Is location Services Really off ??

AnthemX · Nov 7, 2011

Hi,

You guys seem like a knowledgeable lot, esp with many dev's contributing so hopefully you guys can help with a question...

When i set location services on at the top level but no apps are actually using it (the arrow is not visable etc), is the GPS chip etc powered off ?, or is the only way to actually disable the chip and hence save battery power is to disable location services at the top level ?. It would seem to make sense that the chip only powers up when a app requires etc, but the impression i get is that its on all the time if the top level is set, and then apps are allowed to 'use' the data if they are allowed to ?

Hopefully you guys will know, at present i always turn it off at the top level to save power, and its a pain to turn it back on each time i want to use TomTom or maps etc

Thanks !

Gregoris · Nov 7, 2011

in the setting you can manually chose what apps use location services and what does not

AnthemX · Nov 8, 2011

Unleashed said:
in the setting you can manually chose what apps use location services and what does not

yes, but by doing this are you actually saying battery power, i.e. at what level do you need to disable location services, top level, or at app level as you mention to actually disable the hardware and save power ?

Gregoris · Nov 8, 2011

AnthemX said:
yes, but by doing this are you actually saying battery power, i.e. at what level do you need to disable location services, top level, or at app level as you mention to actually disable the hardware and save power ?

rather then having all the apps on? or off until you need them on? well compared to having it all on then for sure yes but if you dont mind the hassle of switching it on and off all the time then do it like that, there might be a sbsettings toggle for that though if you jailbreak you should look in cydia so it would be easy to turn on and off

AnthemX · Nov 8, 2011

Unleashed said:
rather then having all the apps on? or off until you need them on? well compared to having it all on then for sure yes but if you dont mind the hassle of switching it on and off all the time then do it like that, there might be a sbsettings toggle for that though if you jailbreak you should look in cydia so it would be easy to turn on and off

Thanks, i dont jailbreak but did find this

'Auto Location' Automatically Turns On and Off Location Services Based On Usage [Cydia Tweak] | Redmond Pie

It does appear then that if the location services is on at the top level then basically the GPS chipset etc is on and draining battery to some degree, whether an app actually uses the data it retrieves is dependent on the lover level settings for each app ?. Why is it that Apple does not allow the calling app to enable the hardware. By this i mean, when you open maps, it makes a call and the GPS powers up, then once you leave, it powers down ?. This is how it works on other platforms.

It does seem confusing that people mention the timezone setting in location services being a battery killer in ios5 when all you need to do is turn off location services at the top level to disable the hardware, then no apps, in error or not can access the gps data. There is something confusing about the theory about timezone setting, if location services is running and gps is on, whether timezone accesses that data or not will not increase the battery drain, i.e. it cannot somehow increase the power the gps uses, if its on, its on !... confusing....

So, what do you think the purple arrow indicates ?, is that saying that an app is accessing the GPS data already being received by the GPS chip ?, rather than a indication that GPS is on. As it does not appear unless a active app is running.

Applogies for all the questions, i am curious as to whether leaving location services on at the top level will drain the battery, at the moment i always turn it off there, but its a real pain to re-enable every time and app requires it

thanks