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iPod touch No gps?
- Thread starter lapino
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Like you, I was hoping for this as well, but I reasoned out an alternative. This is going to sound like a rather obvious work around for gps on a Touch...buy a used iPhone. With the saturation that iPhones have achieved, it's not hard to pick one up, gently used in the $200 dollar range. I tried external gps devices for the Touch, like the Dual XGPS 251, and would not recommend one when you really need the gps to work. It's hard to make an external gps work as reliably as the baked in ones, which is no surprise. Unless you have an aversion to used equipment or older hardware, I think this is a great way to go.
Buy a cheap GPS Android smartphone (comes with Google Maps). The newest version of Google Maps can download maps, which you can use without a 3G/4G network connection (cheaper for you). Probably the cheapest solution, if you do not have a GPS receiver with a Bluetooth connection.
Btw, which GPS receivers can i use with a 4th/5th generation iPT? I have a Wintec WBT-202, which supports the standard NMEA-protocol via USB or Bluetooth.
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Yeah, I had my hopes up, too. It's not going to prevent me from buying it, but I really would have liked the GPS functionality inside apps like Nike+ or Strava. That's the last missing piece of the puzzle for me.
I considered getting a 4 or 4S and not signing up with a carrier - effectively turning it into a Touch - but it just feels wrong. I like that iPod Touch form factor.
not sure, but isn't the GPS feature currently on iphones just trianglartion off three cell towers?
No. All cell phones in the USA (perhaps the world) are required to have an actual GPS chip in it. As in getting the signal from the actual GPS satellites. The a-GPS notation refers to using cell tower location to help the GPS find you faster. If the phone knows which tower you're connected to, then it can triangulate you faster on the satellites since it doesn't have to search 100's of satellites.
I wanted a new touch for mainly three reasons:
* games on the go for the kids (to keep them quiet in car etc)
* spotify in car with bluetooth
* gps functionality so I can take my touch on my bike trips
(I have a BBerry from work, so can't buy an iPhone)
For the first two it's great, but the missing gps is a bummer. And at this price point, I might as well get a Nexus7 which would also allow me to take my spotify music on the go, and it's even better for games/movies for the kids.
Imo, Apple dropped the ball here (especially price-wise).
* games on the go for the kids (to keep them quiet in car etc)
* spotify in car with bluetooth
* gps functionality so I can take my touch on my bike trips
(I have a BBerry from work, so can't buy an iPhone)
For the first two it's great, but the missing gps is a bummer. And at this price point, I might as well get a Nexus7 which would also allow me to take my spotify music on the go, and it's even better for games/movies for the kids.
Imo, Apple dropped the ball here (especially price-wise).
How are you going to use Spotify in the car on an iPod Touch without a cell signal? Doesn't it just stream music like Pandora or can you save stuff directly to your device before you leave you wifi hotspot?
No
No requirement for that outside the USA, and I dont believe it is a requirement for in the USA eithor. What aGPS does is give you an approximate location so it can work out which satellites should be in range at the current time and begin to listen for them, or if you have not used the GPS in a while it can get the almanac, which is effectively the satellite location list at any time (This is sent as part of the satellites signal, but very slowly).
Rather than listening for a number of satellites randomly, once the almanac is downloaded it can quickly get a fix based on your location. That is why subsequent fixes are much faster than the initial fix
I looked into external GPS units as well and immediately rejected anything by Dual, cheap crap.
Bad Elf is where you likely want you want to be looking at. They're about to come out with a multi-tether Bluetooth unit, which should be nice for people like me who only has WiFi iOS stuff (iPod Touch and iPad). It should also connect to any PC/Mac with the correct software as well.
Currently I'm using a GNS 5870 MFI, and although the finger glide on/off can be a pain, it works fairly well. The only trouble I have with it is switching it between my iPad and iPod Touch quickly, as I have to make the current device forget it before pairing it with the other. It's why the Bad Elf GPS Pro looks interesting, with up to 5 paired devices at once.
If you only have one WiFi only GPS-less device, an external may seem costly. If you have two or more it starts looking much better.