop whenever I use a location-oriented app or Google maps. Tried rebooting, turning GPS on/off, etc.
I'm in Canada, bought the Z from UK. Have the correct APN information for Virgin Mobile.
Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try downloading and using either GPS Status or FasterGPS from the playstore. GPS Status will manually download the agps data and show you the individual satellites that are locking on your phone. FasterGPS (You need root) can localize your gps.conf file ( to Canada) so you get a faster lock.
If you've been unable to lock just leave GPS Status open, it can take a while but once you get a fix it should be faster the next time you try. It also can give you a notification whenever an app is actively using gps which can be helpful. I install both on every android phone I've ever used.

swooks said:
Hi all. Getting "Searching for GPS" non-stop whenever I use a location-oriented app or Google maps. Tried rebooting, turning GPS on/off, etc.
I'm in Canada, bought the Z from UK. Have the correct APN information for Virgin Mobile.
Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try with enable all options inside location service settings.