Does Wi-Fi consume battery when ON but not connected?

[emoeskaite]

Does it? I keep it on sometimes to allow people to find me through Google Latitute, which is more accurate than carrier's towers. I mean it does detect nearby networks at all times, but how much battery does it consume when I don't connect to them....?

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[trayes77]

In short, yes. If its on but not connected to a network, its still searching for a network to connect to. This in turn, uses battery power. Its u known how much battery is consumed by that action. Leaving wifi for latitude will improve your location accuracy, but if its not connected to a wifi network, that becomes moot.

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[Insp_Gadget]

In short, yes. If its on but not connected to a network, its still searching for a network to connect to. This in turn, uses battery power. Its u known how much battery is consumed by that action. Leaving wifi for latitude will improve your location accuracy, but if its not connected to a wifi network, that becomes moot.

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Actually, it's not moot. Latitude doesn't require you to be connected to a WiFi network for it to report location based on proximity to the network.

 

[trayes77]

That was what I tried to convey. Leaving wifi on for the sake of latitude is pointless if you're not connected.

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[Insp_Gadget]

That was what I tried to convey. Leaving wifi on for the sake of latitude is pointless if you're not connected.

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You don't get it. Leaving WiFi on actually does help Latitude when you are near a WiFi hotspot even if you don't connect to that hotspot. So it's not a moot point to have it on when not connected.

 

[trayes77]

Really!? That doesn't make much sense that it would improve location though its not connected to a network. But you seem pretty sure about it.

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[Insp_Gadget]

Really!? That doesn't make much sense that it would improve location though its not connected to a network. But you seem pretty sure about it.

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Actually, it makes perfect sense, once you realize that WiFi networks can be geographically located via the IP addresses of the Internet connections they are tied to--the same way Internet traffic can be traced to a particular router or establishment. It isn't always 100% accurate, but most WiFi hotspots set up by businesses like McDonald's, etc. are at fixed locations, which can be traced.

Also, keep in mind that Google surveyed WiFi networks the same way they did Street View (by driving around--wardriving). So all that would be necessary is for your phone to detect the presence of the network (not connect/auhenticate to it... just detect its presence). Then your phone would report its location based on the proximity of the WiFi network. WiFi networks only work within a few hundred feet of the wireless router, so if a phone detects a wireless router that Google previously surveyed, Google can be reasonably sure about the location.

 

[trayes77]

That makes sense, thanks

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[Insp_Gadget]

Oh, and to answer the original question, yes, some battery is consumed. But not much. It's negligible compared to a cellular radio trying to find a signal.

 

[emoeskaite]

Oh, and to answer the original question, yes, some battery is consumed. But not much. It's negligible compared to a cellular radio trying to find a signal.

Thanks.

By the way, location set by presence of Wi-Fi networks is very accurate (as accurate as how far the signal from the Wi-Fi point gets - about 100 meters). At least when you are in an urbanized place like Chicago where there are 6-10 networks in the air everywhere you are. That being said it shows your location on the map almost with GPS's accuracy, while your location set by a carrier's tower is accurate only to 600 meter radius.

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[Biggnaa20]

Turning your WiFi on helps get a location lock in other apps as well. Luckily, the Galaxy Nexus isn't plagued with GPS issues, but when I had other Samsung phones (Epic and Epic Touch), I'd turn on WiFi to speed up the GPS connection.

Insp_Gadget: Thanks for the explanation.

 

[emoeskaite]

Bad thing about GNex is that it auto connects you to a Wi-Fi network (when wi-fi is on on the phone) and there is no way to turn the auto off other than forget a network. But then you'd have to enter network password each time you want to get connected to your wi-fi.

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