I want to make sure FireFox is using my local GPS on my machine (Dell Mini-10) for Location Aware browsing, not Google wi-fi triangulation services.
How would one make sure FireFox is using the GPS? To use GPS a driver or browser plugin (Loki?) I assume is needed to talk locally with Firefox and local hardware. Firefox config would need to be modified to point to a local URI?
1) type about:config in FireFox address line, 2) filter by "geo" and you will see:
List item
geo.enabled;true
geo.wifi.uri;https://www.google.com/loc/json
The "will it work" test would be working FireFox offline, and having a good GPS signal in the middle of nowhere (no wi-fi, radio turn off), Firefox should be able to report your GPS location.
How to?
Currently Firefox only uses the Google geolocation service to translate WiFi IDs and IP addresses into latitude and longitude coordinates, it doesn't support attached GPS.
It might be that Firefox will one day support multiple location providers including your own GPS or, since Firefox is open source, you could even write that code yourself. Also, the Location Platform on Windows 7 provides support for external GPS, so it may be that Internet Explorer or Firefox will one day use that Location Platform for W3C Geolocation requests. But neither can be configured to use your GPS today.
Related
Is W3C Geolocation API more accurate the IP geolocation for non-mobile devices? I am using https://ipstack.com/ and I am seeing big discrepancies between actual location and location identified by the service for desktop users, but after reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W3C_Geolocation_API
GPS (Global Positioning System) This happens for any device which has GPS capabilities. A smartphone with GPS capabilities and set
to high accuracy mode will be likely to obtain the location data from
this. GPS calculate location information from the satellite signal. It
has the highest accuracy; in most Android smartphones, the accuracy
can be up to 10 metres.
Mobile Network Location Mobile phone tracking is used if a cellphone or wireless modem is used without a GPS chip built in.
Wi-Fi Positioning System If Wi-Fi is used indoors, a Wi-Fi positioning system is the likeliest source. Some Wi-Fi spots have
location services capabilities.
IP Address Location Location is detected based on nearest Public IP Address on a device (which can be a computer, the router it is
connected to, or the ISP the router uses). The location depends on the
IP information available, but in many cases where the IP is hidden
behind Internet Service Provider NAT, the accuracy is only to the
level of a city, region or even country.
It doesn't seem the W3C Geolocation API is any better for desktop users. It seems to be more precise for mobile users, but not desktop users. Is this correct?
It doesn't seem the W3C Geolocation API is any better for desktop users. It seems to be more precise for mobile users, but not desktop users. Is this correct?
This is correct, the W3C geolocation API is a good bet when
The user is using a browser (the UX for informed consent is well thought through by the browser maker, e.g Apple's Safari or the Firefox teams)
The user is on mobile (GPS hardware, WiFi triangulation, Google or Apple's-proprietary services such as Google Play Location Services being available) with the underlying OS
Fine location matters for your application (e.g ride-hailing or food delivery to your current location)
If the above criteria are generally not applicable most of the time to your application, then IP geolocation API services such as Fastah are a good choice for the country, approximate city, and geo-coordinates information.
In general, W3C Geolocation API is more accurate than IP geolocation such as IP2Location because it uses multiple parameters to determine location.
If GPS is not available in non-mobile device, they can use the WIFI MAC address or cell tower ID to determine location.
When you open a webpage on a phone/tablet, and use
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition()
Do we get the same results that when we use Google Play services location API?
And do we get the same results that when we use iOS native location API?
Thank you!
It is really depends to what level of information is available in both OS.
For example, if both GPS chip is working in both Android and iOS and locked to the right numbers of satellite, then you should get the same results.
However, when GPS is not available, each API uses their own way such as wifi, cell tower ID or IP address to estimate the location, then you will find some discrepancy.
Reference: http://www.geolocation.com
Is it possible to update user's location without using the network? I'm using MapBox for my application, and i really need to know about it. It seems obvious that user can see where he is using GPS, but I am not sure yet.
you mean locally? you can get GPS location on devices and via the browser's HTML5 GeoLocation, and technically just feed that to the mapbox map via the regular javascript (assuming you have the required files accessible locally).
http://www.w3.org/TR/geolocation-API/
here's an example using google maps:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml5_geolocation_map
the location isn't 100% accurate as it guesses by IP address, WiFi signals and GPS data (if available).
you didn't specify, but if you're talking about native code, you can do the same thing with different methods on iOS.
hi all i am working on Application which is bashed on Event according to current location .when my application start i am displaying Event in my ListField according to current location. Application works fine in Simulator after sending Latitude & Longitude manually from simulator.
When i test this app in my device BB storm2 9550, device cant get current location within 3 or 4 second (during Splash screen) . but after some time it get current location successfully .
how can i get my current location as fast as iphone an Android ?
is there any way to get current lat long from device GPS system which we are getting on Refresh GPS .
please suggest me if any one have any idea.
Thanks in Adavance !!!
if you are not getting lat/long quickly then it sounds like you are trying to get the locations using the GPS radio. This would mean it will take time to connect to the satellites . this would also require sky in sight of the phone, ie it will not work indoors.
The quickest way to get lat/longs are
Use cellsite technology( Blackberry supports this in some devices using triangulation)
Use a cellid provider like google location api or opencellid to get the lat/long using the current cell id.
These doesnt drain the battery as much as using the GPS radio so if you can , try using these. Although the lat/long are not accurate as GPS radio lat/longs.
Please check the following for all the info you would ever need for blackberry GPS techniques.
Simple Location API
Location API- start to finish
At a hardware level, BlackBerry devices used to mount Qualcomm's gpsOne chipset, which, in my opinion, is slower than the ones you could find in most recent Android or Apple devices (SiRFstar or Broadcom, etc). Or maybe the BlackBerry OS didn't interface with it in an efficient manner. For whatever reason, I've experienced higher TTFFs in BlackBerry devices than in Android, for a given place. I may be wrong here, it is just an opinion.
I think newer BlacBerries are mounting other chipsets now. And also, as of September 2011, WiFi geolocation service is also available in OS 6.0 and later. Before that, the only location service in BB was A-GPS and celltower (only OS 5.0 onwards).
Some useful links:
Location APIs – Start to finish
Simple Location API
I'm trying to write a simple GPS based application for my BB 8800 (with Airtel, India).
But for some reason my code getLocation(timeout) always returns with a non-valid location (only after timing out). I tried different combinations of criteria parameters with no success.
I'm pretty sure that the problem is not with my code because even the BlackBerry GPS demo application does not work. However, my GPS receiver is working fine because "Wayfinder", a maps application that came bundled with my BB, works fine.
To test it further, I tried running SpotFinder and Google Maps. But they did not work either. Google Maps could determine location using cell tower info but not GPS.
Here are some more details about my environment,
1. Phone Model: BlackBerry 8800
2. Carrier: AirTel (India)
3. Device Version: 4.2.168 (Platform 2.3.0.54)
Can my carrier block it? [I spoke with AirTel technical support but they wouldn't budge to help developers]
Thanks In Advance
Some carriers (like Verizon US) blocked GPS for third party applications. Others just enabled GPS for a white list of applications (mostly their own) but deny access to GPS for all others.
It seems your provider is doing such things.
Can your carrier block it? Absolutely, I don't know about in India, but in the U.S. some carriers can and do restrict applications from accessing the GPS if they are not "approved." That seems quite likely given the scenario you described.