[Marty_LK]

Removing GPS would not save money.

The GPS is not handled by a dedicated chip, but is an integral feature of the TI WiLink 7 chip which is in tight partnership with the main OMAP CPU from Texas Instruments. You practically can't have a PlayBook without GPS as long as they're working with these chips. There's no cost-savings, or any other reason, why it would be removed.

(You could leave out the antenna, and probably save about two cents in manufacturing costs, but let's not even go there...)

That's wonderful to know! And the love for this Playbook just keeps growing. I also learned that it incorporates a Wolfson audio chip...excuse me...I'm about to pass out from excitement...ouch! landed on my bum arm...I'm back, though.

[peter9477]

I've read in several places where people have contacted RIM and RIM has told them the WiFi only model doesn't have a GPS chip. ...

Here is a link to a hotly debated thread about whether the Playbook has GPS or not. The 7th post down speaks of RIM confirmation of no GPS

By the way, that "hotly debated" thread was from two days after the PlayBook was first released, when so little was clear to most people. RIM hadn't even officially acknowledged that GPS was supported until shortly before that.

If you keep reading further in the thread you'll see my (apparently futile!) attempts to stem the tide of misinformation and point out that the RIM support staff had not at that time been properly trained, and that the device definitely had GPS. I seem to recall we arranged to get a manager somewhere to "re-educate" them about that, and other facts they were confused about.

Please accept it as fact... I've even had contact with the RIM developers who write the actual GPS code. Trust me that they are not writing code that has no hardware on which to run.

[peter9477]

And the love for this Playbook just keeps growing. I also learned that it incorporates a Wolfson audio chip...excuse me...I'm about to pass out from excitement...ouch! landed on my bum arm...I'm back, though.

I like this guy! :-)

(In a completely platonic fashion, mind you, as evidenced by the fact I clicked on the "like" button.)

[Nick Burkhardt]

Google Maps on my Android phone with get within a city block of my location using GPS alone. Then the app asks to turn on WiFi to get a better fix on my location. I am not sure how it does it, but once I turn on WiFi Bam it shows exactly where I am.

Does the PlayBook use the GPS and WiFi together to establish you position?

[Marty_LK]

I like this guy! :-)

(In a completely platonic fashion, mind you, as evidenced by the fact I clicked on the "like" button.)

Hehe...same here...as evidenced by my pressing the "Thanks" button on you. Glad to meet you, by the way.

[DAnklaud]

Google Maps on my Android phone with get within a city block of my location using GPS alone. Then the app asks to turn on WiFi to get a better fix on my location. I am not sure how it does it, but once I turn on WiFi Bam it shows exactly where I am.

Does the PlayBook use the GPS and WiFi together to establish you position?

NO , it only needs wifi for the loading of map tiles, and is capable of getting a sat loc on its own

[peter9477]

Does the PlayBook use the GPS and WiFi together to establish you position?

Information is spotty on this. There are two ways it may work, the first being better understood.

The first is that there's support for some kind of IP-based geolocation feature, since the coordinates for various ISPs are known. The PlayBook can query some server, which attempts to report back to it the "nearest" coordinates based on the ISP through which it's making contact.

In my own case, since my ISP's official records have them in a town 10 minutes distant, if I have no GPS satellite signal but request a geolocation, I will eventually be reported as being in the centre of that town. I believe this feature is used by WebWorks and AIR apps, but possibly not the native ones. This explains why many people get placed in unexpected nearby places when using Bing and not really getting a GPS signal.

The second feature, which is far less well known, apparently involves some sort of logging of GPS coordinates when your GPS is working, associating the data with available hotspots. I don't know if it can triangulate based on signal strength, or merely uses some crude average of the locations recorded for all visible hotspots, or even just picks something based on which hotspot has the strongest signal.

In principle, this can work without you actually having a WiFi connection to any of these hotspots, but it would require that WiFi be on and that it was on in the past (when it recorded the GPS locations).

For this latter concept, think of it like this. As you move around to areas with different hotspots, you tell me your current GPS location. I write it down along with the names of the hotspots (and probably other data about them). Later, even with your GPS off or otherwise unavailable, you tell me the hotspots you can currently see, I look them up on my list, and after some math I give you an approximate GPS location based on the assumption that they haven't moved since the last time... which is a fair assumption for most hotspots.

Either of these may be used to "seed" the GPS location when starting it up, since knowing approximately where you are can apparently shorten how long it takes to get a first accurate GPS reading.

Little if any of this has been published, so it's information pieced together from rumours, insider reports, personal observation, and professional knowledge, with two dashes of speculation thrown in for good measure.

[DAnklaud]

as for what peter9477 said , id agree according to this from RIMKB26887-How GPS and Bing Maps Work on The BlackBerry PlayBook

[xKrNMBoYx]

My playbook has yet to lock me in even outdoors with the bing map while connected to wifi..what is the problem with my playbook

[DAnklaud]

My playbook has yet to lock me in even outdoors with the bing map while connected to wifi..what is the problem with my playbook

this might help, a couple of times i hit locate it had misplaced my geolocation into the buisness directories search field on the pullout side screen and i fixed that with a cut and paste of my lat/long #'s into the proper feild below, hope this helps

[Nick Burkhardt]

Magellan Compass | o2 interactive , who makes Magellan Compass , has an administrator that states no to to someones simillar question , saying this "The Google license does not allow us to cache any information from their servers including map data. Additionally, there are pros can cons of having an online version vs. on device version. Network data access vs. device storage. If Google�s terms ever change, we will certainly re-examine this."Magellan Compass | o2 interactive

Can you get the data needed to run Magellan Compass as an in car GPS using BlackBerry Bridge?

If you can only get GPS capabilities while sitting at a WiFi hotspot then why bother?

[DAnklaud]

i do not own a BlackBerry phone (yet) ,but i hear tell that is what works for everyone else (the BlackBerry Bridge) apparently without costing as much as data tether plans go

[xKrNMBoYx]

this might help, a couple of times i hit locate it had misplaced my geolocation into the buisness directories search field on the pullout side screen and i fixed that with a cut and paste of my lat/long #'s into the proper feild below, hope this helps

damn only a house away when in the basement of my house

[Taka313]

Tom Tom, Magellan or Garmin should get into the act. I like Tom Tom the best. Perhaps when the mythical OS 2.0 arrives, we'll see some 'real' apps.

Alk Technologies has Copilot for Android. I have used the laptop version for years when on the road with our RV. This is a great program

[robsteve]

Information is spotty on this. There are two ways it may work, the first being better understood.

The first is that there's support for some kind of IP-based geolocation feature, since the coordinates for various ISPs are known. The PlayBook can query some server, which attempts to report back to it the "nearest" coordinates based on the ISP through which it's making contact.

In my own case, since my ISP's official records have them in a town 10 minutes distant, if I have no GPS satellite signal but request a geolocation, I will eventually be reported as being in the centre of that town. I believe this feature is used by WebWorks and AIR apps, but possibly not the native ones. This explains why many people get placed in unexpected nearby places when using Bing and not really getting a GPS signal.

The second feature, which is far less well known, apparently involves some sort of logging of GPS coordinates when your GPS is working, associating the data with available hotspots. I don't know if it can triangulate based on signal strength, or merely uses some crude average of the locations recorded for all visible hotspots, or even just picks something based on which hotspot has the strongest signal.

In principle, this can work without you actually having a WiFi connection to any of these hotspots, but it would require that WiFi be on and that it was on in the past (when it recorded the GPS locations).

For this latter concept, think of it like this. As you move around to areas with different hotspots, you tell me your current GPS location. I write it down along with the names of the hotspots (and probably other data about them). Later, even with your GPS off or otherwise unavailable, you tell me the hotspots you can currently see, I look them up on my list, and after some math I give you an approximate GPS location based on the assumption that they haven't moved since the last time... which is a fair assumption for most hotspots.

Either of these may be used to "seed" the GPS location when starting it up, since knowing approximately where you are can apparently shorten how long it takes to get a first accurate GPS reading.

Little if any of this has been published, so it's information pieced together from rumours, insider reports, personal observation, and professional knowledge, with two dashes of speculation thrown in for good measure.

I don't know if it works with the PlayBook, but I think the assisted GPS may work because the device stored where it was when the GPS was active and on a wifi network. I have this option on the 9900, plus the option to provide this info to RIM to improve their system. How I know this works, is I moved the new Apple Extreme router from my cottage to my house and if I had network assist turned on in the 9900, it showed me at my cottage. I had changed the network name, so it must work off the Mac address of the router.

The second network assist, which I think is what Google does, is the Google StreetView cars also recorded local wifi signals while surveying neighborhood. If you are on google maps on a PC and select the show my location icon (above the streeview man) it will ask to use your wifi to find you. I tested this on my iMac and if I am wired to the router, it cannot find me. If I turn on the wifi of the iMac, it will find me within two houses. I am assuming the only way it can do this is it is triagulating the wifi signals to data they have collected during their streetview survey.