Increase data timeout for people on slow connections
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:46 pm
I only have the most rarest occasional problems with Waze as an app, but one area that consistently frustrates me is the timeout if the app doesn't receive data in a timely manner. Is there any way it could be increased to accommodate those of us on slower data connections?
One of my nearby cities is not covered fully by my carrier's 3G. It's only 1x/RTT (like GPRS on GSM, one step below EDGE!) In this area, it takes a long time for the phone to establish a data connection for some reason. Every app that I use tolerates this long, drawn-out delay, but not Waze. It will issue a "could not download data" alert and then lock me out of reporting anything for minutes at a time.
This basically renders the alerts/gas prices features completely useless for me, because it's maybe one in 2 or 3 times I try to use it that it actually works. And the only time it actually works is most likely when a background app like mail or push notifications has already opened the data connection in the background.
I realize that in Europe and much of urban America this is not an issue (and it won't be an issue for me once I switch carriers at the end of this year) but it seems like the app could tolerate a little longer wait for data.
What really adds insult to injury is that once it locks me out of reporting because of "no network connection" the data almost immediately starts flowing in the background, as indicated by the network icon on the notification bar. And when Waze has locked itself out, I can open any other app and the data works with no problem. So it's not a network issue, it's a "Waze is too impatient" issue.
This also happens once in a blue moon on 3G if the network is congested, so it seems like everyone could benefit from an added second or two before Waze times out and locks out the reporting features.
One of my nearby cities is not covered fully by my carrier's 3G. It's only 1x/RTT (like GPRS on GSM, one step below EDGE!) In this area, it takes a long time for the phone to establish a data connection for some reason. Every app that I use tolerates this long, drawn-out delay, but not Waze. It will issue a "could not download data" alert and then lock me out of reporting anything for minutes at a time.
This basically renders the alerts/gas prices features completely useless for me, because it's maybe one in 2 or 3 times I try to use it that it actually works. And the only time it actually works is most likely when a background app like mail or push notifications has already opened the data connection in the background.
I realize that in Europe and much of urban America this is not an issue (and it won't be an issue for me once I switch carriers at the end of this year) but it seems like the app could tolerate a little longer wait for data.
What really adds insult to injury is that once it locks me out of reporting because of "no network connection" the data almost immediately starts flowing in the background, as indicated by the network icon on the notification bar. And when Waze has locked itself out, I can open any other app and the data works with no problem. So it's not a network issue, it's a "Waze is too impatient" issue.
This also happens once in a blue moon on 3G if the network is congested, so it seems like everyone could benefit from an added second or two before Waze times out and locks out the reporting features.