It turns out you can get a location just by scanning nearby wifi and cell tower signals!

    • turmacar@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      GPS is a passive receiver.

      There’s processing going on, but you dramatically decrease energy use by just updating less often.

      It’s not like you’re sending a signal to space.

      • 5gruel@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        what are you talking about? GPS is far from a “passive receiver” in any sense of that vague term. It’s running an oscillator at the carrier frequency.

        GPS is probably the most power hungry sensor on your device.

      • prenatal_confusion@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        I am aware of that but somehow expected that it still took more energy to receive until there are enough SATs available than to do a BLE scan. Just a gut feeling though and only receiving should have a bigger impact than I thought. Makes sense!

        • 5gruel@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Don’t worry your gut feeling is right. Wifi / Bluetooth scans are orders of magnitude cheaper. People in here don’t unterstand how localization works.