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iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

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Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#121
post #98

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It interesting how Apple has been able to stay ahead while often being a step or two behind from a technological standpoint (in some areas at least). I think it goes to show how important it is to have things work in a very seamless way.

Many tech products are still sold on feature lists. Few people care any more.

This great (short and funny) internal video from Microsoft was supposed to be a wake up call, but nothing really changed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k

The fact that Apple doesn't really play that game seems to drive some people wild.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS might have been a military invention, but its uses reaches further out today. I think the purpose of Galileo's encrypted GPS is not to prevent military strikes against European nations, but to be able to offer more precision as a commercial service, making a profit. Basically, companies who use GPS for measurements or what have you, can pay money and get access to improved accuracy.

But since GPS is a broadcast service, there is no way to offer encrypted service widely (ie. To a random app which pays for better GPS accuracy) without someone decapping/exploiting a chip in the phone and leaking the rolling encryption key via a web service for everyone.

Should be possible. Encrypted DVB-S providers can also lock/unlock single smartcards.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#123

iPhones don't have dual-band GNSS already?! You can get tri-band Android phones for far less than the cheapest iPhone 13 .

Such as? I'd be interested but don't know I would find any. Dual-frequency is already hard to come by and only mentioned somewhere far down their spec sheets.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS is passive.

I don’t share parent’s pessimism, but I think that comment was probably referring to tracking inside apps and having better tracking accuracy. Basically Pokemon Go would know you went to the burger shop and not the Hawaian pancake shop 50m before.

pokemon go[1] has maps based on visual maps, so are much more accurate and gives you where the phone is pointing, not just lat lon height. My old company had 20cm accuracy, we can assume that its reasonably close to that now. even with shitty crowd sourced photos.

[1] well niantic: https://nianticlabs.com/news/lightshipsummit/?hl=en

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#126
post #116

Xiaomi released a phone with dual frequency GNSS in 2018 (with the Broadcom BCM4775 chipset), and as far as I know most Android phones have had it since then, or maybe a bit later. If you want to see if your phone supports it, try GPSTest. Garmin has recently released several watches with it as well, both their high end models and some more affordable ones. They also have an auto mode that switches it on or off depen…

Apple has supported GNSS since the iPhone 8/X generation in 2017. This is about L5 GPS which I'm not sure how well this is supported in general ATM as its pretty new

GNSS is a generic term for satellite based positioning systems. It looks like you're referring to the iPhone adding Galileo support in the 8/X.

L5 support has been available in a number of devices for a couple of years now. Garmin was one of the first to use L5 in commercial devices, with their Fenix watches a while back.

The phone I'm currently using, the Pixel 6 Pro uses the L5 band. It's nice and I can definitely tell a difference, but it still struggles due to antenna size.

In my experience, for people doing significant outdoor stuff like backpacking, endurance running, etc, a positioning device from a solid company like Garmin is going to be a good bit better than an apple, Samsung, Google, etc device.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#127

Xiaomi released a phone with dual frequency GNSS in 2018 (with the Broadcom BCM4775 chipset), and as far as I know most Android phones have had it since then, or maybe a bit later. If you want to see if your phone supports it, try GPSTest. Garmin has recently released several watches with it as well, both their high end models and some more affordable ones. They also have an auto mode that switches it on or off depen…

How long ago was that? I never remember it taking more than a minute or so to get a good fix with GPS devices. I'm talking about Garmin devices.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#128
post #101

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Considered that I follow hardware development fairly closely, I didn't even know this was not a thing on iPhone. And now Apple is making a big deal about it. Could anyone shares any thoughts as to why Apple only include it now? And not earlier?

it's on iPhone now. before, if you wanted this, you'd have to make do with an android

"make do" ? Unless you were a cartologist, surveyor, or geo-cacher would you even care?

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#129
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even iPads using an iPhone as a tether will use the iPhone GPS for location =)

Huh that sounds odd. Doesn't a tablet have a bigger battery than a phone?

Wifi-only iPads do not have a GPS receiver in them. At least not the last time I bought one. So this could still be handy in some cases.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#130
post #98

Xiaomi released a phone with dual frequency GNSS in 2018 (with the Broadcom BCM4775 chipset), and as far as I know most Android phones have had it since then, or maybe a bit later. If you want to see if your phone supports it, try GPSTest. Garmin has recently released several watches with it as well, both their high end models and some more affordable ones. They also have an auto mode that switches it on or off depen…

Quoted post unavailable.

But things are better when they’re from Apple.

A random example is Apple TV vs any Smart TV.

I just bought a flagship Sony A95K smart television. It has everything, it ticks every checkbox, but the software is basically trash. Low effort garbage that should have failed QA the second you see any part of it.

It is 1080p upscaled to 4K, so it’s blurry!!! Even with my worsening vision I can see the fuzzy edges and it makes my eyes hurt.

It’s too dark so that in a bright room it is borderline invisible.

It isn’t color managed, which means the better the TV panel, the more garish it looks. On this QD-OLED panel it looks stupid bad.

The second you switch to the Apple TV you instantly realise why they’re the biggest company on earth. It’s beautiful! It’s crisp, fluid 4K with correct colors and brightness. Such simple things to get right.

Google (Android TV) and Sony just… couldn’t be bothered to any of that properly.

They threw some features in the and called it a day.

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