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It might be handy when planning a trip on wi-fi, or on foot in a city using hotspots, but I personally don't see the point of GPS navigation while driving. Never needed one, doubt I ever will.

Are you serious? You don't see the point of gps while driving.
 
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It probably does turn-by-turn navigation when connected to wifi. A few higher end cars coming out now (from BMW in particular, I think) have a wireless hotspot built in. Or it could just be a mistake.

Even Chrysler's (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep) have wifi hot spot built in.
 
Bluetooth.
I think this is only a theory and does not work in the real world. I did not find a source which says a certain GPS/GLONASS receiver works with the iPod touch via bluetooth. The software on the iPod must recognize the protocol (usually NMEA 0183). I've a Wintec WBT-202, which supports NMEA 0183 via Bluetooth, and it does not work with the iPod touch.

Btw, all newer GPS receivers have also a GLONASS receiver, because russia demands that manufacturers integrate GLONASS, if they want to sell the products in russia.
 
How does an iDevice figure out it's location with a wifi connection? What within the wifi signal tells the iDevice where it is?

Sometime ago, along with all the street view photography, all wifi network locations were mapped as well, even personal ones. Triangulation of those known wifi networks allows the devices to roughly calculate their position.

My iPad knows when it's sitting in my house because it triangulates from mine and my neighbors wifi networks.
 
So if you go on vacation and took your router with you, set it up there, and then tried to find where you are with your iDevice and the wifi, it would still think you are at home because some list somewhere says that your wifi signal is at your home address?

Stuff like Airport Express and these mifi's locations would be documented the one time they were sniffed as the street mapping vehicle went by and then they would always be assumed to be at that one location?

One more time: we turn on the mifi for mobile wifi. We fire up maps on an iPod. It plots us right where we are. Sometimes we're on the turnpike in the middle of Florida (swampland) where I am certain the iPod cannot sniff out a second wifi signal. But it knows right where we are.

I can't say that that is enough to confirm that an external GPS reader feeding a wifi signal to a wifi makes it as GPS accurate as an iPhone with a built-in GPS reader (but then again, why not? see post 28 for dedicated versions of this concept) but I can say that we were as surprised as anyone and have found great use for it ever sense.
 
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Are you serious? You don't see the point of gps while driving.

Very serious! I've driven all around the world (my native UK, France, New Zealand, USA[Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah], Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa) and always got on fine with a road map. Never ever needed a GPS. I'm not saying I've never got lost (getting lost in central Johannesburg is not something I'd advise); some times thats half the fun/point of going somewhere. I just prefer solving a problem myself rather than having to refer to a SatNav which when I've encountered them are often wrong or tell you to do stupid routes. Not a fan of the technology to be honest, don't see the point!
 
If you go to the Apple store and click on iPod Touch, you will find somewhere in there that there is no GPs chip. The IPT has no chip, period.
I suppose it would be nice for some of you but perhaps the next generation has one. I have no need of it but do have the need for the better camera it offers and I will buy one.
 
I think this is only a theory and does not work in the real world. I did not find a source which says a certain GPS/GLONASS receiver works with the iPod touch via bluetooth. The software on the iPod must recognize the protocol (usually NMEA 0183). I've a Wintec WBT-202, which supports NMEA 0183 via Bluetooth, and it does not work with the iPod touch.

Btw, all newer GPS receivers have also a GLONASS receiver, because russia demands that manufacturers integrate GLONASS, if they want to sell the products in russia.

I personally use the dual xgps150 unit linked above with an iPhone and wifi iPad, it works great. The garmin gps linked above is also designed for iOS devices.

It sounds like you are just trying to use a generic Bluetooth receiver, rather than one designed for ios.

Not just any Bluetooth device will work, some need to be put in Apple mode vs PC mode (like the dual). Others can either auto sense, or simply only work with ios and not android.


Edit: I would also look at the Bad Elf pro, it can hook up with multiple Bluetooth devices at the same time, I have the earlier 30 pin model and works great except for the physical connection.

http://bad-elf.com/
http://xgps150.dualav.com/
http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2...tegrity-gps-capability-to-mobile-devices.html

Here is a list of apps that can use an external gps, but do not need a wifi data connection (unlike google maps.)
http://bad-elf.com/compatible-apps/
 
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So if you go on vacation and took your router with you, set it up there, and then tried to find where you are with your iDevice and the wifi, it would still think you are at home because some list somewhere says that your wifi signal is at your home address?

No, the system doesn't rely on just your router to determine your location -- your location is calculated by triangulating info from all routers within sensing distance, not just the one you are connected to. So while your own router will still be marked in the location database as associated with your home address, other nearby routers (such as those of your hotel, for instance) will show where you are actually at. And the location info from your router will be disregarded as an outlier. Obviously, if your router is the only router nearby, then yes, it will probably show your location as being at your home. But in most major cities, that shouldn't happen.
 
Bluetooth.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Portab...L2QAXK/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=172526&s=gps

or

http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Electron...TF8&colid=35CXSGR1LP7IY&coliid=I3U0TSZM7XH8IS

That's just a couple. Personally, I'm leaning toward the Garmin with GLONASS. Same tech the iPhone 5 GPS has.

James

Thats fantastic. I had no idea apple would ever let another manufacturer do that, I thought if they didn't provide it, they wouldn't let anyone else.

This could be great.

The idea is to buy my Dad an iPod and tough case to use as a hiking GPS. The OS 1:25k maps (uk topographical walkers maps) for Garmin and other purpose built hiking GPS units here in the uk are ridiculously expensive (£200 per national park). Also the GPS units themselves have terrible screens for the price (£200-500).

There is an app called "Outdoors GB and Parks" that sells 1:25k OS maps for £10-£25 and you download maps on the device itself (much less complicated than Garmin and other standard GPS units). It also includes tons of 1:50k OS maps for the £10 buy price.

If these external GPS receivers could add GPS functionality to the iPod touch it would be £160 (ipod) + £90 (garmin gps receiver) = £250 .
 
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No, the system doesn't rely on just your router to determine your location -- your location is calculated by triangulating info from all routers within sensing distance, not just the one you are connected to. So while your own router will still be marked in the location database as associated with your home address, other nearby routers (such as those of your hotel, for instance) will show where you are actually at. And the location info from your router will be disregarded as an outlier. Obviously, if your router is the only router nearby, then yes, it will probably show your location as being at your home. But in most major cities, that shouldn't happen.

OK, let's buy this. If "my" router is a mifi (mobile) router and I'm driving out in the swampland of central Florida where I couldn't possibly be connecting with anyone else's wifi signal, how is the iPod knowing right where we are?

In (the) theory (implied by the triangulation concept), the central list of wifi locations should have my mifi router pinned down as wherever it was plotted at the time the mapping vehicles went by (maybe at a hotel somewhere while I was traveling). But that's not what happens. Instead, we turn on the mifi, link up to it's wifi signal, open the maps app and it plots us wherever we are. In some cases, I'm 100% certain that there are no other wifi signals nearby.
 
OK, let's buy this. If "my" router is a mifi (mobile) router and I'm driving out in the swampland of central Florida where I couldn't possibly be connecting with anyone else's wifi signal, how is the iPod knowing right where we are?

In (the) theory (implied by the triangulation concept), the central list of wifi locations should have my mifi router pinned down as wherever it was plotted at the time the mapping vehicles went by (maybe at a hotel somewhere while I was traveling). But that's not what happens. Instead, we turn on the mifi, link up to it's wifi signal, open the maps app and it plots us wherever we are. In some cases, I'm 100% certain that there are no other wifi signals nearby.

I've never used a MiFi myself, but a google search suggests that some models have gps. So maybe you have a MiFi router with gps?

I'm also assuming that the wifi location database has a system in place for filtering out mobile hotspots -- otherwise they'd have a huge mess of unreliable location data.
 
That's what I've been saying. I think this mifi has GPS which is how I'm also guessing it's yielding such accurate results on an iPod's maps.

I've had several replies seemingly wanting to discount that possibility or letting on like it couldn't possibly be as GPS accurate as the one built into iPhone but I'm not seeing why not. As stated earlier, I'm not putting down an iPhone- just pointing out an interesting benefit with an iPod and a mifi per this conversation (in an iPod- not iPhone- thread).

The OP was looking for good GPS via iPod (hoping that Apple built it into the new model). Apparently, Apple didn't do that but this combination of iPod with mifi seems to yield that benefit for me. So for those that can't make sense of the very expensive (total cost of ownership) suggestion of "just buy an iPhone," this may be a great way to cover this particular base.

I'm also quite intrigued by what was shared in post #28 too.
 
Thats fantastic. I had no idea apple would ever let another manufacturer do that, I thought if they didn't provide it, they wouldn't let anyone else.

This could be great.

The idea is to buy my Dad an iPod and tough case to use as a hiking GPS. The OS 1:25k maps (uk topographical walkers maps) for Garmin and other purpose built hiking GPS units here in the uk are ridiculously expensive (£200 per national park). Also the GPS units themselves have terrible screens for the price (£200-500).

There is an app called "Outdoors GB and Parks" that sells 1:25k OS maps for £10-£25 and you download maps on the device itself (much less complicated than Garmin and other standard GPS units). It also includes tons of 1:50k OS maps for the £10 buy price.

If these external GPS receivers could add GPS functionality to the iPod touch it would be £160 (ipod) + £90 (garmin gps receiver) = £250 .

It won't work without jailbreak and roqybt or similar.

The only Bluetooth GPS that work with the iPod are the two listed above afaik and they are vastly overpriced.( bad elf/xgps)

Believe me I've tried with many different Bluetooth GPS and the iPod will not see or use it unless jailbroken

I personally use the tomtom iPod dock which only cost £19 and needed modding to fit my iPod touch 4th
 
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Several models of MiFi devices do have integrated GPS receivers.

Nominally, you would be expected to point your web browser to the MiFi's administration web portal (typically a private website located at 192.186.1.1 unless you customize it), and from there you can access the GPS tab, where your latitude and longitude (along with other more user-friendly information) will be displayed. Presumably it would be possible to design some software that automatically sought out this private website and extracted this latitude/longitude information for its own purposes.

Some of these MiFi models (such as the MiFi 4620L) also allow you the option of broadcasting the GPS data as an NMEA stream over WiFi. It would also be possible to design software that automatically seeks out such broadcast NMEA data to gain access to latitude/longitude information.

I don't know for sure if the Core Location service inside iOS has been designed to take advantage of either of these MiFi capabilities. But either of them would certainly be possible explanations for HobeSoundDarryl's observations.
 
I'm also quite intrigued by what was shared in post #28 too.

I've been using the XGPS150 from Dual Electronics paired with my iPT4 for about two years and its been fantastic, especially when you combine it with an app that uses "offline" maps. Personally, I've been using the Navigon driving app for navigation purposes and I have been 100% satisfied.

I can place the XGPS150 on the dash of my car, plug the iPT into the 30 pin connector cable I patched into my car's stereo head unit, and then hear turn-by-turn directions over my car's stereo speakers (while charging the iPT and listening to iPT music at the same time). The XGPS150 comes with a non-slip pad to use on your dash and has a small footprint (pictured in following link):

http://www.12voltnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/XGPS150_in-car.jpg

As has been already mentioned in this thread --

Dual Electronics XGPS150:
http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Electron...TF8&colid=35CXSGR1LP7IY&coliid=I3U0TSZM7XH8IS

"Offline" GPS Mapping Apps:
http://bad-elf.com/compatible-apps/
 
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