Endomondo safety feature

Too old for this

I don't know if any one else has picked up on this feature in endomondo, but while I'm out on my bike my missus can log in and see where i am, sounds a bit like big brother :roll: but if i have a serious off whilst on my own and don't return at roughly the time that i said at least she would know where i was to get some help if necessary.

hucking_fell

There's folk talking about it in this recent thread:
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/forums/vie ... t=12779236

concorde

Hmmmmm interesting. Best not stop off for a shag with the woman down the street next time then ;-)

allen.coulson

Hey - that's my wife pal!

cat_with_no_tail

If you turn on the "pep-talk" feature, she can nag you while you're out on a ride too.

"Bring a pint of milk back with you"
"you left your dirty pants in the bathroom again"

and so on.

allen.coulson

That's my wife too!

Mojo_666

My wife would say stuff like de motivational stuff like.

"Come home if your tired, I got you some beer"
"It's raining, your going to get wet, I baked you some cakes"

Very cool but not what you want when you are trying to stay motivated.

paulbox

Mojo_666 wrote:

My wife would say stuff like de motivational stuff like.

"Come home if your tired, I got you some beer"
"It's raining, your going to get wet, I baked you some cakes"

Fek, that's my Mrs...

TowerRider

I once called my wife after an all day session out around Darwen Moors and Rivington. I was struggling on my way home with no water for the last 3 hours. I called and quickly sad battery is running low, struggling, I am in tree plantation 3 led down. Hope to see you seen but got to go. She said good, I am watching Coronation Street and...
Must buy a spare battery for my mobile....

MountainMonster

So glad I don't use endomondo, never found it quite up to the quality I wanted, and with that feature added on top, has made my mind up.

I'm pissed off enough about the whole phone companies being able to track via wireless towers, now by GPS, bad enough!

Mojo_666

MountainMonster wrote:

So glad I don't use endomondo, never found it quite up to the quality I wanted, and with that feature added on top, has made my mind up.

I'm pissed off enough about the whole phone companies being able to track via wireless towers, now by GPS, bad enough!

For Real? You are actually bothered by that?

MountainMonster

Mojo_666 wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

So glad I don't use endomondo, never found it quite up to the quality I wanted, and with that feature added on top, has made my mind up.

I'm pissed off enough about the whole phone companies being able to track via wireless towers, now by GPS, bad enough!

For Real? You are actually bothered by that?

Not bothered, but more of an extremely annoyed. I hate the feeling of having people looking over your back so to speak.

tenfoot

I think it's a great feature. I have followed my brother's progress a couple of times. It's also very reassuring to know that I could be found if I had an off.

Only wish endomondo had an auto start/stop on blackberry as it seems to on android.

Rybes

does this need to have a full time internet connection on the phone or is it signal based. had a look on their site but cant find out ? i dont have net access on my phone ya see

Mojo_666

Rybes wrote:

does this need to have a full time internet connection on the phone or is it signal based. had a look on their site but cant find out ? i dont have net access on my phone ya see

The app uses GPS not phone signal or wifi, so long as you have line of sight with the sky (The gps satelites) it will function.

darpots

I find that the Endomondo app is pretty darn accurate even when the phone is stuffed away in my saddle bag. Also much safer in there than in my pocket, or mounted on my bars.

cat_with_no_tail

To be fair, it's not like just anyone can track your whereabouts on Endomondo like some people here seem to think.

First off, you actually have to be recording a workout at the time. If you're not recording, your GPS is not on.

You also have to have the "auto-upload" feature turned on for people to see your real-time location. Otherwise it's just stored to your phone and uploaded in 1 chunk when you choose to do it.

AND even then, you can set the privacy on your workouts from public (everyone can see them), to friends only, and even private if you want to.

cat_with_no_tail

darpots wrote:

I find that the Endomondo app is pretty darn accurate even when the phone is stuffed away in my saddle bag. Also much safer in there than in my pocket, or mounted on my bars.

This ^

Mine lives in my camelbak and seems to do a pretty spot-on job of recording all the big stuff you want, distance, altitude etc.

Never seems to have any issues with signal loss even in deep dark plantations.

For a free app, imho it's massively impressive.

Atz

There's loads of similar apps. Strava is a better website but misses the odd useful feature.

Most phones these days use a combination of GPS and cell tower positioning to work out where you are. As for the poster who doesn't like phone companies knowing where you are, what on earth did you think would happen if you have a phone. You connect to a tower, they know where that tower is, ergo they know approximately where you are. But they have so much data it's only used typically when the police ask.

Anonymous

MountainMonster wrote:

I'm pissed off enough about the whole phone companies being able to track via wireless towers, now by GPS, bad enough!

Erm, you DO realise that the phone picking out the strongest signal from the towers is funda-frikking-mental to how mobiles work, right?

Atz

No, he doesn't. However his tinfoil hat is helping focus his mental rays on increasing the understandingness of modernist technicalities

Anonymous

Sports Tracker used to have this feature. For some reason they removed it.

Another neat tracker app anyway and soon to come to iPhone and Android (having long since been on Nokia for free).

Atz

I track with Endomondo and then import into Strava

Anonymous

Just taking a look at Strava, importing from ST.

The segment recognition & comparison stuff is nice. Shame it limits to 5 uploads a month for free though.

Atz

I googled for a voucher code for a free 3-month trial which is the full thing

Atz

Odd. On the climb, in your track it says you were up in 12, the overall standings has you a few secs after me.

Anonymous

I uploaded an old one also and it's saying I'm 7th overall yet that one was up in 10 (a year ago, so shows I'm getting worse!). Maybe that's confused it.

Though the GPS on yesterdays is quite screwy. There's a problem with ST that it's not doing GPS filtering properly, though I've seen similar with others. Still the Radnor climbs seem okay.

MrChuck

Mojo_666 wrote:

Rybes wrote:

does this need to have a full time internet connection on the phone or is it signal based. had a look on their site but cant find out ? i dont have net access on my phone ya see

The app uses GPS not phone signal or wifi, so long as you have line of sight with the sky (The gps satelites) it will function.

The stalking thing wouldn't work without signal though I don't think. GPS receivers are just that, there's no means of tracking someone just by GPS.

Atz

Phone GPS use a combination as I said but unless you're uploading, it's not like loads of people can find you. The police could though, with a court order.

Anonymous

Most use Assisted GPS these days which use a tiny bit of your Internet connection via your operator to improve the lock on of the signal, usually speeding it up.

Some add things like cell and wifi positioning, though these are generally used to provide a position based on the cells, or a known wifi access point. Used in the absence of a decent GPS signal.

On my Nokia I can choose which positioning systems to use. I can also turn everything off except basic GPS. That and turning off Internet connection in whatever tracker app I use means there's no signal going back.

I could be extra paranoid and switch the phone to offline mode ("in flight" or whatever other phones call it) which disables outbound comms. Done this on a plane before as they have to be turned off or switched to offline, and I could still get a GPS signal. The tracking on that went nuts at 500mph!

Or just take the SIM card out

Anonymous

If you have a phone though, it has to choose which mast to use, ergo, it must have an idea of your location. Quit being paranoid.