Mitch <mitch@hawaii.rr> wrote:
> In article <3Rpji.9358$bO2.4319@trnddc05>, Wes Groleau
> <groleau+news@freeshell.org> wrote:
>
>>> I'd still like someone to explain to me how a cell phone can access
>>> a GPD system without separate circuitry for GPS and a satellite
>>> antenna.
>>
>> Ask Sony, Sanyo, Nokia, or ... they all do it. Well, I don't
>> know exactly what you mean by "separate"
>
> Discrete. Specific enough to work for that function.
> You can't use the GPS processor circuitry for the cell phone
> circuitry; they are separate chips. It doesn't seem there is much in
> a GPS receiver that is duplicated in a cell phone.
> So where does all the stuff in a GPS unit fit into a (smaller already)
> cell phone? The antenna is almost certainly different, and larger. The
> circuits work differently. A GPS draws a lot more power more often.

> What I'm wondering is if people are being told it is GPS they are
> getting when the system merely uses cell towers to set the location?

Nope, its real GPS with the Nokia N95.

>> Though you're more likely to get an answer from the makers
>> of the Neo1973 -http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo1973
>> or from http://howstuffworks.com

> How Stuff Works gave a good start, then gave up when it
> got to my part of the question -- does it really use GPS
> satellites and calculations to build the location?

Yep. It even shows the number of satellites it can see, just like a satnav does too.