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Without GPS, how does Google and Android know where I am
- asmosoinio 15y agoBlog post author here, submitting my own post. It's basically a long-winded a reply to this HN comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2640953 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2640953 and a few other similar comments on other forums and IRL. The post did get some discussion going on in http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/ib6pq/without_gps_how_does_google_and_android_know/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/ib6pq/without_gps_h... (Edit: typo)
- alphakappa 15y agoLong story short - it's by identifying the cell towers and WiFi networks near you.
- asmosoinio 15y agoThanks for you comment alphakappa! How did you find the post, did you get any new information from it? Indeed, it is dead simple. Once you have locations for the towers and WiFi networks, that is. Getting a good database of those is the hardest part.
- vitung 15y agoWith a good database of landmarks around to reference with your position will be a lot better when it comes to locations
- churvachenes 15y agowithout gps, you can get your location via closest cell id and google maps used that cell id to point your location with landmark name. Am i right? TIA
- greyfade 15y agoThis page is unviewable in Chrome. All I get on my screen is corrupt garbage, like what you'd see on an old Atari when it crashes.
- asmosoinio 15y agoThanks for the info! Could you give some more information about your setup (Chrome version, OS)? You can contact me at [my HN username]@geckolandmarks.com if you don't want to comment here. I am using the default Posterous theme with only a minor addition to have a custom favicon. Can you see other posterous blogs properly with that browser, for example http://ycombinator.posterous.com/ http://ycombinator.posterous.com/ ?