When to use wifi vs GPS

[Snareman]

I'm trying to set up some profiles to save battery life using Tasker (wow its a steep learning curve compared to what I think Locale would have been) and am trying to figure out what to have on when. Please help correct what I think I understand.

GPS obviously finds your location but uses the most battery and should be turned off when possible

Wifi can help with your location. While I'm at work where there is wifi I can turn that on and turn the GPS off and the phone will still know where I am based on wifi, cell towers, etc. Having wifi on both at home and work will save battery power compared to everything going over the Verizon network. Its very annoying that the work wifi logs me out after some amount of time and then the phone says it can't find some network stuff to do searches. It seems that when wifi is on and it isn't logged into the wifi network that it won't go on and search via Verizon network.

In my car I should turn on the Bluetooth and GPS and turn off the wifi (since there is obviously no wifi connection.

 

[Snareman]

60 views and no one can fill me in on whether I have a clue or not?

 

[ragnarokx]

Sounds like you've got it pretty figured out. I don't use Tasker myself, but I manually turn on WiFi anywhere it is available. I also always leave GPS off unless I'm using an app like Navigation or Maps. Do you use Bluetooth and GPS during every car trip? If you don't I'd leave those off and only turn them on when specifically needed.

 

[Snareman]

Sounds like you've got it pretty figured out. I don't use Tasker myself, but I manually turn on WiFi anywhere it is available. I also always leave GPS off unless I'm using an app like Navigation or Maps. Do you use Bluetooth and GPS during every car trip? If you don't I'd leave those off and only turn them on when specifically needed.

Good point. I use the BT because it connects to my car, but unless I'm using GoogleNav to get me somewhere I suppose I don't really need the GPS on. Is there any other compelling reason to have the GPS on other than for using it for a map type activity?

 

[camika]

I just started having a strange thing happen. When I'm on wifi my location and weather change to a totally different city and state than where I'm actually located. When I turn off wifi, its corrected. Does anyone know why this is happening??

 

[fwdixon]

I just started having a strange thing happen. When I'm on wifi my location and weather change to a totally different city and state than where I'm actually located. When I turn off wifi, its corrected. Does anyone know why this is happening??

most likely because your wifi is connected to the internet via a router or server in another location, thus has an IP address that doesn't match your location.

 

[ragnarokx]

Good point. I use the BT because it connects to my car, but unless I'm using GoogleNav to get me somewhere I suppose I don't really need the GPS on. Is there any other compelling reason to have the GPS on other than for using it for a map type activity?

Only other thing I can think of is if you have a weather widget/app that you want constantly updated.

 

[emptycube]

I don't see why you would need to turn off GPS. It seems it only is 'active' (for lack of a better word) when you open an app that needs GPS, like Nav or Maps. I leave my GPS enabled all the time and it never shows up on the battery usage list. The only time I ever see the GPS symbol in the Notification bar is when I open an app that needs GPS.

 

[NickA]

I don't see why you would need to turn off GPS. It seems it only is 'active' (for lack of a better word) when you open an app that needs GPS, like Nav or Maps. I leave my GPS enabled all the time and it never shows up on the battery usage list. The only time I ever see the GPS symbol in the Notification bar is when I open an app that needs GPS.

+1 to this. I haven't used the GPS in a couple weeks, so I started GMaps yesterday and got a lock in about a minute. I have noticed however that this time of year I seem to get quicker locks on any GPS I use. Maybe it's the lack of leaves on the trees.

Anyway, with the GPS on (meaning the little icon is on when you pull down the notification bar), I don't see any change in battery life.

 

[homieelee]

I'm interested in the above comments about leaving GPS "on", but not actually using an app that utilizes it (Gmaps/Nav). I came from a blackberry where leaving the GPS on/not using a gps app still drains the battery.

 

[Adiliyo]

the gps on only uses the gps when an app calls for it, it's not constantly on.

i never turn mine off and my battery life is quite good (18+hr charges)

this is what i have:

wifi on: pretty much all the time, since i forget to turn it off when i'm not home

gps on: all the time

bt: when i need to connect to something it's on, otherwise always off