A GPS app called Trailguru recently caught my eye as I have been searching around for a useful tool to help me to map my runs. One of the nice features of the tool is its simplicity and ease of use. On first install on the iphone, you will be requested to register a new account on trailguru.com, which will serve as the repository to hold your GPS tracks. Registration takes less than a minute and I even did it on the phone directly. Initial FAQ readings all seem very positive and I set out to do a test run today by jogging back from office to home.
To start the track, you can just press "Start" which will then ask if you want to allow the phone to use your current location, or choose to manually turn on your "Location Services" under settings before starting the trace. This seems to work better for me as I was always able to get a GPS lock on immediately after. The application is clever enough to guess if you are continuously moving or have come to a stop based on the GPS location. Uploading the results to the website is a breeze as you are displayed with a screen to select the activity that you have just completed, choose if you want to share with other users, and post your track online immediately. You will then receive an email indicating your track upload with a link to view it online on a Gmap.
As expected, I was getting mixed results even though the screen was showing me the lat/lon coordinates, which might be down to the buildings around my office as I headed down to the river. It has clearly got the first stretch quite accurately (although it missed the stretch from my office down to the river bank), but completely missed the 2nd part of the route opposite Westminster to Pimlico. It was the best demo test but it did show enough potential for me to give it another go later this week. I think the fact that it even shows you the elevation and accumulated distance simply makes this app a potential killer, and not forgeting that you can actually view traces shared by other users around your route. As you can see, it is not only for runners like me, but you can even use it for hiking, trekking, cycling etc...and best of all, the app is FREE! Give it a go yourself and let me know how it went for you.
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1 comment:
I did try this app earlier this week but didn't have great success with it. It seemed that if I left it going for a while it stopped logging. I thought that might be because I'd locked my phone but I just tried that and it made no difference.
Might be something I'd done but definitely worth being wary of. I really hope one of these services hooks into fireeagle soon too so that we can start doing more interesting things with them.
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