[ryder4587]

Does your PlayBook give you the correct reading on bing or magellan? My PlayBook gives me a reading that is 280 kilometers from where I'm at and places me in a different city. I cannot seem to be able to fix this issue no matter what I do. I've done a security wipe, hard reset etc and it doesn't seem to work. Any ideas?

[Bla1ze]

GPS on the PlayBook isn't assisted, it takes forever to load up and it'll never really be as accurate as an assisted GPS system. The 4G LTE PlayBook is much better thanks to the aGPS but there is no 100% fix for the original PlayBook. Try Osmand, it seems to push the GPS hard to work with better results. Realistically, be glad it finds you at all considering even a cloud in the sky can make it not work.

[gwinegarden]

Last time I tested it, it nailed my position bang on.

[smweb]

2 restarts and 3 hard resets fixed that issue on my device. A better approach is to use OsmAnd first and then use Magellan. On my PB, OsmAnd hardly takes a minute to find my position, which is near accurate (20-25 feet difference).

[ryder4587]

2 restarts and 3 hard resets fixed that issue on my device. A better approach is to use OsmAnd first and then use Magellan. On my PB, OsmAnd hardly takes a minute to find my position, which is near accurate (20-25 feet difference).

I have used osmand and it still gives me a reading that is in a different city. I don't know what to do.

[PedroBorgas]

Maybe theres really something wrong with ur PB...

I use OsmAnd and even if takes forever to track my position, it does it well...

Try OsmAnd(Free in the App World) and report back...

Sent from a old but beautiful BB 8520 or a new and shinny PB 2.0

[drmike]

No problems here as well. Hardly a "massive error" seeing how it seems to work with a good majority of users.

I love how when some people post something thats wrong with their PB and its earth shattering or a reason why RIM will fail.

Deep breath everyone

[rkennedy01]

I really can't understand all of the negative reports regarding the PB's GPS. I've used it extensively in one of the most remote parts of the world. Working with nothing but the built-in GPS receiver (no wifi or data connection anywhere in range) and a cached copy of the local Google Maps data, it nails my location every time. Sometimes it takes a couple of taps of the compass icon in Google Maps, but it always gets it right eventually - less than 60 seconds in my experience. And it also holds the signal well, even when the PB is in a zippered case tucked into the door pocket of a moving vehicle.

Maybe I got lucky and have a super-sensitive PB, but I'm just not seeing the kinds of trouble I hear about on the forums.

RCK

Sent from my A200 using Tapatalk 2

[CanadianBB]

This is strange. My GPS has been fine from day one. Today it started finding a city about 100 km away and after repeatedly pushing GPS it finally changes back to my true location.

Brian

[ryder4587]

No problems here as well. Hardly a "massive error" seeing how it seems to work with a good majority of users.

I love how when some people post something thats wrong with their PB and its earth shattering or a reason why RIM will fail.

Deep breath everyone

It's earth shattering for me. It's my PlayBook

[Donnee]

Mine seems fine, just tested it in the house (2 storey brick, sat downstairs) through Google maps, took 8 seconds and the blue dot has me within a couple of yards

Quicker than I was expecting to be honest

[PedroBorgas]

Mine seems fine, just tested it in the house (2 storey brick, sat downstairs) through Google maps, took 8 seconds and the blue dot has me within a couple of yards

Quicker than I was expecting to be honest

:O

Mine doesnt recognize my position when i'm in my house lol

U lucky man

Sent from a old but beautiful BB 8520 or a new and shinny PB 2.0

[jeroen_13]

Use Blutorq Speed�meter

[thelink74]

i am thankful that when i have an issue with my GPS using the Magellan app all i need to do is restart the PlayBook and that resolves the issue. i love using the Magellan app when i need turn by turn navigation, its been pretty good to me. i even bought an Arkon car tablet mount and prop the PlayBook on it. i recommend anyone using their PlayBook in their vehicles to invest in the Arkon car tablet mount.

Sent from my BlackBerry amazing 9900 while i patiently wait for the keyboard BB10 device

[ihatelogitech]

I have had problems with the GPS functionality on my Playbook. I contacted tried all combinati
After speaking with Blackberry (on several occasions, once for over an hour), and after submitting my logs, their response is that it is a fault is with the OS and that will be dealt with. But they have no timeline as to when this shall be.
The tech I was dealing with said that he'd check a Playbook there and see if the problem could be replicated. He then indicated that his Playbook also had this problem.
He further indicated that I could have my Playbook repaired, but also said that as this was a "known problem", they couldn't promise that the problem wouldn't still be there.
Seriously, W! T! F!! . . . ?
If there are many peoople using the Playbook's GPS feature, with different GPS apps, how can this be a "known OS problem" that "might not be able to be fixed in the foreseeable future"?
I can understand that there may be a problem with my specific device, but telling a customer that "Sorry, it's just the way it is."?
Sorry, but I paid for a fully functioning device. If there's something wrong with it I either expect it to be repaired to an acceptable level of operation, or replaced with a new one.
Note: I bought the Playbook in November 2012.

While the fault here is not earth shattering, the response from Blackberry support is.
There is a sticker on the box that the Palybook came in that reads as follows:
"Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law.
You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeablee loss or damage.
You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure."

The two statements "You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure" and "the failure does not amount to a major failure" seem to be mutually exclusive.

These actions will not only result in customers not recommending Blackberry products, but worse, will result in customers actively bad-mouthing Blackberry products and their support.
Does anyone consider Blackberry's response to be an acceptable response to this issue?

[FF22]

I've read that OS bull a few different times. Frankly, I'm not sure if it is bull or possibly true.

The gps is definitely sensitive - meaning it is NOT the greatest but if given time in an open environment it will generally find my position. It is quicker on second acquistion if a longish time has not passed or it has not been moved a long distance.

Nogago in appworld can work as does the Star/astronomy program What's Up. There are some other freeware gps programs that have worked.

Give yours a spin outdoor or, at least, away from tall buildings. Leave it alone for 20 or so minutes and see what happens.

If you remain unsatisfied, do follow up with Rim and ask for an rma.

Good luck

[brianatbb]

I sure get a kick out of the dudes who like to make extravagant claims for their PB's gps. Now we have people saying their unit can lock in within 8 seconds, indoors and within a few feet. A word of advice to such posters. Give it a rest.

I now have the GPS Testing App open on my unit, and it states up-front that "You need a clear view of the open sky to see the satellites, or the app will take ages to find the GPS fix." I'm sitting next to a window with the PB on the window sill with wifi on. ... Got a lock, it took 112 seconds with a claimed accuracy of 69 metres, not bad. Just checking to see where on Osmand that puts me. Darn close but, oops, Osmand just crashed. Let's try Maps Free. No luck. Can't determine my location at all. On to MapApp. At least this one's a native BB app. First fix on the map a couple of hundred metres away. After a minute it's close enough for government work. Woohoo. Just for comparison, let's try my HTC phone. ... Took less than five seconds to launch Maps With Me showing my precise location, and I did not have the unit's gps enabled in advance.

Osmand still not working so I'll relaunch it and see how long it takes to locate me on the map. After 30 seconds, it puts me a couple hundred metres away. Tried to zoom in and it crashed again.

Let's try Navigator on the HTC. Yup, found me almost instantly and within a few feet. Meanwhile, MapApp on the PB is moving me around, trying a variety of locations out in a large field a couple hundred metres off, occasionally coming close but hardly close enough even for government work, before disappearing off the screen altogether. Let's try MapSearchFree, another BB app. This one is quite impressive (in BB terms) more stable than Osmand, which keeps crashing, and picks up my location within about 50 metres within seconds. Initially, at least, but now wants me out in the field nearby.

Finally, let's try Bing Maps on the PB. It's loading, slowly, slowly, slowly ... I can see North America. Let's zoom in. Yes, it's got me, back out in that field, maybe 250 metres away. Not sure what the PB's fascination with the field is all about, but it can't seem to hold me closer than about 200 metres on any of the app maps. Interestingly, some apps lose me when I switch to another map app and need to re-find me when I go back to them, even though the PB is set have apps run in the background.

Of the four PB apps, MapSearchFree seem to work best, with Bing in second place at 50-200 metres off. They would probably be more accurate if I were outside. The others just wasted my time.

Conclusion. Map apps make a big difference, and the PB's gps is reasonable but, not surprisingly, no match for an assisted GPS unit.

[Chaddface]

As you have discovered by your test different apps give different results.
Here is my experience:
I haven't used the GPS in a month or so. I just tried Magellan on the windows sill of the kitchen(5 degrees outside). It took about 30 seconds to from searching to showing 4 bars on the signal meter. After another 30 seconds it showed my in the correct part of my house. I use the PB over the factory Nav in the car because it is just as accurate and typing in addresses is much easier. There is an app called blutorque speedometer which gives a speed that matches the speedometer in my car.

I never tried Osmand but bing has never really worked for me.

[FF22]

Of course, aGPS is better - it is assisted by cell tower location and then in some fashion can pass that info helping the gps know what satellites are nearby - FIX.

The pb and other non-aGPS units need to find satellites which is generally not possibly if there's a roof over your head. My garmin hiking unit canNOT locate me in my house, whereas my Tomtom could SOMETIMES. It also depends on when it got its last fix and how far you might be from that location as the almanac that is stored goes out of date or your movement makes it inaccurate. Bing has me next door when I give it a chance.

edited to add: While typing the above I opened Nogago Maps. I put the pb down in the middle of my den. It is second floor, asphalt shingles and ply above and aluminum venetian blinds closed. It may have taken about 2 minutes and since I had already downloaded the maps, it moved me from Munchen (Munich) map to the pacific northWET and my home!

[pacoman03]

One's location seems to make a big difference. Inside my house, on the second floor of a three story house and about 10 feet from the nearest window, I get a GPS fix in Latitude before the map has completely loaded, although the fix is off by about 50 meters. Going outside at street level will normally give me a more accurate fix. All of my other map apps, Osmand, Nogago, Maverick, Bing. MapDroyd, Magellan, and View Ranger GPS, also give me an almost instantaneous fix and show me in virtually the same location. That being said, at my sister's house over Christmas, 3000 miles away, getting a lock inside her house proved very difficult, and outside it took maybe two minutes to lock on.

[blueberrymerry]

Can the Playbook use Wi-fi assisted positioning? It can download the latest almanac through Wi-fi instead of waiting for it to trickle down from the heavens, then fix a position based on 6-8 satellites visible. That would be like AGPS without the cell tower. I think Google Maps can get the rough location of an IP address based on their own database too.

[Cosmos Allbright]

Hi mike
Do yu have TrueSpeed ?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...RydWVTcGVlZCJd

THX a lot!

[peter9477]

Can the Playbook use Wi-fi assisted positioning? It can download the latest almanac through Wi-fi instead of waiting for it to trickle down from the heavens, then fix a position based on 6-8 satellites visible. That would be like AGPS without the cell tower.

The PlayBook (at least the wifi-only one) does not do that (at least as of some months ago, and I doubt it's been changed yet).

What it can do, sometimes, is look up a database of wifi hotspots and their approximate locations, and report that as the location when it can't get (or hasn't yet got) a proper GPS reading.

This little-known fact also explains the OP's issue... if the database is wrong, as can sometimes happen, it could report you in a vastly different location. In such a case you should see the problem resolve if you move out of range of whichever wifi hotspot is involved.

[ChrisMay]

Does your PlayBook give you the correct reading on bing or magellan? My PlayBook gives me a reading that is 280 kilometers from where I'm at and places me in a different city. I cannot seem to be able to fix this issue no matter what I do. I've done a security wipe, hard reset etc and it doesn't seem to work. Any ideas?

Just my 2p worth.
First few times I fired up any mapping app (though I only used Bing and GoogleMaps) my location was several miles out (3-4 I guess). Next time (in a different location) it couldn't get a lock at all.
Time after that, I left it by a window for about 10 minutes, and it then managed to get a lock that was within 50ft of my actual location. SInce then, it seems to manage to get a fairly accurate lock, usually in less than 60s.
I think the main thing is to be (very) patient the first time, leave the playbook somewhere with a clear view of a large area of sky for a good 10-20 minutes.
I believe that once it has obtained a GPS lock, then it is a lot quicker on subsequent attempts (as long as you don't move a very large distance - in which case, you probably have to start the process again).

Chris.

[ChrisMay]

No problems here as well. Hardly a "massive error" seeing how it seems to work with a good majority of users.

I love how when some people post something thats wrong with their PB and its earth shattering or a reason why RIM will fail.

Deep breath everyone

You have to admit that 280km out is a pretty massive error for a system that in theory can place you to within a few feet (I'm talking about GPS in general, not the Playbook's GPS specifically)