Phones

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore, iPhone (3G)

By Nick Broughall on July 11, 2008 at 1:02 AM


Testing out the A-GPS on the iPhone 3G with the guys from Polar Bear Farm in our hotel room brought out some pretty interesting results from the new iPhone 3G. After starting on  a map of New Zealand, it suddenly zoomed in on some rural backwater road in the middle of nowhere.

Zooming out, it wasn’t exactly obvious where the iPhone thought we were.  Zooming out further, it started telling us we were in Kansas. That’s Kansas, USA.

Thinking that it might be helped by stepping outside, we journeyed out to the balcony and pressed the location button again. Straight back to Kansas. Not sure why this happened, or if it’s just because of the fairly slow 3G network here in New Zealand. Anybody over in Oz had any similar probs?

[iPhone 3G Launch on Giz]

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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • sushant verma
    July 11, 2008 at 1:43 AM

    i got a acronym for ya…

    WTF

    Permalink Reply
  • Australia Calling
    July 11, 2008 at 2:34 AM

    Maybe they never tested it in the south hemisphere and have accidentally flipped the latitude and done something strange with the longitude in the process. In latitude Auckland’s about -36 degrees, while Kansas is about 36 degrees. In longitude it seems to be 90 degrees (or 270 degrees, depending on how you look at it) out of whack: 174 degrees for Auckland compared with -96 degrees for Kansas.

    Permalink Reply
  • onyourleft
    July 11, 2008 at 3:44 AM

    Garmin is based out of Kansas. Maybe Apple worked with a Garmin chip set and the default location is Kansas? I’m guessing. Does it show?

    Permalink Reply
  • John
    July 11, 2008 at 3:55 AM

    Looks like that is Google maps, or Google earth. I know that Google earth defaults to Lawrence Kansas, as one of the designers went to KU.

    Permalink Reply
  • bj Wolfe
    July 11, 2008 at 5:46 AM

    I had the same problem with the iFlickr app. It kept geo tagging my photos to Lebannon Kansas.

    Permalink Reply
  • PeteJayhawk
    July 11, 2008 at 6:59 AM

    It could somehow be related to the fact that the default home for Google Earth is located about 1 km from my house here in Lawrence, Kansas.

    Permalink Reply
  • Thurgood
    July 11, 2008 at 7:43 AM

    I had a similar problem with both the google maps and the locator app from Installer, occasionally I was in some random barren area of kansas. It seemed to happen more often when I was on WiFi, though.

    Permalink Reply
  • William Curin
    July 11, 2008 at 2:08 PM

    I’ve had my i780 do similar things… although not as dramatic.
    Easiest way to ensure non-whacked out positioning is to get fresh AGPS data and be outside when going for a lock.

    Permalink Reply
  • Jaber
    July 24, 2008 at 12:29 AM

    Maybe because Kansas is in the center of the US. Go to maps.google.com and click the + sign to zoom in and you will land in Kansas.

    Permalink Reply

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