[cobra boy]

Just got a new 64G Playbook for the 299 price...........love it. Looking forward to 2.0. My GPS does not seem to locate me on any map. It does work w/ the bridge app. Cust. supp says GPS is a known issue........meaning it doesn't work. Does anybody else have this problem or if yours works, am I missing something????

[diegonei]

It is a standard GPS, so you must be outside for it to work. I know.I had to take a walk to actually get a lock. But it pinpointed me to the exact location once it started working.

[jafobabe]

It finds me in the Ponyt app.... tells me how far the next pub is from where I truly am standing!

[Chaddface]

Mine works great. It should be pointed out that the GPS in the PB has no assistance from cell towers like your phone. It needs a clear view of the sky and sometimes the first locating may take some time. I use an app called magellan compass(for navigation)that gets data from my bridged BB phone and location from the PB GPS.
I never had luck with the preload map software.

[FF22]

I really, really wish Rim would state what issue they've found that they know about in the gps!!! This crops up periodically but nothing definitive has ever been revealed yet using the gps generally works if the pb has a proper view of the sky (well, really satellite signals).

What is unfair is that some folks might actually have a pb with a defective gps and there's no way of telling if blame is thrown on some vague OS issue as it has for months now. There's been any number of OS updates and that "line of bs" apparently is still being used by support personnel.

[anindoc]

The default Bing map that comes with the PB has never successfully been able to lock onto my position. The magellan compass app does an excellent jon in comparison. As Babe has pointed above the poynt is also very decent. Now the best way to use is to step outside the house to see the full potential of the GPS within the PB, as Chad has mentioned above.
I have used the Magellan compass app in my car as a GPS for driving and it worked very well. So, the PB GPS is really good, now only if someone makes an app like Blackberry traffic, but then PB will need a 4G capability to work as efficiently to serve as a complete GPS device.

[peter9477]

My GPS does not seem to locate me on any map. It does work w/ the bridge app. Cust. supp says GPS is a known issue........meaning it doesn't work. Does anybody else have this problem or if yours works, am I missing something????

Customer support has been known to invent things or distort them, so take that with a grain of salt.

See this post for some additional hints that might help you: http://forums.crackberry.com/playboo...3/#post6941685

[cobra boy]

Thanks to all for your input. i did try it outside and Bing maps found me in about 3-4 minutes. Don't know why my 9860 can find me inside but PB can't. Oh well, just glad it works. Thanks again.

[Thunderbuck]

Thanks to all for your input. i did try it outside and Bing maps found me in about 3-4 minutes. Don't know why my 9860 can find me inside but PB can't. Oh well, just glad it works. Thanks again.

The phones also use assisted GPS. They can read your position not just from the GPS sensor, but also by triangulating your position with cell towers.

[xKrNMBoYx]

I hope some developer release a fullout GPS app with navigation. That would make it so I don't need to buy a seperate one.

I have yet to get a lock because I forget to try outdoors. Without Assisted GPS is it hard to use the playbook as a navigation device?

[werebear3]

I just set mine on the windows sill and it had a good position in less then 30 seconds.

This is a great device, I hope it doesn't go BETA.

[FF22]

I hope some developer release a fullout GPS app with navigation. That would make it so I don't need to buy a seperate one.

I have yet to get a lock because I forget to try outdoors. Without Assisted GPS is it hard to use the playbook as a navigation device?

Well, you probably can't start the navigation in a parking garage or your office building. Once it gets a lock on satellites, you should be reasonably okay. But like ANY real gps, get inside a large urban city (canyon like buildings on both sides) and you could be in trouble.

I can get a reading from the upstairs of my woodframe, shingled roof house. But not downstairs.

[Zipper]

I too am dying for a full on voice/map vehicle navigation app for my playbook. The only one that ever worked flawlessly for my bb was the garmin gps app. Telenav was and still is terrible. It loses gps signal every min on my work 9780 bb. Hope to get a great gps nav app for my pb soon though and ditch my stand alone garmin.

[xKrNMBoYx]

Well, you probably can't start the navigation in a parking garage or your office building. Once it gets a lock on satellites, you should be reasonably okay. But like ANY real gps, get inside a large urban city (canyon like buildings on both sides) and you could be in trouble.

I can get a reading from the upstairs of my woodframe, shingled roof house. But not downstairs.

Yeah parking garage and office building does not mean much to me as I'm still a 2nd year college student. I live in a smaller town/city so I don't think there ks a building nearby to block satelite signals.

I do have experience with using a gps in NYC and man it did me no good for navigation. Maybe three years later after I graduate I will live in a bigger city.

I too am dying for a full on voice/map vehicle navigation app for my playbook. The only one that ever worked flawlessly for my bb was the garmin gps app. Telenav was and still is terrible. It loses gps signal every min on my work 9780 bb. Hope to get a great gps nav app for my pb soon though and ditch my stand alone garmin.

Yup, I let my father keep my garmin so I hope a full on voice app does come out.

I wouldnt mind paying 10-20+ dollars for the app if it worked well and had great support.

[FF22]

Oh, one thing to mention - I would not plan to use the pb for much walking (biking?) navigation although, Peter (HEY, Peter - YES, again) probably can provide specs on how much the gps demands on the battery. I recall trying to use my tomtom car unit while walking around - it really is not intended for that kind of use away from a power source. I'm sure it would work for a while.

[alnamvet68]

It finds me in the Ponyt app.... tells me how far the next pub is from where I truly am standing!

i agree, Poynt's gps works great. It has even located restaurants I never knew existed.

[oilgeo10]

The gps on my pb works fine indoors with bing maps. Last night i was reading this thread in the basement and it placed my position approx. 10m from where i was on the sat image. I thought that it might be getting an assist from the wifi somehow. But now this morning i am upstairs and gps has me in a new position. Still approx. 10m off the bing map but moved in the right direction from my former basement position. This suggests to me that a true gps real time tracking on a map, useful for travelling, chould be done. It would be great to just put your pb in a car mount & use the car adaptor for power when/if required to use as a road and from-to directions. I don't need voice activation though the database that type of feature uses probably comes with the digital roadmaps that the standalone gps devices have.

A gps app like this would fit right in RIM's design for the pb as a business tool. Flying somewhere on business and getting a rental car, you have gps to guide you and work data all on the same device!

[spike12]

It would be great if they linked a-gps through bridge. You usually need it on for many gps apps anyway.

[peter9477]

Oh, one thing to mention - I would not plan to use the pb for much walking (biking?) navigation although, Peter (HEY, Peter - YES, again) probably can provide specs on how much the gps demands on the battery. I recall trying to use my tomtom car unit while walking around - it really is not intended for that kind of use away from a power source. I'm sure it would work for a while.

Actually it's a misconception for some reason that GPS is necessarily power hungry. GPS actually uses fairly little power, or at least GPS-done-right does, and between Texas Instruments and RIM they seem to have done it right. I can't speak for other platforms.

My measurements show having GPS active adds only about 160mW (0.16W) which means it uses an extra 2-3 times as much power as standby alone does.

Another way to look at that number is that for every hour of continuous GPS use (with the screen off), you're using only about 0.9% of your battery capacity for the GPS itself. Turning the screen on for only four minutes every hour to check on your app's window would cost the same.

[FF22]

See, I knew he'd be by! Thanks -makes using the gps less of an issue.

[dmcclure2]

I have yet to find a decent lock-on to GPS. In, out, no difference. Long wait, short wait, no difference. It places me 74 miles from my present locationwhen I am at home, and seems to identify me as being wherever the Wi-Fi provider I am using has its server. In New York City, it gleefully pinpoints me in downtown San Francisco. Sigh! I just use the excellent GPS in my phone, with a magnifying glass to read it.

[FF22]

Have you tried the free Compass app and checked the resulting lat/long with your location?

But this is why I would like to know what Rim's secret with the supposed gps problems are. Maybe your unit is bunged up.