GPS geotag photo secret is out

[Ron Whitfield]

I did not know this http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Web-Ph....html?x=0&.v=1

[craigwatanabe]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

Thanks for that info. With many of us posting using FB apps on our smartphones, this is relevant information.

[mel]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

I'm the proud owner of a landlocked landline and own zero cell phones, much less a phone that takes digital pictures and follow me with GPS.

Just checked my 4 digital cameras - all are older models and none have geotags in the EXIF data files.

One way that I have found to even get rid of EXIF data is to run the digital picture through an older version of Photoshop (in my case version 4.2). Save as within the app (this runs only on Mac OS 9x) and the new image is stripped of all EXIF data.

Another way is to take a step back and shoot with film! I do that on occasion.

[helen]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

Thing is for outdoor shots the GPS information embeded in the tag should be accurate but for indoor shots what then? GPS doesn't work indoors, so either those fields are blank (which is okay) or they might contain the last known GPS coordinates that the device remembered which might not be in the same general location it is currently in.

But I think the camera manufactor really need to say that their product is doing geotagging or not and have the option available to turn it off.

[escondido100]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

most smartphones do not use satelites in the traditional sense of a GPS. they triangulate using the cell towers as known locations... the more cell towers the more accurate. in a coastal strip like kona they may only have one or two cell towers.....accuracy on my iphone is around 200' in LA urban area my accuracy was about 20' due to many more cell towers to triangulate from.
so if you have cell reception you can be geotagged.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

most smartphones do not use satelites in the traditional sense of a GPS. they triangulate using the cell towers as known locations... the more cell towers the more accurate. in a coastal strip like kona they may only have one or two cell towers.....accuracy on my iphone is around 200' in LA urban area my accuracy was about 20' due to many more cell towers to triangulate from.
so if you have cell reception you can be geotagged.

so why does my BB using POYNT indicate it is locating the Satellites in order to triangulate my location? It even shows an icon of a satellite uplink station while searching for GPS satellites?

Regardless, out here in Lower Puna the geotracking can pinpoint me to only within 4500 meters, five in Hilo though. That to me would indicate cell triangulation since not too many cell towers where I live.

[escondido100]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

evidently Blackberry is a little diferent. I have iphone 3G that i use for geocaching. it has an ap for that.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: GPS geotag photo secret is out

the app I'm using is POYNT and I also use Google Maps and both triangulate to the same approximate accuracy. I think it's like you said, cell triangulation.