GPS vs. TDOA (was Re: release date)

admin at mmri.us admin at mmri.us
Thu May 31 17:28:45 CEST 2007


Andrew, I used both Garmin Ique and Cellphone based-GPS.

I can give you hard examples why no corporation that does service calls 
at this moment would even consider "cell-based GPS".

I visit customers all over the US and Canada.
Out of the 50 or so visits there were about 20 with no cellphone 
coverage in remote areas where sawmills are located.
On the contrary, my Garmin GPS worked flawlessly everywhere.

You have no idea what a PITA it is to get to an airport in the middle of 
the night, with the cell-gps guiding you out of the city and then just 
dies when you get rural.
Furthermore, in order to solve the problem, you will have to carry 3 or 
four simcards from different carriers since the coverage maps are 
different for different areas.

If you stick to urban areas here in the USA,  fine "cell-based gps" 
works fine.
If you do corporate time critical traveling and service.... just get a 
REAL gps such as Garmin or what the FIC NEO will be able to have.

If you want to lose money in the services industry here in the US...go 
ahead use a cellphone to guide you.
Been there done that, late or lost every time.

AGAIN: I would at this moment not mind to get a Fic Neo if it can make 
calls and receive calls and it will be nice to get the software upgrades 
and see it evolve.
I just cannot buy the APPLE I-Phone.
It is a dead end FIC NEO lookalike , however nice it is.
The Iphone is a nice  city phone gizmo, not a real business assistant
.
The FIC has a real chance to become a real travel assistant, but you 
have to get the basic phones in our hands as soon as the hardware is the 
final version, else you will make FIC  miss the buss.
If it receives call dials, have an address book  and the hardware is 
finalized...get it out!


Andrew Becherer wrote:
> On 5/19/07, admin at mmri.us <admin at mmri.us> wrote:
>
>> I think you guys need to get this out asap.
>> The only reason I do not buy the iphone right now is because it does not
>> have GPS.
>
> I think my question is why is everybody freaking out about the iPhone
> not having GPS? It will report location as close as 30 meters, usually
> within 100 meters and almost always within 300 meters. This accuracy
> is good enough for most applications. Even better cellular TDOA is
> accurate inside building as well as outside buildings (which in my
> experience GPS is not).  Are location detection services like
> TruePosition's U-TDOA (used by Cingular and T-Mobile in the USA) not
> available internationally?
>
> So why is GPS the killer functionality the Neo has over the iPhone?
>
> (note: I understand why the OpenMoko development platform is better
> than the iPhone. I'm just talking about GPS vs. carrier provided
> location detection.)
>





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