Improvement of Nearby Scope and general GPS usage

[Krzysztof Tataradziński]

Hello,

I think that for now NearBy scope is pretty useless on MX4 with mobile data (not WiFi), because of really bad discovering position. If I don't use some navi app before refreshing NearBy, position is not accurate as it should. I think that is connected with GPS fix that phone is getting while starting navi app.

So for now if I want to get some useful data from NearBy, I'm opening HERE maps, waiting for a gps fix (~ 1 minute) and refreshing scope. This is in contradiction with the assumption of quick access to information.

In Android we can turn on Location History - it seems that phone is asking for position in some short time periods, so phone don't lose GPS fix and knows almost all the time where it is. Maybe such thing should be implemented (asking for GPS position every x seconds/minutes) in Ubuntu? But in that case there should be some tests to check battery drain.

[Krzysztof Tataradziński (ktatar156)]

I think that it's not duplicate of bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/canonical-devices-system-image/+bug/1449539
Because here I'm showing general improvement of GPS system (and that involves better NearBy scope working)

[Pat McGowan (pat-mcgowan)]

It should be working as you describe now but due to bugs in the scope framework its not getting accurate location. That is it does request updates periodically.
I think it is a dupe of the other bug along with some related location service issues.

[Krzysztof Tataradziński (ktatar156)]

Pat,

are there any plans to allow GPS fix all the time (I mean that GPS will ask for position all the time in short periods even when screen is turned off)?

[Pat McGowan (pat-mcgowan)]

There is some discussions ont hat, mainly to improve time to first fix. We have uncovered several related issues hopefully some improvements soon.

[Pat McGowan (pat-mcgowan)]

This is covered by a number of related bug reports but will leave open for now

[Krzysztof Tataradziński (ktatar156)]

Regarding GPS fix I think that it's hardware problem (GPS used in Cortex), because I look at several android phones and here're my results:
- all phones tested with Snapdragon (Nexus 4, LG L fino, one HTC) get first fix below 10 seconds;
- all phones tested with Cortex (Lenovo A820, MX4, Kazam) getting first fix even till 2 minutes.
That makes all phones in market with Ubuntu (BQ, Meizu) are useless regarding in example using NearBy scope (without previous getting GPS fix in some navi app). Maybe solution to get phone more useful with features requiring GPS position is to release some phone with Snapdragon part (or GPS tested before and looked average time of first GPS fix)?
Does Canonical team tested that in oncoming MX5 Pro?