GPS in 3G iPhone coming through Broadcom?
updated 01:40 pm EDT, Fri May 30, 2008
Broadcom GPS in 3G iPhone?
A GPS receiver will indeed be in the 3G iPhone, and the technology will be supplied by Broadcom, according to anonymous sources. Contacts cited by GigaOM say that Broadcom has secured a contract with Apple, beating out older, more established competitors such as SiRF, whose SiRFstar III receivers are used in a vast number of navigation devices. Broadcom normally provides chips for cellular communication, and only acquired GPS resources with the buy-out of Global Locate in June of last year.
Evidence has been mounting that the 3G iPhone, expected to be announced at WWDC on June 9th, will have some form of dedicated GPS functionality. Changes in the iPhone 2.0 firmware contain references to GPS, and point to the possibility of geotagging, which would have little use on a current iPhone. It is capable of rudimentary location-finding through Google Maps, but this is imprecise and based on router information or celltower triangulation.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2005
imprecise?
if the current iphone is at a location that has been scanned by skyhook wireless, they supply the WPS data, then the geolocation data is not imprecise!
i doubt that the 3G iphone will have a GPS, and if it really gets one then it will be optional to turn on, since always on GPS depletes the battery pretty fast...
most big metro areas in the US and europe have been scanned or are in the process of being scanned by skyhook wireless
check their website: skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/coverage.php