GPS in China

actually just realized what I said was just backwards...no carrier means no triangulation...duh.

Is this why?

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/10/apple-tries-to-patent-method-to-lock-d own-your-mobile-device.ars

I'm in Shanghai and I can confirm that GPS does not work here...

The use of GPS in china it is only legal with an authorization from the police.

Dome rumors say that chinese government put some vans and antennas to jam the gps devices. I do not know if that is true, the only thing I know is that the GPS works well in Portugal, UK and France but not in China...

try enabling the WIFI on your iphone and not using the cell carrier, do this
1) TURN OFF YOUR PHONE
2) TURN IT BACK ON
3) WHEN IT IS TURN ON IF YOU HAVE SIM PIN ENABLE, IT WOULD ASK YOU TO PUT THE SIM CARD PIN NUMBER, DON´T DO IT JUST HIT (OK)
4)USE THE IPHONE MAPS AND OF COARSE MAKE SURE YOUR WIFI IS ENABLE, THIS WOULD PICK UP A GPS FAST AND WITH OUT THE TRIANGULATION OF THE CELL CARRIER AND YOU WOULD HAVE THE GPS WORKING, OF COARSE YOU CANNOT USE THE GOOGLE MAPS, BUT YOU COULD RECORD YOUR TRACKING WITH MOTION-X LITE WHICH IS FREE,
good luck this would work because it does for me.

I've been doing some experimenting with the iPhone 3Gs' GPS in, what I'll call, the stand-alone mode.

I've got the airplane mode off, but have the SIMM Pin turned on (the SIMM is locked). I do this so I don't incur any roaming charges when I'm overseas.

In this mode, and using MotionX, I am able to get a basic GPS signal and am able to determine my Lat/***. It does, however take a bit of time for the iPhone to acquire the GPS satellites... Took about 10 minutes today in Dubai, UAE.

On a normal GPS device, it takes a fair amount of time for it to acquire satellites, since it needs to figure out where to look for those satellites. It also needs to figure out which specific satellites are overhead. The satellite constellation varies from place to place over the face of the earth, so if it doesn't know approximately where it is, it takes a long time to look up and see what's available in orbit. Often you can set an initial Lat/***, or a nearby city in the GPS unit to facilitate it's initialization, which, in turn, speeds up satellite acquisition.

The iPhone apparently gets it's initialization location from an Edge, 3G network, or WiFi. With the SIM locked, it can't use Edge or 3G to get an initial position for the GPS, and thus it takes a long time for it to acquire satellites.

Try turning it on, and just letting it search...

Bob

GPS working fine in Hong Kong today....

Bob

I am sure that your confirmation that GPS does not work in China is quite INCORRECT.
I used to use Nokia E71 which the A-GPS in-stored. The GPS is working brilliant with E71, and I haven't apply any legal license for using the GPS function. Moreover, it's quite open to use GSP, since most of mobile phone advertisements on billboard / TV / Magazine, alway highlight GPS feature particularly. So it's legal to use GPS in China. Maybe you're just partially correct, that A-GPS doesn't work with iPhone in China, as my iPhone 3GS (purchased in HKG) is not quite working good with the in-stored GPS model. The blue ball shown on the MAP is always 2~3 blocks away from where I am actual standing at.
By the way, you will find a app named 'Autonavi Navigation' in iTunes Store, which will cost your $14.99. It is a Chinese navigation app, which serves Chinese Map. So, how would APPLE to upload this software on iTunes Store / or many ppl spend money on this app, if GPS doesn't work in China.

Cheers~