True GPS Support Found in Device Emulator Included with SDK Beta 4

by Jody Mitoma on April 27, 2008 at 7:32 pm

True GPS Support Found within the device emulator included with Apple’s latest iPhone SDK release (beta 4) indicate that there is full support for true GPS hardware for the device. It is possible that we will be receiving a hardware add-on sometime in the near future, most likely through the dock-connection. Then again, it’s possible we won’t be getting any GPS at all.

Steffen Voigt states that the locationd component of the latest iPhone emulator includes references to NMEA. NMEA is a data specification for communication between various location sensing devices, GPS units in particular. Read more about this via GPSinformation.org.

One paragraph in particular states:

Most computer programs that provide real time position information understand and expect data to be in NMEA format. […] All proprietary sentences begin with the letter P and are followed with 3 letters that identifies the manufacturer controlling that sentence. For example a Garmin sentence would start with PGRM and Magellan would begin with PMGN.

iPhone Atlas explains GPS support even further:

locationd also makes direct references to satellite-gathered information, with strings mentioning satellite status, latitude, speed, magnetic variation, etc.

Other strings mention GPS time, type, position and accuracy.

Location sensitivity on the iPhone is currently limited to triangulation based on the proximity of cellular signal towers and mapped WiFi access points. iPhone OS 2.0 will add a new live location tracking feature that will automatically track the user’s current location in the Maps application on a persistently updating basis. So, for instance, driving down Broadway in New York with an iPhone would result in a constantly moving blue, pulsing ball indicating your current location. A genuine, hardware-based GPS component would trump this functionality.

Lets hope this is all for the better use of Apple and GPS support. Having true GPS support on the device would bring the iPhone to an even more epic level of usefulness. The iPhone really is turning into a all-in-one device.

(Source: iPhone Atlas)