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Galaxy S users have been plagued with a GPS that barely works and in some, excuse me, most cases doesn’t work at all. Samsung released an over the air firmware update today that supposedly addresses the GPS issue for Samsung Captivate users and also improves additional device functions, such as media scanning time, add the full version of QuickOffice and address Microsoft Exchange 2003 policy support.
After installing the update, Firmware I897UCJH7, which has actually been available to rooters for several weeks now, there is zero, repeat, ZERO improvements with GPS performance. In fact, there has been debate on whether this firmware update has any effect on the device’s GPS period. Samsung’s official press release mentions nothing about the GPS issue, though e-mails to multiple tech outlets directly from Samsung promise that this update improves the GPS performance.
“An update to improve the Samsung Captivate’s GPS performance is now available. Captivate customers will receive a notification on their device that an update is available and will simply need to download the file to update their phone. The updates will be pushed to customers’ devices over the next few weeks.
The update for the Captivate will also improve additional device functions, such as media scanning time, add the full version of Quickoffice and address Microsoft Exchange 2003 policy support.”
As I said, the official press release tells a different story:
09/21/2010 � Firmware Over the Air (FOTA) software update changing software version from I897UCJF6 to I897UCJH7. A 12MB download is being pushed to Samsung Captivate owners starting on 09/21/2010 and will continue Tuesday through Friday at 15K customers per day until complete. This is NOT an operating system update. This update includes the following software updates:
* Preinstalled software � QuickOffice for Android will allow users to edit various Microsoft Office documents.
* Messaging � Exchange 2003 support, MMS and other messaging enhancements.
* Voice � Improved calling experience.
* Media � media scanning time improvements.
If this update HAS in fact improved the performance, I’m not waiting around to find out. Whether the Captivate’s GPS takes 6 minutes to lock on to your location or 4 minutes makes no difference to me. Come talk to me when we’re at sub-25 seconds.
Don’t feel jilted non-AT&T Galaxy S owners, you’re not missing much as far as I can tell and it’s certainly a waste of time as far as GPS performance goes.
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This update does not work for me. Just waste of my time. Samsung is lying all the time.
What is good in the fact that my Captivate can see more satellites now? It still cannot use them. My old iPhone 3G was giving me the position without any GPS and it was hundred time more accurate than giving this POS with GPS.