I did the search, problem is I am an old fart and need people to be explicit yet simple. I had a wifi ipad and was told I needed a a 3g to use wifi. Sold the wifi and bought a 3g. Now I am running into problems. Do I HAVE to have a data connection or even a 3g connection. I was actually told the 3g ipads had a gps chip so you did not have to have either. bought the MotionX HD and it says there is no connection so no worky. I would appreciate someone explaining what I have and or really need. Thanks from the Baby Boomer Golden Years!
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Ipad gps help
- Thread starter dunk50
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Your 3G iPad will find your location without an internet connection. However, many apps use the Internet to download localized maps to show your location on the map or give you directions. I suspect that you will find that motionX will give you lat and long without wifi or 3G. I believe that you can also preload maps in MotionX for areas you expect to be in. For example, before you leave on a trip, you can download the necessary maps for your travels while you have Internet access (at home), then MotionX will use these to show your location while you travel without Internet access.
Yes TomTom uses the GPS and does it quite nicely. I went to Chicago this past August and got lost downtown. TomTom never lost where I was and quickly gave corrective instructions and got me quickly back on track. Because of construction etc I couldn't always follow its instructions but I could always tell on the map where I was.
The iPad 3G has a GPS chip, and the GPS will work just fine even if you don't have a 3G data plan from ATT active.
However, as others have pointed out, you need an active Wifi connection to download map data for many apps, including the built-in Maps app.
Some apps (like MotionX HD) allow you to download and cache certain flavors of map data (usually OpenMap or something derived from it) and use the maps while your iPad is offline. To verify this, look through the help for MotionX HD to see how to download OpenMap data to your iPad, download some maps for your area, and then drive around and verify that you can use the GPS with MotionX HD while away from Wifi, and without any 3G data plan active.
The default Maps app will cache map data for a while, so you can also scroll through an area in Maps while connected to Wifi and then disconnect Wifi and use Maps offline for the areas you just looked at in Maps.
The makers of a GPS dongle for iPad and iPod Touch have created a page listing the apps that use GPS that can work offline (without 3G or Wifi connection), usually by saving map data for use offline.
However, as others have pointed out, you need an active Wifi connection to download map data for many apps, including the built-in Maps app.
Some apps (like MotionX HD) allow you to download and cache certain flavors of map data (usually OpenMap or something derived from it) and use the maps while your iPad is offline. To verify this, look through the help for MotionX HD to see how to download OpenMap data to your iPad, download some maps for your area, and then drive around and verify that you can use the GPS with MotionX HD while away from Wifi, and without any 3G data plan active.
The default Maps app will cache map data for a while, so you can also scroll through an area in Maps while connected to Wifi and then disconnect Wifi and use Maps offline for the areas you just looked at in Maps.
The makers of a GPS dongle for iPad and iPod Touch have created a page listing the apps that use GPS that can work offline (without 3G or Wifi connection), usually by saving map data for use offline.