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ROAMING Question

I will be travelling out of country in a few weeks. I'd REALLY like to be able to use GPS for Google Sky while in Costa Rica - but there is an issue that GPS won't lock onto Satellitles if the phone is initially in AIRPLANE mode. So I have to have 'communications' functioning before activating GPS - unfortunately. But I really REALLY don't want to pay Verizon extortion fees for romaing in Costa Rica @ $3.95/min !! and don't wish any surprises on my phone bill when I return. So my question is: If I deselect the ROAMING option thereby turning it OFF, but leave Aiplane Mode OFF, will there be any data usage? I'm frankly not sure if that alone will allow me to lock on for GPS, but it might be worth trying. Thanks

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rcschnoor

Cody21 wrote:
I will be travelling out of country in a few weeks. I'd REALLY like to be able to use GPS for Google Sky while in Costa Rica - but there is an issue that GPS won't lock onto Satellitles if the phone is initially in AIRPLANE mode. So I have to have 'communications' functioning before activating GPS - unfortunately. But I really REALLY don't want to pay Verizon extortion fees for romaing in Costa Rica @ $3.95/min !! and don't wish any surprises on my phone bill when I return. So my question is: If I deselect the ROAMING option thereby turning it OFF, but leave Aiplane Mode OFF, will there be any data usage? I'm frankly not sure if that alone will allow me to lock on for GPS, but it might be worth trying. Thanks

You will most likely have a problem with Google Sky. After you get GPS lock, Google Sky will most likely try to download information to display on your phone for your current location. It is doubtful that Google Sky has all of this information saved.

Cody21

I tested this ... If I enable GPS while full commmunications is in place, turn on AIRPLANE mode to disable all data, and launch Google Sky, it works perfectly ... at least as far as constellations, the horizon, etc .. which is all I really want anyway.

Wildman

The GPS retrieves its data from the web so I am assuming it will not work in Airplane mode because there wont be a method to retreive the gps data..

I use IGO whice doest require data to show maps and it works fine maybe you can look into a Nav app that allows you to save maps to sd card... I think Google reported a method to do this but I never user this feature.

Cody21

@Wildman -- like I mentioned above, this DOES in fact work doing the steps I outlined. In AIRPLANE mode with GPS on and locked, I can use Google Sky just fine -- I rotate around the horizon and see all constellations perfectly. I actually have experieince with the new MAPS feature to load some maps OFFLINE ... and have done so for my upcoming trip. There is a limitation of only beiong able to save 10 areas though (each 10 miles square). Works very nicely.

Do you know the answer to my "ROAMING" part of this question? If I turn OFF the Roaming option, will THAT in and of itself prevent me from incurring data charges in another country?

Lastly - what is "IGO" ? Can't find it in Market.

Wildman

It may work now but if you when you are stationary but this is because you down loaded the data before disconnecting data, once you start moving and you exceed the area that the application has cached in the memory I really do not think the app will continue working because it can not download the data...

Now as for the option to not roam of network I do not see this working either because of no data connection...

I have made a number of trips to diffrent areas and when I disabled the data the maps would always loose the images after so much distance.

I can be wrong under your case but what you discribe sound simular to what I have tried before.... Try disabling data and then pull up a map to a new location and see if the map and directions still worked.

Cody21

Using Google Maps, you can go into Settings / LAB & Cache specific areas for offline use -- you can't use them to NAVIGATE, but you can zoom into street level for that cached area.

I guess I'll just have to see what happens when i get there regarding Google Sky ... there are various options, including to NOT use GPS .... I'll have to play with it and see.

When you travel to another country, to avoid verizon extortion, do you simply turn OFF Roaming? or do you toggle to AIRPLANE mode? or what other options/settings do you use?

And What is "IGO" ???

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