Google Maps Latitude?

[Jim 777]

I like the idea behind. I just linked up my phone with my wife's so I know where she is and her me. Being that many times I'm out in the middle of nowhere railing around on a motorcycle, I thought it would be a good tool if I needed to be located. However....

I've found it to be completely unreliable. As I type this, mine had me about 5 miles east of my actual location. After a refresh, it located me sort of close to where I actually am, but now shows my brother in the exact same spot 5 miles east of here that it showed me in a few minutes ago. He's not there either. So have fun in the strip club. ;-) If anyone other than my brother was using it, I'd just turn it off. He and I use it to mess with and check to see if it works well. If I felt my moves were being tracked, I'd not participate.

If on agps then you can be off by a lot
If on gps, It should be spot on.....

Mine is spot on for the most part, b ut my wife's new Eris is not. I'll be in the leaving room and her phone on the kitchen, and mine shows me here, but hers shows her in the next town. My house just ain't that big. Any ideas?

Would I let it run 24/7 - no. The GPS, which is required to get any decent fix, would drain the battery much too quickly.

GPS has been on 24/7 since getting the Droid, No noticeable battery drain at all...

Of course, then you'd have no baseline to judge it from

[Mr Steve]

I checked my Latitude History after being at work most of the day. The location info bounced all around using just the cell towers to locate me. My desk doesn't move that much . This was reflected on the 'cone of uncertainty' on the Google maps screen on my Droid with no GPS signal received.

So tomorrow's exercise is to leave GPS off with WiFi toggled on. Here at home having WiFi on narrows my location down to about 1/2 a block. Still no GPS signal through my house. When I get home tomorrow I'll check my history (https://www.google.com/latitude/apps/history/view) and see how well the location info reflects reality using the towers & WiFi.

If the WiFi doesn't kill the battery it might be a viable passive everyday solution. On a road trip I'll just fire up Navigation (while plugged into power) and have the active GPS pinpoint me.

[rleonard]

I lost my phone and have Latitude active. I went to the website to find the phone with the number. It comes up in the middle of a cemetary with nothing around.

Is there another trick to finding my phone? The only call answewesd was when the kid who took it answered my call and hung up on me. No activity since then.

Bob

[Jim 777]

I lost my phone and have Latitude active. I went to the website to find the phone with the number. It comes up in the middle of a cemetary with nothing around.

Is there another trick to finding my phone? The only call answewesd was when the kid who took it answered my call and hung up on me. No activity since then.

Bob

Dude, that sucks! Good luck and when you get it, beat the sh*t out of the kid!

[flavious27]

Would I let it run 24/7 - no. The GPS, which is required to get any decent fix, would drain the battery much too quickly.

GPS has been on 24/7 since getting the Droid, No noticeable battery drain at all...

my phone doesn't show any noticeable battery drain, then again I use app killer alot. My wife's eris is a different story, it shows a noticeable battery drain but i don't know what she has running all of the time. Latitude would be useful if more of my friends had an android phone and also used google's services; I still have 3 GV invites just sitting around.

[Milehighjc]

I still havent tried it, but have been toying with the idea a bit. Thought of a couple of situations where it might be useful :

1. Skiing - assuming there is data service at the resort (was pretty good at Winter Park CO), might be a good way to locate a buddy on the slopes. Can imagine figuring out which restaurant or lodge your group is in at lunch/break time.

2. Group of people at large events : We have an art fair/restaurant tasting event downtown every year. Might be an easier way to find each other than txt or a bunch of calls. Suppose shopping in a large mall might be another good example of this.

The problem is that Im not going to just leave it on all the time, and for any of the above it require remembering to take overt action. Maybe someday...

jc