Ipad mini wifi only and turn by turn directions?

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Originally Posted by Toeslider

That being said, my question is: if a wifi signal is always present for the wifi only ipad to use, will the ipad provide turn by turn directions in Maps and track your location, or is the GPS chip still needed for that?

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1st part of Q: No the iPad will not provide turn by turn directions in Maps in a WiFi only iPad where the WiFi signal is present, but could PINPOINT the location on that map if there is sufficient triangulation within WiFi substations. ( as scifan above intimated, you would not even get that triangulation, hence no indication of position, if there were no WiFi stations within range. Crude example: the Sahara desert - I think 😃
2nd part of Q: You need the GPS chip in the iPad to provide turn by turn directions on ANY Map app.
Regards, Andrew🐨
EDIT: As noted byAQ_OC above, the MiFi unit would obviously need to have GPS tracking ability, something I assumed they had, but apparently not.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So bottom line is: without the GPS chip, the ipad has no way of tracking your location in Maps?

I have become aware of all of the solutions posted above through my research, however I don't see anything that doesn't require me to lay out another $100-$150 cash to get a working solution with an ipad. That's frustrating, because $350 is already a lot to spend on a Christmas present, but would have been worth it if it worked. Almost every other family member they are in contact with has an ipad or iPhone within their family, so it would be nice that they could FaceTime on the road with everyone, plus they are close to 70, so it would be a big plus to be able to sit down next to them with my ipad and tutor them on how to do things, rather than get them something like a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 for $200 and not be able to answer their questions because I am not familiar with it. They already have the Mifi paid for and up and running, and they are happy with it, so it seems a shame to spend more money on something to replace it. I guess it's my fault for not realizing the GPS chip was absent from the wifi only iPads before I ordered it, I guess it just seemed like an elegant solution for them, had it worked.

I guess I don't understand how, or if, a wifi ipad could get GPS data from another device that has GPS capability? Maybe it would still work if their Mifi can do that? I think they have a Jetpack, but I'm not positive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toeslider

So bottom line is: without the GPS chip, the ipad has no way of tracking your location in Maps?

I have become aware of all of the solutions posted above through my research, however I don't see anything that doesn't require me to lay out another $100-$150 cash to get a working solution with an ipad. That's frustrating, because $350 is already a lot to spend on a Christmas present, but would have been worth it if it worked. Almost every other family member they are in contact with has an ipad or iPhone within their family, so it would be nice that they could FaceTime on the road with everyone, plus they are close to 70, so it would be a big plus to be able to sit down next to them with my ipad and tutor them on how to do things, rather than get them something like a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 for $200 and not be able to answer their questions because I am not familiar with it. They already have the Mifi paid for and up and running, and they are happy with it, so it seems a shame to spend more money on something to replace it. I guess it's my fault for not realizing the GPS chip was absent from the wifi only iPads before I ordered it, I guess it just seemed like an elegant solution for them, had it worked.

I guess I don't understand how, or if, a wifi ipad could get GPS data from another device that has GPS capability? Maybe it would still work if their Mifi can do that? I think they have a Jetpack, but I'm not positive.

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I feel your frustration.

I had an iPad 2 wifi-only and used the GPS receiver with it. It worked great. Then I had an wifi-only iPad mini...used that same GPS receiver with it, it worked great. Decided to go 4G/LTE with the mini, so now it has the chip inside. Works great.

Can you borrow the Jetpack, go to best buy, find a mini, hotspot it, and check? Just let them know you are trying to see if your gift will work as you hope it will. I think they will understand. You will need to get off the store wifi, hotspot to the jetpack, open maps to see if it has your location. Without moving about I'm not 100% confident you can be sure it is working, however.

As I said in my post, some MIFI devices do have a GPS chip inside. I still don't know if that means they can be used to allow a iPad to do turn-by-turn based Nav.

It is frustrating that we can't find an answer for you that you can be confident of.

I do wish that Apple would change the way it does things and include the GPS chip in the wifi iPad, but that is an entirely different discussion.

Bottom line: what you're trying to do will not work with the wifi only version. The simplest alternative would be the cellular one, then there's nothing to set up and it'll work exactly as you want it.

The ONLY other option that may work is the GPS Bluetooth add on another poster mentioned. I'm not familiar with it, and would recommend skipping that altogether and just getting the cellular version due to the simplicity and the ability to download the free Apple maps on the fly. Paying for an on board GPS and then paying for a Bluetooth add on seems to negate the cost savings (at least initially, not including future data purchases with the cellular mini) you're trying to give yourself by sticking with the wifi only version. If the setup was for you, sure, give it a shot if you'd like...just not sure the complexity is a great gift to someone over just picking up one unit (cellular version) that does everything you want for the same (or not much greater) cost that the more complicated setup.

Other tethered devices will not provide their location to the iPad when tethered.

I understand why they don't offer it, what's frustrating to me is that I'm a semi tech-savvy guy, and I went through the entire ordering process without realizing the GPS isn't there. It's obvious on the Internet, now that I'm looking for it, but it wasn't obvious to me when going through the Apple site to order. Maybe I just missed it somewhere.

There is enough distance between me an my parents that testing would be cumbersome, in fact it would cost me half the extra cash just to get to their place in gas money. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else who has a Mifi device nearby. What is surprising to me (or maybe not so much) is that I haven't found anyone on the Internet actually using a Mifi with a wifi ipad for turn by turn GPS. If it does work, you'd think people would be raving about it, so maybe that's another clue that it doesn't?

I guess the best thing to do is wait and test it when the time comes. I will be sure to post my findings one way or the other.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toeslider

I understand why they don't offer it, what's frustrating to me is that I'm a semi tech-savvy guy, and I went through the entire ordering process without realizing the GPS isn't there. It's obvious on the Internet, now that I'm looking for it, but it wasn't obvious to me when going through the Apple site to order. Maybe I just missed it somewhere.

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I remember when I got my first iPad -- the iPad 2 -- only to be surprised that it didn't contain the GPS chip. Most Android tablets do. I would not feel bad about this....how could you have known? Many have come to the same realization after buying the wifi only iPad.

I must agree with that other poster...the best solution is the cellular iPad. It is just so much cleaner and simpler. Your parents will appreciate that.

Just to chuck my two penneth in here....

IOS 6 on the mini - and probably full size version apparently does not allow the Bluetooth COM port to be used for data transfer so you cannot get it onto the phone. I tried pairing my bluetooth GPS with my mini and it refused to pair. There are however GPS units that will work with the Ipad just google GPS for IPAD and you will come up with one or two but they are expensive when you consider the cost of Bluetooth GPS units :-(

Interesting to note, I had the opportunity to visit two more Apple stores in my travels this morning, and associates at both of them said that this would work, as long as the ipad was getting a good signal from the Mifi device. When I asked one of them how it did it, they said it is able to utilize information from the cell towers the Mifi device was accessing. So I guess I'll hold on to it and try it out on Christmas Day. We have a 1 hour car trip that uses a lot of highway with nothing else around, so that should reveal all. I have until two weeks after Christmas to return it if needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toeslider

Interesting to note, I had the opportunity to visit two more Apple stores in my travels this morning, and associates at both of them said that this would work, as long as the ipad was getting a good signal from the Mifi device. When I asked one of them how it did it, they said it is able to utilize information from the cell towers the Mifi device was accessing. So I guess I'll hold on to it and try it out on Christmas Day. We have a 1 hour car trip that uses a lot of highway with nothing else around, so that should reveal all. I have until two weeks after Christmas to return it if needed.

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Cool. It is possible to derive position info from towers....as long as it is passed on to the iPad....so please report your findings so we can know in the future when this comes up!

Ok, I have a definitive answer to this, however I may have been asking the wrong questions.

The short answer: the wifi only iPads will not provide REAL TIME, spoken turn by turn directions, at all.

For details, read on:

I was able to get a demo Mifi unit from my local Verizon store to test things out. Since I live in a rural area I was able to give it a definitive test. I set up the wifi only mini next to my 4g ipad 3rd gen, with cellular turned off, and compare. The wifi only ipad could not even find my location in maps. My 3rd gen found my location right away, and when I plotted a route around the block, it tracked along with me and spoke the directions at every turn. When I turned the hotspot off it was unable to reroute without a data connection, but would still track my location, so obviously that GPS chip is doing a lot.

Where I went wrong at the apple store was simply asking for turn by turn directions, where I should have been asking for REAL TIME turn by turn navigation. The wifi only ipad CAN give you turn by turn mapping with a data connection from a device like the Mifi hotspot, but it can't track along with you, you have to look at the map and click on each turn as you approach it, and there are no spoken instructions, even with a Siri equipped ipad. This is not what I was after, so I will probably be exchanging it for a cellular version.

I hope this helps anyone with the same question I had, and I appreciate everyone's input.