GPS ability with the iPad3 wifi only

[Grytpype]

If you have a WiFi-only iPad, you need to do two things to use GPS:

1. Get a plug-in or Bluetooth enabled GPS unit. The "Bad Elf" is a small plug-in one; the Dual Electronics Bluetooth one shown by AQ_OC in post #4 above is a better unit that will work with much greater accuracy. Make sure you get the later version (with an '-A' suffix).

2. Get off-line maps of the area you need. Have a look at the various off-line maps software packages and apps that are available for the country/region you require. On the road or in the air, your iPad will be out of range of WiFi, so you will need offline maps that are actually stored in memory on your device. (warning - they can take up quite a lot of space, so don't download more tiles than you need.) The best maps will depend on which country you are in and which apps are available there. The Motion-X GPS HD app gives you a good choice of maps, including Bing road and satellite versions, which are FREE and not too far behind Google in quality; there is a 'Drive' version of this app available in some countries which differs in some ways, but I haven't tried it. There are plenty of choices.

 

[zstairlessone]

You can locate you position on WiFi.
If i check my position in the maps app it locates me about 50m (150ft) from my real position.

But if you want to use it as a GPS (other than just telling you where the B&N store you are in is located or what wifi you are on) you need to have an external bluetooth or internal (with the 3G or 4G chipset) if you tether to your phone then use the gps on the phone for location, it may not understand where it is because the WiFi location is based on IP address and a known location for the range used to get to and from the internet. Your phone isn't hard located by IP address (it is after all a mobile phone) so I don't think it will know where it is. If it does as you travel about please give feedback so we all know it works as I'm not changing my data plan to tether and I have a 4G iPad.

Thanks

 

[Ydiamant]

Most people who have ipad3 ( wifi only) also have an iPhone. Is there an app that enables
the iPhone to send (by Bluetooth?) location info to the iPad? The iPad will then use the info
For nav purposes. Anyone know of such apps?

 

[KevinJS]

I'm not aware of any. However, the app that I use simulates GPS for wifi only iPads and caches maps for offline use.

You could tether your iPad to your iPhone to update maps, but watch your data consumption.







Motion-X GPS HD. Well worth checking out.

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[LannyC]

How well does that work, Kevin? The company's website says you need GPS. Thanks.

milliHelen: amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

 

[KevinJS]

How well does that work, Kevin? The company's website says you need GPS. Thanks.

milliHelen: amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

Checking it out now. I turned gps off. I'm using wifi positioning now. Seems to be working OK.

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[KevinJS]

No. Doesn't work without GPS so I can't recommend it for wifi only iPads.

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[cbreze]

The GPS is part of the radio (3G/4G) chipsets if you only get a Wi-Fi pad you don't get a GPS sorry.

Curious why when I use maps, either google or the on board imaps I get a very close location indicator. Not perfect, but pretty close, within 100 feet. My IP3 is wifi only, however I do use it with my androids hotspot feature. Would this be a tower triangulation then thru my phone to the iPad? It always asks to use my location info first.

 

[scifan57]

Curious why when I use maps, either google or the on board imaps I get a very close location indicator. Not perfect, but pretty close, within 100 feet. My IP3 is wifi only, however I do use it with my androids hotspot feature. Would this be a tower triangulation then thru my phone to the iPad? It always asks to use my location info first.

It would be using local wifi hotspots to triangulate your position.

 

[Mesqueunclub]

Good stuff, Seadog, thanks.

 

[pichito]

Most people who have ipad3 ( wifi only) also have an iPhone. Is there an app that enables
the iPhone to send (by Bluetooth?) location info to the iPad? The iPad will then use the info
For nav purposes. Anyone know of such apps?

have you found something like this yet? i'm looking for the same thing... I found airlocation in the appstore but it seems to only work if you have your phone set up as a hotspot...

 

[Hnhassan]

have you found something like this yet? i'm looking for the same thing... I found airlocation in the appstore but it seems to only work if you have your phone set up as a hotspot...

this can only be done with hotspot. bluetooth pairing between the 2 devices a are crap.

using hotspot isn't practical, it's too slow, the signal isn't sent frequently enough.

if you really want to get it to work as a sat nav, just cough up around £50 and buy a GPS gadget to attach or send via Bluetooth.

doing this gives you a perfect sat nav, apart from the fact that it will have no live traffic updates.

 

[Ydiamant]

have you found something like this yet? i'm looking for the same thing... I found airlocation in the appstore but it seems to only work if you have your phone set up as a hotspot...

Thanks. It looks interesting. However appstore says that the gps info from airlocation , sent to the ipad , cannot be used by other applications. If so, what good is it?

 

[kulit_12]

The Wifi version of iPad does not have a GPS chip, as B00bie stated. The xMotion people are correct, of course.

However, if you get a GPS receiver, such as this one

Amazon.com: Dual Electronics XGPS150 Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver for iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone and Other Smartphones, Tablets and Laptops: Electronics

which will link with your iPad via a bluetooth connection, then you can make the wifi-only iPad GPS enabled. And actually, this solution offers some advantages over having the GPS chip inside the iPad, as you can position the receiver for optimal reception when in a car, which is a lot harder to do with an iPad. Also, you can use this receiver with other devices such as laptops.

If you want the navigation function, you will need to get a Nav app that has downloadable maps that are stored on the iPad. That way, you can navigate using a wifi-only ipad when you don't have a means to download maps (like on a 3G iPad).

HTHs.

This is great!

 

[AQ_OC]

I have to admit that I loved it to death! Now I have a new car and it has a 7-inch Nav built in, and I sold the iPad 2! Still have that receiver through.

Navigon is great for long trips....one feature it has that I haven't seem duplicated anywhere else is if it senses jerkiness (strong accelerations) it will say "caution" or if you exceed the speed limit by a certain amount, it says "caution". I like this feature so much that now, in my new car, I use the car's Nav, but I run Navigon on my iPhone, in the background to either music or audiobook linking to my car via bluetooth. So, I still get the voice of the Navigon lady saying "caution" while I get the voice of the car nav lady giving directions, and I either get music or audiobook. It works great!