Will GPS Work In The Airplane Mode?

[jklenik]

Will the GPS work in the airplane mode with the transmitter disabled? The moving map applications work on the GSM AT&T version of the IPHONE 4 with the transmitter disabled.

 

[DoctorK]

Funny you mention that, because I was at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store yesterday, and while I was waiting I overheard a similar situation. A man came in with his iPad, apparently he had the 250MB data plan from AT&T. He was shocked to see his data use shoot up by 20MB in the 25 minute drive from his house to the mall. He had maps open, but he purposely turned 3G off. But 3G data still flows to the map app if it's open - even with 3G turned off.

One of the Apple geniuses said turning Airplane Mode off would prevent the flow of 3G data, and that, because the GPS is actually aGPS (assisted GPS which relies on cell tower triangulation) that it wouldn't work in Airplane mode.

 

[digorykirk#IM]

In the Palm Pre, Verizon uses a combination of aGPS and GPS. The aGPS is designed to pull a quick fix by triangulating on cell towers and the GPS chip then locks in to provide the more accurate reading you need for navigation. So, on Verizon's other phones, you can still use GPS in Airplane mode, but it may take a little longer to lock in your position. Obviously, to use a navigation program in Airplane mode, you will need an application that has the maps resident on the device. Programs like Google Maps pull map data as it needs it and must have an active WiFi or data connection in order to load map data. I am planning to drop by the Apple store today to look at the Verizon iPhone and will ask them the same question. If I get a different answer, I'll post the change.

 

[DoctorK]

I should have made clear, my post above was about that guy's iPad, and he was on AT&T, so certainly things may be a lot different w/ iPhone 4 on Verizon...