Could 05.11.07 Have Improved my GPS Reception?

[thelatinist]

After running 3.0.1 for weeks and pwned 3.1 with baseband 04.26.08 since PwnageTool 3.1.3 was released, last night I decided to upgrade to 3.1 official, downgrade using Saurik's solution, and re-jailbreak and re-pwn. Since I did that I've had much better GPS reception. It used to take at least a minute to get a lock; now it takes seconds. Could something in the new baseband have improved my GPS reception? I wasn't expecting this, and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm also at 6:42 usage (most of it streaming music over WiFi) with 30% battery remaining. This is better than I've ever had before.

 

[dhlizard]

After running 3.0.1 for weeks and pwned 3.1 with baseband 04.26.08 since PwnageTool 3.1.3 was released, last night I decided to upgrade to 3.1 official, downgrade using Saurik's solution, and re-jailbreak and re-pwn. Since I did that I've had much better GPS reception. It used to take at least a minute to get a lock; now it takes seconds. Could something in the new baseband have improved my GPS reception? I wasn't expecting this, and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm also at 6:42 usage (most of it streaming music over WiFi) with 30% battery remaining. This is better than I've ever had before.

As far as I can remember, no one has documented this.

My wife and I both have 3G phones. She is at 5.11.xx and i am at 4.26.xx. When we use our navigation apps in the car, I have not noticed any difference, but I haven't really been looking carefully.

But, sounds like it's a plus for you !!

 

[thelatinist]

I've since experimented, and I can get locations in places where it would always time out before (inside brick buildings, basement rooms, etc.). I don't know how it could have had such a big effect on it, but it seems to have.

 

[shigs]

After running 3.0.1 for weeks and pwned 3.1 with baseband 04.26.08 since PwnageTool 3.1.3 was released, last night I decided to upgrade to 3.1 official, downgrade using Saurik's solution, and re-jailbreak and re-pwn. Since I did that I've had much better GPS reception. It used to take at least a minute to get a lock; now it takes seconds. Could something in the new baseband have improved my GPS reception? I wasn't expecting this, and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm also at 6:42 usage (most of it streaming music over WiFi) with 30% battery remaining. This is better than I've ever had before.

I went ahead and upgraded via itunes to the official 3.1.2 then used Blackra1n to jailbreak and since then my GPS has been better than ever. I was ready to give up on it. I would drive down the road and every 15 seconds see the message "Poor GPS Signal" on all the programs I've tried but now it picks up within a minute or two and works like a charm.

 

[thelatinist]

I went ahead and upgraded via itunes to the official 3.1.2 then used Blackra1n to jailbreak and since then my GPS has been better than ever. I was ready to give up on it. I would drive down the road and every 15 seconds see the message "Poor GPS Signal" on all the programs I've tried but now it picks up within a minute or two and works like a charm.

The interesting thing to me is that just upgrading to 3.1 didn't do it; it was only after I upgraded the baseband that it was improved. Perhaps there was some sort of interference from the phone transmitter that was causing problems with GPS? Whatever the change, it seems to have worked for me!

 

[dhlizard]

The interesting thing to me is that just upgrading to 3.1 didn't do it; it was only after I upgraded the baseband that it was improved. Perhaps there was some sort of interference from the phone transmitter that was causing problems with GPS? Whatever the change, it seems to have worked for me!

Can't remember, do you have a 3G or 3GS ? I'm thinking it's a 3GS.

 

[thep33t]

I upgraded to 3.1.2 official the other day, from a very, very old baseband, and have actually noticed better service and reception, might just be good luck, but I feel as if something was fixed in the last few Baseband releases.

 

[shigs]

The interesting thing to me is that just upgrading to 3.1 didn't do it; it was only after I upgraded the baseband that it was improved. Perhaps there was some sort of interference from the phone transmitter that was causing problems with GPS? Whatever the change, it seems to have worked for me!

I was running a custom 3.1 ipsw with the older baseband before but once I updated to 3.1.2 with the new baseband thats when everything got better.

 

[thelatinist]

Can't remember, do you have a 3G or 3GS ? I'm thinking it's a 3GS.

It's in my signature. ;-)

I was running a custom 3.1 ipsw with the older baseband before but once I updated to 3.1.2 with the new baseband thats when everything got better.

My experience precisely.

 

[bytethese]

Baseband update shouldn't have anything to do with GPS. BBaseband updates the modem chip's software, GPS is a separate chip. GPS also doesn't use data or your cellular connection, it gets the signal from the satellites. Perhaps the baseband helped the cellular connection and sped up data xfer to facilitate the tile images in Google and the cellular triangulation?

 

[thelatinist]

Baseband update shouldn't have anything to do with GPS. BBaseband updates the modem chip's software, GPS is a separate chip. GPS also doesn't use data or your cellular connection, it gets the signal from the satellites. Perhaps the baseband helped the cellular connection and sped up data xfer to facilitate the tile images in Google and the cellular triangulation?

Possibly it has something to do with the aGPS servers, but it has nothing to do with the Google images or data transfer rates as the issue affects all sorts of applications when running on Edge and on WiFi. It even affects the speed of Locate My iPhone on MobileMe. And it isn't cellular triangulation: I always got an almost instant cell-tower-based location (often miles away); it was the GPS lock that took so long.

I believe that I've read that the modem firmware (baseband) can address issues that affect other RF transmitters and receivers in the phone. Maybe that's what's happening here.