Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Google Maps Locate Button Scarily Accurate (UK)!
- Thread starter dombookpro
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Are you sure it's not a coincidence? It seems like an awful lot of extra programming work for them to have it determine you're on your home network/at home, lookup your registered address and then display that, when 99.999% of the time when people use the feature they won't be at home, since most people know where they live and therefore don't need this feature while at home.... I'm highly skeptical about your theory.
Yes, almost certain. It was very accurate to my previous address (in London) and was 7 miles away.
I just watched the keynote and apparently they're working with a company that has scanned the locations of 'hotspots' - perhaps they picked up my airport when it was at my previous address..?
Yes just watched the keynote and picked that up as well..... didn't know wireless could do that..... it picked up the very position in my street..... not bad...... this phone is getting better and better........ cant wait to people start writing apps.....
OK, so here's a thought. What happens if you turn off your wireless router and he tries it? Though he may need to try that after using it somewhere else in case it cached the current location.
Ha! I just cant stop laughing 
... Im in Newcastle UK surrounded by more masts than you can shake a stick at (nearest about 200yds) and it's got me over two miles away slap bang on the main east coast railway line near the Team valley.
Maybe it thinks I'm suicidal??? Or perhaps that I will get better reception if I hold the phone to my ear whilst resting my head on the train tracks? lol
... Im in Newcastle UK surrounded by more masts than you can shake a stick at (nearest about 200yds) and it's got me over two miles away slap bang on the main east coast railway line near the Team valley. Maybe it thinks I'm suicidal??? Or perhaps that I will get better reception if I hold the phone to my ear whilst resting my head on the train tracks? lol
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)
I can't beat that but I can match it. In Glasgow but my location is Columbia. Great! hehe
redgaz26 said:
I can't beat that but I can match it. In Glasgow but my location is Columbia. Great! hehe
Yes, this happens to a lot of people using location software that uses a WiFi database, after they've moved.
When you lived seven miles away, was your WiFi net name the same? If so, it was picked up and stored as being at that location.
Change your net SSID and it should stop locating you as being at the old address.
For the same reason, all the routers that never got a unique name, and are still called "LinkSys" or "DLink" or whatever, are of no good in this location scheme.
I am in Fort Myers, FL, USA. When I am on the EDGE network it gives me about a mile radius and the cross hairs are over the river near my place, not on it. But when I am on my home network, the circle encompasses my house, and the cross hairs are right on it. I wonder why?
this is now perfect for those occasions when youve drunk 8 bottles of buckfast, and have a powercut....so u can now get directions from your living room to your toilet and back again safely.....
but surely most of the people who drink buckfast wouldn't be able to afford an iPhone.. after paying for all their drinking, smoking, and 'mass child production'?
See my posting above. Do you have a unique SSID (network name) at your house?
If so, someone noted where it was, and it's in the location database. So anytime a phone picks up your WiFi network name with a good signal it knows it's very near your house.
Now move to a new home a few miles away, taking your network name with you, and it will still show you at your old house until such time as another survey corrects the location of your network.
Loving this new feature, didn't expect it to work as well as it does. Tried it where I live (Mansfield) and just now here at work just off Broad Street in Birmingham. It tends to show quite a wide circle but then do a search for a business or something (Starbucks, yay!) and it seems to give directions from very close to where I am, maybe just a street away.
It's not exactly accurate enough to replace or 'be' a full GPS service, but that's hardly the point - it'll be great for finding your way around places you've never been before, and find shops and places you're after.
Great update!
It's not exactly accurate enough to replace or 'be' a full GPS service, but that's hardly the point - it'll be great for finding your way around places you've never been before, and find shops and places you're after.
Great update!
I'm 12 miles north of glasgow too and it had me in Tenerife! Looked out the window but wasn't in tenerife....
My neighbours are just back from tenerife though, and probably their mobiles were in tenerife too, Coincidence?
turned off WiFi and it still had me in tenerife.
Hadfield, on the outskirts of Manchester
Didn't start working until I got down the M67 into Denton
all seems a bit odd with UK iphones.. I tried mine yesterday at home (connected to wifi) and it gave a 'unable to determine location' tried it off wifi.. same error.. tried it at various locations on the way from reading to hurst (about a 20 minute trip) at traffic lights etc... same error 'unable to determine location'.. given reading has micro site cells.. it should be better at location.. but currently.. its not even getting the whole town location that some people are getting...
any ideas anyone ??
any ideas anyone ??
Oddly my BlackBerry manages to work out my location at home on its Google Maps client, but the iPhone can't pinpoint me. In the office the locations on the two devices differ by maybe five miles or so...
Jon.
Jon.
grrrr....
I just get "Your location could not be determined both at home and in work (Preston, Lancashire)
Oh well, completely useless for me..... Doesn't seem to work anywhere in Preston (kept trying on the bus this morning, sad aren't I !)
Bri
I just get "Your location could not be determined both at home and in work (Preston, Lancashire)
Oh well, completely useless for me..... Doesn't seem to work anywhere in Preston (kept trying on the bus this morning, sad aren't I !)
Bri
Not exactly accurate here in Edinburgh city centre either. Well, okay, it's accurate in that it tells me I'm in Edinburgh... somewhere in about a 2k radius. If I can't figure out what city I'm in there is something very wrong with my world.
Having said that though, even that level of accuracy is pretty useful: say you go to London and want a coffee. Instead of having to search for your current location then search for Starbucks (or wherever), you can now just hit "locate me" and then search for Starbucks and it'll show ones that are actually near to you. It's a bit of a time-saver at worst and pretty useful at best if you get a more accurate fix.
the radius of the search circle is fairly large but it centers right on my front yard.
And doing a locate me followed by a search (As stated previously above) is really rather impressive.
That's not in the UK, but I am still very happy with it.
And doing a locate me followed by a search (As stated previously above) is really rather impressive.
That's not in the UK, but I am still very happy with it.
Use the Drop Pin to get more accurate position once Locate Me used!
I am not sure whether people have tried this, but I found, when I select the 'Locate me' feature on the iphone maps, the radius locating me may be a mile or so wide BUT, if then, you select the 'Drop Pin' button on the options and Zoom into where it has droppped the Pin in the radius - it is almost spot on where I am located. I tried this on two occasions - at home in Barking, and then at work in Canary Wharf - both have been spot on!!
I remember when watching the iPhone Janurary Update video yesterday that the guy said if you select the Drop Pin button once you have used Locate Me, it would provide a more accurate position than the radius circle given initially.
Would be great to get some level of feedback from others once you have tried the above advice.
I am not sure whether people have tried this, but I found, when I select the 'Locate me' feature on the iphone maps, the radius locating me may be a mile or so wide BUT, if then, you select the 'Drop Pin' button on the options and Zoom into where it has droppped the Pin in the radius - it is almost spot on where I am located. I tried this on two occasions - at home in Barking, and then at work in Canary Wharf - both have been spot on!!
I remember when watching the iPhone Janurary Update video yesterday that the guy said if you select the Drop Pin button once you have used Locate Me, it would provide a more accurate position than the radius circle given initially.
Would be great to get some level of feedback from others once you have tried the above advice.
This triangulation is weird. When I first used it, the center of the circle was nearly a couple miles off from my home. Then I proceeded to drop a pin on my home. Then the triangulation suddenly was bulls-eye.
I have to try another location to be sure. I think the triangulation is using my drop pin as a reference point of some sort to help maximize accuracy.
Someone else try this as well and report back?
I have to try another location to be sure. I think the triangulation is using my drop pin as a reference point of some sort to help maximize accuracy.
Someone else try this as well and report back?
^ it seems like your experience confirms may above post. But to be more certain, try using the locate me feature FIRST. then simply 'drop pin' using the option menu - DO NOT MOVE THE PIN. Zoom into where the Pin was automatically dropped, and see how accurate it is to your current position - hopefully, should be a lot more accurate than the radius thing suggests.
So I first moved to some random area, hit the triangulation and it shows me to be about still 2 miles out (like before) and the dropped pin is right down the cross hair of the circle. So it's not anymore accurate than before. Keep in mind this test was on the Edge network.
When I was on my WiFi however, triangulation picked me up right at my home. Dead on.
So it seems as though it has to do w/ Wifi scanning as well?