How do I get a background location update every n minutes in my iOS application?

Question

I\'m looking for a way to get a background location update every n minutes in my iOS application. I\'m using iOS 4.3 and the solution should work for non-jailbroken iPhones

Answer 1

I used xs2bush's method of getting an interval (using timeIntervalSinceDate) and expanded on it a little bit. I wanted to make sure that I was getting the required accuracy that I needed and also that I was not running down the battery by keeping the gps radio on more than necessary.

I keep location running continuously with the following settings:

locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyThreeKilometers;
locationManager.distanceFilter = 5;

this is a relatively low drain on the battery. When I'm ready to get my next periodic location reading, I first check to see if the location is within my desired accuracy, if it is, I then use the location. If it's not, then I increase the accuracy with this:

locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyNearestTenMeters;
locationManager.distanceFilter = 0;

get my location and then once I have the location I turn the accuracy back down again to minimize the drain on the battery. I have written a full working sample of this and also I have written the source for the server side code to collect the location data, store it to a database and allow users to view gps data in real time or retrieve and view previously stored routes. I have clients for iOS, android, windows phone and java me. All clients are natively written and they all work properly in the background. The project is MIT licensed.

The iOS project is targeted for iOS 6 using a base SDK of iOS 7. You can get the code here.

Please file an issue on github if you see any problems with it. Thanks.