According to the official tech specs page for the iPhone 4S, Apple has added support for GLONASS in addition to GPS on its latest gadget, thus giving it the “more definitive GPS features” that we mentioned before the phone was announced.
GLONASS stands for Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (or “Global Navigation Satellite System” when translated from Russian) and is Russia’s alternative to the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS). Its network comprises of 24 satellites that achieved full global coverage as recently as the beginning of this month.
GPS has a little more accuracy than GLONASS in most parts of the globe but the latter provides better mapping of the northern areas of our planet. When the two are combined, the accuracy shoots up by a significant amount and location determination becomes much faster due to the 55 satellites involved (with GPS bringing in 31 and GLONASS 24).
It remains unclear exactly how GLONASS will improve upon the iPhone’s current location features but it will hopefully work hand-in-hand with GPS to fetch your location data more accurately and/or faster.
Keep up with all the latest Apple news every day at TNW Apple.
GPS needs differential correction to reduce position error, 'cross checking' by two different systems even without Diff.Correction (accuracy gps in this case about 50 meters only) will improve position of antenna to about 5 meters. and of course it is made not for making us, russians, happy but for better quality of product. yeah. something like that))) good luck,everyone!
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like"...but the latter provides better mapping of the northern areas of our planet..."
Neither GPS nor GLONASS "map" anything. According to wikipedia, GLONASS is slightly more accurate than GPS in the northern hemisphere due to the orbital positions of the satellites.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
LikeChris Habig I understand that but they are used primarily for mapping purposes on the iPhone. They give you your co-ordinates and the iPhone plots it on a map. I think it’s mostly just a difference semantics here.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
LikeProbably done to keep the Russians happy. I read somewhere that in the near future all new items that would normally have a GPS receiver instead must be able to work with GLONASS.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
LikeAnd why on earth would apple ever bother to "keep the Russians happy", may I ask? Particulalry given that it's always treated Russia as a second-rate market authorizing the launch of its products here as late as a few months after the global launch??
So I say don't be ridiculous: it's done to keep not Russians but CONSUMERS happy (!!), which makes perfect sense if u take into account proven better performance of devices carrying both systems on board vs. single-system ones.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Liketook me 5 seconds to find this:
"Some modern receivers are able to use both GLONASS and GPS satellites together, providing greatly improved coverage in urban canyons and giving a very fast time to fix due to over 50 satellites being available. In indoor, urban canyon or mountainous areas, accuracy can be greatly improved over using GPS alone. For using both navigation systems simultaneously precisions of GLONASS/GPS navigation definitions were 2.37—4.65 m with mean number of NSV equals 14—19 (depends on station).[citation needed]."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS#Third_generation
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like