Is there a special SIM that I should be using so I may be able to use GPS on my iPad? I have recently bought an iPad 4 and would be mostly using GPS over the week, however I am only using a regular SIM card. If there is a special SIM for that, where can I get a GPS SIM for ipad?
If you have the iPad 4 version capable of WiFi and 4G/3G, then that means that it is capable of GPS since it has a true GPS chip built inside. There is no special SIM card to use to access or use GPS. It works with or without data plan. All you have to do is to download navigation applications that your GPS can use for mapping. But there are some instances that the destination you are looking for cannot be provided by those navigation applications. In times like that, you will need Google maps and it can only be accessed if you have a connection through WiFi or 3G/4G.
The term “GPS” stands for “Global Positioning System”. It is a kind of technology owned by the United States government and being supervised by the country’s Air Force. Though the technology is owned by the United States, everyone is free to use it.
This technology is a radio navigation system that uses radio waves between satellites and a receiver built-in to your phone to provide location and time information to different software that needs it. You don’t actually need to send data into space to make GPS work.
You only need to receive data with the use of your phone from four or more of the satellites in orbit that are dedicated for geo-location use. Every satellite has its own internal atomic clock that sends a time-coded signal on a particular frequency. The receiver chip on your phone verifies which satellites are visible and unobstructed then begins collecting data from the satellites with the strongest signals.
GPS data is designed to be slow because satellites run on rechargeable batteries and sending or transmitting a fast signal hundreds of thousands of miles would require more power. That’s why it’ll take up to a minute to get your location. With regards to the use of a SIM card to be able to use GPS, this is not required.
You can use GPS with or without a SIM card as long as you have a GPS-capable phone or device.
