Get GPS On Your Wi-Fi iPad, With AirLocation
by DM
May 16, 2011
For just a $.99, AirLocation lets your Wi-Fi iPad grab your iPhone 4’s GPS signal via Personal Hotspot.
Sometimes, if you’re lost on the road and trying to find your way, you may really wish your Wi-Fi iPad could pull up a GPS signal on its big, beautiful display. Especially when the iPhone in your pocket already has a signal.
To make things even more frustrating, the Personal Hotspot feature won’t let you do this—or, at least, won’t let you do this very accurately. But, there is a solution!
Just launch AirLocation, and voila, no more tiny screens the whole family has to cluster around!
Once you’ve tried GPS on the iPad, you’ll wonder how you lived inside a 3.5 inch window. Finally, you get the feeling of a real map in your hands! Of course, this feature does require you to be able to use Personal Hotspot in the first place, meaning you need an iPhone 4 and some kind of (paid) agreement with your carrier.
Many will argue that this gets pretty expensive, with both AT&T and Verizon charging $20/month for the feature. Verizon does offer it free with iPad data plans that cost $35 or more.
Could It Save You Money?
Comparatively, the cost of a 3G iPad and a separate data plan, $130 more to start with and a minimum of $20/month, ends up costing $370 in your first year, compared to the Personal Hotspot rate of $240. You’d also need to have an iPhone 4 (not a 3G or 3GS) and keep it nearby in order to get your iPad online.
Does paying $370 ($30 a month) sound worthwhile? If you can’t stand the thought of relying on your iPhone’s battery, maybe (or if you have a 3G/3GS).
You could also just thumb your nose at the carriers, jailbreak your phone, and, for $20, have pretty good tethering through MyWi. Add another dollar for AirLocation, and your iPad GPS dreams can come true for 88 percent off.
