Here's an email I sent just now to the Breadcrumbs guys:

Just bought Breadcrumbs, and it looks cool, but I'm curious about why it's so much less accurate than the iPhone's built-in map app for wifi triangulation.

I'm currently indoors in Manhattan, so I wouldn't expect much (if anything) from native GPS. But thanks to Skyhook, I usually get a pretty good fix on my location, even indoors. Currently my circular error of probability is displayed as less than 200' in the iPhone's map app, and indeed, it has located me accurately.

OTOH, Breadcrumbs tells me my error is 3000'. I sent myself a Breadcrumbs email, and indeed it's way off compared to the iPhone's map app. Ironically, when I tap Breadcrumbs' email link on the iPhone, I get a marker that's way off, while the iPhone's native (non-GPS) circle marker sits there on the same screen -- far more accurate.

I assume that you're forcing a result from GPS, even when Skyhook might be more accurate? Breadcrumbs is displaying the triangle icon, so it looks like it's using wifi triangulation as well, but then why would it be so much less accurate than the iPhone's map app?

City dwellers like myself don't always get much benefit from native GPS- we're often reliant on Skyhook. Is it possible that Breadcrumbs isn't designed for this urban scenario? I would love to use Breadcrumbs even in the city to fire off a quick email about where I am, but that doesn't look practical.

Might this be addressed in an update?

I'm waiting for the app that can locate any iPhone without the targeted iPhone having to be running any app at all, like when it's asleep in your pocket. Yeah, I know, security issues and all that, but if the targeted phone's owner can grant permission to be located by someone with a matching password then security shouldn't be an issue. My fiancee and I would like to be able to spy on each other's whereabouts just because we think it's cool, but I would also like it for the day when I leave my iPhone at a restaurant or it gets stolen. And maybe a soccer mom would like to know where her little iPhone-toten hellion is sometimes.

Don't make me have to write this myself.