GPS service

bubbasmith58

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There are 3 options for GPS service. Which one is the best and is any one better on battery life than the other? What are pros and cons of each?

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JP 5.56

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I like stand alone GPS service just because it appears there is no built in location data collection sent to google or verizon.
 

Droid_Ritch

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Like JP said Standalone services seem to work the best....Also it seems to be recognized well with Google Maps + Navigator whenever it is enabled...it really seems to be the only GPS setting you need.
 

JP 5.56

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it's also pure GPS and none of that cell triangulation like the VZW location services likely use.
 

FoxKat

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There are 3 options for GPS service. Which one is the best and is any one better on battery life than the other? What are pros and cons of each?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

From the top:

Google Location Services uses "wifi routers closest to you, cell ids of the cell towers closest to you, and the strength of your wifi or cell signal." As you can probably figure, this information can be either VERY accurate (for instance inside a coffee shop with WIFI), relatively accurate (three towers all within range and positioned in a triangle formation around your location), or very inaccurate (one tower off in a distance with no directionality to the tower antenna(s)). Since this doesn't use the internal GPS radio, the power consumption would be reduced since WIFI consumes less power. 4G is the most power-draining, then 3G, GPS, then WiFi. GPS is more accurate but also more power hungry; GPS takes up to 20x more power than WiFi.

Standalone GPS services uses the internal GPS radio. Read above. I should mention, GPS can be extremely accurate (within even a few feet for accuracy, and even inches in precision), but that accuracy comes at the cost of power consumption. When using GPS with your phone for Google Maps, you can hold your phone out at arms length and move it from side to side in a sweeping motion and the phone will recognize the movement via triangulation from the GPS satellites by showing your location moving.

VZW location services uses the 3G or 4G towers as follows (information provided by a Verizon support employee):

Used on the VZW network and select domestic roaming partners.
Location information is assisted by a cellular network while on the VZW network and select domestic roaming partners. Obtains locations when indoors while on the VZW network. The time it takes for the network to locate the device is faster while on the VZW network [as opposed to both other networks and also to GPS] - 2-10 seconds.

Since the cellular radio is on most - if not all of the time and the towers and phone are already pinging each other to maintain constant communication, it is conceivable that this information is generally available with little additional impact to power consumption. Unfortunately this is also not nearly as accurate in some cases as a GPS fix. It all has to do with how many towers your phone is in communication with and where they are in relation to you, versus how many GPS satellites it can get a fix on and where they are in the sky, again in relation to you. Triangulation is most accurate when (as the name implies) the location is monitored from three (or more locations) in a triangle around you. This can be either accurate or inaccurate.
 

Slayers

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I like stand alone GPS service just because it appears there is no built in location data collection sent to google or verizon.

What stand alone GPS service are you using?
 
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