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macfanboy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
916
163
while i was bored in the car, i pressed location (while not connected to wifi) and, unexpectedly, not only did it find my location, it was TRACKING me as i moved along! did anyone else notice this? why didn't apple advertise this in the 2.0 software?
 
while i was bored in the car, i pressed location (while not connected to wifi) and, unexpectedly, not only did it find my location, it was TRACKING me as i moved along! did anyone else notice this? why didn't apple advertise this in the 2.0 software?

Wait are you serious? It tracks you on a map? I thought it can only do that on WiFi, and even with that it won't even be accurate.

If this is true I'll have no doubt about buying it...can any one confirm? Or did they make a mistake and you actually have iphone hardware lol
 
Can we get some screen? I'm pretty sure this is impossible because the ipod touch doesnt have a way of communicating to a gps or even cell tower?
 
while i was bored in the car, i pressed location (while not connected to wifi) and, unexpectedly, not only did it find my location, it was TRACKING me as i moved along! did anyone else notice this? why didn't apple advertise this in the 2.0 software?

Sorry, not possible. Either you have an iPhone, or you were connected to WiFi.
 
Even if it had some concealed GPS, it wouldn't be able to download maps without some sort of internet connection.
 
I really don't buy this.
An iPod touch can't track your movements period. It doesn't have GPS.
Even if you had a Wi-Fi connection this still would not be possible. It's a hoax.:mad:
 
I really don't buy this.
An iPod touch can't track your movements period. It doesn't have GPS.
Even if you had a Wi-Fi connection this still would not be possible. It's a hoax.:mad:

Didn't apple say they can do that by triangulating Wifi signals? Or is that only with cell towers? lol feels like something straight out of 24. We should at least hear him out before starting to flame him
 
Guys it is possible - the iPod touch can track your location but not to the same accuracy as the iPhone.

The circle moves along showing your rough location according to local WiFi networks in range. It doesn't go to a point because there's no GPS in the touch but it can do tracking.
 
It is possible. We use the same system in the navy to estimate our position underwater in submarines without getting GPS fixes.

The accelerometer in the Ipod senses speed and accelerations. Basically, it gets your starting position through wifi. Then it just uses basic math from the outputs of the accelerometers. If you are moving direction x, and accelerated at Y, your speed is Z in X direction. It can use this for very rough estimates of where you are.

Is it possible, yes. Does it actually do this, have no idea. It would take some pretty hefty software, and accelerometers for at least 2 axis's to perform this feature.
 
I really don't buy this.
An iPod touch can't track your movements period. It doesn't have GPS.
Even if you had a Wi-Fi connection this still would not be possible. It's a hoax.:mad:

Its not a hoax, again, this is how the navy submarines navigate underwater. I know this because I spent 10 years on one as a Navigation Electronics tech.

If you know where you start, and know which direction you were heading in, at a rate of speed, its fairly simple to estimate your position.

The accelerometers can provide the speed and direction if it had acceleromters to cover 2 axis's. Considering the have the ball game where you tilt the Ipod in any of the 4 directions to control the ball, then yes, it would have what is needed to accomplish this.

Whether or not its programed to do so is another story. Dont dismiss things as not possible simply because you dont understand the technology or principles behind it.
 
Its not a hoax, again, this is how the navy submarines navigate underwater. I know this because I spent 10 years on one as a Navigation Electronics tech.

If you know where you start, and know which direction you were heading in, at a rate of speed, its fairly simple to estimate your position.

The accelerometers can provide the speed and direction if it had acceleromters to cover 2 axis's. Considering the have the ball game where you tilt the Ipod in any of the 4 directions to control the ball, then yes, it would have what is needed to accomplish this.

Whether or not its programed to do so is another story. Dont dismiss things as not possible simply because you dont understand the technology or principles behind it.

So you're saying that the ocean is covered with wifi hotspots?
 
i would say this thread is ment as a joke...

boy i sure would go bonkers if it did have some kind of hidden gps though...:rolleyes:
 
this is a hoax because he said himself
that he wasn't connected to Wi-Fi!
come on now. i know that when your in a hotspot that the ipod can
track you. I know, i've done it first hand. but, if his connection was off, then doesnt that raise a red flag?
if only I had pictures....
 
while i was bored in the car, i pressed location (while not connected to wifi) and, unexpectedly, not only did it find my location, it was TRACKING me as i moved along! did anyone else notice this? why didn't apple advertise this in the 2.0 software?

It was a feature added to the ipod touch in the same update that added it to to the iPhone. It only uses Wi-Fi hotspots instead of both hotspots and cell towers like the iPhone. And also it does not have to be connected. Wi-fi has to be turned on but you dont have to be connected to a network. It works by searching out all wi-fi hotspots in the area and giving you a rough triangulation using both signal strength and some sort of hotspot location code (can't remember directly). But it does not have to be connected to a specific network. Though as was mentioned, downloading new maps might be difficult.


So you're saying that the ocean is covered with wifi hotspots?

That's not what he said. If you can find out your starting position (via GPS etc..) then you you can disconnect and use ship based instruments to give you speed, distance, altitude and latitude (which will give you your rough position) without re-connecting to the GPS system therefore concealing your location.
 
It is possible. We use the same system in the navy to estimate our position underwater in submarines without getting GPS fixes.

The accelerometer in the Ipod senses speed and accelerations. Basically, it gets your starting position through wifi. Then it just uses basic math from the outputs of the accelerometers. If you are moving direction x, and accelerated at Y, your speed is Z in X direction. It can use this for very rough estimates of where you are.

Is it possible, yes. Does it actually do this, have no idea. It would take some pretty hefty software, and accelerometers for at least 2 axis's to perform this feature.

I would say yes and no. Yes it is possible to judge distance traveled by acceleration and thus "speed". But no, because speed is not velocity (ie vector based); there is no compass inside the Ipod Touch...I think? And in any case to calculate that in real time is gonna need something alot more powerful.

Also, ever heard of the story about a person throwing a ball inside a constantly moving train from basic physics? Or throwing a ball inside a cruising airplane? If the positioning system is based off what you say, a person just so much as to grab the ipod to look at the playlist will throw it off course. In order for it to work you need external sources, ie GPS, Wifi, cell signals...

The submarine's avionics are built into the machine, this doesn't apply...
 
The iPod touch already had a primitive version of this on Google Maps, I was surprised to discover that it could actually find my location through my wireless network.
 

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OP: where were you driving? becouse if you were in the suburbs or a city, it is believable... but not on the throughway....
 
Try this again when you're in your car, its probably a glitch or something, if it works, upload an image, or infact post a video on Youtube of it, then I'll believe you.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A347 Safari/525.20)

Chundles said:
Guys it is possible - the iPod touch can track your location but not to the same accuracy as the iPhone.
The circle moves along showing your rough location according to local WiFi networks in range. It doesn't go to a point because there's no GPS in the touch but it can do tracking.

this is what I mean!

PS I was in the city. And also, sorry if I didn't make it clear, but It wasn't as 'realtime' as gps in iPhone. It would update every 50 to 100 feet
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A347 Safari/525.20)



this is what I mean!



PS I was in the city. And also, sorry if I didn't make it clear, but It wasn't as 'realtime' as gps in iPhone. It would update every 50 to 100 feet

Would you mind sharing some images of it or a video as I said in my last post?
 
Would you mind sharing some images of it or a video as I said in my last post?

no, because it would give away my location. why don't you try it for yourself? wouldn't this be why the 'find location' button stays lit up when you press it?
 
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