On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 3:50 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2015-11-27 22:28 , Thomas Voß wrote: >> Sorry to hear that you have had a frustrating experience with the >> phone. I hope your vacation >> still went well, though :) That being said, we fixed quite a few bugs >> for our positioning infrastructure and >> you might want to check: >> >> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/location-service >> >> for open bug reports. > > Thanks for the link. But I don't think you're going to get much in the > way of useful bug reports out of me - my chief complaint is the lack of > feedback from the location system about which component is responsible. > So "GPS doesn't work" is about all I can do for now, hence a too-long > list email rather than a bug report. >> >>> First of all, GPS doesn't seem to work when the phone is offline. Is >>> this a known issue? Is it hardware related at all? The iPhone >>> performed very well, especially with Here Maps. One interesting way it >>> beat Mappero is that Mappero would only show me a location once it had >>> got a full fix, whereas Here Maps quickly gives me a circle at least a >>> few tens of kilometers across. That's actually useful, for example when >>> you suddenly wake up because the night bus has stopped and you need to >>> know if it's your stop or not. >>> >> Whenever the phone goes to deep sleep (that is, it is suspended in your >> pocket), >> the GPS also switches off. It is one of the main parts of the system >> draining power. >> The behavior is intended at this point in time, though. We are working >> on enabling apps >> to selectively tell us that they are actively carrying out navigation >> tasks to prevent the device >> from going to deep sleep, though. > > It kinda sounds like you misunderstood this point. By "offline" I mean > "has no network connection", not "switched off". I sat down on a park > bench completely still for ten minutes waiting to get a fix, > deliberately keeping the screen switched on the entire time. No fix. > So I came to the conclusion that if the location service doesn't have an > internet connection it doesn't try to get a fix using "pure" GPS. > Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. Pure GPS is certainly something we are supporting (obviously modulo bugs). I will see if I can reproduce your problem locally. >>> Second, the main map app I'm using is OSMTouch. If I open that app it >>> doesn't seem to automatically turn on GPS. I have to separately turn it >>> on in the notifications area. This is surely not how it's supposed to >>> work, right? >>> >>> There are huge problems with OSMTouch, but the reason I'm using that one >>> is that it at least caches map tiles for offline use. Possibly other >>> apps work better, but without offline functionality they're all >>> irrelevant to me. >>> >>> However, with OSMTouch, even when I'm online and I get a fix I can't >>> zoom to my current location. After tapping the pin icon, often as not I >>> get a message like "geolocation failed". It sometimes works, sometimes >>> doesn't. There's very little feedback as to what the problem is. >>> >>> OSMTouch's offline tile caching also doesn't actually work reliably >>> enough to be useful. I deliberately focus on a map I'd like to keep, >>> then quit the app. When I next load that map many of the tiles are >>> missing - seemingly at random. >>> >> Please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/osmtouch for filing bugs against >> omsTouch. > > The failure to automatically turn on GPS, and the "geolocation failure", > presumably aren't bugs in OSMTouch but rather in the location service? > Unless OSMTouch is using the wrong APIs or using them wrong? For the GPS turned on issue: I think that's mostly a problem with how we present the current status in the UI. As you summarize further down below, a problem with communcating clearly to the user what is going on with the positioning engine. For the timeout: That's somewhere between the service and the app. I mainly provided you with the respective link for the other issues/ideas you were mentioning. >> >>> I haven't found any map app that allows me to pin points of interest and >>> keep them. Even if there are no actual maps GPS can still be useful >>> this way, for example noting down the location of the hotel or park >>> entrance so you can always find your way back. I definitely shouldn't >>> have to be online for this - that's the one area where Here maps is a >>> complete failure. >>> >> Probably a good idea to file a feature request against your favorite >> mapping app on Ubuntu Touch. > > I guess, but the broader problem with Ubuntu Touch is that there are > many mapping apps, none of which have the resources to make something > that really works. I've seen this problem brought up on this list > before. My take on this is that mapping is a core app, of similar > importance to Dekko. Like Dekko, one app should be taken under > Canonical's wing and brought up to scratch. I know, resources, but > that's how I see it anyway. Sure, I tend to agree with you. However, resources and such. >> >> Sure it is, we are working on exposing the relevant satellite >> visibility information to applications right now, >> please track >> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/location-service/+bug/1448180. > > Great, glad that this bug is on the radar. I really believe this will > reduce the stress of trying to use GPS a lot. >> Again, sorry for the inconvenience. I think you want to try out OTA8 >> and see if it works better for you. >> At any rate: Thanks a lot for your feedback and I would be happy to >> chat a little further about your ideas on irc (tvoss@freenode). >> >> > FWIW I took care to install OTA8 and re-try before filing my bugs, and I > haven't seen a big improvement. > ack, I will keep updating this thread to keep you posted. Cheers, Thomas > > -- > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
