Professional Android Sensor Programming

Chapter 1

Introducing the Android Location Service

What's in this chapter?

Providing overview of how location information is provided in Android

Presenting an overview of GPS

Discussing why A-GPS is used in Android

Providing an overview of the network location provider

Location information is becoming increasingly important in the world of mobile development. Apps that were once location agnostic now make use of location information to provide a richer user experience. Being able to combine a simple web search engine with up-to-the-minute location information allows Android devices to provide a level of functionality that was previously not possible. The capability to easily retrieve and provide location data to apps is becoming a major feature of today's mobile platforms. Android provides this functionality with its location service.

Android's location service provides access to facilities that can be used to determine a device's current location. This information can be used for a wide variety of functions and can allow a device and the software that runs on it to have a better understanding of its surroundings.

Methods Used to Determine Location

Android makes use of different methods to provide location information to an app. In Android, these facilities are called location providers, and each has its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. In addition, because location providers have such unique characteristics, they each lend themselves to be used differently in different ...