Android - Use Wireless Networks - But Not With Wifi??

[Jayce]

I like to use Google Latitude. Problem is, Google Latitude *only* uses wireless networks to find your location when it is backgrounded. If you open it, it'll utilize GPS if it's enabled. Problem is, that's kind of a pain since I'm always on the run. But hey, wireless networks is pretty darn accurate! So it was a win win for me anyway.

Then one day I'm on wifi on my phone and I logged into Latitude on my laptop. It.. uh... said I was in New York? When I'm in southern PA? Further testing revealed just what a bad joke it is to use wifi for location finding.

Problem is, it looks like wifi and mobile tower findings are the SAME feature. One works, one does not, yet it's an all or nothing setting from what I can see.

Is there a way to make it so I'm not using wifi for location finding but I CAN use mobile towers for it? And no, disabling wifi isn't really an option since I use it heavily when embedded deep in some of these buildings where I have zero service.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

You might be able to get some sort of connection-managing app, i.e monitors outgoing/incoming connections (like TCPdump) and lets you create rules on what's allowed and what's not. You could block any connections over wifi from Google Latitude.

 

[Jayce]

Hmm, I may be on to something else here. It sounds as if there is a database with routers out there and that corresponds to their location based on previous GPS readings. I found on the Google Mobile Forum Discussion that if Latitude is showing me a wildly inaccurate location when NOT using GPS that the database may contain old/incorrect information. That said, the fix seems to be opening Google Maps, turning on wifi, and turning on GPS. Evidently it "self updates" somehow.

My wifi is currently working, but my girlfriend's is one that is showing me in another state. I'll try that when I'm there later in the week to give it a go and see what happens. Afterwards I'll post back here...