The more expensive smart phones and tablets used to be equipped with an A-GPS/GPS system.

The GPS phones and tablets could be used without a phone connection.

Nowadays, smart phones and tablets are equipped with a LOCATION button.

Is LOCATION same as A-GPS/GPS system or does LOCATION rely on triangulation by Internet and requires an Internet connection?

TIA

Because use of GPS radios draw a lot of power each time they're used, and sometimes take time to resolve your current position, Google and other phone OS manufacturers offer up several methods to help speed up or alternately determine 'location'.

Besides GPS/aGPS, alternate but usually less precise or rough location can be determined by other things the phone or device can detect. Mobile phone towers and residential or commercial WiFi Access Points send out unique hardware identifiers, CID or BSSID (MAC hardware address), and since mobile phone Towers and WiFi Access Points rarely move then their identifier data can be used to determine their location and make it your (inexact) location. This type of 'associated data' is recorded by the device when an accurate GPS location is determined and sent to Apple, Google, Microsoft, et al, respectively, so any time later the associated location database can be used to quickly assist in determining the location of other users. Data for this location database is collected by unwitting users, but also by google streetview car as it roams around taking streetview pictures.

For some devices, rough location can also be determined strictly from the ISP assigned IP Address (associated to a location in various databases). But since ISP IP addresses are frequently issued via DHCP and therefor frequently reassigned, only a general location can be derived by the use of them. So it can put you in a country, a province, or city. Sometimes this 'position' is good enough to assist you in getting an area map, weather, airport info, or assisting in other general location queries when you just need to be 'close enough' to start..

See this post:

Help! All GPS Tracking apps show me at the wrong location..

Started by Mobi, 2015-10-26 11:08