Last night's leak proved to be right on the money, as ASUS has made the Transformer Prime GPS add-on hardware available for registered owners today. In case you've not been following the saga, there's an issue with the GPS on the 10.1-inch Transformer Prime. The issue being that it sucks -- it won't lock on very well, and won't stay locked if and when it finds it's location. Seems that sexy circular-patterned aluminum shell does a great job at blocking the GPS antenna.
To fix this (because everyone needs a Wifi-only, 10.1-inch handheld GPS unit) ASUS is giving away a bit of hardware that docks onto the bottom of the Prime. This exterior "thingy" looks to be a bit bulky and not-so-attractive, but the color matches your Prime and it's free. It's also available today if you're a registered owner of a Transformer Prime. We'll have a closer look when mine gets here, in the meantime hit the link to get your own.
Now all we need is a 10.1-inch dash mount, and we're in business!
Source: ASUS
Reader comments
Order your ASUS Transformer Prime GPS 'wart' today
It's clear you don't see why a tablet should have GPS, but let me point out that we use tablets and phones with our GIS and Engineering software every day. The fact that the Prime was so crippled, caused one of our departments to cancel their orders.
I'm glad there's a fix, no matter how unattractive it is...
I have an Acer a100 7" tablet with a car mount. It rocks using it as a GPS. Easy to read as it has a large screen (compaired to GPS units) but not so big it blocks your view.
Downside, as any a100 owner can tell you, it takes awhile to get the GPS if you don't have a data connection. So I tell people to connect while still in range of their wifi. Or root your cell and connect via wireless tethering
:-)
In addition to the dash mount, you'll also need a mobile hotspot in your car.
That depends. I have my entire metro are in my tablet and can download more maps if I wanted.
The person or group that approved the final product testing for this without finding the obvious gps flaw should have all been fired immediately.
If I bought this unit and the gps didn't work it would have been returned immediately.
So if you use a dock are you screwed? :/
Do we know what percentage of units was affected? The GPS in my device hasn't had any problems locking on or holding a signal at all.
I'm sorry but this is ugly .... still it could be worse
I've a question,
Didn't Asus test the Transformer Prime's connectivity when they were developing it? Or at least learn from HTC's problems when using Aluminum back plates?
But, kudos to ASUS for fixing this (even if the solution is a bit ugly) unlike other OEMs
"Now all we need is a 10.1-inch dash mount, and we're in business!"
Here's a very nice one: http://www.exogear.com/products-exomount-tablet-car-dash-mount.html
You can get it for $50 at Amazon
It doesn't matter what it looks like. You will only use it in your car. For the most part at least. So you leave it in your car and only connect it when you need the GPS.
The people that are going to complain about this the most are iPad users.
Bullshit. I'm not an iPad user and I use my 1st gen Transformer indoors A LOT. I was at a con 2 weeks ago and someone needed to know where the closes Target was. Transformer out, on, GPS on, zoomed in, and walked her how to get from the hotel up the road to the target.
Stop making excuses for crap hardware.
I really don't think it's fair to be calling it a "wart". We should be praising ASUS! Most other companies would ignore the problem or say the gps is sufficient for a tablet but they are actually going the extra mile to fix the problem for customers who feel the gps is not working well enough.
They could have just said. Your pointing it at the sky wrong. Works fine for us. Or your holding it wrong.
I completely agree. Kudos to Asus for actually fixing a hardware problem instead of just brushing it off. I don't really use the gps in my transformer prime but hey its free so i'm ordering one. Now i will say the wifi is a little disappointing and i'd love to see a WiFi Dongle lol
Yes and most other companies would be having a class action lawsuit hanging over their head for defective hardware. Make NO mistake about this: This wasn't Asus doing this out of the kindness of their heart. This was the cheapest option possible without doing a total recall of the product. Which IMHO they damn well should have, because this is a product defect no matter which way you cut it.
I will be honest. I still expect a class action lawsuit with the option of returning the product for a full refund. The product does not function as advertised without external hardware support.
PS- Please go ahead and call me an Apple fan. I would laugh myself right off my chair at the notion. The level of disdain I have for Apple can not be measured.
Well maybe they can concentrate on fixing the Transformers problem of rebooting now.
I think not! All be damned if i put that on a tablet. what a joke.
Ok is there any way I can return this under warranty for a non-defective unit?
CPS will become more relevant in larger tablets when the car companies take the tablet out of the glovebox and provide a in-dash docking port.
I didn't buy the tables based on it's GPS value. Heck that is why I use a Garmin for that purpose. I bought the table for the extension of work and service there of. I am happy that a manufacture found a mistake and is willing to fix it at no charge and simple too, instead of sending your unit back, waiting a long long time to get it back. Praise ASUS for this.
wtf it says my serial can't be recognized, yet I was able to register the product at the site (just can't get the GPS dongle). And, it doesn't even let you type it in, it makes you select the serial # from the dropdown box. So that means I'm not making any typos.