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10 Miles away before reminder kicks in...anyone else get better results?

S

sclawis300

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2010
1,472
196
Seems like it should kick in a little sooner than this. Also, I am not sure if it finally registered because I unlocked my phone, or if it was just coincidence that it popped up as I was unlocking.

Is anyone else getting better results with location settings in reminders? If I am 10 miles away, chances are a reminder is worthless at that point.
 
I don't use the location-based reminders because it eats the battery like crazy constantly pulling a GPS location. I would only use it on things that I REALLY need to remember.
 
the weird thing is I was on wifi at my house, so the location should have been accurate.
 
tardman91 said:
I don't use the location-based reminders because it eats the battery like crazy constantly pulling a GPS location. I would only use it on things that I REALLY need to remember.
Click to expand...

Location based reminders doesn't use the GPS. It uses timing from the cell towers that your phone is associated with to determine rough location.
 
3 houses away when i left from home and worked perfect, never had a problem so far.
 
I set one for leaving my house and it worked perfect. But, like has been mentioned, I'll be using it only when extremely important as it destroys your battery!
 
My reminder for "do X when I get home" popped up when I pulled into my garage. So far, that's the only one I've really tested.
 
Mine works perfectly! I setup a reminder to take my wallet upstairs with me when i get home... Got reminded right in front of the garage door! :)
 
I will admit that the first time I tested it, it worked well. It also worked as I pulled into the driveway for "arrival". Has anyone had consistent success with it? I had lots of trouble with my office location as well (it has failed to worked more than it has worked so far).
 
alucinari said:
Location based reminders doesn't use the GPS. It uses timing from the cell towers that your phone is associated with to determine rough location.
Click to expand...

All I know is the arrow is in the status bar, and that means it's pulling my location from somewhere, which means my battery is being destroyed.
 
I had one set to go off when I got to work and it didn't pop up until I was at the opposite end of campus a couple hours later and the reminder was practically worthless. Only one I've tried so far. I'd probably use it more frequently if there were badge notifications.

There isn't, is there? Haha. I've checked and double-checked but I know there's always a chance I'm looking in the wrong spot.
 
Ke1ington said:
I had one set to go off when I got to work and it didn't pop up until I was at the opposite end of campus a couple hours later and the reminder was practically worthless. Only one I've tried so far. I'd probably use it more frequently if there were badge notifications.

There isn't, is there? Haha. I've checked and double-checked but I know there's always a chance I'm looking in the wrong spot.
Click to expand...

No there isn't, but I have noticed that they show up in the Notification Center. You could just bring that down to see if you have any reminders.
 
It worked for me. I set a test reminder to "Weep" when I got to work, and sure enough it beeped and came up when I was in the middle of the parking lot. Too bad I didn't actually need the reminder. :D
 
Works very well for me. I set a reminder for when I arrive home, and it alerted me just before I pulled into my driveway. It's done this several times. And if I set it for when I leave home, again it alerts me right when I start to drive down the street. Pretty good.

Wendi
 
I set mine for when I got to a Target. I parked the car and no alert. I was walking toward the store, no alert. Then 2 steps from the door the alert goes off! Gotta try it at another place, but yeah, worked well for me so far!
 
Mine took about 2 miles, but my address is very vague since it's for an entire apartment complex so that may have something to do with it.
 
alucinari said:
Location based reminders doesn't use the GPS. It uses timing from the cell towers that your phone is associated with to determine rough location.
Click to expand...

Hmm... OP, are you in a rural area?

In rural areas, there are much fewer cel towers, and the cel towers are designed to cover a much larger area. This area can be several miles in radius!

This is because there's fewer obstructions such as buildings to block signals, and there's fewer people, so one high-powered tower can cover many square miles, whereas in a city you need many more lower-powered towers.

This could mean that if the phone is using tower location to send reminders, you may have to drive a lot further for your tower-based location to change.
 
zorinlynx said:
Hmm... OP, are you in a rural area?

In rural areas, there are much fewer cel towers, and the cel towers are designed to cover a much larger area. This area can be several miles in radius!

This is because there's fewer obstructions such as buildings to block signals, and there's fewer people, so one high-powered tower can cover many square miles, whereas in a city you need many more lower-powered towers.

This could mean that if the phone is using tower location to send reminders, you may have to drive a lot further for your tower-based location to change.
Click to expand...

I am not in a rural area. I seem to be having a little better success with it now though.
 
I've used it twice and it worked great....I had it remind me of something when I get to work....the garage is a block away...so it went off when I passed work, then went off again when I walked up to the building. Pretty impressive!
 
alucinari said:
Location based reminders doesn't use the GPS. It uses timing from the cell towers that your phone is associated with to determine rough location.
Click to expand...

That's what I had heard too, but I can't remember where. In practice, it kept location services on the whole time the reminder was set, which took my battery from 100% to 19% in about 4 hours. I'm really disappointed, because I was really looking forward to using this feature.
 
thedessie said:
That's what I had heard too, but I can't remember where. In practice, it kept location services on the whole time the reminder was set, which took my battery from 100% to 19% in about 4 hours. I'm really disappointed, because I was really looking forward to using this feature.
Click to expand...

i had a reminder on all day and my battery never drained more than 5 or 10%.... you sure something else wasnt killing your battery?
 
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