Apple yesterday posted a Questions and Answers press release about the recent media buzz about location databases found on iPhones and Mac (read our story here), in doing so the Cupertino company also hinted at an upcoming “traffic service“.
In this statement Apple is explaining that technically iOS devices are not logging the location of the user but caching a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell tower locations around the user’s position so as to accelerate the location of the device.
“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.
In this statement Apple is explaining that technically iOS devices are not logging the location of the user but caching a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell tower locations around the user’s position so as to accelerate the location of the device.
“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.
Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements).
These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.“
Even more interesting Apple is leveraging its million of iOS devices in the field to build a “traffic service“, as explained in this press release: “What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.“
This news is another hint at a likely, future, map product from Apple to replace Google Maps in iOS devices. Over the last two years Apple has gathered a sizeable, so-called “Geo-Team“, a number of them coming from Poly9 and Placebase, two start-up companies acquired by Apple that were offering mapping and POI APIs.
These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.“
Even more interesting Apple is leveraging its million of iOS devices in the field to build a “traffic service“, as explained in this press release: “What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.“
This news is another hint at a likely, future, map product from Apple to replace Google Maps in iOS devices. Over the last two years Apple has gathered a sizeable, so-called “Geo-Team“, a number of them coming from Poly9 and Placebase, two start-up companies acquired by Apple that were offering mapping and POI APIs.
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