Location Services: Could Someone Clarify

[Stangs55]

I apologize if this is answered elsewhere, but a quick search didn't reveal my answer. I'm a little confused on exactly what 'Location Services' is...

I've seen several reports here that disabling this in the Settings menu can drastically improve battery life...but why is that? If I have it enabled and I launch a program like Loopt, it will ask me if it's okay for Loopt to access my location. I say yes and it shows me where I am. But I'm confused because if I disable 'Location Services', Loopt asks me the exact same question and if I say 'yes', it still accesses my location just as if it were never disabled...then going back into the Settings menu reveals that the Location Services option is now enabled, even though I had last disabled it. What gives?

So how exactly does this service work? Are Apple/ATT constantly monitoring my location throughout the day, therefore turning Location Services off leads to improved overall battery life? Or does it work (as I had assumed it would) on a on-demand basis where it only accesses my location when I tell it to...but this implementation wouldn't lead to improved battery life.

Thanks in advance.

 

[specops]

location serv are A-GPS, wifi triang and cell tower triangulations, geo tagging photos.

if you turn it off in settings its off

if a app prompts you to use locat serv and you choose "use locat serv" then the phone simply turns on location serv and leaves it on. (i wish it kept it off myself but hey maybe apple will change it?)

hope that helps

 

[Stangs55]

location serv are A-GPS, wifi triang and cell tower triangulations, geo tagging photos.

if you turn it off in settings its off

if a app prompts you to use locat serv and you choose "use locat serv" then the phone simply turns on location serv and leaves it on. (i wish it kept it off myself but hey maybe apple will change it?)

hope that helps

Thanks, but I still don't get why having it off...with no application accessing it...offers better battery life....

 

[Sean7512]

Thanks, but I still don't get why having it off...with no application accessing it...offers better battery life....

I am just as confused as you are about this...

 

[Saladinos]

What sort of improvement is being reported? Is it possible these improvements are because of applications not using the location services?