Broadcom to supply GPS in Apple’s next-gen iPhone?

Friday, May 30, 2008 · 4:20 pm · 36 Comments

“The new iPhone has Global Positioning System (GPS) built into it, thanks to legal requirements put in place by the FCC,” Om Malik reports for GigaOM.

“The company supplying the GPS to iPhone is going to be a big winner in this space; according to my sources, the contract has been nailed down by Broadcom, a relatively new entrant into the GPS market,” Malik reports.

“The Irvine, Calif.-based chip company had acquired Global Locate in July 2007 for $143 million in cash and $80 million in incentives,” Malik reports.

Full article here.

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36 Comments

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Mr. Friggin Answer Man

Friday, May 30, 2008 - 9:08 pm · Reply

To answer someone’s question about why GPS would be mandated on the next generation iPhone, below is a quote from an article in Red Herring from which the Om Malik article references:

“Federal regulators have mandated location technology for cellular phones so 911 dialers can be located, but crippling capital costs—an estimated $1 billion per carrier—and technological glitches have caused endless delays.

“For most carriers, the mandate’s deadline looms at the end of this year, but a vast number of mobile emergency calls still can’t be located.”

“As cellular subscribers in the U.S. approach 200 million, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has been forced to respond to growing public concern. In the late 1990s, the FCC issued a mandate requiring that 95 percent of cell phones from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Nextel must be able to be located within 150 meters by the end of this year. Cingular and T-Mobile, which chose a different network-based location technology, will have to comply in a similar timeframe, but within a range of 300 meters.”

The source article is somewhat dated, having been published in 2005. Here’s the link:

http://www.redherring.com/Home/14192
CYxodus

Friday, May 30, 2008 - 9:33 pm · Reply

Lol. Some of you guys must me self-absorbed teenagers.

I’m really looking forward to the iPhone 2. I can’t wait for my contract with Alltel to be up in several months, I’ll be switching to AT&T;and the iPhone. Finally a phone that works, isn’t limited and won’t be discontinued in 6 months.
LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:18 pm · Reply

I wish we could stop the idiotic politicizing of issues on MDN. It really robs the site of its usefulness and ability to get to the real issues. Puffing out your chest and declaring your political beliefs is juvenile and destructive.
NO FCC Mandate

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:37 am · Reply

The linked author isn’t credible… the article he linked to was written in 2005 which mandated triangulation as close as 300 yards—a far cry from the multiple satellite GPS we all know and love.
SKY LARK

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:50 am · Reply

@Sheesh…

Why would a service like E911 use GPS or any other sort of triangulation if it can not determine your location.

While the mobile phone might not transmit the location data – an “authority” might be able to hook into the mobile service provider’s network and access the GPS data being sent to a particular mobile, therefore providing a stream that accurately determines the bearings of a mobile phone.

While that might be illegal, it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen in the safeguarding of your security.

“Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you”
morons - everywhere.

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 1:59 am · Reply

‘Political beliefs’ – like religion, politics attracts fantasists and social inadequates, as we can clearly see here when we read the comments.

WTF is a political ‘belief’ when its at home?

As for the GPS thing, this article seems to make little sense as applied to the iPhone.

I think I will wait for June 9th.

As for the ‘politics’, try to remember that the vital thing is that an individual has sovereignty, that he/she can do what they want, live how they want, as long as simple rules/laws aren’t broken.

Is that the case in the USA or the UK? I think not – somehow we all get dragged into the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘war on drugs’ etc. even though the majority have nothing to do with ‘terror’ or ‘drugs’.

Its always about control, or bread and circuses if you will – keep the people fed and entertained while the powerful do anything they want.

It would be ok, or at least amusing, if the powerful were interesting, but they are a bunch of dullards who want expensive toys and have zero taste or smarts.

What a frickin world – idiots at the ‘top’ and idiots at the ‘bottom’.

‘They hate us because we are free’. LOL! er..no, they hate us because we keep travelling to their homes and killing them with bombs and guns, and stealing their oil so we can drive 300 yards to the store for gallons of ice cream.

Maybe if we were nicer to people, they might like us?
karL MArx Oriole

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 2:05 am · Reply

1) GPS can be used to track you, if you have a GPS receiver that is turned on.

2) Its certainly possible that this will be used to track people.

3) Is GPS really necessary? Well we have been without it for a few million years and we did ok.

4) Its generally just another stupid toy – try looking at the frickin’ sign posts, street names, landmarks etc.

5) People are getting dumber by the frickin’ minute.
Wandering joe

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 2:25 am · Reply

@CYxodus, thanks for the link
chaz

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 7:32 am · Reply

@ morons everywhere

You’re the king of rationalization / sterotyping. How the many people are driving 300yds for ice cream. How about the oil imported that is used for fertilizer to grow crops that we GIVE away, and we’ve been feeding hungry people for free for decades now! How much technology has the US given away. Our laws make it easy, actually encourage, our great manufacturing companies to leave this country.

And the rest of the world hates us, trust me, those folks hate everybody. It’s really the basic human instinct, they have something I want, it could be freedom, affluence, etc.
Macaday

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 9:29 am · Reply

Agree Linux Guy, let’s keep politics away from MDN (and RoughlyDrafted.com for that matter too).

But, as the last word, these diatribes always start off with a pop about George Bush. And the funny thing is, he’s getting the last laugh, because Iraqi’s are more and more saying -publicly- ‘thank you US’.
zek

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:16 am · Reply

To all those afraid of ‘politicizing’ the thread. The article mentions that the FCC mandated gps in cellphones. That’s political. If you don’t like political there are plenty of other stories to read.
bobchr

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:32 pm · Reply

@all the paranoid idiots posting here
A GPS receiver can no more be use to track you than a transistor radio or portable TV. I’ve been an Electrical Engineer for over 25 years and in none of my my course work or research have I come across has any paper stated that a device that purely receives a signal from a source can be tracked by that source or any other receiving source.

In order for the user of any device to be tracked there must be wireless transmissions between that device and a cellsite. The site may interrogate the device for it’s GPS location and gain a more accurate fix but there are laws in place as to how this data may be used by law enforcement .

The GPS in cell Services were mandated by the FCC as a function of a few well publicized cases of people getting lost or hung up in snow storms and had little in the way of cell signals so a m obile operator could not pinpoint their location accurately enough to send help in a timely manner.
Sheesh...

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:52 pm · Reply

@morons – everywhere.

“‘They (I assume you mean terrorest and Middle Easterners) hate us because we are free’. LOL! er..no, they hate us because we keep travelling to their homes and killing them with bombs and guns, and stealing their oil so we can drive 300 yards to the store for gallons of ice cream.”

That is BS. The reason they hate us is because they see us as non-believing sinners who don’t fear and worship Allah. The “WEST” has become a primarily non-believing group of people who have shed the shackles of religion. They see us as enemies of God (Allah) because of our worldly ways and they don’t want it infecting their society. We are a threat to their beliefs and we must be destroyed or converted. Any of you people out there that believe that we are not in a religious war are fooling yourself. I, as a former Christian see this. The freedom that we have to choose our religion or choose not to have one has weakened the west when it comes to fighting this.
We are in a bad situation and there is going to be a long time when the world is going to be in conflict. Hopefully someday the side of this conflict that is currently asleep will wake up and realize that they are going to have their asses kicked if something isn’t done.
John C. Randolph

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - 10:05 am · Reply

“I’ve been an Electrical Engineer for over 25 years and in none of my my course work or research have I come across has any paper stated that a device that purely receives a signal from a source can be tracked by that source or any other receiving source.”

You’re right that detecting it from the transmitter is unlikely, but any RF receiver can be detected if it’s powered up, because it will radiate some amount of RF energy itself. Of course, the range of detection will be very limited. IIRC, the TV detectors that the BBC uses to enforce their licenses are only good for a couple hundred feet.

-jcr
John C. Randolph

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - 10:06 am · Reply

“The reason they hate us is because they see us as non-believing sinners who don’t fear and worship Allah”

So, why aren’t they attacking the Buddhists in Japan?
Ampar

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - 3:45 pm · Reply

“So, why aren’t they attacking the Buddhists in Japan?”

Priorities.