Trinity Users: XDA-Developers Said "Let There Be GPS"

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291036' target='_blank'>http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...ad.php?t=291036</a><br /><br /></div>Clever folks over at XDA-Developers have found a way to activate the GPS capabilities of the HTC Trinity (Dopod D810) with a home cooked ROM. The usual warnings apply about the possible functional and legal ramifications of installing unofficial ROMs, however it is nice to see that hackery (in the sense of extending a product past it's designer's intentions) is alive and well.

[inteller]

wow...I mean just wow. putting dormant hardware in devices. how lame. I'm glad XDA is able to take advantage of it.

[Jason Dunn]

That's pretty incredible that they'd put hardware in there and not let the customer use it. 8O

[Darius Wey]

wow...I mean just wow. putting dormant hardware in devices. how lame.

Not the first time, and not the last time we'll see that. $1.99 for 11n, anyone? (http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/19/80211n.update.199/) :|

[PPCRules]

It's a common way to differentiate products, and corresponding price points, without having to build and stock different physical entities. But you don't get any benefit if you aren't the one who enables it first.

[Jason Dunn]

$1.99 for 11n, anyone? (http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/19/80211n.update.199/) :|

That's just...bizarre. They're charging for what's essentially a BIOS/firmware upgrade? 8O

[PPCRules]

They say their accountants can't figure out any other way to make the books work to account for this added value to the customer (they are super cautious after the stock-option backdating scandel).

We can be glad that their product development people are a bit more creative.

[JesterMania]

wow...I mean just wow. putting dormant hardware in devices. how lame. I'm glad XDA is able to take advantage of it.

I wouldn't exactly call it lame...more like a sweet bonus :wink: . Have you ever thought about the price increase if the Trinity was marketed with GPS capabilities? A GPS unit on a 3G phone can easily add at least $100-$200 selling price. I see this as good luck that we're getting a phone that's selling cheaper than what's actually inside.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

The issue with the Trinity was that when it was first launched, the GPS and GSM chips interfered with each other. To avoid having to miss the scheduled launch (a number of carriers had committed to it already), HTC disabled the GPS function in software until they could figure out a solution. AFAIK, there still no official update from HTC yet, so by enabling the GPS chip through this hack, you may cause problems with call reception.

[aquanaut]

I believe Hussein is correct -- not held back by marketing so much as getting everything to play well together. The all-in-one chip providing all the radio services is the qualcomm 6275 and is used in hermes, artemis, and trinity -- includes quad-band gsm, tri-band umts, gprs/edge/hsdpa, bluetooth, wifi b/g, and real GPS! There are four physically separate antennas inside trinity -- gsm, wifi, bt, and gps. With Hermes, the activated everything but GPS. With Artemis UMTS is off and GPS is on. Once the ROM is officially tested and approved, Trinity is officially the first device to have access to all of the 6275's feature-set.

Cheers

[myuser]

"by enabling the GPS chip through this hack, you may cause problems with call reception."

It causes no problems with GSM reception, all works fine. Windows Live Mobile doesn't work well with this ROM though.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Ah, that's good to know! If that's the case, why were HTC putting it out that the problem was between the onboard GSM and GPS?

[aussie bill]

Hi Guys (and Gals)

I have followed the thread on the Dopod 810 with great interest.

I bought a Dopid 838 Pro for the benefit of the keyboard.

Am I right in assuming that both phones have the same chip set and that the 838 also has an un-activated GPS?

8)