GPS on iPad 3 running iOS 6?

[iPusch]

Okay let's make it clear, I am so confused right now about how they saved my pictures with the GPS info on an iPad 3 Wifi only running iOS 6 beta 4 ...
I know there is officially no chip which stores GPS data or anything else built in.

I was in Dubai this weekend due to businesses & I shot some stunning snapshots with my iPad and I didn't have wifi around me nor anywhere else connected to the Internet except at the Hotel BUT the pictures I took, got geo location informations which are really super precise.
So I don't get that, I don't see that this is possible, I just don't know how this worked...

How can anyone describe that to me? Please

 

[BFizzzle]

weird.. and you dont have the 4g one? just the wifi?

 

[iPusch]

weird.. and you dont have the 4g one? just the wifi?

Only wifi, 100% I swear

 

[Intell]

iOS caches the local WiFi hotspots for use when it needs location data. When you took a picture, it searched for nearby hotspots and compared them to the cached entries. It then triangulated where you would likely to be and set the location of the photos to that place.

 

[Gav2k]

iOS caches the local WiFi hotspots for use when it needs location data. When you took a picture, it searched for nearby hotspots and compared them to the cached entries. It then triangulated where you would likely to be and set the location of the photos to that place.

Exactly this!!

 

[iPusch]

iOS caches the local WiFi hotspots for use when it needs location data. When you took a picture, it searched for nearby hotspots and compared them to the cached entries. It then triangulated where you would likely to be and set the location of the photos to that place.

Okay that's likely possible & understandable, thx buddy.
I didn't know that my iPad is so smart

 

[Markdek]

iOS caches the local WiFi hotspots for use when it needs location data. When you took a picture, it searched for nearby hotspots and compared them to the cached entries. It then triangulated where you would likely to be and set the location of the photos to that place.

The OP said he was not connected to wifi......so this is not possible! No wifi, no triangulation. Knowing the coordinates of cached wifi spots does not help locating "you" in real time.

 

[Intell]

The OP said he was not connected to wifi......so this is not possible! No wifi, no triangulation. Knowing the coordinates of cached wifi spots does not help locating "you" in real time.

When connected to the Internet, iOS downloads and stores a list of the area's WiFi hotstops and their locations. Then whenever it is not connected, it keeps track of which hotspots are near by. Then if something, like Camera, needs the location of the iDevice. It scans for WiFi hotspots then quires the locally stored hotspot list for those hotspots. It then provides the application with a general usually very accurate location. The more hotspots in any given area, the more accurate the location. This is how the location has worked since iOS 1.1.3. Knowing the coordinates of cached WiFi hotspots does indeed help locating the device in real time because most hotspots don't move from their location once setup.

 

[Gav2k]

The OP said he was not connected to wifi......so this is not possible! No wifi, no triangulation. Knowing the coordinates of cached wifi spots does not help locating "you" in real time.

You don't have to be 'connected'

 

[Markdek]

You don't have to be 'connected'

Sorry, I used the wrong wording; Your wifi has to be on, and it has to "sense" surrounding wifi crowd-sourced locations; you're right, you don't have to "connect". But the wifi has to be on, and you have to detect 1 or more surrounding AP's/routers/hotspots.

Note, the OP said "and I didn't have wifi around me"...............well, yes he did. You do not have to "connect" though.

So, the original poster obviously has his wifi on, and it was sensing 1 or more nearby access points, which were identified by Apples crowd sourcing cached database.

If this is still wrong, please tell me very specifically how the ipad would know where you are, if you are moving, and it gets no new location information. Are you suggesting I can hop in a car, drive for miles and miles with either wifi off, or with no wifi being "sensed" (in range), and somehow it would know where I am.

This caching works nicely in urban areas where wifi hotspots are "sensed" and identified by the crowd-sourced cache, but it does not work in rural areas where i ipad cannot detect any AP's.

 

[Fruit Cake]

It can also work against you. I use my iPad as a hotspot when at home sometimes but when holidaying out in another country, this same geolocation wizardry said I was still back home in Australia even though I was out in LA. Google maps was telling me I was still in Australia until the phones own GPS chip kicked in and corrected the anomaly. It's good when it works. But sucks when it doesn't. Portable hotspots make the skyhook database a bit funky sometimes.

They need to filter out the MAC address range of wifi chips found in phones and portable hotspots

 

[takeshi74]

Okay let's make it clear, I am so confused right now about how they saved my pictures with the GPS info on an iPad 3 Wifi only running iOS 6 beta 4 ...

It's not GPS info despite how people tend to use the term GPS. It's location info. GPS is just one method of determining location available to location services.

 

[Gatorman]

Not so fast, my friend....

I'm going to make this even more of a conundrum. I have a Wifi Ipad 3, too. I don't take pictures with my iPad. The last wifi I used was at my house 30 miles from where I work. This morning while in my office, NOT CONNECTED TO WIFI....I played with the new maps app. Not only did the GPS icon move from my house, but it pinpointed me in my office. Now....I don' have Wifi in my office or near it. I've don't have a hotspot. I haven't taken pictures in the area....so what's going on? The maps picture was a little fuzzy, due to the lack of no internet connection, but the GPS seemed to be working....as WELL as the compass. I didn't even know it HAD a compass!

Is apple not telling us something?

 

[Intell]

All iPad 2/3's have a compass. I don't think the iPad 1 does, but I could be wrong. There is no GPS in the WiFi only iPad. The chip needed for it is physically missing from the unit. Your iPad still used WiFi triangulation. Even if the iPad doesn't show any WiFi networks, there are likely still some too far out of range to be shown in the Sertings app but are still able to be faintly seen. Then there are the ones with a hidden SSID. iOS can use those ones for location as well because all that's needed is the access point's BSID, which is freely visible on every WiFi network.

 

[takeshi74]

No conundrum. As stated in the post prior to mine and in posts earlier in this very thread, Location Services (doesn't matter what apps you have or have not used) is using WiFi. You don't have to be connected to a WiFi access point but WiFi does have to be on. Again, GPS is just one method available to location services. If you don't have a GPS receiver it's obviously not using GPS to determine your location.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4995

 

[ManicMarc]

Well Apple did promise you a "magical" device