iPhone/Droid SPOT Function

[Albert]

Has anyone setup and used the function to use their smart phone as a SPOT - like tracking device? We're leaving in a week on a western motorcycle trip and several friends and family have suggested we set this up so they can follow along as we trek around. Anyone tried this. My wife has a Droid if that makes a difference.

 

P.S. I would still be using a bag phone with a crank but my wife has forced me to take her hand-me-down phones so as not to embarass her. I'm up to a flip type now.

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

My family has adopted the Google Latitude platform to see what each other are up to. It works pretty well as any time you log into your google page or open the browser app with latitude running it updates your location.

 

The iPhone 3G does not run the app while it is asleep- even if you leave it open and put the thing to sleep from there. For it to constantly update like the Spot, you'd have to leave the app open and keep the iPhone from sleeping. Of course, at the end of the day, assuming you have service and/or wi-fi, you can update you location by running it.

 

My father has a droid. I think it's the motorola. His keeps the last 6 apps running and updates regularly unless the browser in which latitude is running or is shut down by falling off the "last-6" list.

 

Either way, Latitude does not work exactly like Spot. There is no apparent storage of past locations. It only shows the most recent update.

[Albert]

Thanks! Yes Latitude sounds familiar I think that's what they were talking about. I'll have to check into that. The fact that it's not real time isn't really an issue for us.

[Svensk]

I've been playing around with InstaMapper on my Eris. It's a free service, at least for now.

 

You can set it to update your location at selectable intervals - I use 5 minutes. You can also set the display to show only current location or up to 500 tracking locations.

 

Each time I head out for a ride I first enable the device on their website and then email a link to my spouse so she can track my progress - or lack thereof.

 

[Svensk]

Here's a screen shot of the InstaMapper.

 

 

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

DUH! <-- Pointed at me.

 

I've been using SpotWalla (http://spotwalla.com/) for my Spot tracking pages for a long time now. Also update-able with FireEagle (there's an app for that) and Google Latitude. Like Instamapper above it saves your locations and is customizable.

[scout6]

My wife and I have been using the Latitude app as well. Seems to work pretty well as an overview tracker (sometimes gets lost between towers). I am not sure that you can trust it to the degree you can a spot. As it has been explained to me, the gps is not a true one, but uses phone towers instead of the satellite data.