Google Maps with My Location (Beta)

[TC1]

Originally Posted by Malatesta

aGPS uses your location merely to tell the device what satellites (out of dozens, a lot are not relevant) to look at for data, reducing signal acquisition. It also can help compute the GPS data for faster location identification.

I know we've been over this, but again, based on real world experience and developing apps, this is not entirely true when it comes to CDMA cell phone application of aGPS.

Your statement above implies that aGPS is simply used to assist a satellite based GPS device, correct? I've unlocked my wife's LG Fusic which has NO stand-alone GPS capability, and installed mGMAPS which accesses the Java aGPS API. The accuracy provided is less than about 50 feet... I can literally walk around my house and around the block and the map will follow me precisely at a street level view. In this case aGPS is using the Assistance Server data that is on the carrier's network, the same thing that is available to e911. This data is very precise (but not as good as true sat-based GPS) because it uses data from multiple towers.

The application and the phone are using aGPS with NO sat-based data from the phone. And it's pretty precise.

Malatesta, I noticed you're on Long Island... I'm in Nassau County. If you ever want to discuss cell phone issues and GPS in person let me know. The sharing of knowledge is always a good thing

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by TC1

I know we've been over this, but again, based on real world experience and developing apps, this is not entirely true when it comes to CDMA cell phone application of aGPS.

Your statement above implies that aGPS is simply used to assist a satellite based GPS device, correct? I've unlocked my wife's LG Fusic which has NO stand-alone GPS capability, and installed mGMAPS which accesses the Java aGPS API. The accuracy provided is less than about 50 feet... I can literally walk around my house and around the block and the map will follow me precisely at a street level view. In this case aGPS is using the Assistance Server data that is on the carrier's network, the same thing that is available to e911. This data is very precise (but not as good as true sat-based GPS) because it uses data from multiple towers.

The application and the phone are using aGPS with NO sat-based data from the phone. And it's pretty precise.

Malatesta, I noticed you're on Long Island... I'm in Nassau County. If you ever want to discuss cell phone issues and GPS in person let me know. The sharing of knowledge is always a good thing

It's true, gpsOne can operate in 4 different modes. But in all of those modes, the gpsOne chip is pulling some sat data down, just not enough to be valuable. So the servers help compute what little data they can pull and also pull their own sat data.

If you look up gpsOne on wiki, it explains all four possible modes. Standalone is one of them, but it appears it may be dependent on an internal GPS antenna, which of course most devices do not have--so the other 3 are generally used at some level, depending on the setup.

Regardless: correct aGPS is very accurate as you mention. Google Maps with "My Location" is *not* accurate (between 1/3 to 3 miles--source)--hence why I know this is not aGPs but triangulation.

So my argument is as follows:

aGPS + Triangulation = different technology
aGPS = accurate (< 500 feet--within 50 feet by some users experiences)
Triangulation = not accurate (1/3 to 3 miles) <-- this is why we had the e911 mandate!
"My Location" = not accurate

Therefore, Google Maps "My Location" = Triangulation...that and Google has said so press releases and demo video

[TC1]

Actually, I must correct myself and apologize... I've been doing further research for a proposed project and I'm leaning more towards the theory that my wife's LG Fusic (and other Java based Sprint flip-phones) are actually using Advanced Forward Link Trilateration, which is the technology that uses the network carrier's LBS servers and tower info. It's just one-step below GPS in terms of accuracy.

Getting back to the Titan: I've been beating my head against a wall on this unit's capabilities, Sprint has purposely lobotomized and/or locked down the necessary API. I've read countless horror stories about other developers losing their minds trying to get at the GPS functionality in the phone. The only way someone is going to do it before Sprint does is if they can get their hands on a CDMA ROM that has working GPS and somehow extract the code that provides the Qualcomm GPS API... unfortunately I know of no such phone that exists yet, does anyone?