hey guy, for the most part i use google maps, its works great for me (while im around my city). but i like to travel alot, and alot of times i find myself on 1-2 bars on Edge, and my google maps takes over a minute to update my location, its really bad for getting anywhere. i dont understand how real GPS's can get a signal anywhere, but my phones GPS requires radio tower signal to work. are there any GPS programs that can work off the GPS alone? so that if im in a dead area exploring, i can know where im going? i dont know much about GPS, but is there anything like this?

Any GPS program that stores the map on the phone should work offline. Google Maps loads them over the internet.
The GPS receiver in the phone picks up the signal from satellites just like a Garmin or similar device. But the phone can use cellular towers, WiFi, and the internet to help it get a faster lock using various techniques to get your approximate location and the location of satellites in relation to you.

There's a free program called MapDroyd that can store maps on the phone. I found the South African maps to be poor though, at least my neighborhood street isn't there. And it's very basic feature-wise.