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Google 'triangulation' sadly INaccurate

It's more accurate than Navizon.
That thing had me 2 or more miles away.

Apples version has always been within a few meters of my actual location.
 
ibwb said:
Just to clarify -- indications are that you do NOT need to be actually connected via wifi for the Skyhook wifi-based locator to work. You only need to have wifi enabled in the settings.

So when you are on Edge (with the blue E) you may still be receiving a wifi location. The iPhone does not indicate whether the location came from the Skyhook wifi-based service or the Google cell tower-based service.
Click to expand...

I see, Thanks.
 
It seems to be working pretty well for me. Sure, it leaves it a bit vague- but for a piece of equipment with no built-in GPS it is a pretty cool little function!
 
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 don't think they drive around mapping the mac addresses. I just moved to a new house not long ago and it uses my wifi and puts a little circle around my house. Unless they drove by a few days ago.
Not to mention I'm a student in the little college town of Springfield, MO. Doubt they would have my town mapped.

Some observations: When it uses wifi to locate, the circle is much smaller and zeroed in. Cell triangulation can vary from a circle 5 blocks wide to 5 miles in my town, though its usually less then a mile, and there are cell towers all around. Walking to campus, I kept refreshing it and wifi tracked me in half block increments most the time over a mile. This is a college student neighborhood where people move all the time and the mac addresses would also change. I think its also ip based.
 
macduke said:
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 don't think they drive around mapping the mac addresses. I just moved to a new house not long ago and it uses my wifi and puts a little circle around my house. Unless they drove by a few days ago.
Not to mention I'm a student in the little college town of Springfield, MO. Doubt they would have my town mapped.

Some observations: When it uses wifi to locate, the circle is much smaller and zeroed in. Cell triangulation can vary from a circle 5 blocks wide to 5 miles in my town, though its usually less then a mile, and there are cell towers all around. Walking to campus, I kept refreshing it and wifi tracked me in half block increments most the time over a mile. This is a college student neighborhood where people move all the time and the mac addresses would also change. I think its also ip based.
Click to expand...

Well, the page at http://www.skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/ claims that "This information is obtained by deploying hundreds of data specialists who scan and locate access points using proprietary scanning vehicles designed to build and maintain the reference database." Possibly the IP could be used as a secondary reference?

But Springfield, MO seems heavily covered according to their coverage map: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/coverage.php
 
From inside my house (in Maryland) it puts me a few miles from my actual location.
 
I originally posted on #10. As planned I went to the office and mapped my location several times. The fist one was on the freeway at an intersection, it put me really really close. The second time was 1/2 mile later and it completely missed and by vary vary far. The third time I mapped again in the city by the beach and it got me spot on. 1/2 hour later it couldnt find the location at all. The fourth was back at home (in Desperate Housewives town - Im not kidding the got it after this one an don't ask why in hell I live here) and it mapped it within 2 - 3 miles.

Not bad but not great either. I am content. Cant wait to see what an iPhone with GPS could do.
 
So much for using this when I'm out of town and lost. In certain areas, the radius it gives me appears to be more than a mile. That's with full bars. Face it, gents, we'll have to resort to the old fashion way - ask for directions.
 
Is anyone else's just really unreliable? Not the accuracy, but I'm in the Dallas area and 95% of the time I'm getting a message that it can't determine my location. Is this a huge problem for anybody else?
 
So why is this a big deal anyway? Is everyone updating and trying to find where they are and losing 3rd party apps JUST to be up to date? I'm a noob I admit, but if its not broken, don't fix it... 1.1.2 JB is the best bet... What I am missing? Seriously tell me how knowing where you are is better than the previous functionality of maps and other features lost via Installer (???)
 
Aries326 said:
So much for using this when I'm out of town and lost. In certain areas, the radius it gives me appears to be more than a mile. That's with full bars. Face it, gents, we'll have to resort to the old fashion way - ask for directions.
Click to expand...

Just look at a street sign and search. Google maps is too easy as is to get lost on right? Call me jaded... A good part of my job is driving...
 
it really does matter were your at for this to wok really well, I live about 10 miles outside of the city (and there's not much out here) and it pinpoints me living 1 mile away from where I actually live, so it was close.

but today wile I was at work and standing in front of the building (getting fresh air) it pinpointed me to the front of the building, and what impressed me was when i walked to the back of the building (inside) to the break room and did the search again it pinpointed me as being in the back of building.

I tested this all day today wile I was out-and-about and there were some hit and miss, but I like it.

one thing that struck me as odd was last night on my 4th try to finding myself at home it some how pinpointed me to my old house that I used to live in a year ago (it circled my old house) thats 8 miles away from my new house, on my 5th try it pinpointed me back to my new house again (off by a mile still)
 
location

The wifi location is highly accurate (better resolution), the google triangulation has less resolution, like 1/2 mile around the cell tower. You've really got to get the wifi location to find acceptable accuracy. All and all a great new addition to the iPhone.
 
I am enjoying it so much, because I am learning where the cell towers are!

I have been amazed at how far I have been getting my primary signal from! Respect to AT&T! I can better handle the audio interference when I realize that I am grabbing data without dropouts from several miles away. :)
 
Chris29 said:
Just look at a street sign and search. Google maps is too easy as is to get lost on right? Call me jaded... A good part of my job is driving...
Click to expand...

True. We can always punch in the address of where we're parked and punch it in. If we're out in the highway somewhere, the map is adequate enough to get us by. Still, not as easy as real GPS but this is pretty good for a cellphone/iPod/Web Browser/Organizer. I can't complain.
 
The only place I get helpful results is on my bedroom. Of course that is actually not very helpful at all. I actually get pretty specific results at school right down to the building, but unforunetly it says I'm in the wrong building. :(
 
When i'm at/around home it draws a circle that's roughly 7 miles high by 7 miles wide...Not a very helpful feature...But seeing as my home town is the one place where I'll never need to use this feature, we'll see how it works when needed.
 
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