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Navigation app bandwidth

Like it says in my signature, I dropped my Eris in favor of the iPhone 4 (mostly due to the Eris' crappy battery life), now I still kept my Eris due to features on it that aren't available on the iPhone

Now I was told that I could simply shut off the iPhone, dial *228 opt 1 on the Eris, and my number and data plan would transfer to the Eris whenever I wanted, and vice versa when I wanted it back on the iPhone, and I know it should work, but it doesn't, when I attempt to do so, it first tells me that it is programming the phone like it's supposed to, followed by a message saying "sorry, we are unable to program your phone, goodbye" and the line disconnects, this is with the right phone number and SSN

I got fed up with trying to transfer the number, and never had a chance to go into a Verizon store (and whenever I did, I never had my Eris on me, though they all say it should be possible), that I just opted to use it as a serviceless tablet (like an Android version of an iPod Touch), I noticed that everything I wanted to keep the Eris for worked fine over WiFi, it was just the matter of finding a WiFi hotspot to connect to

Not long ago, I enabled the Hotspot feature on my iPhone, and noticed it worked very well with the Eris, and seemed to work flawlessly with Navigation, I am just afraid to leave the hotspot on for voice navigation and recalculating (which again works flawlessly if WiFi stays on)

Now what I am afraid of is I don't want to go over my 2GB hotspot pool just so I can use Navigation on my Eris, and on top of that, chances are if I am going to be using the iPhone's hotspot feature on my Eris, I am bound to be using it on my laptop too, using up quite a bit of data

My question is, how much data does the Android Navigation app use up? Am I right to worry how much bandwith I may use up when using the Hotspot feature? $20 for every additional GB I go over is a bit expensive IMHO

Comments

Ann154

The Google Navigation should only need to download the maps for the trip at the beginning and cache them on the phone for the rest of the trip. This only works if you don't deviate from the plotted route.

If you have wifi at home you should be able to set the route there with that connection on your Eris.

Have you tried signing into your MyVerizon account and activated the Eris through there. I recently did that with my Eris and it worked perfectly. The process to reactivate my Tbolt was bumpier, but I learned that I forgot a step in the online process.

As for bandwidth, that is not an area I am familiar with.

mikedamirault

Ann154 wrote:
The Google Navigation should only need to download the maps for the trip at the beginning and cache them on the phone for the rest of the trip. This only works if you don't deviate from the plotted route. I have noticed that if I disconnect it from WiFi, like you said, it runs off of what it downloads when Navigation is first started, and as long is it doesn't need to recalculate, it should lead to the destination just fine, but things like recalculating (which can be helpful from time to time) or voice guided navigtion (I have noticed that if you don't have constant data, it only beeps at you, no voice), while it does work fine without constant data, it is nice sometime to have voice guided navigation instead of having to glance at the screen constantly, also recalculation does come in useful in some situations

If you have wifi at home you should be able to set the route there with that connection on your Eris. That's what I used to do before enabling the hotspot on my iPhone, though there was one time I went to stop somewhere to eat, went to take both my phones in (for security reasons), went to pull my Eris back out only to notice it quit the Navigation app, went around the restaurant looking for a WiFi signal, ended up being I couldn't even connect to it and was unable to restart Navigation, of course now I don't have that problem being I have the hotspot feature

Have you tried signing into your MyVerizon account and activated the Eris through there. I recently did that with my Eris and it worked perfectly. The process to reactivate my Tbolt was bumpier, but I learned that I forgot a step in the online process. I currently don't have a MyVerizon account, I have tried setting up one for my brother once but only got as far as the text message as we couldn't even get the phone programmed to get the text message to enable MyVerizon to program the phone, I may sign up for MyVerizon someday just so I have it though using the Hotspot feature at this point is a lot more convenient

As for bandwidth, that is not an area I am familiar with.

AZSALUKI

just a theory here, but since you have to use itunes to activate an iphone, would you have to deactivate it through itunes, before trying to dial 228 on the eris? i know the iphone is different than all of the other verizon phones as far as activating goes. i am guessing that you have to deactivate it completely before trying to avtivate the eris. this would be much easier for you for roadtrips, as opposed to what you're doing now.

and is there NO decent navigation on the iphone? even if it cost $, i would think it would be worth a few bucks, instead of worrying about going over your 2gb's.

i would suggest just montioring it closely until you get an idea of how much data it is using. i always though that nav used a great deal, but i obviously don't understand how it works. i thought as long as you were using it, it was eating up data? i guess though, it plots your trip and then gps simply tracks you?

mikedamirault

AZSALUKI wrote:
just a theory here, but since you have to use itunes to activate an iphone, would you have to deactivate it through itunes, before trying to dial 228 on the eris? i know the iphone is different than all of the other verizon phones as far as activating goes. i am guessing that you have to deactivate it completely before trying to avtivate the eris. this would be much easier for you for roadtrips, as opposed to what you're doing now. Technically *228 still works on the iPhone (and some iPhone users still have to do *228 after "activating" it through iTunes due to problems in the "iTunes activation process"), while everybody says that iTunes activates the iPhone, I don't really think that's the way it works, I still think it's done through the same line as *228, just that iTunes sends the data to the iPhone, and the iPhone does everything automatically through the same line as *228, when I got my iPhone, it was preactivated by the associate before I even left Best Buy (where I got my iPhone), plugging it into iTunes only paired it with my computer

If you dial *228 on the iPhone, the same voice promt comes up as any other CDMA phone, giving you the option to press 1 to program the phone and 2 to update the PRL

and is there NO decent navigation on the iphone? even if it cost $, i would think it would be worth a few bucks, instead of worrying about going over your 2gb's. The iPhone comes with a "Maps" app, but it's nothing close to voice guided navigation, not even navigation alone, basically all it does is allow you to put in an address, then using your current location (using GPS) gives you written directions as if you just printed them off of Mapquest, it works in some cases, but definitely not safe to do while driving

The iPhone does have the VZW Navigator app, but Verizon does charge for it, I also saw some really poor reviews for it, there was also a free app somewhere in the App Store, but it also got poor reviews, I have used the Navigation app on the Eris for a long time and have been able to depend on it

i would suggest just montioring it closely until you get an idea of how much data it is using. i always though that nav used a great deal, but i obviously don't understand how it works. i thought as long as you were using it, it was eating up data? i guess though, it plots your trip and then gps simply tracks you? This is kind of the reason why I asked, when you set up Navigation and remove data, just like Ann154 said, the Navigation app saves the map to the destination in cache, allowing it to work even if there is no data, and for long trips on the interstate, this may work out fine, but once you enter a big city, it's very easy to make a wrong turn, so I wasn't sure if it constantly downloaded the maps or if it just allowed recalculating and voice navigation, I have noticed that the map itself is blurry without constant data

Now when the app gets constant data, if you go off the beaten path, it will redownload a local map based on GPS location to recalculate and bring you back on track, this has been helpful in more than one occasion, also for some odd reason, voice guided navigation only seems to work when there is constant data, without data, it will just go "Ding" when approaching an exit or turn, and "Ding Ding" when you are there

I guess I will have to try what you said and try it out and see how much data it takes, I was kind of afraid it would eat up data

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