iPhone 3G GPS Accuracy

No issues here but the GPS is a JOKE!!!!!!!!
Map does not reorient and dot often goes off the screen without refreshing?? Come on

bigandy said:

I've been toying around with the Maps app on my new 3G, and have noticed some serious issues with the accuracy when grabbing my location...

See the map below? I'm where the bright red dot is. The iPhone keeps telling me I'm where the bright green dot is. That's a difference of ±380 miles.

Has anyone else had an issue with glaring issues with accuracy? It's making me think there might be a problem with my iPhone.



And the really scary thing is that the place it keeps pinpointing me at is where I used to live!

Click to expand...

bigandy said:

I've been toying around with the Maps app on my new 3G, and have noticed some serious issues with the accuracy when grabbing my location...

See the map below? I'm where the bright red dot is. The iPhone keeps telling me I'm where the bright green dot is. That's a difference of ±380 miles.

Has anyone else had an issue with glaring issues with accuracy? It's making me think there might be a problem with my iPhone.



And the really scary thing is that the place it keeps pinpointing me at is where I used to live!

Click to expand...

Are you inside or outside when doing this? GPS does not do well inside. When I am outside, the GPS is dead on and comes up quick.

So far, it seems solid enough - within 25-30 feet from what I've been testing so far.

I've enjoyed it immensely , always within a few meters of my position

bigandy said:

...See the map below? I'm where the bright red dot is. The iPhone keeps telling me I'm where the bright green dot is. That's a difference of ±380 miles...

Click to expand...

Wanna choose your hardware? No chance, you must use the hardware Apple choose to let you.
Wanna choose your service provider? No chance, you must use the service provider Apple choose to let you.
Wanna choose where to live? No chance you must live at the place Apple allocate you!

For some reason the 'GPS' has chosen to override itself by using wi-fi based location.

The reason it thinks you're where you used to live is that the Skyhook database still thinks your wifi router's location is where it used to be.

I understand that their database will 'heal' itself after a week or two, based on it seeing other wifi routers in your area (if your new home hadn't been mapped, then you may be out of luck - I can't see a way on the skyhook website to get them to forget a previous entry).

make sure wifi is off, and then let gps do the locating because if your on wifi it just uses that for some reason, mines is pretty accurate within 10 feet or so, says im in neighbors backyard.

tttexxan said:

No issues here but the GPS is a JOKE!!!!!!!!
Map does not reorient and dot often goes off the screen without refreshing?? Come on

Click to expand...

Er....keep the blue "locate" button bottom left lit and the map will track.

Been fine for me when walking - tried it in the car with the misses and I get the feeling turn by turn will have problems as it doesn't seem to keep up as well as other GPS navigation hardware.

The GPS seems pretty accurate here, its Google Maps that sucks wind. Sometimes it keeps the dot centered, sometimes it doesn't and you have to manually move the map as you go. Its also extremely slow to download even the simple map. This map data is extremely simple and should download quickly even over edge speeds. The device waiting on parts of the map to download has cost me quite a bit of gas and time already missing exits. Why can't map data be cached? Many parts of the map where I live are also outdated. Whats the point of having real time map downloads if the maps are incorrect? Would seem to me they should be more accurate if you are downloading the info on the fly.

tttexxan said:

No issues here but the GPS is a JOKE!!!!!!!!
Map does not reorient and dot often goes off the screen without refreshing?? Come on

Click to expand...

If you pan around the map and the dot goes off the screen, simply tap the locate button to lock back onto the dot again.

Maybe if it's 380 miles off you have something to worry about ... but the GPS works great, I don't know what you people are expecting. We aren't doing land surveying with this thing, it's a freaking cell phone.

What do you expect, freaking Trimble?

My iPhone thinks I'm in...

Bangkok!

When I use 'locate me' in google maps it locates me to Bangkok, Thailand. I'm in the north of ireland

It's been doing it for the past 48 hours, after working well initially. I've tried turning 3g off, using wifi only and vice versa....very strange!

bigandy said:

I loved your explanation, but unfortunately, FAIL

Click to expand...

G*ddamn!

/me is happy now

Click to expand...

What, even though you've ruled out the plausible but incorrect reason (skyhook wifi screwup)... and the only reason you're left with is some obscure MI5 / alien conspiracy?

"When you have eliminated the impossible, what is left, no matter how unlikely, is the truth." - Sherlock Holmes/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I've been using the GPS on my phone since Friday and it has been so accurate...so much better than the previous locate functionality.

However, I was at a friend's house last night and she asked to see my phone so I tried to show her the GPS functionality. I was ready for it to lock in on her house, but the blue blip settled about 3 blocks from where we were. After a couple of minutes, it started flying around the intersection near her house. Every once in a while it would settle on her house, but then would start flying around again. It never did settle down on her house. Any idea what would cause this?

tttexxan said:

No issues here but the GPS is a JOKE!!!!!!!!
Map does not reorient and dot often goes off the screen without refreshing?? Come on

Click to expand...

If you touch the icon on the left lower corner when the blue dot moves off the screen it will make dot appear in the middle of the screen and move with you. The location service (weather triangulation or GPS) works better then anything I've had. I used it yesterday and it was to the foot accurate.

I have had a similar problem with google maps on a windows smartphone, just relying on the cell towers for approx location, when near a mast just east of my village in North East England the map jumps telling me im in Madrid. I suspect that the individual mast is registered as an incorrect location and hence it things im in Madrid. If the iPhone initially relies on that for fast satelite reception which is how I understand it works then it probably wont get a signal as its not where it thinks relative to the satelites, hence the distance.

If im right any other devices that use this method would give the same error - and if you move to a new location a few miles away say, then you will probably find the right location. I did wonder if there was a web site to report these glitches to google, but I was too lazy to search ;-)

When I'm at home in Battersea my iPhone likes to think I'm locationed a couple of miles from Taunton, in Devon.

However at work, inside and presumably just using the WiFi nodes to navigate, it gets it spot on, right on the corner of Paul and Scrutton Street in Shoreditch.

benfilan said:

Bangkok!

When I use 'locate me' in google maps it locates me to Bangkok, Thailand. I'm in the north of ireland

It's been doing it for the past 48 hours, after working well initially. I've tried turning 3g off, using wifi only and vice versa....very strange!

Click to expand...

Having exactly the same issue. Also in the North of Ireland and GPS tells me I'm in Houston. It did work initially very well, but now can't get the thing to tell me I'm anywhere else but Houston Texas.

Apart from that, extremely happy. 3g working well, wifi excellent and batterylife (kinda) ok.

All happy apart from the GPS problems.

i never get a gps signal, howver before i upgrade the iPhone always thought i was about 60 miles south of where i was. Hopefully time will correct this.

Came across this thread in the apple support forums, not sure if anyone else has read it but has resolved my GPS problems

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1617972&tstart=30

Maybe worth a look for anyone still having problems.

Cheers

My GPS generally works fine (in central Scotland so far) but for some reason inside Glasgow Airport it insisted that I was in Gdansk.

Just before going inside the building and after leaving it located me no problem.

I guess it wouldn't get a GPS lock inside the building so it'll be working on cell towers and/or the WiFi database. I wonder whether they have micro-cells inside the building which confuse the a-gps, or whether there was a Russian with a laptop nearby?

You'd think perhaps the firmware or Google Maps could incorporate some sort of sense-check so that after tracking you around one part of the country for a while it doesn't suddenly try to place you 1,400 miles away a minute later?