Bluetooth GPS with smartphone

[+user13371]

Not being an Android user, I'm a bit fuzzy on something.

 

Garmin GLO is advertised as made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Reviews I've read say it can be used with Android but requires installing additional software and isn't well documented.

 

DeLorme's inReach for smartphones will work with both Android and iOS devices. But on Android it ONLY works with DeLorme's "Earthmate" application, while on iOS it will provide location data to any application.

 

What's different between Android and iOS devices using Bluetooth GPS? What does an Android user have to look for when shopping for one?

[+splashy]

Normally the Androids are more 'open' , where IOS forces you to go their way.

There are may good bluetooth receivers and many more and very good apps for Android, but most Androids have a good working Gps, so why would you want an extra receiver?

[+user13371]

Splashy, you want room 12A, next door. I'm just trying to understand the differences between Android and iOS location services.

Edited April 13, 2013 by user13371

[+Kolenka]

What's different between Android and iOS devices using Bluetooth GPS? What does an Android user have to look for when shopping for one?

 

The short version:

 

There's nothing in the Android platform here that really prevents this, but because of how the data is provided via the GPSr, it has to be left up to each individual app to support reading the data from the GPSr. So a buyer would be looking for an app that reads from the GPSr, rather than anything specific in the device.

 

The long version:

 

- Most devices use the Serial Port Profile to provide GPS data over bluetooth. So you'd be pulling NMEA-type data this way. The problem with using a serial port is that you can't really tell what the serial port is connected to until you talk to it (which could do all sorts of unwanted things). So serial ports are left to an application to talk over them. Which means that every application that wants to use the GPS receiver in this way needs to have their own code for handling it.

 

- Apple has their own custom profile for providing GPS data to iOS devices. I am not sure what it is based on at this point. However, Apple wired it straight into their location services API. This means that a compatible receiver sending data this way is feeding it into the OS, and every location-aware app goes through this API. So apps aren't even aware what the source of the location information is, just the accuracy of it.

 

There's now an official profile for this sort of thing, but it is recent enough that I doubt any devices on the market readily support it yet. As this changes, I'd expect things to get better for Android. I'd also be surprised if Apple didn't support this standard profile going forward.

[+splashy]

Splashy, you want room 12A, next door. I'm just trying to understand the differences between Android and iOS location services.

 

I'm sorry you don't like the answer, but that's how it is.

 

The above answer explains it better then I did, but basically it's the same.

[+Kolenka]

I'm sorry you don't like the answer, but that's how it is.

 

The above answer explains it better then I did, but basically it's the same.

 

Basically the same? I disagree. Stating a generalization and questioning the question is quite different than actually describing the difference.

 

And the end result here is quite different from open vs closed. The real trade-off is that with SPP based receivers is that the app has to support it. So you wind up with apps that you might like, but lacking the support needed to get more accurate data like the GLO can provide (and hope the app isn't locked to a specific hardware device!). On the iOS side, as long as the receiver supports the Bluetooth protocol, any iOS app benefits from the more accurate data, so I'm free to use whichever GPS app I like. And as there is a decent set of devices that support Apple's protocol, I'm not being terribly limited on the hardware selection. So depending on your POV, the software choice might be more beneficial than the hardware choice. But the hardware choice these days is pretty good since few don't support both.

 

That said, my hope is that the new GNSS 1.0 protocol gets OS-level support in Android, as it would even the playing field quite a bit, and require fewer trade-offs. And it might be faster than I expect if Apple has been using a draft version of the GNSS protocol (which they have done in the past). The protocol has been around in a draft state since before the iPhone launch, and is really a wrapper around the SPP stack such that you can actually detect that it is a GPSr, and integrate into the OS better. Not terribly complicated as far as Bluetooth specs go.

[John E Cache]

On Android, you need a provider app that has the Bluetooth Serial Profile(note: there is no "port" in the name) as input and Location Provider as output.

 

I use http://play.google.c...e.mobilej.btgps

Edited April 16, 2013 by John E Cache

[+crunchewy]

I'm an iPhone user (iPhone 4). Are you saying that I could buy the Garmin GLO and it would work with the geocaching app without having to jailbreak?

[+Red90]

I'm an iPhone user (iPhone 4). Are you saying that I could buy the Garmin GLO and it would work with the geocaching app without having to jailbreak?

Yes, of course.

[Sgt_Strider]

Does anyone here know of an iOS app that logs at a 1 second interval?

[Sgt_Strider]

Does anyone here know of an iOS app that logs at a 1 second interval?

 

Does anyone here know?