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The problem with the iPhone 4 seems to be low sample size. Honestly, I would not be at all surprised if Apple lowered the sample rate of the GPS to extend batte
by cheald 16y ago
The problem with the iPhone 4 seems to be low sample size. Honestly, I would not be at all surprised if Apple lowered the sample rate of the GPS to extend battery life. GPS is a terrible power-sucker, and you probably won't know the phone is skimping on GPS readings unless you do comparisons like in the article, since most consumers are pretty happy with ~20-foot accuracy. People recording precision data, like surveyors or geocachers, though, would do well to get a device with a high sample rate and good accuracy.
My N1's GPS accuracy is easily good enough for my purposes; if I pull up Google Maps, it shows my location as about where my desk is on my lot in my neighborhood. I can't really complain.
- Niten 16y agoI haven't done any iPhone development, but can't the GPS sample rate be overridden in software? I know it can on Android -- My Tracks will let you tweak the sample rate if you want, for example.
- cheald 16y agoI'm not an iPhone developer either, but I can't find anything in the docs that would seem to allow you to set a sampling rate. What you do is tell the OS that you want location data, and give it a desired accuracy (AccuracyBestForNavigation, AccuracyBest, AccuracyNearestTenMeters, AccuracyHundredMeters, AccuracyKilometer, AccuracyThreeKilometers) and the OS decides when to give you updates. It could be that Motion-X isn't using an appropriate resolution, but I'm somewhat dubious that that's the case, given its intended purpose would need sampling at more than a 30-foot resolution. Relevant docs: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/LocationAwarenessPG/CoreLocation/CoreLocation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009497-CH2-SW1 http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/User...
- mcritz 16y agoThe iPhone’s built-in Maps.app absolutely culls the GPS hardware to save battery life. Developers can (and do) change the default value for the CLLocationAccuracy method as referenced here: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/iPad/index.html#documentation/CoreLocation/Reference/CLLocation_Class/CLLocation/CLLocation.html http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/iPad/index.html#do...