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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,290
30,367


Navizon has released a new version of Navizon called "Navizon Lite" which provides global positioning capabilities to iPhones based on cellular tower triangulation.

The product differs from the full version ($24.99) of Navizon by removing the Wi-fi positioning capabilities. This makes the Lite version accurate to 1000 meters, rather than up to 10-30 meters with Wi-Fi sensing available.

The Lite version is roughly equivalent to Google's My Location feature they recently released for mobile Google Maps. We expect that the iPhone's Google Maps will eventually offer the new "My Location" features that allows you to estimate your global position, but in the meanwhile, Navizon offers a free solution for those who have "hacked" their iPhones to allow 3rd party applications.



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junker

macrumors 6502
Within a 1000 meters?!?!?! O I see, so I can find out what town I'm in?

Great.

Seeing as I just fell off the turnip truck, I was just wondering where I landed.
Sheesh!



Please - just add a compass to my phone - THAT would be more accurate.
 

megfilmworks

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2007
2,046
16
Sherman Oaks
This is not GPS, but a lame triangulation program for amnesiacs.
Hardly worth all the problems that a hacked iPhone has for this weak app.
 

Asar

macrumors regular
May 29, 2006
188
0
my guess location was way off using this, hopefully google's is better
 

RichP

macrumors 68000
Jun 30, 2003
1,579
33
Motor City
This is not GPS, but a lame triangulation program for amnesiacs.
Hardly worth all the problems that a hacked iPhone has for this weak app.

That sounds like it is coming from someone who hasn't used this application. It works better than their numbers would lead you to believe; and has made google maps MUCH more useful on my iphone.

My question though is, how much wifi positioning was navizon really using before? Is this new lower accuracy a marketing ploy or the same level of accuracy as before?
 

kingtj

macrumors 68030
Oct 23, 2003
2,606
749
Brunswick, MD
wi-fi positioning

Well, Navizon uses as much wi-fi positioning as it can get... and unfortunately, that's not a whole lot.

When I experimented with it, I found it got quite accurate if you happened to be near a McDonalds restaurant that offered free wi-fi, or close to a Starbucks or something like that. Otherwise, it rarely had any usable wi-fi signals to work with. (If I drive or walk around and look at any wi-fi signals my computer or phone receives, I notice that 90% of them are private, home wireless networks, usually password encrypted. Their ssid usually says "linksys" or "netgear" or one of the other common default names. They're not that practical to use for locating one's whereabouts.... Half the time, they're not even up and running at the same place consistently. (College students bring their wireless routers home over the holidays and during spring break, only to disconnect them and take them back to school afterwards, etc.)


That sounds like it is coming from someone who hasn't used this application. It works better than their numbers would lead you to believe; and has made google maps MUCH more useful on my iphone.

My question though is, how much wifi positioning was navizon really using before? Is this new lower accuracy a marketing ploy or the same level of accuracy as before?
 

liberty4all

Guest
Jan 7, 2007
305
0
Just tried it and the result I received from the cell positioning was 1.8 miles from my actual location. Not too bad I guess. ;-) Oh, and that works out to 2,896.82 meters -- certainly not accurate within the advertised accuracy of 1000 meters!
 

justflie

macrumors 6502a
Nov 29, 2005
888
1
Red Sox Nation
If this works the same way it did when it was first announced for the iPhone, then it is straight up terrible. I couldn't even get it to find my location even though I have 5 bars of reception. I was like, I hacked my phone for this? LAME
 

sananda

macrumors 68030
May 24, 2007
2,802
953
i've got the non lite version on my iphone. around where i live it seems to be a few roads out, but i have terrible o2 reception. it was completely accurate when i tested it in central london on friday. and again when i tested it in an area of south london which does not suffer from the bad reception around my house.
 

megfilmworks

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2007
2,046
16
Sherman Oaks
Just tried it and the result I received from the cell positioning was 1.8 miles from my actual location. Not too bad I guess. ;-) Oh, and that works out to 2,896.82 meters -- certainly not accurate within the advertised accuracy of 1000 meters!
Real GPS with WAAS is accurate to within 1 meter.
 

Aperture

macrumors 68000
Mar 19, 2006
1,876
0
PA
I just tried it and it got relatively close. Considering I could never get the full version to ever work right, I'm pretty satisfied with it for being free. :)
 
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