I know many people think that the iPhone should have a GPS to go along with the map, but I was thinking that Apple may never put one in. If they did put GPS in the iPhone, then when someone loses their phone, they'd go straight to Apple and ask them to track it down. Apple obviously wouldn't want to go through that hassle, seeing as they can track iPods down by where it was last plugged in, but when people ask where they are, they say they can't tell them. So do you guys think that Apple will include GPS or not?
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Will The iPhone Ever Have GPS?
- Thread starter Nadav
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GPS for knowing where you are and where you want to be - no because there is a market for third party developers and kits are already showing up.
GPS for stolen phones - again no, as for the theft prevention, the best thing you could do would be get some sort of insurance, or even engrave your name and a home phone number on the back. Maybe that way if it ever does end up getting into the wrong hands maybe they might give you a chance of giving it back and getting a reward!
GPS for stolen phones - again no, as for the theft prevention, the best thing you could do would be get some sort of insurance, or even engrave your name and a home phone number on the back. Maybe that way if it ever does end up getting into the wrong hands maybe they might give you a chance of giving it back and getting a reward!
but then you could only use the feature outside, or in the car, as long at it has a clear view to the sky...
not a convinent feature...
I would like to see them use Google Earth in the phone, and then use the cellular provides send a set of cordinates to the phone for a GPS style feature
not a convinent feature...
I would like to see them use Google Earth in the phone, and then use the cellular provides send a set of cordinates to the phone for a GPS style feature
I think that in a few years triangulation may be good enough that it can replace GPS, and that is when the iPhone will replace the TomTom
That would require massive amounts of more mobilephone network-towers. Don't see it really happening. Especially since Erickson and Nokia-Siemens have allready confirmed that LTE (=4G GSM) will be able to use current towers.
I think that in a few years triangulation may be good enough that it can replace GPS, and that is when the iPhone will replace the TomTom
I heard that TomTom gets super precise when the mobile device enters a wifi hotspot of known location. So in city areas all it would take for non-GPS location tech to become as useful as GPS systems is for many more wifi hotspots to show up, which is currently occurring at a rapid pace.
Google Maps with My Location should be coming ...
no GPS required
See link:
http://www.google.com/gmm/mylocation.html?hl=en
no GPS required
See link:
http://www.google.com/gmm/mylocation.html?hl=en
That's a huge way from being truly useful. From the linked page:
1000 meters? 3300 feet! If you consider 3300 feet accurate enough I really hope you're not looking for a street address. Hmmm... could be here or half a mile away.
Plenty of phones have GPS now, but carriers do not track them down if lost.
OTOH, recent well publicized events show that law enforcement can and does ask the carriers to track down a cell phone if the owner is lost or missing for quite a while.
Sure, most phones have GPS for E911 use but it's up to the counties involved to have equipment to read it. I do search and rescue for the Coast Guard and I can tell you that tower triangulated data sucks. I was on a search a couple years ago and the distressed party was in a boat on a cell phone and couldn't give their location. The county 911 only had tower triangulation and the person's location was calculated as being 1.5 miles inland.
That was useful. I guess if we left it up to AT&T to find your lost iPhone they'd say "somewhere in Miami." I find it interesting to look at Navizon's report of what tower I'm into. I'm frequently many miles away from the selected tower.
My location from Google Maps is a really innovate feature and I expect we can see accuracy improve considerably. Theoretically using elementary geometry using just three towers is enough to pinpoint any given location exactly.
Of course in the real world, buildings and other non-desirables will interfere with signal strength from tower to cell phone. The accuracy of that measurement is therefore hindered and that has a knock on effect with other measurements. Accuracy is therefore proportional to the number of towers as anomalies can be removed.
An example of where such triangulation occurs flawlessly is when pinpointing boats or ships out at sea. Before radar became widely used, positions of ships could be triangulated by strength of radio reception from different radio masts and the direction of those masts. Because there is limited interference at sea with VHF transmissions this method works extremely well in pinpointing locations. It is still used today when a craft is too small to be picked up by radar and does not have a GPS.
A great application for this in cellular devices such as the iPhone would be a way to see all of your contacts' approximate location (given their approval) on a Google Map via triangulation or GPS where available. As this would be Google Maps it would be entirely cross platform so you could see the exact realtime location of person A. with their Nokia N95 at the same time as seeing the approximate location of person B. with their Blackberry and your own approximate location with your iPhone.
Of course in the real world, buildings and other non-desirables will interfere with signal strength from tower to cell phone. The accuracy of that measurement is therefore hindered and that has a knock on effect with other measurements. Accuracy is therefore proportional to the number of towers as anomalies can be removed.
An example of where such triangulation occurs flawlessly is when pinpointing boats or ships out at sea. Before radar became widely used, positions of ships could be triangulated by strength of radio reception from different radio masts and the direction of those masts. Because there is limited interference at sea with VHF transmissions this method works extremely well in pinpointing locations. It is still used today when a craft is too small to be picked up by radar and does not have a GPS.
A great application for this in cellular devices such as the iPhone would be a way to see all of your contacts' approximate location (given their approval) on a Google Map via triangulation or GPS where available. As this would be Google Maps it would be entirely cross platform so you could see the exact realtime location of person A. with their Nokia N95 at the same time as seeing the approximate location of person B. with their Blackberry and your own approximate location with your iPhone.
GPS will have to be in the next major revision of the iPhone, just to stay competitive.
However, we won't see a major revision until near the two year mark, when it's time for many to renew their AT&T contracts.
However, we won't see a major revision until near the two year mark, when it's time for many to renew their AT&T contracts.
GPS will have to be in the next major revision of the iPhone, just to stay competitive.
However, we won't see a major revision until near the two year mark, when it's time for many to renew their AT&T contracts.
if they have to add it just to stay competitive, they'd have to add it sooner rather than later regardless of when the early adopters might need to renew their contracts. actually, most of the early adopters are likely to upgrade their iphones anyway if gps version comes available, so there's another reason to add it asap...
1000 meters? 3300 feet! If you consider 3300 feet accurate enough I really hope you're not looking for a street address. Hmmm... could be here or half a mile away.
Well it would be useful to find out what city you are in.
Example: Hmmm, am I in Los Angeles or San Francisco? Let's pull out my iPhone and see...
That's a huge way from being truly useful. From the linked page:
1000 meters? 3300 feet! If you consider 3300 feet accurate enough I really hope you're not looking for a street address. Hmmm... could be here or half a mile away.
However...if you know how to read and the location circle shows a few street names, then you should be intelligent enough to figure out your location/destination at least enough to get your bearings and get back on track.
If you don't already know where you are while you are driving, then please let me know before I get in your vehicle and don't leave the city...you may get sucked up by that big old scarry world