iphone and wi-fi

Question

Level 1

29 points

iphone and wi-fi

Perhaps someone can explain to me. I am traveling in a city and I use the iPhone 6 weather app to successfully get the local weather report. My wi-fi is off. Fifty minutes later I am fifty miles away and I get the same old weather report but not the current weather where I am. I turn wi-fi on and now the correct weather for my new true location is on and correct. I am driving and do not have access to any wi-fi plan. How can turning on wi-fi make it so?

A corollary question {which just happened}. I just sent a text message to a friend of mine who is onboard a ship in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. He is not paying for the ship's wi-fi and there are not any cell sites nearby. He receives my text and sends one back to me. It just occurred to me that the answer might be that somehow the ship is giving him free wi-fi without his knowledge. I will check on that.

Thanks

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.1

Posted on Apr 25, 2015 1:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

doug Davies Author

Level 1

29 points

May 4, 2015 9:33 PM in response to doug Davies

bump

Reply

Answer 2

Andy Z 03

Level 3

530 points

May 4, 2015 9:36 PM in response to doug Davies

Are you sure this is WiFi, not Cellular Data? I would take a look at WiFi settings and see what it says - are you connected to a WiFi network? Either way, I would restart the device as well.

Reply

Answer 3

doug Davies Author

Level 1

29 points

May 9, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Andy Z 03

Thank you for getting back to me. My iPhone had cellular "on" the entire time. What made the weather site "current" was that I turned on wi-fi. I did this as the car was on the freeway and out of any wi-fi service. I may have been within a mile of a Starbucks but their {or I believe any other} wi-fi sign would have been out of my range.

Reply

Answer 4

May 9, 2015 1:36 PM in response to doug Davies

WiFi is used for location data. When you turn it on it uses local WiFi networks to better determine your location.

Reply

Answer 5

doug Davies Author

Level 1

29 points

May 9, 2015 7:53 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I can understand that using wi-fi helps with location data. My confusion is that turning on wi-fi in a car on the freeway {where wi-fi is not available or on a ship in the middle of the ocean} should not make the difference on this.

I recently called Apple. They indicated that if I turn on wi-fi it also activates GPS. And that may just explain my original query.

Reply

Answer 6

May 10, 2015 5:46 AM in response to doug Davies

What I'm puzzled about is why you turn WiFi off. There's no benefit. It uses no power unless it's connected to a network, and then it uses less than cellular. And when the phone is asleep it's off anyway.

Reply

Answer 7

doug Davies Author

Level 1

29 points

May 10, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

MY charger was broken and I was trying to conserve power by turning wifi off.

Reply

Answer 8

doug Davies Author

Level 1

29 points

May 10, 2015 12:20 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I believe it uses power when it searches for a wifi source.

Reply

Answer 9

May 10, 2015 12:53 PM in response to doug Davies

It doesn't search. It listens. The amount of energy used when not connected is immeasurably small and will have no effect on battery life. Likewise for Bluetooth.

Reply