I now have a camera phone which won’t talk to Apple computers and an iPod Nano which won’t talk to anything at all. In addition, I have a GPS-based automobile navigation device — the kind with an insistent female voice which never says “please” or “thank you” — of a brand which I just heard my cousin saying doesn’t work in Boston, thanks to all the tall buildings (and, probably, the non-Euclidean geometry of the roads).
Season’s greetings from gadget-geekery land. . . .
Is it a Garmin? I have one and it takes several minutes to get a signal here in St. Louis; it’s not because of buildings, though, because I’ve turned it on in areas without them and it still takes a while.
GPS does take a while to acquire enough satellites for a fix. It’s an unavoidable part of the system. Some receivers should have an “almanac” mode that speeds up the process, but even then they have to download the most latest ephemerides before they can build the fix.
Anyway, most of the other problems can probably be fixed by downloading third-party firmware that will void your warranty and probably be illegal under some provision or other of the DMCA.
Forgot to add: and will be blocked by the next official, mandatory firmware upgrade that probably bricks your device.
Happy holidays to you, Blake, and a bunch of other worthies. You’ve helped make my year.