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Your thoughts on the built in app Find Friends?

In reality I am more concerned about going on a hike and being injured than I am of government surveillance. One is a real danger given my love for the outdoors, the other is out of my hands. I know.....those who would give up.....etc....but our founding fathers did not live in a world where a mode of transportation would be used to inflict mass casualties upon innocent people.
So....I turn on Find my Friends for family members so that if I'm late returning from a hike, they can see where I am. And I'm not concerned about some person in a basement of a government building poring over the details of my trips to my manicurist and my weekly shopping trips to Petsmart and Costco.
 
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dwfaust said:
If the airline offers in-flight wifi, it would/should work.
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GPS is off in airplane mode so even if you have inflight wifi, your iOS device won't be able to determine its location.

(I've tried, Norwegian airlines offer free wifi and I use it often)
 
dwfaust said:
I was under the impression that wifi-assisted GPS would work... maybe not.
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Wifi location is used to help narrow down your location so that the actual GPS can get an accurate reading more quickly. Not much help if the GPS chip itself is disabled AND the wifi base station has no fixed location.
 
I don't mind that the app exists for people who actually use it.

What I do mind is Apple baking it into the OS so that you can't delete if you wanted to.

That's textbook bloatware.
 
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I use it frequently. A few close friends and wife. None of us obsess over it. It's great when meeting up with others at large venues, skiing, hiking trailheads, etc. When traveling to let the other interested party observe fairly precisely when to expect me (and vice versa).

In case you are not aware, within the iMessage app, there is a way to allow the other party to track you for one hour or to the end of the end (in addition to longer). I have found this especially handy when setting up one time meets, as I don't have to remember to turn the location services off.

Great app if you ever struggle to find family or friends or wonder when to expect their arrival.
 
My family and I use find my friends too see where we are. Its actually very useful. For example, seeing if someone has left work yet, stuck in traffic.
 
electronicsguy said:
its wifi-assisted, not wifi only gps. airlines certainly won't give you the gps location of a plane based on its wifi.
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Again. It might be wifi assisted gps, but the gps chip is off when using airplane mode, so he only location possible is though a wifi address which of course won't map to anything because an airplane moves around and is not static.

And wifi only gps makes no sense.
It's either satellite gps, satellite gps assisted by cellular and wifi networks, or wifi location through a service that previously mapped a static base station to specific coordinates.
 
Solver said:
My wife and I use this all the time. It's great for indicting that my wife will be home soon when I get a notification she just left "Church" or that I'll be home shortly when she gets a notification that I just left "Work." We only use this so long as we both consent. We do not do this with the either of the kids since they do not consent.

I like the way Find my Friends lets you set your own custom names to locations marked by an area. I hope that the OS does this eventually so that other apps could use these custom named locations.
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Are you kids "kids" or grown?

My daughter is 8 and knows that if she were to ever turn off/deny me access to her location I'll take her phone away.
 
That is no longer correct. GPS works with airplane mode enabled starting with iOS 8 I believe. While in airplane mode I can use GPS apps to track my altitude, speed, etc in smaller planes that allow the GPS signal to reach phone.

jmmo20 said:
GPS is off in airplane mode so even if you have inflight wifi, your iOS device won't be able to determine its location.

(I've tried, Norwegian airlines offer free wifi and I use it often)
Click to expand...
 
Paco II said:
That is no longer correct. GPS works with airplane mode enabled starting with iOS 8 I believe. While in airplane mode I can use GPS apps to track my altitude, speed, etc in smaller planes that allow the GPS signal to reach phone.
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Interesting. It makes sense in a way, since the GPS signal is entirely one-way and simply filtering and processing it can't interfere with anything. Definitely hasn't been the case in the past though.
 
Correct. I only became aware of the change a few months ago from a thread in this forum. It's great when hiking in areas with no signal and airplane mode is needed to avoid the iPhone constantly searching for a signal. Airplane mode can be enabled and GPS based apps will still work. Obviously requires a solid GPS signal.

gordon1234 said:
Interesting. It makes sense in a way, since the GPS signal is entirely one-way and simply filtering and processing it can't interfere with anything. Definitely hasn't been the case in the past though.
Click to expand...
 
jmmo20 said:
GPS is off in airplane mode so even if you have inflight wifi, your iOS device won't be able to determine its location.

(I've tried, Norwegian airlines offer free wifi and I use it often)
Click to expand...

GPS while in Airplane mode has been possible since the iPhone 3G. It just takes a rather long time to obtain a signal. Trying it while on a commercial flight isn't a good test as you're moving at a fast rate in a metal cylinder, both of those things make it difficult for a phone's GPS to get a lock.
 
Intell said:
GPS while in Airplane mode has been possible since the iPhone 3G. It just takes a rather long time to obtain a signal. Trying it while on a commercial flight isn't a good test as you're moving at a fast rate in a metal cylinder, both of those things make it difficult for a phone's GPS to get a lock.
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I sometimes like to track my flight with an offline map if there isn't a screen on the seat in front of me that does that. But the gps works only if I hold my phone right against a window.
 
Our family uses it a lot for many of the reasons already described, but I'll add a few I didn't see:
  • I play hide-and-seek with the kids with it (they find me based on my location and if I'm feeling evil I can avoid them by using their location)
  • I can see the wife driving home from appointments and warn her if there is traffic ahead (so she doesn't have to try to look at upcoming traffic in an app while driving - she's not as much into tech as I am)
  • A quick way to find a lost phone/ipod/ipad (at least know that it's in the house and not the car or a family member's house)
  • If the wife unexpectedly goes to the grocery store I've texted her to pick me up something
I'll emphasis that we use it for *many* reasons already discussed but not obsessively, it's fun. Last weekend we were at a large park we hadn't been do in about a decade and I split off to go look at something too far for the kid to walk to. I saw that my wife was headed back to the car so I turned around and met them there. I understand that many people see no use for this sort of feature and that's OK. I consider it to be a good value-add for iOS. Move the icon to a folder of other unused/rarely used apps and it won't ever pop-up nor bother you.
 
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Paco II said:
I do not believe you are correct.
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I'm correct. Go and try it. Take any older iOS device or even a new one, put it into Airplane mode and open an app that uses GPS. Put it near a window or stationary outdoors and it'll eventually pick up your location. Note: The screen must be on until it gets a lock.
 
I use it with my three kids. They're teenagers so I feel better knowing I can check their location if I need to. They know it's on. I don't use it frequently, but I have used it to see if they're on their way home after a night out (by setting a geofence and receiving a notification when they leave). I've also given them permission to see my location (as has my wife).

My wife and I can also see each other's location. Again, neither of us are constantly checking, but it's for peace of mind. And yes, we've mutually agreed to turn it on.

I've also used it on a temporary basis with a couple of work colleagues when we were at a large meeting out of town. Used it set for a day when we were in Chicago and needed to meet up a couple times during the day. Very convenient not to have to repeatedly text asking how far away they were or what their ETA was. Again, all voluntary with full disclosure.
 
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