Faux gps via cell phone triangulation

[+user13371]

Some cell phones without true GPS built into them can show your position by triangulating from nearest cell phone towers. This feature capability was also added to the iPhone today with the latest software update.

 

Can anyone who has used similar services on their existing cell phones tell me how well this really works? Can it typically give your location accurate to within a city block? To a given street corner? Can it update quickly enough to help you follow travel directions?

[+haasemonkey]

Some cell phones without true GPS built into them can show your position by triangulating from nearest cell phone towers. This feature capability was also added to the iPhone today with the latest software update.

 

Can anyone who has used similar services on their existing cell phones tell me how well this really works? Can it typically give your location accurate to within a city block? To a given street corner? Can it update quickly enough to help you follow travel directions?

 

It's accurate to about one or two city blocks most of the time- it really depends where you are. I'm in an urban environment, so I imagine it's likely to be more accurate since there are more cell towers in a city. Sometimes it even more accurate and gets almost my exact location. (I'm using the iPhone by the way).

 

It can update in about 4 or 5 seconds, so if you're willing to manually refresh it I suppose you could use it to help with driving directions. It's probably good for an occasional check if you feel like youve missed a turn. I would recommend pulling over before doing this though. To know where I am though, I usually just look at the driving directions map segment and the street signs.

[+user13371]

... accurate to about one or two city blocks most of the time ... can update in about 4 or 5 seconds...

 

Thanks. I had a chance to play with a friend's iPhone this morning, freshly updated with 1.1.3, and it's pretty much as you say.

 

In downtown Portland Oregon, it took a few seconds to draw the circle of probability -- which appeared to be about a mile wide. But the center of the circle was only about 3 blocks off.

 

Ah well, that's not as good as I was hoping for. Guess I'm still waiting for Apple (or someone else) to rewrite the bluetooth stack so this thing can work with a real GPS. Developer kit should be available in a month or so, and third party apps should be popping up on iTunes soon

[+Sputnik 57]

I have google earth on my non-GPS blackberry 8700g. It gets me to within 500 feet most of the time. Not really close enough for caching, but great to see where I am (and a route to the hotel I am looking for) when I land in a strange city.

 

I also have a bluetooth mini GPS that talks to my blackberry (google "Freedom Mini GPS"). It is very accurate. I think I could cache with it, but constant bluetooth communication is not very battery friendly for the blackberry. I usually carry my Garmin 60C for caching.