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New Desire owner - question

Hi all, just picked up the new Desire and loving it so far. Question about the gps satellites option under settings/my location - if i only click use gps satellites am i correct in understanding that it will not use any data off my plan?

Is that use of gps satellites used just for weather/location or can it be used for some map apps as well?

Thanks a bunch, still learning!

Cheers
 
GPS is only used for location. You are not charged for GPS location, you will be charged if you use something like google maps or navigation while away from wifi as it will need to download the map data to show you where you are.

Using mobile for location also is free because its just a best guess based on what towers your phone is connected to but is it no way a accurate as GPS but it can help GPS find a lock as it has a rough idea where you are.

If you want to use GPS without incurring data costs then you ned to be thinking about dedicated GPS software such as copilot where the map data is stored on your sd card and doesnt need downloading (other than the first time over wifi)

You can minimise data costs with google nav by prearranging your journey when connected with wifi so it downloads the bits of the map it needs, but be aware if you go off route at any time or change the zoom level it will have to redownload the map data using your mobile data connection.

By the way welcome to the forum :D
 
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Great, thanks so much! What did you mean by this though


Using mobile for location also is free because its just a best guess based on what towers your phone is connected to but is it no way a accurate as GPS but it can help GPS find a lock as it has a rough idea where you are.

By the way welcome to the forum :D

Ive heard of gps basically using cell towers, is the mobile an app? or setting ?

Thx
 
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Its not GPS... If you've ever watched CSI it's what they call triangulation.

Basically as long as your are in range of 3 or more cell towers you can work out a general inaccurate location e.g. within a street or 2 based on signal strength and overlap. Its not good enough really for navigation, think of it more as a helping hand to your actual GPS.

The setting I'm taking about is Menu --> Settings --> Location --> Use Wireless networks. Other phones may refer to it as aGPS (Assisted GPS), I'm not sure for definite but it may use an extremely small amount of data.
 
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GPS uses the global positioning satellites, it is separate from the mobile network. It can work out where you are down to a few metres accuracy, but that is all it can do. It cant tell you the weather where you are as it isnt a data connection.

Your phone can use the cell towers to tell you roughly where you are and give you location based services. Because the network knows where its cell towers are, it can figure out roughly where you are ie within range of a particular cell tower.

I dont have my desire in front of me, but from memory there are two settings under location settings, one to use GPS, the other to use cell towers. I leave the cell towers option on all the time for stuff like my weather widget, and turn on GPS as and when i need it.
 
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GPS uses the global positioning satellites, it is separate from the mobile network. It can work out where you are down to a few metres accuracy, but that is all it can do. It cant tell you the weather where you are as it isnt a data connection.

Your phone can use the cell towers to tell you roughly where you are and give you location based services. Because the network knows where its cell towers are, it can figure out roughly where you are ie within range of a particular cell tower.

I dont have my desire in front of me, but from memory there are two settings under location settings, one to use GPS, the other to use cell towers. I leave the cell towers option on all the time for stuff like my weather widget, and turn on GPS as and when i need it.

FYI - you are safe to leave GPS ticked... It doesn't do anything or use any battery until an application requests it. Unless of course you have yourr own reason for switching it off that is ;)
 
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