"maps" in battery usage, gps time?

[John Redcorn]

So I don't use maps except maybe every couple weeks. Most every day I see maps in the battery usage thing, no huge use of battery like some are complaining of (still it shows up there and games I play don't always unless I play for a while)

It always shows 2-6 mins of gps use, unless i disable gps with a switcher wideget, then the gps use time stays frozen where it was.

Settings-applications-running services shows a service called Networklocationservice with the maps icon. Is that what's causing maps to show up in battery use?

And what is that used for? I have a weatherbug widget that wants to know my location, and games and stuff with targeted ads need location. Do they use this service and is the gps time being used by apps/widgets like that via the service? Or do all those things have their own gps/location engine?

I know like gps status or gps toolbox if used will show up in battery use with their own gps time.

 

[takeshi]

(nm -- misread OP)

 

[Slug]

Anything that needs location information can potentially use GPS unless it's explicitly disabled, yes.

 

[John Redcorn]

Anything that needs location information can potentially use GPS unless it's explicitly disabled, yes.

But do apps generally access gps themselves? or do they go through this nls service?

I'm pretty sure gps status or gps test access gps themselves since (if I can make them show up in the battery use) they'll show their own gps time-on.

 

[Slug]

I think apps merely wanting location updates will access NLS as the hooks are already there in the OS just for that purpose. An app such as GPS Status however does a lot more diagnostic and calibration measurement-type stuff and will directly address the GPS hardware.

Fwiw, my GS2 shows Maps as using 11% battery today with 4s of GPS time-in-use in almost 9hrs of use, and I haven't used Maps (the app) at all. This can only be due to background tasks requesting network-location updates e.g. Latitude check-in, Tasker profiles etc.