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iPhone apps "Current Location" is often wrong

B

brayhite

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 21, 2010
873
0
N. Kentucky
Various apps that I allow to use my current location very, VERY often report me being in the wrong place when at my house. I have wifi in my house so I'm obviously not going to use 3G.

And when I say wrong, I don't mean like right up the street. I mean like 2 miles away across town. Anything I can do to fix that?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

As far as I know, the wifi makes no difference unless it had a documented location associated with it. As in, apple buys that info and integrates it into it's location software. Such as wifi from major providers, perhaps Starbucks.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

My phone was doing this too. It was miles off. I think I must have been getting limited cell tower triangulation. When i swapped my 3GS with another for a different reason, it was fixed.
 
So the cellular signal strength, not the wifi strength, is what dictates the real accuracy of the GPS location? I just wish apps let you change the location. Especially in apps like Music ID, Evernote, face2face, SCVNGR, etc. where the location you save or access something is pretty important.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Umm. The wifi is def used. But only when Apple knows where the wifi is. (as far as I know. I could be wayyyy off) no pun intended.

And agreed, my Evernote gets messed up. I have notes all over my neighborhood that should be only one location.
 
No GPS info even with the 3G Microcell

As I'm in a very weak (dead) signal zone, I bought (paid for) the 3G Microcell. I have 5 strong bars, but when I use any app, I get the message "cannot find your location." With Speedtest, I sometimes find it's looking at servers in Nebraska or Illinois or New Jersey (I'm in Washington DC), so I turn on airplane mode on the phone, shut off airplane mode and then Speedtest uses the DC server. But none of the other apps can find my location. When I'm in other parts of the DC area, the GPS works fine, it's just frustrating that it doesn't in my home even with the Microcell. According to AT&T, there are plenty of towers all around me but they might be slanted wrong to give a signal to the building. Apparently, the satellite can't find me either.
 
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It would be nice to have a larger gps receiver. But that would ruin the phone. And I'm not sure the Micro Cell would help with location.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

According to Apple, here is info on "Understanding Location Services"


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1975
 
On devices with actual GPS (e.g. not the iPod Touch), cell triangulation and/or WiFi SSID lookup are only used to get an initial fix on your position, which assists the real GPS in determining a more precise location more quickly. Ultimately, even with neither WiFi nor cell signals, the GPS should be able to get a pretty precise location on its own; it will just take a bit longer. Of course the assumption there is that your device has a decent view of the GPS satellites. If that's not the case, the location accuracy can be way off.
 
Location incorrect since iOS 5

Since upgrading to iOS 5, any application using my iphone 4's Current Location is showing me as being in Southampton, 58 miles from where I currently am.

Doesn't matter where I am in the country, still keeps saying the same place. Tried swittching location services off and on, restarting the phone, switching wi-fi on and off, re-installing the apps; nothing works.
It is EXTREMELY annoying. :mad:

Seen quite a fwe people reporting similar issues, but no sign of a cause / fix.

Anyone got any news on this?
 
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