Does iPad 2 WiFi Really Have No GPS???

rockmyplimsoul wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

GPS signals come directly from the GPS satellites. They provide latitude and longitude information to GPS receivers.

Looks like you've taken a beating already, so one more minor correction ... satellites do not actually transmit lattitude and longitude information to a GPS receiver. Your lattitude and longitued are calculated by your receiver based on the triangulation of the satellite signals it is receiving. In basic terms, the satellites chirp their data stream (including their unique ID) all at the same time, but the signals arrive at your receiver at different times due to the different lengths the signals travel. Your GPS receiver compares the timing difference from each satellite ID to determine, via triangulation, where in the world you are. As noted above, this takes some time initially, so A-GPS speeds things up by narrowing your position down via cell towers.

No argument there. I took some latitude (pun intended) in my effort to reduce your explanation to one sentence.

stevejobsfan0123 wrote:

rockmyplimsoul wrote:

so one more minor correction ... satellites do not actually transmit lattitude and longitude information to a GPS receiver.

One minor correction: Latitude. Two L's.

And one more ... it was actually two T's 😉

The iPad 2+ as well as my MacBook Pro (im using) have Assisted GPS (A-GPS). This is not GPS as we use in our Garmin in our car or in a dedicated GPS hand held device. Those receive signals from orbiting GPS satellites and calculate the difference in time signals sent from the satellites.

iPad 2+ 3G and 4G along with my computer have A-GPS that receives signals from ground items like cell phone towers and computer line routers. The cell phone towers and computer routers have locations that identify them. This is how the police and fire department can find your location along with OnStar and other services. The cellphone doesn't transmit a signal as some people believe. The cellphone towers have several vertical rectangular shaped objects - these are called panels. Each panel transmits and receives signals in a very precice direction called a fan. Some panels can determine how far a transmiting device is in order to adjust the signal strength. When one panel receives your phone signal it calculates your position within the fan. If some agency wants to find you they can use two, three, four, five or more cell phone panels to get an ever increasing accuracy. They simply calculate your position within respective fans and get a smaller and smaller area. However, when you use find my iPhone you normally get a circle that is not exactly your position. That is because it is calculating data based on the router/server servicing your location.

So if you don't want someone to know where you are, have been, or are going leave your cell phone or laptop at home.

I really want to use my iPad as a navigator, but that will be later I guess.

The iPhones and the iPads with 3g or 4G all have a GPS chip that use satellites to fix their positiion. A-GPS means they use routers and cell towers to get the location more quickly. To add on to your Find My iPhone example you will get the pulsating circle as it uses routers/cell towers to get your initial location, once the device is in sight of at least 3 satellites it will drop down to the pulsating blue ball. It is accurate to about 33 feet at best.

I don't know of any Mac that actually has a GPS chip. They do use routers to be located but this is not A-GPS.

1166dave wrote:

The iPad 2+ as well as my MacBook Pro (im using) have Assisted GPS (A-GPS). This is not GPS as we use in our Garmin in our car or in a dedicated GPS hand held device.

YES IT IS REAL GPS ON IPHONES and 3G IPADS.

For goodness sake read at least some of the explanations presented over the last 300 plus posts. I note you have edited out the idea of Macs having GPS.

The iPad 2+ as well as my MacBook Pro (im using) have Assisted GPS (A-GPS). This is not GPS as we use in our Garmin in our car or in a dedicated GPS hand held device. Those receive signals from orbiting GPS satellites and calculate the difference in time signals sent from the satellites.

Incorrect. A-GPS is a step above GPS. Both use satellites to determine location. A-GPS uses known cellular/wifi tower/router locations to speed up the initial fix. Googe for AGPS and see for yourself.

1166dave wrote:

The iPad 2+ as well as my MacBook Pro (im using) have Assisted GPS (A-GPS). This is not GPS as we use in our Garmin in our car or in a dedicated GPS hand held device. Those receive signals from orbiting GPS satellites and calculate the difference in time signals sent from the satellites.

iPad 2+ 3G and 4G along with my computer have A-GPS that receives signals from ground items like cell phone towers and computer line routers. The cell phone towers and computer routers have locations that identify them. This is how the police and fire department can find your location along with OnStar and other services. The cellphone doesn't transmit a signal as some people believe. The cellphone towers have several vertical rectangular shaped objects - these are called panels. Each panel transmits and receives signals in a very precice direction called a fan. Some panels can determine how far a transmiting device is in order to adjust the signal strength. When one panel receives your phone signal it calculates your position within the fan. If some agency wants to find you they can use two, three, four, five or more cell phone panels to get an ever increasing accuracy. They simply calculate your position within respective fans and get a smaller and smaller area. However, when you use find my iPhone you normally get a circle that is not exactly your position. That is because it is calculating data based on the router/server servicing your location.

So if you don't want someone to know where you are, have been, or are going leave your cell phone or laptop at home.

I really want to use my iPad as a navigator, but that will be later I guess.

Wow. You certainly are confused. I don't even know where to start.

Hi

I currently have a IPAD4 wifi only, i have installed memeory map, when i use it in the car (no wifi signal) its happly shows me where i am. I also chek this with google maps and its work fine as well.

so how its work if it does not have GPS chip

If you have a WiFi only iPad this is how it works to locate your position:

1) It identifies all available WiFi access points that are detectable by Name and if possible MAC address

2) It ueses its internet connection (which means it has to be connected to WiFi or have the information cached) to query the central Apple servers as to the position of those WiFi points

3) It estimates your position based on these, everybody who has a GPS becomes a tracking device that locates WiFi hotspots and uploads the location of them to the Apple server..

This isnt rocket science people it has been known to work this way for years...

I wish I had never posted the original question. The answer is NO; the iPad does NOT have GPS. It uses work arounds to locate itself. But that is not GPS.

I have gotten upset at the "know more than thou" attitudes I have seen demonstrated in the answers like TheToid's "This isnt rocket science people it has been known to work this way for years...". It shows a limited view of the users needs. A tablet has wonderful map potential. On my Android tablet I load the maps I need for the area I am traversing and I have all that I need to navigation. It HAS GPS and knows where it is regardless of connectivity.

Grab your iPad and load Navionics or your favorite Topo maps. Check things to make sure all is working. Great. The iPad knows where I am here in the city. Okay. Off I go sailing in the Chesapeak. Guess what? My iPad knows not where I am. Okay - now a trek into the mountains. Hmm. I got the maps but my iPad is lost. Very little help.

Apple is missing a great potential use of the iPad. I can tell you that my marine navigation charts and topographic maps look great on the iPad. But it is a worthless device for navigation. All my treking is with my Android tablet. (And yes, not all Android devices have GPS. That is just an option to look for when shopping)

czuque wrote:

I wish I had never posted the original question. The answer is NO; the iPad does NOT have GPS. It uses work arounds to locate itself. But that is not GPS.

I'm not sure, after all the good explanations of GPS, it's difficult for you to understand that, yes, some iPads have GPS.

All my treking is with my Android tablet. (And yes, not all Android devices have GPS. That is just an option to look for when shopping)

Not all iPads have GPS. It's an option to look for when shopping. My iPad has GPS. That's one of the reasons I bought the version with cellular.

it is very illegal to keep repository of WIFI locations on apple servers,, Google got busted for collecting wifi locations when they did their street view. So apple have repository of wif devices is load of rubish..

Only thing i notice when i am using the memory-map/google map when i driving ,it didnt tell me the speed or arltitude. so I think it have GPS chip only can receive location from the GPS sattellite, not any other data.

Is the wi-fi turned on? If so, as you pass wi-fi networks the iPad will detect them and use the onboard data to correlate where you are.

I doubt that you would have the same experience if the iPad's wi-fi was turned off.

equant wrote:

Only thing i notice when i am using the memory-map/google map when i driving ,it didnt tell me the speed or arltitude. so I think it have GPS chip only can receive location from the GPS sattellite, not any other data.

Correct. GPS is satellites

But A-GPS also gets data from cell towers.

-> http://gps.about.com/od/glossary/g/A-GPS.htm

equant wrote:

it is very illegal to keep repository of WIFI locations on apple servers,

No, it's not.

Google got busted for collecting wifi locations when they did their street view.

No, they got busted for collecting data on those unprotected wifi networks (as opposed to simply collecting the IP address and location of the router)..

-> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html