Just curious

  • marcelocampiglia@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    The Apple Watch GPS feature works perfectly fine without cellular or any other internet connection.

    I use the Apple Watch (none cellular and without an iPhone nearby) to track my running workouts every day and it works fine 👍

  • kirklennon@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    GPS lets a device determine its coordinates. That’s it. Cellular service is required to plot those coordinates on a live, updating map. These are two separate things.

    As an example of how this works in practice, the GPS-only watch won’t give you directions home, but if you’re on a run, it tracks your route (as a series of coordinates) and when you’re back home and have internet, you can then see your route plotted on a map.

  • OldVenomSnake@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    GPS is a receiver that receives your current coordinate. Then the software uses the coordinate to do stuff with it. So using GPS alone does not require internet connection.

    You’re probably thinking that the maps won’t work without cellular (or internet connection). That’s because the watch doesn’t have all the map data without internet unless you pre-download that section of the map for offline use. The maps app still knows where you are (coordinate-wise) in that case.