Find My iPhone Issue

[dissdnt]

I saw a few threads on the find my iphone feature but i haven't seen anyone talk about this.

Basically it shows a good 20 mile radius of where it is on my 3GS. I figured it would just pull the GPS data and give an exact location. Is that no the case? It's acting like my old 2G which would be assist location.

Thanks.

 

[itommyboy]

Mine is within about 11 miles. Indeed it's an estimate at best and is hit or miss more or less at any given location for Apples so called "GPS".

 

[sammich]

I have the 3G and it finds me within 50 meters radius from under my roof. Does this happen no matter how much sky you phone can see?

 

[dissdnt]

Mine is within about 11 miles. Indeed it's an estimate at best and is hit or miss more or less at any given location for Apples so called "GPS".

Haha well in google maps it's pretty accurate by about 10-15 feet. So I figured it would be that good in there.

 

[sam011989]

if you're indoors your gps is going to have a weak signal so the phone will rely on other methods to try to triangulate the phone. if you got outside and walked around, the tracking would be much more accurate to within a few feet

 

[Kahnyl]

I'm seeing about a ten foot radius with mine. I can tell which house it's in.

 

[w3cum]

Take your phone outside where it gets a good GPS ping. Mine goes in and shows what side of the building i'm on.

 

[dissdnt]

K sounds like a plan.

 

[sammich]

Haha well in google maps it's pretty accurate by about 10-15 feet. So I figured it would be that good in there.

Ah, I see your point. The Maps apps gives you a good location, but Find My Phone doesn't give you that.

If you leave the maps app open and locate and look it up on MM it's still way off?

Take your phone outside where it gets a good GPS ping. Mine goes in and shows what side of the building i'm on.

Just nitpicking, but you don't 'ping' the GPS. Your phone determines it's location by the timestamp it gets from all nearby GPS satellites that are broadcasting their current time. It then uses some simple physics to calculate your location from the difference in times.

 

[w3cum]

Just nitpicking, but you don't 'ping' the GPS. Your phone determines it's location by the timestamp it gets from all nearby GPS satellites that are broadcasting their current time. It then uses some simple physics to calculate your location from the difference in times.

My apologies. You are correct you are not pinging the GPS.. you are pinging your phone. By clicking "Find my Phone" you are requesting the data your phone is holding. It is very similar to the APRS system us Ham Radio Operators have been using for years.

 

[ttech10]

On the topic of "Find My iPhone" issues, mine is that you can't just easily remove your phone from the list if you get a new one.

Luckily I figured that out before I sold my old one so I can add my new one.