Kinda sorta use GPS on the iPhone
While my major beef with the iPhone was lack of 3G, many people were and still are very angry about the missing of GPS in the device. But, thanks to the iPhone hacking community and Navizon, that feature gap may be getting closed.
Navizon is a company that provides “peer-to-peer wireless positioning,” which basically allows users to map cellular towers and WiFi access points to geographic coordinates, creating a simulated GPS for use on GPS-less mobile devices. Today, Navizon released a version of their application for the iPhone. The app, which is a native iPhone program available from Nullriver’s AppTapp Installer (using Community Sources), requires just a quick registration online (no email address required) before searching for your location. In a cab driving through the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I was not able to get a location with WiFi turned off, though when turned on (but not connected to a network) Navizon would open the Google Maps app with a red pin in the same intersection I was in. Back at home, I’m still not able to get a location based simply on cellular towers, though WiFi maps my location off by about one city block.
So sure, this “P2P GPS” solution isn’t as good as the real thing, but provides a sleek, easy-to-use, and (at least in my testing) accurate alternative to actual GPS.
Category: Software
ABOUT iPHONE CENTRAL
Get the latest news, reviews, and opinion about Apple's groundbreaking iPhone from the Apple experts at Macworld.
Want more information? Be sure to check out our complete iPhone coverage.
iPHONE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
Send your iPhone thoughts:
via e-mail
via voicemail
and we may use them on the site.
BLOG ARCHIVE
- July 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (39)
- April 2008 (34)
- March 2008 (33)
- February 2008 (50)
- January 2008 (34)
- December 2007 (33)
- November 2007 (42)
- October 2007 (45)
- September 2007 (53)
- August 2007 (67)
- July 2007 (111)
- June 2007 (82)
CATEGORIES
- Accessories (39)
- AT&T (47)
- Hacking (31)
- Hardware (26)
- Musings (102)
- News (217)
- Reader Experiences (5)
- Reviews (51)
- Software (139)
- Tips & Troubleshooting (79)
- Videos (9)
- Wi-Fi (15)
Comments (9)
It didn't work for me, on my home WiFi network.
Posted by Mike Cohen![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://iphone.macworld.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
September 19, 2007 10:11 PM
Navizon is an interesting idea, but they need a pretty high critical mass to make it useful. Since they don't provide a tool to report your location (yet) on the iPhone, they can't take advantage of a million potential users who could add lots of useful information to their database.
Skyhook Wireless drives the streets of hundreds of cities constantly, and I haven't seen a hack yet to put their queries into Google Maps on the iPhone, and I'd like to. When I've tested Skyhook, I often am placed within a few dozen feet. Navizon, within a few miles, which is weird in Seattle. In my office, where I can see 10 to 14 Wi-Fi networks, Navizon placed me 2 miles away today.
Posted by Glenn Fleishman | September 19, 2007 10:16 PM
It got me within thirty meters, in the middle of San Francisco, via WiFi. I'm most impressed. This might be a viable stop-gap for our GPS-less phones.
Does it work via cell phone tower locations too?
Posted by Michael 'Mickey' Sattler | September 19, 2007 10:24 PM
UUUuuhh -
Hacking the dang iPhone ! ! !
Yikes, I've become my dad (and I swore that would never happen - "Don't be messin with stuff Ray, you'll break it and then what'll ya do?).
As cool as this sounds - I gotta wait for Big Brother to do it for me (Apple, yur killin' me here - makin' me wait for the "gooder" stuff).
Thanks again to all the braver-than-me who make and test these types of things. YOU are the ones shoving Apple down the road even faster.
That Ray Guy
Posted by That Ray Guy | September 20, 2007 11:17 AM
This friggin thing crashed my iPhone.
Thanks.
Posted by joe Fisher | September 20, 2007 5:54 PM
I'm still waiting for someone to make the maps program work with a bluetooth GPS receiver. That's something I would pay for.
Posted by Johnny | September 20, 2007 8:22 PM
Has anybody seen this work yet? Anywhere?
Over the weekend I drove from San Francisco to LA and back on 101 - a heavily traffic'd California highway. I tried Navizon 25-30 times, never found a single location.
I'm also skeptical of their Website. I typed in my zip code (94588) and found that, amazingly, my neighbor has an invisible Cingular cell tower in his back yard. No way to update or correct the data, or even add the location of the cell tower a mile away.
Posted by Flack | September 24, 2007 11:27 AM
I finally got Navizone to work in Santa Monica.
It said I was in Vancouver.
Posted by finkle | September 24, 2007 3:35 PM
i am currently in dubai
i am using the navizon (not working)
and i have the following message
no known cells or WiFi nodes in Range
is the use of the software only in the US
Posted by Ahmed | November 21, 2007 3:23 AM