At that point it will fall back on cell tower triangulation, as I believe it says in the article on the front page.
Wait. How does a phone-less iPod Touch make use of cell phone tower telemetry?
...All they keep in their database is lat/lon and the MAC of your access point....I've been emailing them corrections as I get them.
To get your latitude and longitude head to google maps and put in the address of your access point. After that put the following in your address bar to get your coordinates:
Code:javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));
Put in the coordintes back into a google maps search to make sure it's right. I usually have to tweak it a little to get it spot on.
Could you be more specific?
1) How do i find the MAC address for my router? I've googled the issue and the solutions i find are little applets that run in windows. How do I do it with a macbook, linksys xrs400 wireless router, and an airport express?
2) Describe again how to get coordinates, please. I found my location on google maps but can't convert to coordinates. Can you be more specific about where to put the line of code you describe?
javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));
Your router's control panel should also have it's MAC address displayed somewhere.
My answer was going to be, pick up the router and read the little label on the bottom.
No?
...I wrote them a little note with my wireless routers MACs and my lat/lon, and they updated it...
I have a few, varied, thoughts on this. First off, if the $20 upgrade fee includes royalties to Skyhook, then I'd feel a bit better about paying -- why didn't you just say so, Steve?
This is a really ingenious system, but as others have said it will only really work well if the database is kept up to date. Self-healing sounds like an interesting feature, but would only work to an extent, and would lead to accuracy degradation over time. (I used to be at exactly point A, but now all I know is that I'm near points B and C). The model would work better if there was some kind of grassroots movement to get people to submit location updates themselves.
Cataloging seems pretty self-evident. A Skyhook vehicle equipped with a GPS just drives around running a program like MacStumbler. At coordinates (x,y) I receive these wireless signals with these signal strengths. Build up enough points and you're in business.
(Still, it seems kinda creepy that someone out there was driving around my neighborhood and cataloging my wireless network against my location! Here's hoping the Skyhook vehicle wasn't a plain white van...)
So does it also capture newly identified wifi devices and report their position?
You want Steve to list all the third parties who receive part of payments you make. That one $20 payment, google, skyhooks to start, mail app might have a couple to say postfix or cyrus teams say. Stocks and Weather widget carry small Yahoo logos so they are getting some cash.
Could be fun but it would add a couple of pages to an iMac sales docket.
(HOW TO FIND COORDINATES?)
I should have been more specific.After googling your address enter
in your browser's address bar (where you usually enter web page URL's) and hit enter. That'll open a javascript popup with a text field containing your latitude and longitude coordinates. To make sure that's correct run a google maps search for those coordinates without the parenthesis. I usually have to tweak the coordinates a little to get them spot on. YMMVCode:javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));