Common cellphone GPS being able to feel an earthquake would be incredible. Imagine Google Maps telling you to pull over because there was an earthquake, or redirecting you to safety.
Today, they are apologizing for a problem wherein the app reported a 6.1 quake as being located somewhere in the United States, which is not very helpful.
Other reviewers have complained that the app is a power hog that drains a phone's battery pretty quickly.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.berkeley.b...
I've seen it suggested before, but if this app or one like it only worked while the phone was plugged in, that would eliminate power consumption concerns and also provide cleaner data (a phone plugged in is usually sitting flat on a table, counter, etc, and is thus in a better position to collect seismic data than if it were in somebody's pocket.)
Companies lose billions on projects every year because someone uttered these exact same words.
I can't be the only thinking this is nonsense. Just install a bunch of actual earthquake detectors and make them send notifications via already existing alert systems.
A less chatty implementation would be if each phone only contacted the server when it sensed a possible quake. If it gets a few correlated hits, it can even send out a "hey did everyone feel that?" question.