i searched several places and everyone mentions that playbook has gps other than specs on bb site.
my playbook shows no gps settings.
any experts to shed some light?
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i searched several places and everyone mentions that playbook has gps other than specs on bb site.
my playbook shows no gps settings.
any experts to shed some light?
Open Bing Maps and let it find your location.
Download the free Compass app from appworld.
Poynt also supports the gps and is free.
Magellan is not free.
You won't see any settings because there are none. Apps which require geolocation services simply ask for the information, and the GPS is enabled and feeds readings automatically to the app once it has stable data from the satellites.
I was actually wondering about the same thing, if the Playbook indeed has an internal GPS.
Just to clarify: Does this mean that if I downloaded one of those compass apps, turned my wifi off, and opened the compass app, that it would still be able to tell the direction??
I was under the impression that with Bing Maps, Google Maps, etc were all using my internet connection data to tell where I was.
No compass direction unless you are moving. The Playbook also has an actual fluxgate compass in it similar to the new phones, but there is no software available yet to get the heading from the compass. The compass apps are GPS based, which means it displays your average direction of travel.
Back onto topic, get the free compass app, turn off wif and bluetooth, reboot the Playbook, then start the compass app. Put the Playbook outside with a clear view of the sky and if it has been a while since you used the Playbook, it way have some time for the compass app to show a fix. After this your GPS fixes will be quite a bit quicker. Bing maps will use the GPS to show your Position on the map now using the GPS.
For those in less hospitable climates, a Playbook will fit in a ziplock bag if it is not nice out when you want to try out your GPS.
As robsteve says, and add this piece of advice: do not cover the bottom right corner (when held in the normal landscape orientation) with your hand or anything that will block the GPS satellite signals. They're very weak, and easily block, and even holding it with your hand held loosely over that corner will significantly affect the accuracy of the readings, or even its ability to see enough satellites.
Also try to be well away from tall buildings when you do the initial test, if you've never got it to show a reading before. While it's always worked right around my house, the readings are thrown off by hundreds of feet when I'm walking through the downtown in my small town, where the tallest buildings are only about three stories.
Thanks robsteve!
That sure clarifies things. About your suggestion, I will definitely try that one of these days!
Cheers! :)
There is a setting under Browser Options -> Permissions that dis/allows websites to access your location; it's unclear whether this applies to the GPS and/or various web location services that approximate your location based on IP address or what cell tower you're using.
The browser option mentioned applies to "geolocation" (as a general thing) for the web browser, for the purpose of privacy, so users can prevent any site from knowing where they are. It would not specifically disable GPS, but it would prevent the browser from connecting to the GPS service as well as from retrieving IP geo-lookup info. In the web world (including Flash), the two things are coupled together so sites/apps don't actually know where the info is coming from, just that they got "some" location data back.
Think of that option more as blocking any location lookup for web apps, but not having any direct effect on GPS outside of the browser.
Bing is the oddball - it wants a wifi setting in order to load its initial map and so is not the best way to test if wifi is remote.
Actually, too many of the GPS apps (that is those that do routing or finding nearby stuff) need wifi for data. But there is a standalone gps in the unit. My pb gps gets a location from the second floor of my wood-frame, shingle-roof house. Not so on the first floor.
Bing Maps works with the Bridge as well as WiFi, so you can take the PB and your BB to the middle of nowhere (as long as you have a cell signal) and then use BM to prove there's a working GPS inside.