Location Services

iPads and GPS, let's get to the bottom of this. There is a lot of confusion around iPads and their location services. Does the iPad use Wi-Fi, 3G or GPS for determining its location? I have spoken to various iStore employees and found that very few of them understand the difference in technology, so this document will attempt to bring some clarity on this matter. Apple uses the term Location Services to describe the iPad's ability to determine your approximate location. How your iPad determine your location depends on the model you have as well as the availability of cell towers, Wi-Fi and GPS signal. You need to understand that all iPad's will provide you with a location when it is able to connect to the internet, this however does not mean you are using a GPS signal to determine the location. In short GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system is made up of a bunch of satellites which orbit the earth. Each satellite transmits its location and time. Then there is what we call a GPS receiver, commonly referred to as a GPS. The GPS receiver is capable of receiving the signals from the orbiting satellites and when it has line of sight to three or more satellites it will be able to determine your location based on the information received from the satellites. It is important to understand that the GPS receiver does not require access to the internet in order to receive the signals from the satellites, hence, when you venture into the remote areas where no Wi-Fi or 3G is available and you need location, then you want to have a GPS. Tip: GPS requires line of sight to satellites and will not work indoors or in dense tree cover – it's an outdoors thing! The term 3G is used instead of a cellular connection. There are several types of cellular connections, e.g. GPRS, Edge, 3G etc. For the sake of simplicity we refer to 3G as Apple uses this in their marketing material as well. If you do not have a GPS in your iPad or you are indoors and no GPS signal can be accessed then sometimes your iPad still finds your location. This is done by means of Wi-Fi and cell tower information. Each cell tower has a known location and the 3G modem in you iPad can determine