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What if I don't have Nextbus installed, or have location services disabled? Or even if I have location enabled, what if Nexbus could figure out which stop you'
by tjohns 11y ago
What if I don't have Nextbus installed, or have location services disabled?
Or even if I have location enabled, what if Nexbus could figure out which stop you're at without having to spin up GPS, in turn saving battery?
- lvs 11y agoReally reaching here. Nextbus is a web app. Location is in my experience always good enough without a sat lock. You don't need "to spin up GPS" to get your answer.
- WojtekB 11y agoBut Nextbus data is not available everywhere - and installing beacons on bus stops to broadcast URL addresses is fairly easy and low cost.
- lvs 11y agoThe infrastructure you'd need for your beacons is the same as Nextbus (i.e. trackers on public transport and a city data feed), but Nextbus requires no distributed/deployed devices. Therefore, rolling out a beacon approach must have more overhead than something like Nextbus. You really can't come up with a reason why these beacons are better for that use case. Hell, just put up a QR code at the bus stop. What could be cheaper than that?
- thejosh 11y agoSo 3G/4G uses less power than using GPS in a web app? Huh?
- jsjohnst 11y agoYes, it does, by far in fact. Try turning on an app that requires high precision location values (that's an option to app developers for this reason) and see how long your battery lasts, even with cellular data turned off.