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iPhones, iPods, and iPads forum: How does the GPS on the iphone 4S work?

by: pretender0 February 29, 2012 2:52 PM PST

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How does the GPS on the iphone 4S work?

by pretender0 - 2/29/12 2:52 PM

Today I was tracking the location of a small piece of land I own (I live in Guatemala City). I was using the Maps application on my iphone 4S so that I could pin the location on the map once I got there. The tracking of my movement in the car was just fine and suddenly I noticed that the phone had lost celular service. I tried to make a phone call and the response was that there was no celular service so the call did not go out (consequently there was no data service either). The thing is that the maps app, kept on tracking my movements as I aproched my destination (the place was a little isolated, thats why there was no cel reception). I traveled for about 1 Km with no cel service and the maps app kept on tracking my position accurately until I arrived. The same was true for the trip back, until I got celular service again. How is this possible? I thought that the "GPS" on cel phones was actualy a triangulation from cel towers, so how did the phone track my location without any celular service? Does the device handle REAL GPS?

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Sorry but GPS is not cellular. Here's a minute explainer.

by R. Proffitt Moderator - 2/29/12 3:14 PM

In Reply to: How does the GPS on the iphone 4S work? by pretender0

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/11/one-minute-physics-why-gps-is-just-a-clock-in-space.html

See? No Cellular needed.
Bob


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Just to be clear

by pretender0 - 2/29/12 9:38 PM

In Reply to: Sorry but GPS is not cellular. Here's a minute explainer. by R. Proffitt Moderator

Thanks for the video link!!

Just to be clear, this means that while celular service was out, the phone is recieving the gps signal from the satelites?


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Yes

by birdmantd Moderator - 3/1/12 4:54 AM

In Reply to: Just to be clear by pretender0

That would be correct. My portable GPS in my car doesn't require a wifi or cellular signal to work properly and that is essentially what is happening with your cell phone.


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Cool

by pretender0 - 3/1/12 7:22 AM

In Reply to: Yes by birdmantd Moderator

Thanks for the info, I was curious about this.

I didn't know this little device was capable of this.

Thanks again.


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