The Mechanics of Geolocation

In order to make your geolocation ideas a reality, it's important to understand the capabilities of all the moving parts (sorry, we couldn't resist that joke).In any Android-targeted geolocation web application, two sets of capabilities are important. First, what capabilities does a given Android device present to any web-based location-focused application? Second, what features of HTML5 (and to a lesser extent, CSS3 and JavaScript) provide location capabilities? Ultimately, the combination of what a device can say about its location, and what a web application can do with that information, will set the boundaries for what you can achieve. Let's look at the background for both.

Understanding Device Capabilities