Mobile apps

woodytitan

Morning people. Invested in one of these smartphone things and just wondered what apps people are running for route tracking/planning etc. Got me a Samsung. I know this has probably been asked before but any pointers given would be appreciated.

Cheers, Woody

TrekinDan

I use Trails and Everytrail on my iPhone. GPS works spot on and Trails will upload to everytrail for sharing routes etc.

Everytrail is free and Trails is a couple quid.

Should be able to get them on Android as well.

RobJ20

Endomondo by far the best.

mossychops

Cardio Trainer for Android is brilliant. Calorie couting doesnt match my Garmn Edge.

Can upload routes from bike route toaster
Great bike route
Spoken updates (how far, pace etc)
Music player tie in
Upload to web
Calorie counting etc

benpinnick

Trails is cool because it uses OpenMaps not google. The OpenMaps often have GPS trails uploaded to them, which means you can see where others ride. It also allows you to download the maps to the phone, which is useful in areas where there is bad signal (eg almost everywhere there is good riding).

benpinnick

Trails is cool because it uses OpenMaps not google. The OpenMaps often have GPS trails uploaded to them, which means you can see where others ride. It also allows you to download the maps to the phone, which is useful in areas where there is bad signal (eg almost everywhere there is good riding).

woodytitan

cheers guys, anyone else anymore???

Anonymous

What's your Samsung running?

If it's Android, I'll chuck in Sports Tracker also ( http://www.sports-tracker.com ), though it's in beta at present but launching soon. It's a long established app originally from Nokia years ago, now an independent company runs it and they've been doing iPhone and Android versions.

alan_sherman

Trails sounds similar to Viewranger - GPS for off road with local caching of open Street (or open cycle) maps.

I hadn't heard of trails before. Anyone have a comparison of these two apps?

Ro88o

+1 for Endomondo, absolutely brilliant !!!

Anonymous

FYI - Sports Tracker now available on Android also http://www.sports-tracker.com/blog/2011 ... r-android/

keith1200rs

Anyone else noticed that on Endomondo, even if you select all your personal details as private then your height, weight and date of birth are still visible to everyone, or is it just me?

Keith

andy46

I use endomondo but I'll be checking out Trails, sounds good.

Yippeekiyay

List of some apps
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/2010/05/top-10-iphone-bike-apps/
Not tried them yet.
Endomondo seems pretty good so far. Google has one out for Android called My Tracks. Doesn't seem as good as Endomodo.

Anyone know of a good non iphone specific mount for bikes? Most of them look duff and pricey.

Tutterz

Ive been using endomondo and sports tracker simultaneously and find that endomondo always provides more accurate information!
especially when it comes to kcal, sporstracker claimed i'd burned off 3800 the other day on a 16 mile ride :shock:

Anonymous

I think Sports Tracker has a GPS filtering problem meaning it has a lot of spikes, especially in altitude, so thinks you've been climbing a lot over smooth surfaces. Though that's with the Nokia version. Not sure if iPhone/Android versions have the same problem. A shame as it's rather nice app compared to Endomondo which provides very little stats in-app. At least on a small screen phone like the E72. Also the map display is quicker and cached for offline use in Sports Tracker.

Mojo_666

I also use endomondo

t0pc4t

another vote for endomondo here!

sparked

+1 for Endomondo

scrumpymonkey

Depends what you want the app to do really. Endomondo is good at tracking but if you want to use it as a training tool it is limited. I've just downloaded sports tracker and will be testing it over the next week as it has a better interface. Looks promising though.

woodytitan

Thanks for the replies everyone, I have uploaded endomondo and tried it out on a quick blast last night and it looks impressive so far, apart from the american woman egging me on!! Would still be interested in haering about any other apps people are just trying out.

Ta

Willow 15

This one http://www.sportstracklive.com/
After using sport tracker for many years on Nokia, I found this is the best on Android.

Gazlar

I use trails personally, I also transfer my mapping onto Ordnance Survey get a map which I subscribed to. I can then use it to print route maps for rides and stick in a polypocket, rather than spend money on a gps.

I find however endomndo uses so many trackpoints its flipped out the OS site when I try to import a gpx file

camelopardis

Use Endomondo for recording rides. Also use MM Tracker for android - great if you already have Memory map files. Full OS 1:25000 Explorer maps on your phone are great for navigating footpaths and bridleways. I have the phone mounted in a full weatherproof and shockproof holder on the stem.

slimboyjim

I use Viewranger and have been very pleased with it - they do a free trial version if I recall correctly. You get a few free credits so can download proper Ordanance Survey (OS) mapping for the area you ride, or you can just use the open source maps... If you want further OS maps you have to purchase credits but they aren't too expensive... The program seems to be regularly updated with new features and it has different trip views and can be used to guide you as a GPS as well.

The only thing I would say about using your phone is that it will drain your battery - get one of those 'Task-killer' apps that close all the background functions that aren't required, charge your phone as close to your ride as possible, and if your rides are 3 hours plus consider investing in an external battery pack. I bought a powermonkey for about £25 (from www.play.com I think?).


James

Anonymous

Drain on the battery depends on the phone (manufacturer). Nokia may have a crap OS, but they know how to make the hardware work efficiently. Can run with GPS enabled all day with hardly any drain on the battery.

If you have A-GPS (Assisted GPS) enabled it will connect to the cell occasionally to improve the GPS fix. You could turn that off to save power but it's a small amount it uses and only occasionally (mainly on first fix).

If the app you use is constantly connected to the network though it will drain it fast. The best apps work offline when out and about. Sports Tracker does and can cache the maps (OSM on the phone, at least on Nokia versions). ViewRanger I think works offline also and in a similar cached way (or if you pay for the overpriced OS maps, they're pre-loaded).

Another thing is if you are out in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal, you can switch it to offline / flight-mode or set the GSM setting to manual select. Reason being when there's no signal the phone racks up the power to hunt for a signal. It thinks it's roaming basically and is trying all the networks to see if it will let it on. This consumes the battery very fast.

Atz

Endomondo for tracking then I usually take an export and load it into strava for better analysis. Strava doesn't support exports so I prefer not to use their tracking app

Growmac

I've been using Runkeeper to track my rides. It nice to get distance, climb and pace split by km - when you're riding a familiar route it lets you compare how you get on. It also auto-uploads to their website if you create a free account, which is handy, and allows for painless importing into Memorymap or equivalent.

It does do audio-coaching, which I suspect would be good for running, but would drive me mad biking so it's switched off.

Growmac

One thing that I've just found that may be useful.

I've always thought that GPS was disabled by the iPhone's Airplane mode - this was the stated Apple position. This is a pain, because I quite often want to record where I've been while preserving battery life.

It appears that individual apps are (now?) able to override this and turn on the GPS while in airplane mode. Runkeeper keeps its lock and can track even when everything else is disabled, which is a real bonus. It must just be apps that also need data, like Google Maps, that don't do this.

I've not found any reference to this change online, but it worked perfectly just now with my iPhone running iOS 4.1.3.

HTH, Gord.

Anonymous

Yeah, GPS works in flight mode with my Nokia. No A-GPS, it's just working as a plain receiver and nothing being sent out so it can't interfere with other systems. Takes a long time to lock onto the signal without A-GPS.

Quite funny seeing it track at 500mph, though could only get a signal with it right up beside the window and it struggled to cope.

DickBarton

That Strava site looks like it has hosts of info in it...nice.

Personally, I'm using MyTracks on my HTC Desire to track the ride - once done and I'm back in wifi signal, I just email the GPX file to my account on www.mapmytracks.com - it gives me a breakdown of the activity and a playback option...the features on Strava look great but probably way to much for me as I tend to only look at max speed/average speed/distance and elevation.

I don't use the device for auto-updating as that would chew data and battery so it just gets started at the ride, stopped at end then uploaded. I don't use it as a means of guiding me around a ride as I reckon part of the adventure is to just follow my nose - if I get lost I can always backtrack...

Mapmytracks is working on an Android version and I'll run that once it finally becomes available, they have an iPhone app - OutFront which looks very good and I'm hoping the Android version is very similar.