Google Latitude for the iPhone is now LIVE!!!

[fhall1]

Doesn't work very well for me at home....maybe because I'm on Wi-Fi? Location shows me about 3 miles from where I really am....yet "maps" shows my real location.

Went for a bike ride, stopped about halfway through...fired up latitude...my wife's iphone (which was home) showed her as 3 miles away from home (where my phone showed me when I first set up Latitude)...and it showed me about a quarter mile off in a field from where I really was.

When I pulled up the maps app, it showed me right on the road where I actually was, then when I switched back to safari/latitude, it had me in the right location....it's like the map app had to "prime the pump" before latitude could find me.

Color me not impressed with Latitude on the iPhone at this time.

 

[TLewis]

Doesn't work very well for me at home....maybe because I'm on Wi-Fi? Location shows me about 3 miles from where I really am....yet "maps" shows my real location.

1. In order for wifi locating to work, someone must have driven past your house and entered the locaiton of your wifi access point into a database. If you've since changed/upgraded your access point, if it couldn't be detected from the street, or if it's not in the database, wifi locating won't work for you.
   
   
2. In order for cellphone tower triangulation to work, your phone needs to be able to detect multiple cellphone towers (I'm not sure how many, though). If you're in an area with poor service, the phone may not be able to detect enough towers. Sometimes, if it detects towers from too far away (e.g., you're on a hill), triangulation may not work so well.
   
   
3. In order for the GPS to work, a clear view of the sky works best. Inside a house, the GPS doesn't work so well, although it often works in single-story homes or the topmost floor. GPS usually doesn't work at all in basements and the like.
   
   
4. A GPS fix doesn't occur quickly, as it's not turned on all of the time (if it was, you'd be screaming about a 3-hour or so battery lifetime). It can take the GPS seconds to minutes to locate you. If the iPhone can get a ballpark fix using wifi or tower locating (3-mile accuracy is perfectly fine for this), the GPS will take less time to locate your position. If the GPS can't get an initial guess, determining your location can take a long time.

When I pulled up the maps app, it showed me right on the road where I actually was, then when I switched back to safari/latitude, it had me in the right location....it's like the map app had to "prime the pump" before latitude could find me.

As determining your iPhone's location doesn't occur instantaneously, it's more likely that your actual location was determined in the time it took you to view latitude, become disgusted, and try out maps. Next time, try bringing up maps, first. Chances are, your location there will be just as wrong, for a moment or two.

 

[kicko]

I'm not impressed much either, at not fault of Googles. There is just no way the iphone can make something like this work like other phones can. It's not bad, i just wish it was what we had all hoped.

I did find another app called "hey where are you" (free..ad supported) which works like latitude but goes one step further. It used PUSH to either request someone's location or notify them of your location. It has more updates coming but it seems ok to me.

Which brings me to the GPS accuracy of the iphone, it can be ok but i dont know if i would spend $70 or whatever on GPS apps just to be at the mercy of the AT&T newtork. Some locations are way better then other. i dont have too much 3g issues in my area but if i travel north to the next state or so 3g is very spotty.

 

[critic81]

So I just made it ra1n on my iPhone last night and i downloaded the free Edge Browser from the app store and set it up to run with latitude. I installed backgrounder and have it running now in the background. I have found that it works as long as the screen is on. So you don't have to be on the page to have it work, just with the phone not in its sleep state. A little bit of an improvement but still not how it should be!