iPhone: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

Geotagging

Mention to a geek that a gadget has both GPS and a camera, and there's only one possible reaction: "Does it do geotagging?"

Geotagging means "embedding your latitude and longitude information into a photo when you take it." After all, every digital picture you've ever taken comes with its time and date embedded in its file; why not its location?

The good news is the iPhone can geotag every photo you take. How you use this information, however, is a bit trickier. The iPhone doesn't geotag your photos unless all the following conditions are true:

• The location feature on your phone is turned on. On the Home screen, tap Settings→General. Make sure Location Services is turned On.

• The phone knows where it is. If you're indoors, the GPS chip in the iPhone 3G or 3GS probably can't get a fix on the satellites overhead. And if you're not near cellular towers or Wi-Fi base stations, then even the pseudo-GPS of all iPhones may not be able to triangulate your location.

  

• You've given permission. The first time you use the iPhone's camera, a peculiar message appears (shown on iPhone 3GS Goodies). It's asking, "Do you want to geotag your pictures?" If you tap OK, then the iPhone's geographical coordinates will be embedded in each photo you take.

OK, so suppose all this is true, and the geotagging feature is working. How will you know? Well, there's no way to see the location information on the ...