iPhone/Smartphone stuff

Bill McGonigle bill at bfccomputing.com
Tue Aug 5 09:25:54 EDT 2008


On Aug 4, 2008, at 19:32, Ben Scott wrote:

>   Exactly.  The device has a GPS receiver, which is required to be
> working for Mobile Enhanced 911 location purposes.

Note that 'GPS' is a term used loosely in cell phone world.  It  
ordinarily means 'tower triangulation'.  Since we're on the topic, as  
an example, the first iPhone lacked a GPS chip, the new one has one.   
Both can do E911.  Cheap GPS chips are crummy.  My Nokia n810 can  
take close to three minutes to get a satellite lock.  The wife's Tom  
Tom never takes more than a minute.  Both are linux devices, one with  
a quality GPS part.

Paradoxically, the denser the cell phone deployment, sometimes the  
worse the precision.  Apparently, this is due to cells getting full  
and handing off to nearby towers.  I have a friend who has crews in  
the NY metro area, and their GPS phone tracking will often put them  
in lower Manhattan when the crews are in Brooklyn.  I don't know  
enough about cell registration to understand the mechanics of why  
this happens.

>  Jerks.

Ya.  With coverage. >:|  Surprisingly, Verizon has selected LTE for  
its next deployment, which is compatible with the other 3GPP  
providers.  So, it'll be possible to be on most carriers and roam to  
most carriers.  Perhaps more market forces will emerge when this  
happens.

I'm gonna try out the Android image on the n810, probably next week.   
I'll post something if it's worth posting about.

-Bill

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