Skyhook's Wi-Fi Location Technology for iPhone/iPod touch

[Analog Kid]

It certainly looks like Apple didn't test this much outside their own environment. I'm sure their campus is well covered, and Skynet has a map of San Francisco hotspots. I'm sure it worked great in testing...

I believe that one of the features of this service is database updates from results of location queries. I'm guessing that this is part of their model - once they have a decent starting point, users will keep the data fresh merely by using the service.

That'll only work to the extent that there is overlap among access points-- urban environments. Get out to the 'burbs where houses are a bowshot apart and you'll never be able to reference one signal to another-- and if you could you'd only have two at best and not know which one is right.

with people having problems reading access points from people known to have moved and sending your location read miles from where you actually are, i have a question for people living in cities with municipally owned wifi networks. for example, the city of Chaska, MN has wifi spread out throughout the city. is the locate me feature in a city such as Chaska just ridiculously accurate?

Ridiculous in the sense of "how can you even apply the word accuracy to that?" Yeah, about. The term "exact location" is rather absurd. WiFi positioning can get you about 25-50m accuracy on a really, really good day.

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to put a form on their site where you can submit your APs without manually writing an email?

Ok, who's with me on this?: Let's pick a small community in like Connecticut and magically relocate it to Area 51.

 

[wcalderini]

Skyhook?
Skyhook?
Sounds WAY to much like Skynet.
I fear the machines.

 

[Analog Kid]

Do you think they outfitted their van with pontoons to detect the access points off the California coast?

 

[realgenius]

That'll only work to the extent that there is overlap among access points-- urban environments. Get out to the 'burbs where houses are a bowshot apart and you'll never be able to reference one signal to another-- and if you could you'd only have two at best and not know which one is right.

I get plenty of overlap in the 'burbs. There's a lot fewer walls and concentrated radio sources so signals I think will go pretty far. Depending where I am in my burbs house, I get 6-9 other hotspots.

At my sister's burb house I once got 11. Although the problem is that she lives in a new neighborhood and the couple down the street moved from San Jose. So when I did "locate me", it said I was in San Jose, not 1700 miles away in Austin, Texas where I actually was located.

They totally need an "update location" button so you can drop a pin in your real spot (which is usually easy to identify once you get close enough by using the satellite photos). Then you could sent them all of the updated wifi in the area to update their DB.

 

[MikeTheC]

Quick question for the crowd here:

Do we really want to make it that easy for us to be tracked? I'm thinking this looks more like one step closer to big-brother myself, and is yet another reason why I'm glad I don't own either an iPhone or iPod Touch.

 

[Analog Kid]

Quick question for the crowd here:

Do we really want to make it that easy for us to be tracked? I'm thinking this looks more like one step closer to big-brother myself, and is yet another reason why I'm glad I don't own either an iPhone or iPod Touch.

While I'd ordinarily agree with those sentiments, what I'm seeing here is that they're making it darn near impossible to track you...

 

[darkblu]

While I'd ordinarily agree with those sentiments, what I'm seeing here is that they're making it darn near impossible to track you...

anecdotal, but my experience with the tech has been very positive. the two times i tried it it located me within 10-15 meters (30-45 feet), which is possibly better than what you'd get on the average from mobile-cell-based in my city, judging by the lousy gsm coverage here.

 

[sectime]

Quick question for the crowd here:

Do we really want to make it that easy for us to be tracked? I'm thinking this looks more like one step closer to big-brother myself, and is yet another reason why I'm glad I don't own either an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Bettter wrap your cell phone in tin foil. Don't be in range of any camera. Wow

 

[leakyfirewall]

ipod touch with clearwire

tried ipod touch with clearwire modem and wifi access point in moving car and the google map tracks where you are just like gps tracking....

there's no way any database would know about my traveling wifi access point, it's i.p. address doesn't change as we move around and the internet just keeps working as you move around....

does the ipod have the ability to see cell towers? or does it simply have a gps in it?

perplexed

 

[chabig]

Your Clearwire modem is just a data connection to the iPod. The iPod figures out its location by sensing nearby wifi access points.

 

[rtdunham]

... she lives in a new neighborhood and the couple down the street moved from San Jose. So when I did "locate me", it said I was in San Jose, not 1700 miles away in Austin, Texas where I actually was located.
They need an "update location" button so you can drop a pin in your real spot (which is usually easy to identify once you get close enough by using the satellite photos). Then you could send them all of the updated wifi in the area to update their DB.

funny problem. my phone-tower-location routinely put me one county, one river, three cities and about five miles west of my actual location. I sniffed all the routers around me and sent the MAC addresses to Skyhook, but months later it still mis-locates me to the same spot. I thought my neighbor's router might have been in service at one time at that spot but he assures me it's been next door to my house since it came out of the box.

Your suggestion for a fix is a good one. (Of course now my GPS locates me accurately--unless i'm indoors, in which case the phone-tower-locator whisks me away again).

 

[leakyfirewall]

we tried the highway

we tried the highway, my access point would have been the only one around, as there are no buildings/ businesses etc around on the highway, and it tracked perfectly just like a gps....