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Old 05-14-2015, 05:32 PM
 
Location: Cape Coma Florida
1,369 posts, read 2,261,750 times
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I have a new Acer Iconia Tab 8, A1-850, with the latest Android update on it, and I know it has GPS, but I cannot find any way of turning it on. Digging around online the only hint I could find said to go into location services and it would be in there, but it's not. There's nothing but Google Location History in there and no way to put anything else in it. I have dug through the internet with Google to no end, and there's nothing I can find about how to turn on GPS on this tablet. In fact, there's almost nothing out there about the tablet at all but reviews. It didn't come with an owner's manual so I'm really in the dark here.

Anyone know?
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Old 05-14-2015, 06:05 PM
 
Location: Cape Coma Florida
1,369 posts, read 2,261,750 times
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Nevermind, I called Acer tech support again, and was told that while it has GPS it's not usable on the road, and will only work with an internet connection, which makes it useless for what you'd most want to use GPS for. Go figure....
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:07 PM
 
Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
5,921 posts, read 13,780,883 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amylewis View Post
Nevermind, I called Acer tech support again, and was told that while it has GPS it's not usable on the road, and will only work with an internet connection, which makes it useless for what you'd most want to use GPS for. Go figure....
OK, so you want GPS on the road ...
If you have a *smart phone*, then get the APP called Polaris Navigation GPS.
Set the mode to Satellite, and do not make it talk to you !!
Speech causes the APP to use your precious data allotment.
While home, download all the maps you need (there are umpteen maps available, worldwide).

Use the APP as a GPS, and when you read the manual you can even find your car in a big crowded parking lot.

Check out
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...vigation&hl=en

The best thing about this APP, unlike many APPS out there ...
Very good customer service, and low cost.
Do get the paid for version !
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Old 05-15-2015, 09:04 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,446 posts, read 19,462,446 times
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Your GPS is probably ON already.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amylewis View Post
Nevermind, I called Acer tech support again, and was told that while it has GPS it's not usable on the road, and will only work with an internet connection, which makes it useless for what you'd most want to use GPS for. Go figure....
GPS does not REQUIRE an Internet Connection. The Acer guy probably doesn't know there are map apps that work OFFLINE.
Not on ANY tablet or phone anywhere does GPS REQUIRE Internet.
For it to be usable, MOST apps require an internet connection as we've discussed before. But if you download maps to use offline, then yes, your GPS will work just fine.

It is prbably defaulted to on. They usually are. If you open Maps at home, does it find you? Betting yes...
If not:
Go to SETTINGS > LOCATION to turn it on.

It sounds like you were in the Google Account location settings, not the Location settings for the device.
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Old 05-15-2015, 09:12 AM
 
Location: Cape Coma Florida
1,369 posts, read 2,261,750 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine View Post
Your GPS is probably ON already.


GPS does not REQUIRE an Internet Connection. The Acer guy probably doesn't know there are map apps that work OFFLINE.
Not on ANY tablet or phone anywhere does GPS REQUIRE Internet.
For it to be usable, MOST apps require an internet connection as we've discussed before. But if you download maps to use offline, then yes, your GPS will work just fine.

It is prbably defaulted to on. They usually are. If you open Maps at home, does it find you? Betting yes...
If not:
Go to SETTINGS > LOCATION to turn it on.

It sounds like you were in the Google Account location settings, not the Location settings for the device.
Well what the tech support guy told me was that my tablet didn't have a slot for a sim card, which the device has to have in order to do GPS. If that's true why bother putting a GPS chip in it? I guess what he's saying is that GPS has to use the cellular network to work and so needs a sim card for that, but is that true? Seems to me all you should need is the GPS chip.

I have been using my iPhone 3G for GPS, but my tablet's screen is so much bigger and would have been so much nicer. The tech support guy seemed caught off guard by my problem and I had to wait on hold three times while he asked around about my problem. It might well be he just cooked up his answer for me or someone told him what they thought the answer was.

At present I can load a GPS app on my tablet, but it cannot find my location at all, even when it's online. This causes me to believe that perhaps GPS is not turned on in my tablet, and perhaps I can still find a way to make it work for me on the road.

I did go into settings/location, but there's no way to turn anything on. All that's in there is Google Location History, MyRadar for weather radar, and Google Play Service, and no way to add anything else or any reference to GPS. I have location turned on, but still my GPS app cannot find me. I'm stumped at this point. If MyRadar weather radar can find me, why can't my GPS app?

Here's the screen for Location in my settings:


Last edited by amylewis; 05-15-2015 at 10:23 AM..
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Old 05-15-2015, 11:30 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,446 posts, read 19,462,446 times
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None of that is true re: Sim card.

Ah... thank you for the Screenshot. Your GPS is INDEED set to on.
Upper right side, that little slider. If you slide that left it will turn off your GPS.

You are even in HIGH ACCURACY MODE (which uses GPS and WiFi to pinpoint you).
Click on MODE and set it to DEVICE ONLY.
This sets it to ONLY use your GPS.
Then open Google Maps.
I'm betting it finds you. (It will probably ask you to switch on HIGH ACCURACY...don't for now).
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Old 05-16-2015, 09:32 AM
 
Location: Cape Coma Florida
1,369 posts, read 2,261,750 times
Reputation: 2945
Okay, I finally got GPS working on my tablet, I was using Waze, which I've used on my phone for some time now. It did not work very well on my tablet at all. When driving it would follow me okay on the map, but then go blank on me, showing my car icon in an empty screen of white, and when I put in an address it would tell me there was a problem with my network and refuse to function. If I can't put in an address and have it get me there it's useless. It works well on my phone though, just not on my tablet, so it looks like my tablet is not a good device to use for GPS.

I have to wonder about that network problem. My phone never did that with Waze. What does it mean, a problem with my network? My phone has never given me that message. What do I need a network for while driving? Sounds like it wants me to be connected to the internet, which isn't possible while driving. Maybe I just need a better app for GPS on my tablet. I have Google Maps on it, but have not tried it yet.

Last edited by amylewis; 05-16-2015 at 09:49 AM..
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Old 05-16-2015, 10:18 AM
 
3,307 posts, read 9,338,293 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amylewis View Post
I have to wonder about that network problem. My phone never did that with Waze. What does it mean, a problem with my network? My phone has never given me that message. What do I need a network for while driving? Sounds like it wants me to be connected to the internet, which isn't possible while driving.
That is exactly the problem. Waze requires an Internet connection to function.
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Old 05-16-2015, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Cape Coma Florida
1,369 posts, read 2,261,750 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pcity View Post
That is exactly the problem. Waze requires an Internet connection to function.
Not on my phone it doesn't. Why would it need that to work on my tablet?
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Old 05-16-2015, 10:31 AM
 
3,307 posts, read 9,338,293 times
Reputation: 2423
Quote:
Originally Posted by amylewis View Post
Not on my phone it doesn't. Why would it need that to work on my tablet?
Waze has a cache of maps that's meant to get you through small areas where you lose Internet connection. At some point, your cache runs out and you just see blank space. If you try to start a route when you don't have Internet, it won't work.

Waze isn't meant to be an offline navigator- if that's what you want, use a different app like Here or CoPilot.
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