NO Fix - iPhone 3GS

[Arturo Bandini]

I've just purchased the Italy map, version 1.4.1 for my iPhone 3GS running OS 4.0. Airplane mode is on (I don't want to incur data charges,which is why I bought the app) and all location services, including for the tomtom app, are on. The app won't find my location and when instructed to browse the map it says it can't get a GPS fix. help!

 

[mikealder]

Putting the iPhone in to Flight mode disables the GPS so thats not going to work for you at all.

If you are concerned about data traffic costing a fortune while in a foreign country disable the Roaming data option instead and switch the Flight Mode OFF - This will prevent the iPhone from using the data connection while in a different county.

If you are trying to avoid using Data while in your own country then the iPhone probably wasn't the best device to have purchased as an iPhone without a data connection is very restricted in what you can do with it - Consider a fixed rate data package where you pay a certain amount each month for limited data usage, it generally doesn't cost a lot and unlocks a much greater potential from so many apps - Mike

 

[Arturo Bandini]

Thank you for a concise and accurate answer.

Putting the iPhone in to Flight mode disables the GPS so thats not going to work for you at all.

If you are concerned about data traffic costing a fortune while in a foreign country disable the Roaming data option instead and switch the Flight Mode OFF - This will prevent the iPhone from using the data connection while in a different county.

If you are trying to avoid using Data while in your own country then the iPhone probably wasn't the best device to have purchased as an iPhone without a data connection is very restricted in what you can do with it - Consider a fixed rate data package where you pay a certain amount each month for limited data usage, it generally doesn't cost a lot and unlocks a much greater potential from so many apps - Mike

 

[shay82]

GPS can be used without data transfer

All you have to do is to enable 3g services but to block 3g data transfer. I use this site to install a profile that prevent any data from being transferred or sent to the iPhone -> Disable EDGE/3G data on iPhone - iphonenodata.com - for free

You can also ask your cellular company to block the data transfer but you will have to ask them to enable it once you need it.

The GPS location services work the same when the 3g data transfer is blocked.

I was in Switzerland lately, and the 3g was block by this site and also by my cellular company, so no data could be transferred but the TomTom worked ok all the time.

The only thing is that it reported "Poor GPS reception" as if no real GPS is available, so only 3g triangulation is used and therefore it was inaccurate, but the TomTom was almost always on rout, so we manage to get anywhere.

I suspect that my GPS receiver is not working on the iPhone which is 3gs with os 3.13 that was recently updated to 4.1

I still have to verify if the real GPS is working or not on the 4.1 but the 3g GPS is OK.

 

[shay82]

An update to Iphone os v4.1

As specified in the previous post, after updating to v4.1 the GPS is ok.

The TomTom reception is ok outdoors.

In v4, there is an option to disable data transfer while connected to the network in the General options.

The GPS works the same while no data transfer is available.

The TomTom starts immediately in 4.1 while it was very slow to start in 3.1.3