[pct-l] smartphone as GPS

[Austin Williams]

I agree.  My concern would be more that - in areas where no towers are in
range - the user would have no gps capability whatsoever.  That could be
bad.
As far as accuracy, seems like they can reliably get to within 50 meters in
urban areas, and are less accurate in rural areas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

-Austin

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 10:11 AM, greg mushial <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:

> > Message: 2
> > Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:44:13 -0700
> > From: Austin Williams <austinwilliams123 at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [pct-l] smartphone as GPS
> > To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> > Message-ID:
> > <AANLkTinOvNfuQPZHGGwxJk2BCWN9RR=DTjKCx7wJ9yr6 at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > Be careful.  Most of the time the 'GPS' in smart phones is based on
> > cell-tower triangulation, NOT gps-satellite triangulation.  That means
> > when
> > there are now cell towers around, the "GPS" on the phone won't work.
>  Make
> > sure you buy one that uses *real* gps, not the kind that uses cell tower
> > triangulation.
> >
> > Just a heads up.
> >
> > --
> > Austin Williams
> >
>
> Is there any (published) indication of accuracy difference? Seems that
> since
> generally towers don't jump around, they should be as good as satellites...
> no?
> TheDuck
>
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-- 
Austin Williams

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