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What I want to do:

I want to have my iPhone to frequently (formally defined later) upload my GPS location to a central server. I want to do this in the most battery efficient way.

Research I'm aware of:

Apple Documentation:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/CoreLocation/Reference/CLLocation_Class/CLLocation/CLLocation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007126

Stack Overflow Links:

Response 1

Response: proof of existence; some other tool can do it

How to reduce iPhone battery consumption while using GPS

Response 2

Response: track only cell tower changes

iPhone GPS - Battery Draining Extremely Fast

iPhone running periodical process in the background - battery optimized way

Question

My question is a bit vague in that my definition of "frequently" is really dependent on what the battery life can tolerate. For example, if the battery can take updates of every 5 minutes, I'd like to do it every five minutes; if the battery could do this every 10 seconds, I'd like to do it every 10 seconds.

I really want to understand

  • the different ways (change on significant location, timer, background?) continuously uploading GPS locations can be implemented
  • advantages / disadvantages
  • approximately how long the battery life can last in each case

This seems like a fairly generic and common problem. Does anyone know of either:

  • an in depth analysis of the various methods
  • or if there is a single "optimal" way to do this?

[Moderators: feel free to mark this comment wiki. I'd love to just get lots of different answers + cost benefit analysis of them.]

Community
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user1416711
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  • I am also the victim of the not finding battery consumption benchmark of cases go the core location settings. I recently found [Some guideline from WWDC 2016 CoreLocation](http://imgur.com/a/Z3dvU) for choosing the correct Core Location API however it doesn't give the exact benchmark of battery consumption. – snjmhj Sep 02 '16 at 11:40

1 Answers1

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Have a look at the Apple Documentation Here.

The significant-change location service offers a low-power location service for devices with cellular radios. This service is available only in iOS 4.0 and later and can also wake up an application that is suspended or not running.

It all depends on the use case. If the user will stay at a certain location and all you want to do is to track if he is leaving the country, tracking the significant location changing will be most suitable. However, this will not be precise enough for navigation apps.

One advantage of choosing the "Apple-Algorithm" is that they'll optimize it for you, if battery issues occur. (-:

Sam Spencer
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Rene Berlin
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