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Why no GPS in continuity
- Thread starter kiranmk2
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Stay on topic, what do you mean by this^^.
Are you saying if I turn on my wifi ipad right now, without any signal going to it, its going to give me my approximated location?
So lets see, (sets wifi off on ipad, checks location), hmmmmmmmmm nope shows me about 20 miles from my current location.
I agree to this, maybe you should tell that to deeddawg. He states you don't need connection.
I very highly recommend the bad elf pro bluetooth GPS, although there are other mfi GPS add-on's as well that work as well.
(I use one in prop and jet aircraft, where the built in ipad/iPhone gps will not work due to speed/antenna placement).
http://bad-elf.com
(I use one in prop and jet aircraft, where the built in ipad/iPhone gps will not work due to speed/antenna placement).
http://bad-elf.com
He did not say that. You misread him. Your device may see 10 networks. It will use those to help determine its position, but it doesn't need to connect to them. Just because they are visible they are useful. The device does, however, need to be connected to the internet, which means it has to be connected to one wifi network.
I appears that I'm misreading quite a bit in this thread. I'm agreeing with most of what has been said, but getting all my wording wrong. For example when I use cell tower, I was saying as in the network. I don't care about winning. I care more about learning correct facts. I don't have problem to being wrong in this thread, as long as that leads up to a better understanding of the knowledge.
But now I'm faced with questions.
So when a wifi ipad is tethered to the internet, where is it getting is approximated location from? As in when you're driving around, the phone is receiving internet network data, correct? Which in turn, tethered, gives the ipad the data. Where I'm confused now is while the ipad is connect through the phone which in turn is connected to the network. How does the "network" communicate a approximated location data? Does it not triangulate cell towers? If not towers, how is the network able to determining the location?
You said " It estimates position based on the wifi networks it detects.", but if its tethered it only detecting the hotspot wifi from the phone, and the phone in turn is receiving data from said network, correct? Is the estimated position still based on wifi networks then or something else? Because of my previous misconceptions, I'm somewhat confuse by this.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this one.
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Even when connected to a wifi network or tethered it can still search around for others. Also when a wifi network is known to apple its location is marked. Hence where your iPad gets its locational information.
Don't you remember seeing on the news that Google got banned in Germany for tracking Wi-Fi router names and locations with it street view photographing cars. Well that is how your none GPS enabled device works out their approximate location, Google sold that data they captured to companies all over the world.
If I look at my location with a none GPS device it always puts me in the same location which is actually about 200 metres away from where I really am.
If I look at my location with a none GPS device it always puts me in the same location which is actually about 200 metres away from where I really am.
Correct. I was describing a situation in which the ipad was tethered to a phone, thereby had a data connection. I'd believed that was the context of the discussion.
If it's not connected to anything, i.e. no data connection, it's dead in the water.
EDIT: the above is for a wifi only ipad. a cellular equipped ipad has a gps chip and that will function even if the cellular data is turned off. Not much good if you don't already have the maps stored locally, but it will function.
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See Wi-Fi positioning system for a brief description of how it works.
As mentioned by others, being tethered does not prevent the device from seeing other wifi networks and their SSID or MAC addresses. To verify that, tether to your phone and go to Settings->Wifi -- you can see the names and strengths of other available networks without disrupting your existing connection.
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Don't know if it's true in the case of Apple, because...
Apple has their own system. And judging by the number of Macs and iDevices in my neighborhood coffee shop, probably getting a lot of data on their own.
From Apple:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6338
And hence, why "GPS" "works" in Maps on my 2008 Macbook Pro, with no GPS chip and not tethered to anything.
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The phones wifi hotspot name is updating its location in the many wifi location services databases constantly and because your iPad or MacBook is tethering from it, wifi location services therefore shows the iPad or MacBook location based on the phones location. Hope this clears up a lot of mess in this thread. If anyone wants to disagree simply tether your wifi only iPad to your phone and go to the maps app and watch how your location is correct.
This has been the case for some time now, the database isn't run by apple (mostly skyhook and Google) and the whole thing can be disabled on the phone.
This has been the case for some time now, the database isn't run by apple (mostly skyhook and Google) and the whole thing can be disabled on the phone.