A beast bug in Sony’s GPS chips affects the running records of sportsmen who use smartwatches, as noted Nakan. These readings can have an offset ranging from a few meters to several kilometers during 20 to 60 minutes, which is rather annoying! As you exercise, the lag fades as the GPS synchronizes its position with the satellite. However, the problem is disabling for fans of precise sports data.
This error in the initial positioning of the GPS is linked to a common practice among manufacturers. Sony provides them each week with a file containing the satellite location forecasts: thanks to this ephemeris, the GPS is then able to “predict” where the satellite is located even before launching the always long synchronization process itself.
So far, everything is fine … But now, the last file of last year, which covers part of the first week of 2021, did not take into account that the year 2020 exceptionally had 53 weeks, instead of Usually 52. Hence a shift of ephemeris with satellites …
With the exception of Apple with its Apple Watch, most manufacturers – including Suunto, Coros, Garmin or even Polar – use Sony’s location components and the famous related file. As a result, connected watches as well as sports activity tracking devices such as cycling computers released over the past two years are affected by this bug.
However, the concern will soon be no longer a concern. On the one hand, once the GPS chip synchronizes with the satellite, the bug is simply erased and the activity record is back on track. If the watch has not yet been used, it is possible to launch an activity using GPS on the edge of the window for one hour, without saving it. The GPS chip will thus be calibrated. Finally, the next Sony satellite location file should be available within the next few days, which will eliminate the problem at once.
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