Location Based Reminders

[Jabberwocky]

OK, I've had discussions with a colleague at work regarding location based reminders. There is currently a case of beer riding on the outcome.

Lets take the following example as basis : Buy milk reminder when you are near a supermarket.

1). How does the phone know where you are ? Constant GPS etc would drain the battery, and didn't they had to remove the cell tower tracking info last month due to the flack they got ?

2). Does the supermarket need to be added as a Drop-pin manually ? Or are only "participating" supermarkets included ?

Again, may be too early for a definitive answer on this ? But any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Jabberwocky]

P.S I sent this in for the Q&A Podcast a few weeks ago, but it didn't get included. So I'll be interested to your viewpoint on this Rene, or even adding it to the next iPhone live ?

 

[Jabberwocky]

well, looks like no one has any clue on this here.............

 

[Dryland]

I tested this out the other day. I needed to do something as soon as I got home so I set up a location based reminder for when I arrived. I set it early that morning knowing I wouldn't get home till that evening. The battery drain remained did not increase. So, I don't think it does a constant polling of your location but possibly a refresh every x mins.

Also, you can choose an address for location based reminders, but they have to be in your contacts.

 

[dcgore]

I don't really like how all these location services are working as of now, my battery life has taken a big hit. From the local weather to pics, to reminders, the gps thingy is always on.

 

[brengla]

Possibly late to this forum but I believe it uses cell towers to work.

A cell tower gives off a GPS reading of where it is and this is accurate to 0.5 to 1km. I think when you get within this distance then it checks more accurately.

I could be wrong but I'm sure this is how it works.

 

[brengla]

Ps. Reminders doesn't leave your GPS on. Check the location settings as you'll find its the clock using location to determine your time zone. You can turn this off!

 

[brengla]

I don't really like how all these location services are working as of now, my battery life has taken a big hit. From the local weather to pics, to reminders, the gps thingy is always on.

Reminders doesn't leave your GPS on. Check the location settings as you'll find its the clock using location to determine your time zone. You can turn this off!

 

[Dazzx]

After testing the reminders app I'm pretty sure its not using GPS , the accuracy isn't good enough for it to be using GPS , as for battery life it definitely had an negative effect.


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- @dazzx - Twitter
Darren Thompson -G+

 

[Tuneman]

This sounds like a cool feature - is this coming in iOS5 or do I have it already and just haven't found it...?

 

[Dazzx]

Ios5


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- @dazzx - Twitter
Darren Thompson -G+

 

[Ipheuria]

I don' really care about these types of reminders so I didn't really pay attention. Does it have any sort of timeframe included? then when it gets close to that time the GPS would activate and determine your position refreshing ever so often. I'll try it out on my iPad later.

 

[Dazheath]

I'm using IOS 5 beta 6 on a 3GS but can't get location reminders to show, is this function not available on the 3GS?

 

[jtanko78]

New Feature

This sounds like a cool feature - is this coming in iOS5 or do I have it already and just haven't found it...?

This is a new feature that is said to be released with the ios5 update.

 

[MattDaddyG3]

I'm using IOS 5 beta 6 on a 3GS but can't get location reminders to show, is this function not available on the 3GS?

I am running b7 on a 3GS and can't get them to show. I can only get reminders to remind me based on a certain time.