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All iPads Worth having a cellular one if you plan on never using it with a cell phone provider ?
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From the documentation I've seen, it's rather mysterious how iOS chooses the GPS data source and you have no control over that as a user. I have a cellular 6th generation iPad but rarely use it these days. However I often use the GLO with my iPhone 12 Pro Max in the car. The faster position updates are very noticeable when driving at highway speed, the map pointer moves very smoothly but if I use the built-in GPS, it moves in "jumps".
Now this could be dependent on the app you use, some apps may average your position and provide smooth movement between actual updates but that isn't really the same thing. I've done quite a bit of study of all this, having made my own maps going back to 2008 and now offering my own free GPS/mapping web app.
The highest amount of accuracy that iOS is capable of reporting is 10 meters (regardless of source), but clearly the GLO is capable of much better than that. I think the GLO typically provides accuracy between 2 to 3 meters (IIRC, Garmin claims 2-meter accuracy in the specs).
I did extensive testing of the original GLO and wrote a review, but at the time (2013) the version of iOS on my old iPhone didn't support bluetooth GPS devices. IMO, the GLO clearly outperformed Garmin handheld GPS devices however.
Here are couple of my tests. It was stationary and just recorded points for ~30 minutes. Would be really surprised if a built-in iPad GPS is comparable to this.
This was the same test with a Garmin Montana 600. It looks like a shotgun blast while the pattern from the GLO is extremely tight. There really are the same number of points in each image, but they're all on on top of each other with the GLO.
Anyway, this is admittedly pretty geeky and I'd agree that the built-in GPS on the iPhone and iPad are probably good enough for most typical users. But if you are looking for high accuracy, IMO a bluetooth device will be much better. You can even get sub-meter accuracy with devices from SXBlue and others, but that will cost you $$$$.
From the documentation I've seen, it's rather mysterious how iOS chooses the GPS data source and you have no control over that as a user. I have a cellular 6th generation iPad but rarely use it these days. However I often use the GLO with my iPhone 12 Pro Max in the car. The faster position updates are very noticeable when driving at highway speed, the map pointer moves very smoothly but if I use the built-in GPS, it moves in "jumps".
Now this could be dependent on the app you use, some apps may average your position and provide smooth movement between actual updates but that isn't really the same thing. I've done quite a bit of study of all this, having made my own maps going back to 2008 and now offering my own free GPS/mapping web app.
The highest amount of accuracy that iOS is capable of reporting is 10 meters (regardless of source), but clearly the GLO is capable of much better than that. I think the GLO typically provides accuracy between 2 to 3 meters (IIRC, Garmin claims 2-meter accuracy in the specs).
I did extensive testing of the original GLO and wrote a review, but at the time (2013) the version of iOS on my old iPhone didn't support bluetooth GPS devices. IMO, the GLO clearly outperformed Garmin handheld GPS devices however.
Here are couple of my tests. It was stationary and just recorded points for ~30 minutes. Would be really surprised if a built-in iPad GPS is comparable to this.
View attachment 2051396
This was the same test with a Garmin Montana 600. It looks like a shotgun blast while the pattern from the GLO is extremely tight. There really are the same number of points in each image, but they're all on on top of each other with the GLO.
View attachment 2051397
Anyway, this is admittedly pretty geeky and I'd agree that the built-in GPS on the iPhone and iPad are probably good enough for most typical users. But if you are looking for high accuracy, IMO a bluetooth device will be much better. You can even get sub-meter accuracy with devices from SXBlue and others, but that will cost you $$$$.
Great stuff! Geeky? Absolutely. I'm very much a nav geek - I have 5 different Garmin devices (my favorite is still the 62ST), some going back to SA days. I wrote the nav s/w for a "very high-performance military a/c" (I'm retired now). Fun stuff, using multiple data sources; I did the s/w while the algorithmic details - filtering, etc. - were worked by three MIT PhD's. I also did maritime cartographic survey work on a NOAA ship back in the 70's.
Even with online map use (e.g. regular Google Maps) GPS is much more accurate than cell tower/wifi triangulation.
For me it was the opposite, because I got tired of the phone battery draining from tethering (and also I wanted GPS).
Very cool!
I have spent more money than I'd care to admit on Garmin devices and was a moderator at GPSReview.net for many years (until it suddenly vanished without warning a couple years ago). FWIW, here are the results of the same test with a Garmin GPSMap 60csx which many people considered the "gold standard" for handhelds.Even though the Garmin handhelds show a wide scatter of position fixes, the interesting thing is that if you average them, the accuracy is very similar. However the GLO certainly gives much more consistent results. In all fairness, this may have more to do with the device firmware than the "accuracy" of the GPS chip.
BTW, discussing the same topic of iPads with/without GPS on another site, a user claimed that when tethered to his iPhone, the iPad accurately tracked his position as though it was receiving a fix from the phone. I did some googling and found a few other people who made a similar claim but have never seen anything definitive about this. AFAIK, Apple has never said this is possible.
Would be interested to hear from anybody who feels position data from the phone is passed along to a tethered iPad.
I was a real fan of GPSReview.Very cool!
View attachment 2051420
Even though the Garmin handhelds show a wide scatter of position fixes, the interesting thing is that if you average them, the accuracy is very similar. However the GLO certainly gives much more consistent results. In all fairness, this may have more to do with the device firmware than the "accuracy" of the GPS chip.
BTW, discussing the same topic of iPads with/without GPS on another site, a user claimed that when tethered to his iPhone, the iPad accurately tracked his position as though it was receiving a fix from the phone. I did some googling and found a few other people who made a similar claim but have never seen anything definitive about this. AFAIK, Apple has never said this is possible.
Would be interested to hear from anybody who feels position data from the phone is passed along to a tethered iPad.
I posted this back in 2021 -
I tested with my WiFi-only 2021 12.9 Pro & cellular Mini 6, driving around a dense residential area with Google maps. As expected, the Mini 6 with GPS was right on. The 12.9 tracking was not very good, often off by a couple of hundred feet and with very erratic position updates. I tried both tethered to my 12 Pro Max and untethered - didn't make any difference in position accuracy.
I actually use my cellular iPads a lot. I take the Mini 6 with me when I’m running errands and we go to our camp every couple of weeks where there’s no electricity, much less wifi and internet.
Two cellular iPads, two plans at $35/month. For me, it’s worth it. It’s actually cheaper for me to have two Verizon cell phones on a low-data plan and run these two iPads on AT&T than it would be for me to get the data plan I’d need from Verizon and add them to the plan, not to mention that we have okay AT&T signal at our camp and crappy to no Verizon signal.
I was one of the few who still had the original AT&T unlimited iPad data plan from the very first iPad in 2010. Even tho AT&T stopped the plan 3 months after it was introduced, I never let it lapse & was grandfathered in on it for the last 12 years. I transferred it from iPad to iPad for years and used it all the time because I travelled a lot and didn’t buy my first iPhone until 2019. After that, I found I used it less & less, but I held onto it because of it’s value. Then last month, my credit card I used to pay the $30 a month for the plan was about to expire… but I couldn’t access my AT&T account online to update it. The deadline passed & they cancelled my unlimited data plan! At first I was pissed. I wrote some angry emails to AT&T… but now I don’t care. One, because I wasn’t using it anymore, and two because I can simply create a hotspot with my unlimited data plan on my iPhone If I need to access the web on my iPad while traveling. 😉
Was the unlimited plan always $30 since you got the first iPad or did it increase over the years?
I have to say, I’ve been struggling with the quality of the discourse on Macrumors forums recently. But stuff like this is what keeps bringing me back! This is awesome. Thank you!From the documentation I've seen, it's rather mysterious how iOS chooses the GPS data source and you have no control over that as a user. I have a cellular 6th generation iPad but rarely use it these days. However I often use the GLO with my iPhone 12 Pro Max in the car. The faster position updates are very noticeable when driving at highway speed, the map pointer moves very smoothly but if I use the built-in GPS, it moves in "jumps".
Now this could be dependent on the app you use, some apps may average your position and provide smooth movement between actual updates but that isn't really the same thing. I've done quite a bit of study of all this, having made my own maps going back to 2008 and now offering my own free GPS/mapping web app.
The highest amount of accuracy that iOS is capable of reporting is 10 meters (regardless of source), but clearly the GLO is capable of much better than that. I think the GLO typically provides accuracy between 2 to 3 meters (IIRC, Garmin claims 2-meter accuracy in the specs).
I did extensive testing of the original GLO and wrote a review, but at the time (2013) the version of iOS on my old iPhone didn't support bluetooth GPS devices. IMO, the GLO clearly outperformed Garmin handheld GPS devices however.
Here are couple of my tests. It was stationary and just recorded points for ~30 minutes. Would be really surprised if a built-in iPad GPS is comparable to this.
View attachment 2051396
This was the same test with a Garmin Montana 600. It looks like a shotgun blast while the pattern from the GLO is extremely tight. There really are the same number of points in each image, but they're all on on top of each other with the GLO.
View attachment 2051397
Anyway, this is admittedly pretty geeky and I'd agree that the built-in GPS on the iPhone and iPad are probably good enough for most typical users. But if you are looking for high accuracy, IMO a bluetooth device will be much better. You can even get sub-meter accuracy with devices from SXBlue and others, but that will cost you $$$$.
I believe it was initially $25 back in 2010 if I remember correctly. AT&T tried to knock those grandfathered in off, but when they realized they couldn’t legally, they did try other ways. They raised the price one time to $30. But couldn’t raise it again, so then they announced they were going to “throttle” those who used too much data. I definitely got my money’s worth all those years before I got an iPhone. I used my iPad mini with the unlimited data plan for everything. I think I went thru 600 GB in a month! 😂 AT&T probably hated me. After I got my iPhone with an unlimited data plan however, I started using the iPad mini’s unlimited data plan less & less. So when I lost it, I didn’t care. It served it’s purpose.
It depends on how you use it. The only time I use mine outside of the house, it's for business meetings so I can screen mirror my office PC (yuck) and they all have guest wireless. I have no need for cellular. Worst comes to worst, I can use a hotspot on my phone.
But everyone's needs are different.
But everyone's needs are different.
Personally, I have been using an iPad since 2012 and never had an issue with requiring an actual cellular connection to get something done. I do use it with my iPhone 8 connecting it as a “hot spot” with my existing AT&T service. I do have broadband that provides access to hotspots and to this date I have only had an issue with this on a few occasions when I simply had to wait until I was within range of a hotspot. So far, I have done very well considering I use this method of connection between 2-5 times per week, for several years now. Prior to AT&T finally unlocking the option to use iPhone as a hotspot (took too many years for something that Verizon started years earlier), I would simply use either a wi-if connection available at the building/facility I was visiting or use my iPhone itself for a particular task.
I currently use an iPad Pro 11, with the older Smart Keyboard Folio as it is the most streamlined which makes it the easier option for truly mobile use; as I move frequently between usage settings… such as seated use without a desk to, then off to the case flipped behind and freehand writing with the Pencil and on-screen keyboard, then back & forth usage between those and some other scenarios. I am rarely seated at a desk with my tablet in front of me with my butt in a chair, I have to continuously move between multiple positions to get my day done. Just the way things are, would love to sit and work.
Considering the iPad is so much easier to zoom in & out it makes it far more desirable to use than a phone in my opinion. To me, the iPhone is usually the last resort as it is less than optimal for sending longer emails, adding attachments, etc. I am coming at it “from a work angle” not a playing games or social media usage; I use my devices for 90% work (own architectural business with admin work) and some media consumption but no game playing and could not care less about social media stuff.
If you use your iPad on the go a LOT, heavily, every day, it can be worth it having a cellular plan on it.
Otherwise it's a lot more sensible to just tether with your phone.
Otherwise it's a lot more sensible to just tether with your phone.
And we know about storms and days-long power outages here in south Louisiana!
I've had two different iPad models on cellular--the original Air, and my current mini 6. The mini 6 I have just added on to my Verizon unlimited plan, so I don't need to also bring my iPhone along with me if I don't feel like it. The Air I had on cellular back in the day was "just in case", so I didn't put it on my plan, I just activated one-off month blocks of data and then cancelled the renewal right away.
Things are a lot different now though. I'm not sure if carriers even allow as-needed access like that on iPad anymore. I'm also not sure how pricing structures have changed and what the better deal is. I would say REALLY think about situations where you might have your iPad while you're away from home and either a) don't have your iPhone or b) don't want to be carrying your iPhone, and then evaluate from there.
For my use cases, if I'm going to bring my iPad mini with me somewhere, unless it's an overnight trip or something, I will leave my iPhone at home. Totally a luxury to be able to do that, but it is SO NICE.
Things are a lot different now though. I'm not sure if carriers even allow as-needed access like that on iPad anymore. I'm also not sure how pricing structures have changed and what the better deal is. I would say REALLY think about situations where you might have your iPad while you're away from home and either a) don't have your iPhone or b) don't want to be carrying your iPhone, and then evaluate from there.
For my use cases, if I'm going to bring my iPad mini with me somewhere, unless it's an overnight trip or something, I will leave my iPhone at home. Totally a luxury to be able to do that, but it is SO NICE.
It's also very useful when one forgets their iPhone at home. Which I did twice last week.