Hi guys, I am using a wifi only iPad connecting to my iPhone 4. When I am in the city using Maps, it can locate current position. But when I am at rural area about 40km from the city, it can't locate current position. How come? tx for advise.

The WiFi iPad doesn't have GPS. It determines its location using a data base of WiFi hotspots. In the city it can see hotspots and uses their location. In a rural area there are no hotspots and so the iPad is unable to determine its location.

Tim

Really? I thought iPad when connecting to iPhone4 via personal hotspot can use iPhone gps to determine the location. No?

I'm not aware of that. Perhaps another Member knows?

Tim

There were a lot of rumors, tests, and speculation on this for a while, but in the end pretty much everyone either posted a correction or fell silent on the issue. The GPS on the iPhone can not be seen by the iPad when tethered.

The confusion was caused because with the iPhone tethered the iPad could download the database for local hotspots and triangulate it's rough position. Without the iPhone tethered, and no wi-fi connection of it's own the iPad can only find it's location if it previously downloaded the database for that area. When it was keeping this data forever (and causing a privacy scandal) the odds were good that it had this database if you'd ever been there before with a connection. Now the database is limited to how much it will store, and you are less likely to have it on hand from previous visits.

And of course, if there are no hotspots in the area, or the ones there are not in the database, you're out of luck even with the iPhone tethered.

We've tested this extensively because of an app we developed, and it's never been true. The iPad tethered to an iPhone does not know where it is and never has.

If the device is not connected to a mapped Hot Spot, then it will not be found.

If you have an iPhone connected to the same Wifi spot as your iPad, the location WILL end up in the Hotspot database eventually, which is why the false impression that the iPad knows because the iPhone knows comes up regularly.

The iPhone is NOT a mappable hotspot stored in the central location database.

-t

Thanks for the correction.

I never thought the iPhone was mappable, I just thought that with an internet connection the iPad could at least download the local database and see where it is that way. Of course, upon further reflection, I should have wondered how it would know what section of the database to download without being connected to at least one of those hotspots?