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iPad GPS vs iPhone GPS

J

J273

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
249
3
As anyone tried the gps in their iPad with say copilot?

How does it compare to the iPhone 3GS in terms of sensitivity?...does it loose your location like the iPhones.

Also does anyone know does the A4 chip also include the GPS chip?

Thanks
 
Hmm Ive always found the iphones GPS to be pretty poor.

Gets my location with with google maps/copilot/tomtom but once im on the road it often looses my location, and puts me in fields,and miles from where i am.
 
Part of the problem with the accuracy may be the quality of GPS satellite coverage in your area.

GPS works by calculating your position based on timing how long it takes the signal to travel from GPS satellites to the receiver. The more satellites spread out through the sky, the better the calculation will be. If the satellites are grouped in one part of the sky at that time, the accuracy will suffer.

Some areas of the country have periods throughout the day where the satellite coverage is less than optimal. Combined with if a satellite in the GPS constellation goes down, that can pose problems as well.

I have found the iPhone GPS precision is good but not great. Sometimes it shows me on a frontage road when I am on an interstate but overall its not too bad.

I am actually using my iPhone GPS collect coordinates of devices I am responsible instead of borrowing a GPS unit from another office since I do not need centimeter accuracy of the location.

I haven't seen any specs on the GPS chip in the 3G iPad but I imagine its the same or similar quality to the chip in the iPhone 3Gs...
 
osxnewbe said:
Part of the problem with the accuracy may be the quality of GPS satellite coverage in your area.

GPS works by calculating your position based on timing how long it takes the signal to travel from GPS satellites to the receiver. The more satellites spread out through the sky, the better the calculation will be. If the satellites are grouped in one part of the sky at that time, the accuracy will suffer.

Some areas of the country have periods throughout the day where the satellite coverage is less than optimal. Combined with if a satellite in the GPS constellation goes down, that can pose problems as well.

I have found the iPhone GPS precision is good but not great. Sometimes it shows me on a frontage road when I am on an interstate but overall its not too bad.

I am actually using my iPhone GPS collect coordinates of devices I am responsible instead of borrowing a GPS unit from another office since I do not need centimeter accuracy of the location.
Click to expand...


I have a dedicated tomtom and my old windows mobile with a qualcomm chip worked fine never lost track of me once so it must be the gps chip or antenna in the iphone itself.

Tbh i was just seeing if they'd put a better chip in the ipad with the possibility of them using the same in the new iphone 4.With the new iphone 4's antennas as mentioned in the keynote im hoping its going to be better than the current 3gs.as at the minute i cant really rely on it:(
 
I do a lot of geocaching and have both an iPhone 3GS and an iPad Wifi+3G. I use both when geocaching. Because it is dangerous to drive while navigating with the iPad I use the iPhone until the time comes to get out of the car and do some walking. I have found both to be accurate, but the iPad to be a bit more accurate. When you get close to the site with the iPhone the map begins to jiggle so much that it is hard to see it, while the iPad is steady as a rock. Also where the best accuracy I can get on the iPhone is within 9 to 12 feet of the site the iPad will get within one foot of the site while being extremely steady.
 
The ipad is insanely accurate.

I have done some tests. The ipad locks on much faster then the iPhone. I have to wait for the iphone to narrow down my position while the iPad instantly has a lock.

I tracked my position in a car park. The iPhone knew I was in the parking lot, the iPad knew which corner of which parking space I was in.
 
My iPad positioned me on the map (with sat view) in the correct spot in my house. Was kinda weirdly scary actually :)

Chris
 
RobBookPro said:
The ipad is insanely accurate.

I have done some tests. The ipad locks on much faster then the iPhone. I have to wait for the iphone to narrow down my position while the iPad instantly has a lock.

I tracked my position in a car park. The iPhone knew I was in the parking lot, the iPad knew which corner of which parking space I was in.
Click to expand...

Yea pretty much when I open maps it already knows where I am.. (few second delay maybe)
But its accurate down to what part of the house I'm in and at work, like you said, it puts me in the exact parking space I'm in.
Very accurate, Very happy.

I should add this is tethered with MyWi and the iPad still locks on faster/more accurate than the iPhone which its running off of :)
 
Has anyone tried it with the updated copilot app?..or any other GPS app apart from google maps?

Does it lag behind or loose location?
 
I have found the iPad's GPS to be even more accurate than the built-in nav system in my car--to some annoyance. The loop around Indy is under construction, and as I'm driving on the brand new outer section, the iPad shows me slightly off the road (a year ago, I would have been driving in dirt) and MapQuest tells me, "You are off route!"
 
The iPad uses a different GPS chip (from Qualcomm, I believe) as compared to the iPhone. Hopefully the iPhone 4 will use the same one, as I'm also finding that the iPad GPS is both fast and pretty accurate.
 
In the car we have to put the iPhone on the dash to get a signal. I can put the iPad on the seat next to me and get a strong signal, and more quickly than the iPhone.

Michael
 
Tom G. said:
I do a lot of geocaching and have both an iPhone 3GS and an iPad Wifi+3G. I use both when geocaching. Because it is dangerous to drive while navigating with the iPad I use the iPhone until the time comes to get out of the car and do some walking. I have found both to be accurate, but the iPad to be a bit more accurate. When you get close to the site with the iPhone the map begins to jiggle so much that it is hard to see it, while the iPad is steady as a rock. Also where the best accuracy I can get on the iPhone is within 9 to 12 feet of the site the iPad will get within one foot of the site while being extremely steady.
Click to expand...

What app do you use on the iPad? I'm looking into buying iPlunder HD. I think I'd want the iPad to stay in the car and act as my street-nav solution while my Garmin GPS does the actual trail finding work.
 
larger device so I would expect a larger GPS antenna also. More sensitivity means more accuracy in all situations.
 
Just now I went to the map on both my iPhone and iPad. They both got a lock within a few seconds. But the phone showed me at my exact location, while the iPad showed me 1/2 a block away -- and then proceeded to show me moving , but always no closer than 1/2 a block to my actual office.
 
I think they are quite similar. As long as you have network connection, it addresses location fairly fast for both iPhone and 3G iPad.
 
Notjustjay,

I use the regular Geocaching.com app. That way everything is correct. It is actually an iPhone app that I have loaded on both the phone and iPad. It works much better on the iPad, but I wish they would come out with one especially for the iPad. It would be awesome.

I also believe the larger iPad allows for a larger GPS antenna which improves accuracy. I plan to get the new iPhone 4 and I think its GPS will be better because the antenna on that unit will be larger. About 1/2 the metal rim of the phone.
 
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