OTA 2.5 fix list

[sobrado]

This tablet comes with an assisted GPS; this sort of positioning system may or may not behave as a standalone GPS but it works.  Lenovo documentation is clear on this area: the ThinkPad tablet comes with an assisted GPS; it is better carefully reading specs before buying expensive high-end gear.  I really wish that a future update will make it work as a standard (non-assisted) GPS system when a 3G connection is not available (the GPS is able to see sats once rooted) or, at least, support GPS assistance through WiFi (more common and cheaper than 3G). As a workaround some people here, at the Department of Physics, noted that they have A-GPS tablets that work over 802.11 wireless networking, requiring a network connection but not a 3G one.  Ideally, the A-GPS system on the tablet should work as a standalone one when no network access is possible, but at least it should work over non-3G links too.

[barbfxshow]

If the aGPS on the TPT does not have the ability to fall back to stand-alone GPS, as is common, then non-WWAN TPTs should not have been advertised as having a GPS as it will never function as a GPS.

And where do you see that the type of aGPS the TPT has is one that will not fallback to unassisted GPS? That would not be a prudent way of desiging a WiFi tablet that only occasionally sees a net connection.

[egilwh]

AGPS is an ADDITION to a regular GPS in order to speed up time to first fix, but is perfectly able to function as a regular GPS (or should be...).
What you are referring to is network triangulation using either mobile or wifi networks, something else entirely.

It pays to read up in order to understand specs before buying high-end equipment.....

[p600]

I think assisted GPS is only about improving cold start up time, with dowloading additional data using the network connection instead of getting it from satellites.

And TPT does find its coordinates without any network connection, just takes longer and needs good sky visibility.

[egilwh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

[diggumsmax]

Is anyone else having issues applying this update???  I choose to install the update, it reboots, then it starts to load the image, about 1/4 through I get a dead droid with a red exclamation box above it.  I can power the tablet off and  back on and it come up fine but the update simply won't apply (tried several times).  Don't really know what else to do, last time I tried to resolve an issue with Lenovo support it was not a fun experience and ended up resolving it myself after a few minutes on Google.

[egilwh]

You can try to delete update.zip and manually look for updates. Settings - storage - downloads and then delete the file.

[diggumsmax]

Tried the above solution and it was a no go.  Since this was a minor update I'm not to concerned about it, just kinda wondering why the update won't apply, same results.  Like I said, not to worried about it but if ICS won't update when Lenovo releases it in May (if they stick to their timetable) there will be some angry calls to Lenovo customer support.

[sobrado]

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barbfxshow wrote:

If the aGPS on the TPT does not have the ability to fall back to stand-alone GPS, as is common, then non-WWAN TPTs should not have been advertised as having a GPS as it will never function as a GPS.

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That is a good point that I missed, thanks for noting it.  If the A-GPS unit available on the ThinkPad tablet is unable to fall back to standalone mode (in fact, it is hardly to believe but a lot of assisted GPS have this restriction) then it should have not been advertised as a feature on the non-WWAN tablets.

Of course, if the A-GPS on the tablet can work as an autonomous GPS then Lenovo should do its best to get it working on a future OTA upgrade.  The fact that rooted tablets can find satellites but not lock them makes me think that this GPS will be unable to work without access to A-GPS servers, i.e. it will not work as a standalone system.  Hope being wrong here.

I agree, as a difference with cell phones tablets are not expected to have permanent connection to packet switching networks.  So Lenovo should have provided a GPS unit that can work as standalone when no network is available; on the other hand even the ThinkPad T43 laptops have software modems on them, so I will not be surprised to find cheap devices inside these high-end products.

[sobrado]

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diggumsmax wrote:

Tried the above solution and it was a no go.  Since this was a minor update I'm not to concerned about it, just kinda wondering why the update won't apply, same results.  Like I said, not to worried about it but if ICS won't update when Lenovo releases it in May (if they stick to their timetable) there will be some angry calls to Lenovo customer support.

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You can try a manual upgrade; it may provide a more detailed feedback.  On the other hand, I would be worried even if this one is just a minor update as not applying it may stop you from continue upgrading the tablet in the future.