The BMW R1200RT that I rented last week had an incredible GPS.....it appeared to be a Garmin unit made for BMW.  I believe they are $1,000 or so to buy, and that is really expensive - but it worked great.  One thing I found really helpful was the way the screen split when you got to a complicated intersection.  The screen would split and the map would go to the left side - while the right side showed the lanes on the road...and it highlighted the ones you needed to be in to stay on the programmed route.  This was incredibly helpful when riding a motorcycle in busy traffic in a strange city.....it helped me to ride like a local!

My Iphone navigation recently added a similar feature not long ago - there is a set of arrows that show how many lanes are on the street, and the ones you should be in are highlighted....this only shows up when you are at major intersections or ramps.  

Lots of people have been banging at Amazon for disconnecting the GPS services on their Fire tablets.  Tech services has responded that it was a cost reduction and a battery life decision that was made in the course of business.

But lookie what ability was pushed out to the tablets as an OS update just last night .....

Turn Location-Based Services On or Off

Enable location-based services to allow apps and websites, such as social networks or maps, to estimate your current location. Help for 4th Generation, 5th Generation, 6th Generation, and 7th Generation Fire Tablets.

Your location is determined by:

The networks detected by your Fire tablet (like Wi-Fi routers and their signal strength)
The cellular networks detected by your Fire tablet
Latitude and longitude by the GPS feature
Note: The accuracy of location-based services depends on a variety of connectivity and geographic factors that can impact on the accuracy of the results. Location-based services are not intended to be relied upon in situations where precise location information is needed.

To turn Location-Based Services on or off:

Swipe down from the top of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Wireless.
Tap Location-Based Services.
Tap the switch next to Location Based Services to turn location-based services on or off. When location-based services are enabled, a location  location icon will appear in the top right corner whenever an app or a website is accessing your location information.

This is only the "WiFi approximator" function being turned back on.   It would require a model change to put the real GPS sensor back into the machine and hook it back up to the SoC leads.   But in town it will kinda sorta work OK since apparently the Mediatek SoC itself can detect cell towers and WiFi sources on its own using the WiFi antenna.  

The networks detected by your Fire tablet (like Wi-Fi routers and their signal strength)
The cellular networks detected by your Fire tablet
Latitude and longitude by the GPS feature

People are putting these tablets into dash holders on older simpler cars and using the navigation functions  -- Amazon is becoming aware this is a product requirement for a tablet now-a-days .....    However, cell tower triangulation isn't that shabby any more and Google knows if you are on navigation which road you are on so your arrow goes up that road now rather than wandering off to the sides like it used to.

Using what functions the tablet still has hooked up can get you accurate enough "GPS location" while on a major road that is dotted with cell towers or anywhere in a city -- but up in the mountains with NO CELL TOWERS you can count on pauses and jumps and occasional episodes of "it loses its silly mind" if you depend on a Fire Tablet for GPS.    ..... hey, this happens on GPS equipped cell phones too, occasionally.

I would expect Amazon to ask their tablet vendor to supply a really really cheap, not super accurate GPS sensor for their next tablet generation.   Face it, everybody wants GPS and "take me to" ability in all their digital products nowadays.

Using a cheap, throw away tablet as a navigation aid in an older car is simply too sensible a thing to pass up.

All of your pertinent stuff is logged in as part of your account.   It always knows its you, in other words.   Since your location is part of "always on services" it already knows where you are and that you are moving along in space, so you must be in the car and moving --- so it gives you want you want before you even ask for it.  

It gives you time to work because that is the time you always go to work.   Get in the car at lunchtime and it will give you time to your favorite feeding troughs.   At quitting time, it gives you time to get home and will warn you about road work and car wrecks ......

I tell mine to only use the memorized map data, that way I don't get whacked quite as bad for my trip data charges.  

Still get hit some, can't be helped.   But if you are constantly sucking down a brand new little map zone that changes constantly as you travel, it could be an ouchie and a half when the bill comes.

People are afraid of Apple and Google, what they don't realize is Microsoft is as bad or worse than the others.    

At least Google is free to use and will tell you that it is doing it, while Apple slaps you silly when you buy the original Apple hardware and sells you on the sly thereafter.  

Microsoft always grossly overcharges you for the hardware, sets you up with your own private blood bowl account for their software and THEN sells your data stuff all over the place on the sly ---- and you actually have to pay MS an extra $$$ lump every few years for your major OS upgrades and for your software "maintenance charges" for the new stuff that now only works with that new OS system in order to get that "sell me, sell me and sell me again" MS privilege.

Intel sells you using their hidden Management Engine, even when your machine is turned off.

Synaptic brand touchpads and keyboards log every single keystroke you do (kudos to HP for turning that off on their machines early this week, BTW)

FOSS Linux distros are free and generally don 't ever sell your data because they don't seek it or collect it or keep it.   And they don't charge you for free software upgrades either.

(some think Ubuntu has inadvertently done the sell you thing a time or two when close partnered with sell you people like MS and Intel for example)

Your ISP sells you .....

Your charge card company sells you .....

Amazon sells you .....

Your phone company sells you .....

Your video streaming services sell you .....

You bring on average $0.0005 each time you are sold.   They all sell you, just as many times as they possibly can.   This includes .gov agencies of various stripes.   Your data is not seen as private property, legally.   Only your passwords and SSN are private --- and we know how often they get compromised and sold off in bulk, too.


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So, jest get over it and get used to it and mebbe go with somebody like Google who is open about what they are doing and who does do neat things FOR YOU with your own information, things that actually make your life easier and better.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J94TEAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie...

Back on topic, the Fire 8" tablet from Amazon went on "Refurbished, All-New" sale for $44.99 so I applied an old $25 credit and told them to send it to me.   Arrives in two days and then the reality fiddling begins in serious.  

Either I can, or I can't ......     (in which case Amazon gets it back).

Google and Amazon are making up again, both are beginning to go back to supporting the other's stuff again.   Amazon is selling Chromecasts and Google Homes again now and Google is allowing YouTube and such to flow to the Amazon tablets again.  

Maps was never interrupted, so that should be good and should stay good once the tablet is properly housebroken.

What actually punched my "Go button" is the XDA developers (the ones who support Cyanogen Mod now) are currently tuning up a complete rape and scrape FOSS file set for the 7" and 8" Amazon Fire Tablets (working off the assumption that Google and Amazon were gonna scrag each other out completely during their last spat --- and a complete rape and scrape Cyanogen fix would become needed).  

Knowing the Fire 8" could be salvaged with Cyanogen Mod and it is now as cheap as it will likely ever be, ever, I bought one.    
the developer of this mod left the group and went to work for Amazon


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Amazon has realized they left an untapped navigation retrofit market laying there uncovered and neglected, so as we watch they are busy trying to fill that market niche with their own Amazon store products.   How well that works out, we will see.  

It could be that housebreaking will not be required out in the future, that the native Amazon nav apps will actually do the trick.   Right now, Google Maps is required to get best service and the existing "Amazon internal map" stuff in the Amazon store stuff lacks sufficient WiFi and Cell Tower "GPS" spotting capability to do a consistently good job.

$43.99 at Target for 2 days only (selling out their store stocks) was the absolute cheapest I ever saw this year.

This is the last year for this generation of machine, the next generation (based on a much better chipset) will go back over to $100 for an 8" and $150 for a 10" unit.

Amazon has built a mort of these things for this Christmas --- I expect my Refurbished, All-New device is a new device with a damaged box, or a broken apart "set of 3" thing that didn't move at all as a set of 3.

I see it as useful on the road on a mega trip, sitting in a McDonalds slurping a drink and plotting out the pathway with my finger for tomorrow's trip to the next free campground.

Fire HD 8" can be updated off a download file that you download on your PC and then install through the charger cable that comes with the Fire charger.   Put the .bin file in the right place and then just tell the tablet to go install all its pending updates ......  this takes a while since it is a total OS refresh.

Once you are running the most current Fire OS, you now have the ability to connect through User Name/Password, or by WPS pin, or by secret code.   Some routers do different things, I found my  Century Link 8060 modem/router would connect to the Fire through the 10 digit secret code while my phones and all my other stuff used the user ID/password function just fine (which the Fire Tablet completely ignores BTW, still not even having the appropriate slots for putting ID and Password into the WiFi set up page).  

Everybody's got their own method I guess.
Fire is just different from Android in this aspect (or else my phone based internet modem is just plain weird, something I already knew).     

I would also guess that by "using different methods than the ones commonly used hooking up wireless on stock Android Devices" that Amazon has at least quintupled the number of devices they get back as "broken".   Most folks simply aren't going to do the extra steps to manually update all the OS software and to hunt and peck until they find a WiFi code that works.

Next, since you cannot get to the built in tablet help function until you are hooked up on wireless, any form of "right off the bat" wireless issues automatically become "send it back type issues" since there are NO Printed Instructions provided with the machine to do any form of manual download, install, etc.  

You gotta do internet research or do the Fire Forums to get the sort of information needed to fix WiFi issues.   This lack of ready information (ie no written instructions) leads to a 10 fold increase in potential returns, and explains why Amazon won't issue you a return shipper label for your Fire Tablet until you have talked to Tech Service to get some personal help with your setup issues.  

Tech Service has to sign off on your Service Request ticket for you to get the return shipping label sent for you to print on your printer.

Next, my overall impression of the polish and quality of what shows up on the tablet screen is very positive.  There is an Amazon default map app now showing on the main screen that does give you a GPS dot once you have done all the upgrades.   This is a static system, operating off of manually logged in WiFi and Cell Tower triangulation and it will not work while rolling as there is no built in listing of cell tower locations and open WiFi access points for your device to use.

Next Step, moving on to the steps of Google housebreaking .......  I need Google Maps stored on the device and I need Google Maps Turn by Turn Navigation up and running (I am quite spoiled by my Google Fi phones, I am).