Question

I would like to ask for advice on stopping a CLLocationManager -startUpdatingLocation. Currently I am considering two methods, but I am unsure which to use and would like to get an idea how other folks do this:

Method_001:

[locationManager startUpdatingLocation];
[self performSelector:@selector(stopUpdatingLocation:) withObject:@"TimedOut" afterDelay:30];

• Potentially wastes battery life as always runs for 30secs
• If network is slow might not get an accurate location in time
• Feels quite a tidy way to implement the timeout.

Method_002:

[locationManager startUpdatingLocation];

Then inside: -locationManager:didUpdateToLocation:fromLocation: add:

static int timeOut = 0;
timeOut++;

// Other code that checks for and stops
// when a suitable result, accuracy, age etc is found.

if(timeOut >= 4) {
    [[self locationManager] stopUpdatingLocation];
    timeOut = 0;
    return;
}

• Might not resolve an accurate location in 4 (or less) attempts.
• 4 results might not be returned for CLLocationManager and we never timeout.
• Better on battery life as we stop immediately on a good result.

Just curious?

Answer 1

Hmm, I think I prefer the first one. I don’t know if we can be sure about how often the didUdpateToLocation: method gets called. I think the time out is more reliable.