iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome - Gizmodo Comments

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

mkrygeri — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:11:10 EST

@D2POINT0
IT IS in google maps. at least the smartphone app.
www.google.com/gmm/

I installed it on my girlfriend's new Tilt yesterday. I was indoors and I know the app was using triangulation. It is off too much to use for real time navigation but, it has it's place.

I'm sure goog is going to eat telenav and copilot for lunch within the next year. Especially on Android.

mkrygeri

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

sdln28 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:29:52 EDT

Hi - to the makers of app_installer - people need t quit whimpering about "oh I hate apple because they made the software better" suck it up - enjoy the new features and re-hack the apps - things always need to get better! Learn to live with it.

sdln28

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

zaq2g — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:52:21 EDT

Works on my windows mobile phone, but the location is almost exactly a mile off. I'm in the burbs right now, but I wonder how it will work in a large city.

zaq2g

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Joseph — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:41:17 EDT

Im in Herndon, VA and it's not working.

Joseph

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

fastm3driver — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:02:04 EDT

@Brian Lam:
Thanks dude.
I like the hyphen, it make a new word and clearly is not GPS.

fastm3driver

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Mr. Black — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:00:02 EDT

In Central NJ, about 2 miles off (when it doesn't lockup my phone)...won't be forking up $ until it actually works, and well.

Mr. Black

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

will86 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:43:14 EDT

Well its not working so well for me but i think thats due to the fact that i live in a small college town. Ill hate to try it out next time i'm in Houston and see if that makes any difference.

will86

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

mudman — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:06:25 EDT

Apple would never install a hack like this in one of their products. Trust Steve, if it's not included it's because it sucks. Has the man ever been wrong?

Answer: Crazy, yes, but never wrong.

mudman

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

andrelix — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:03:09 EDT

will my posts EVER show up on a page? Am I not worthy?

andrelix

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

snrsuave — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:30:16 EDT

@PhoenixDowne: It's the shitty ass commenting system on this site that's suave.

snrsuave

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

andrelix — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:45:33 EDT

no luck here in Southern Oregon

andrelix

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

TheJollyGreenGiant — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:57:32 EDT

@jirga: Im in the Columbus area also and it's a no go. :-(

TheJollyGreenGiant

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

pathogen — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:51:03 EDT

Pretty sure it uses geolocating for ip addresses nothing more. Limited database.

pathogen

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

brenodo — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:44:37 EDT

Cool app. However, it seems to only work with WiFi. In locations where I have solid EDGE coverage and can do email and web surfing, and where my Cell signal is 100% (5 bars) this app tells me:

"Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or WiFi nodes in range"

If I switch to WiFi in that same exact location it works fine and locates me within 1000ft.

I was able to reproduce this in 2 separate locations, home and work.

brenodo

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

KingSnakeX4 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:22:21 EDT

@redstripe8: touché

KingSnakeX4

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

pranilvora — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:31:58 EDT

how do you install this app on my iphone. I have iBrickr? is it a pxl file?

pranilvora

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

eben — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:58:41 EDT

No known cells or wifi mode here also. However, when that message came up, it locked up my phone. I had to reset the device to get out of it.

eben

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

jriga — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:49:53 EDT

Doesn't work for me, tried in different area of Columbus, OH and other suburbs while driving today - 25 times out of 25 it fails.

I STILL can't find a good reason to keep f-ing with my iPhone. All the apps need a LOT of work - especially this one.

jriga

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

QWERTYthon — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:47:27 EDT

Navizon attempts to locate me, but says that no known cells or wifi nodes are in range. I'm in AT&Tlanta, have full reception, and have trouble understanding why it can't locate me. Grrr.

QWERTYthon

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

ratheen — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:04:59 EDT

how can i insall the app on my iphone? is there a pxl file for this?

ratheen

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

MiltyKiss — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:55:27 EDT

@PHOENIXDOWNE: It has been fixed as I'm able to install the app without any issues now.

MiltyKiss

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

rawhead — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:44:21 EDT

@snrsuave:

No. When something can get you within a few hundred yards when that something wasn't thought possible of doing so, then it's awesome. E.g., if my 3rd gen. iPod (40GB) could get me within 20 miles of where I am, that would be über-awesome.

rawhead

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

PhoenixDowne — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:07:29 EDT

Not so sauve to post twice (d-bag). Apple didn't make the app.

Anyways...is anyone else having problems downloading it in Installer.app? It keeps telling me that there is a package size mismatch.

PhoenixDowne

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Mudassir — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:42:47 EDT

It works for me!

I am at Ferry Building (on Embarcadero St, San Francisco, CA) and it showing me off one-two blocks away. and also it sometime show me that i m on the BayBridge! but hey! it works! sweet!

Mudassir

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

snrsuave — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:17:24 EDT

Since when is being off a "few hundred yards" considered "AWESOME"? Oh... I see... When it's Apple.

snrsuave

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

snrsuave — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:14:56 EDT

Since when is being a few hundred yards off considered "AWESOME"? Oh... I see... when it's Apple.

snrsuave

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

James — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:12:31 EDT

why is it so hard to imagine using a bluetooth gps receiver with the iPhone? C'MON STEVE!

James

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

fastm3driver — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:43:19 EDT

@Brian Lam:
cell positioning?
PS sound OK too but with out a "O" in between the P and S I'm not sure.

There needs to be a clear difference between a proper device with a GPS chip and installed software and everything else. Even if a device had a GPS chip, say in a cell, but you needed a service, e.g. you have to be connected to the cell towers, you would not be global.
The GPS service that is paid for with my tax dollars is free to use otherwise. Plus every "fake GPS" I see has very poor and inaccurate positioning. And any device without built in maps is very crippled. If I buy a phone with a "GPS" I expect it to replace my real GPS with maps of at-least the US and work in Antarctica. Anything less still requires me to carry two device.

fastm3driver

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Brian Lam — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:09:47 EDT

@berribrand: You're so cool with your LG phone.

Brian Lam

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Brian Lam — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:09:13 EDT

@St3v3: I live in SF.

Brian Lam

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Brian Lam — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:07:03 EDT

@fastm3driver: You're right, its not GPS. Not technically. What should we call it? BMW driver, huh?

Brian Lam

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

fastm3driver — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:52:20 EDT

I wish people would stop calling this crap GPS. It's a PS at best. Clearly not global.

fastm3driver

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

capitolm94 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:41:25 EDT

This could not find my location either, but it didnt crash my phone or anything. Maybe you need to be outdoors? Anyways, cool app.

capitolm94

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Digitalburro — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:40:37 EDT

Hmmm....I take back my previous post.

First time I ran it, it got close to my correct location in NYC.

The last few times it has erroneously put me in variously locations around Dallas, Texas.

My cell number is based out of Texas, but I live in New York.

I guess there are still kinks to work out and this doesn't work well when you're out of your home coverage area?

Digitalburro

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

St3v3 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:40:26 EDT

iPhone maps and GPS screencaps sure do make it seem like people in San Francisco have a hard time finding their way around. Branch out Apple. The world extends beyond the Bay Area.

St3v3

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

ITsPennywise — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:31:53 EDT

This thing is whack! I tried it in my office building and outside and I keep getting the "Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or WiFi nodes in range" error. WTF, I'm about 20 mins outside of Chicago!!! I have 5 bars. Please tell me how this thhing can't find any "Cells."

Eh, I'll try it again when I get home to see if things change...otherwise this will be getting a prompt Uninstall.

ITsPennywise

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

wsder — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:30:49 EDT

I got an unable to locate then my phone crashed.... dang!

wsder

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Evodico — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:22:51 EDT

Looks like a great free app. First it crashed trying to enter my user name, then it crashed the second time once it got my user name, but couldn't connect to their server, then it crashed with my user name, but just froze up, and then finally, it worked, but couldn't find my location -- apparently NYC and the greater metro area isn't all that well known. Tried again, couldn't find location, crashed. I guess it will be a great free app, maybe with some updates down the road. Can't wait, this would be great to have. Although I'd love to see this functionality supported natively within the Maps app by Apple.

Evodico

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

grem28 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:21:58 EDT

Wow, this is actually pretty cool. Worked great, only a few feet off.

grem28

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

crazysmurf — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:15:59 EDT

Cool app! Only thing is that it miscalculated my location. Placed me somewhere in Cincinati when I'm in California. My bad for being inside an office building.

crazysmurf

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

timerider42 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:06:02 EDT

there's no GSM where I live so it would be useless anyway

timerider42

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

jefdiesel — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:00:26 EDT

wow. i just grabbed this, and it's about 50 feet off from where i really am. thats pretty good i'd say.

jefdiesel

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Ashman — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:58:21 EDT

I still wish somebody would enable the serial protocol in the bluetooth stack.

Then we could use bluetooth GPS modules and wouldn't have to deal with these cell tower triangulation hacks...

Ashman

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Digitalburro — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:49:45 EDT

I just installed it on my iPhone.

It has me a block north of my actual location, but other than that, a painless install and better than nothing!

Is this software entirely free? Their site mentions a Navizon + a 15 day trial of the GPS software. It not clear exactly what this package consists of.

Thanks for the heads up!!!

Digitalburro

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

procon.1 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:48:04 EDT

I want to try out the application but it seems that it freezes my phone when this message pops up: "Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or WiFi nodes in range"

procon.1

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

redstripe8 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:43:36 EDT

@KingSnakeX4:

Nothing new? What about the NEWton :)

redstripe8

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

KingSnakeX4 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:37:43 EDT

@diabolusunknown: Apple's staple isn't really innovation. They are kings at taking something that already exists and making it more intuitive and simple. Can't remember Apple ever making anything new...

KingSnakeX4

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

diabolusunknown — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:27:19 EDT

The main point is to find things near you, which it works perfectly for.

BTW, what is apple doing? Are they even innovators anymore?

diabolusunknown

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

berribrand — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:25:48 EDT

/snore
My LG phone already does this very accurately...

berribrand

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

redstripe8 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:14:37 EDT

Not so accurate for me. Was about 4 miles off from where I was actually located. Still, surprised this actually works as well as it does.

Don't really see the usefulness of this if it lacks pinpoint accuracy. If I am lost and used something like this, it would probably get me even more lost!

redstripe8

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Kricket — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:09:50 EDT

interesting - definitely worth a download

and im guessing the reason why it wasnt included has something to do with the fact that it isnt very reliable or accurate (as discussed in the post and in the comments)...

Kricket

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

KingSnakeX4 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:05:42 EDT

see, I love innovative 3rd party apps like this. I don't have an iPhone, but it does have GPS function. Here's a story: last week I lost my phone and for the love of god, my carrier could NOT and WOULD NOT locate it even with the location setting set to ON. Mind you I found it later in my friend's trash shoved in a pretzel bag, but seriously, this would be such a great feature to find lost phones and it looks like 3rd party apps are the only ones who could implement a feature like this.

I read all the privacy legal mumbo jumbo on tracking people illegally through GPS, but I just wanted to track myself. go figure.

KingSnakeX4

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

AndyShannon — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:05:02 EDT

Yeah i got the same "Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or WiFi nodes in range" message when i tried to use it. I am about 20 miles outside of NYC with excellent cell coverage??

AndyShannon

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

iiviip3 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:01:44 EDT

I don't know that I'd call it "AWESOME" but it is cool and an intriguing advancement. How do you go on to get directions from your present location to another location?

iiviip3

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Keebler — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:00:54 EDT

"Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or WiFi nodes in range"

:'(

Keebler

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

karmaghost — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:58:45 EDT

I'm sure there's a reason they didn't include this. Whether it was a good reason....

karmaghost

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

liquidsoapdispenser — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:53:55 EDT

Why doesn't AGPS software like this exist for my Treo 700p???

liquidsoapdispenser

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

Keebler — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:53:10 EDT

I think they probably didn't include it because of the extraordinary size of the app... 55.6 kb :P

Gonna try it now.

Keebler

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

frostoy — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:45:01 EDT

Wow. Come On Jobsey, this should have been built in from the beginning. Let's see this on the next firmware update!

frostoy

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

D2point0 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:38:39 EDT

There is NO reason this shouldn't be in Google Maps. I had a similar service on my Verizon KRZR, and it worked a treat.

Silly Apple.

D2point0

iPhone Faux-GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

yoshi — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:34:13 EDT

Pretty cool. This sounds similar to what Microsoft is doing, no? :)

yoshi