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A recent Apple patent filing found by AppleInsider hints that Apple could be working on a feature that would warn iPhone users when they are about to lose a cellular of wifi signal.  It would work by giving either a vibrational or audible warning only when the loss of signal would effect the end user.  The patent reads, “If the estimated amount of time until the wireless device projected to be out of range is less than [a] threshold, a tangible warning is issued to that effect.”  This sounds great to me because I hate getting dropped calls on my iPhone, but is there something more behind this?  Wouldn’t this require some sort of GPS?

I know the iPhone can use cell tower triangulation to get an estimate of where you are at, but wouldn’t this need a more specific location via GPS that could cross reference a database with how far the signal should stretch?  Or will it simply just notice when the signal starts to decrease to warn you?  Either way, it would be a very useful feature that would make worrying about dropped calls on your phone much less of a problem.  If this does get implemented into the iPhone, you aren’t going to hear any complaints from me!