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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

#151
post #98

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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 ma…

I think you should check out google tv on the latest 4k version. Your review is almost like a sarcastic example of a lazy pro apple review. Some crap tv ui like that sony apparently is does not really say much about apple competitors. Apple is great at some things, but they aren't the only good thing.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#152

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The single frequency situation isn't all that bad though since there are a dozen satellites in view and tracked even in urban outdoor environments.

It's certainly better than it used to be, since there are more satellites, and a lot of work goes into doing well in these environments (I used to do the GPS integration for Google Maps). There are two big tricky parts about urban canyons. First, yeah, you still have quite a few satellites, but they're all in the same directions. Satellites directly above you don't really tell you anything. Satellites in front of and…

Awesome explanation. Thank you.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#153
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.

Ahead in what? Money they fleeced from US market? Core fanbase satisfaction? I don't think they were technologically ahead in anything in a decade or so. Unless you count inventing new charging ports and removing headphone jack or discovering that screen can have notches and customers still buy it.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#154

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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.

Tracking apps and phones in general don't rely purely on GPS/GNSS. WiFi and Bluetooth-based positioning systems have been used in tandem with satellite positioning for years now. This won't change much, except for having better positioning in the middle of nowhere.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#155

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.

I had a Garmin Forerunner (I can’t remember the number, 425 maybe?) circa 2007. IIRC it was one of the earliest on-wrist GPS devices Garmin did. Most of the time it would only take a minute. There would be occasions where it took much much longer. Increasingly so by the time I retired in 2018.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#156
post #98

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Quoted post unavailable.

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.

Apple has always been “behind” on some aspects and “ahead” on others. It boils down to the fact that they have their own priorities, which are different from what Android OEMs like to emphasise, which are also different from what people on Teh Interwebz like to go on about.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#157

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So my 2 year old Android device already had a feature that was only now implemented by Apple in their top of the line products. Neat. Does anyone have personal experience of how dual-frequency improves GPS? As I'm not really using GPS a lot, I'm not sure I noticed a difference from my previous devices (I live in EU, so also no high rise skyscrapers here)

my 1999 honda civic has a feature that my Porsche 911 doesn't have. doesn't mean my Porsche 911 is a worse car

I wouldn't bother trying to reason on this.

I'm an Android developer, but use an iPhone. I've noticed some Android users really need their wins against Apple. It's almost like a Linux user trying to convince you how awesome and slicker the dev experience is, vs how bloated and slow your Macbook is: the point isn't to inform you, it's to reassure themselves.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So my 2 year old Android device already had a feature that was only now implemented by Apple in their top of the line products. Neat. Does anyone have personal experience of how dual-frequency improves GPS? As I'm not really using GPS a lot, I'm not sure I noticed a difference from my previous devices (I live in EU, so also no high rise skyscrapers here)

my 1999 honda civic has a feature that my Porsche 911 doesn't have. doesn't mean my Porsche 911 is a worse car

I think people are simply surprised that Apple is just now getting around to this, given that it's been a common feature in high end Android phones for quite a while now. OP did not say that Apple phones were worse, you inferred that.

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#159

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Similarly, if you are using CarPlay, it will use your car's GPS instead of the built-in one. I figured this out when my car's GPS developed a fault which often gave a lock hundreds of meters away from my actual position, and my phone did the same thing when connected via CarPlay.

Cars also do dead reckoning with wheel and steering data so you get pretty decent data in tunnels where basic GPS fails.

Could you expand more on this? Very curious what this means/how it works

Re: iPhone 14 Pro comes with dual-frequency GPS

#160
post #44
post #2

For those of us not deep into the technical details here: what's this mean?

GPS assumes* light travels in a straight line, which it doesn't due to atmospheric effects and reflections off buildings. L5 is a second frequency from the same satellites, which is affected by these problems differently, so the chip can compare the differences between the two signals and guess what's up with the atmosphere and buildings / throw out the dumber looking signal. It's also mostly independent so it's more…

I’ve anecdotally found that GPS is much worse in dense cities like New York than in sparse ones like Tucson. Hopefully my next phone will give me better location results.
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