Looking Forward to the 3G iPhone New GPS Features
June 26, 2008
There are just two weeks left until the 3G iPhone bows with its new onboard GPS. The new iPhone will use several location methods using data from providers including Skyhook Wireless, Google Maps and the US Department of Defense NAVSTAR Global Positioning System.
GPS capabilities are nothing new to smart phones but the iPhone provides a great match between the technology and simple third celebration application development with Apple’s well publicized Core Location library. Look for third party apps to support all kind of tagging and tracking features.
When outside, with a clear signal (no trees or tall buildings) GPS can locate you to within a few feet of your true location.
WiFi Positioning. SkyHook Wireless offers extremely accurate WiFi positioning. The iPhone or iPod touch scans local WiFi and WiMax routers in your area and uses their MAC addresses to search SkyHook’s databases to position you from that data.
Cell Tower positioning Less accurate than WiFi location, Cell Tower triangulation figures out where you’re by mapping Cell Tower locations. Cell Towers, which never pack up and move to Kentucky, provide stable guidepoints located each few miles.
IP Location. To be fair, let me just say that I have never once seen the iPhone actually use this method. Then again, I live in a major metropolitan area; I have not given it a very good try. This last ditch approach uses IP location to find the nearest mapped World wide web Provider’s central office.
As you can see, the iPhone uses a rich set of geopositioning tools. Via [tuaw]
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