Hitting the highway this summer and want to keep a detailed record of your travels? No problem: thanks to Nokia Beta Labs’ Sports Tracker app, your Nok has you covered.
Sports Tracker started out as a GPS-toting training aid for sweat-drenched keep fit fanatics, but various updates since then have transformed it into a handy tool for anyone who wants to keep an accurate record of their location, not to mention geotag their photos and video clips. Here’s how to get the best out of it when you’re travelling.
What you need...
Nokia handset with GPS: N95, N95 8GB, N82, 6110 Navigator (or an external Bluetooth GPS module for any other Nokia phone)
Step by step...
1. Download and install Sports Tracker
First things first, get yourself over to the Nokia website and download the Sports Tracker application (ver. 1.76 at the time of writing). Then install it on your blower.
2. Set up your account
Now head over to the Sports Tracker website and sign up by creating a username and password. Once this is done you need to pair your phone’s Sports Tracker application with this, so open it up, select Settings, then Users, then create a user. Once that’s done hit the Options command when your user name is highlighted, select the “Pair with service” option and input your user name and password. This should complete the link.
3. Hit the road, Jack
Right, time to get tracking. Hop in your motor, fire up Sports Tracker and select “New workout” (yes, we know you’re not actually doing a workout), choose “Other” as your activity. The activity screen will pop up and your mobile will attempt to get a satellite fix - so it’s best to place it somewhere where it’ll get a clear view of the sky. Give it a few minutes to grab its GPS lock (the indicator will turn green) then kick your car into gear and get road trippin’.
Quick tip: you might want to invest in an in-car power adapter and dashboard mount to help keep your mobile alive and in place long enough to track your position.
4. Capture the moment(s)
One of Sports Tracker’s best features is its ability to geotag media files. So you can take pictures or capture video clips on your phone while it’s running, and these’ll get stamped with the exact coordinates at which they were taken.
5. Upload your journey
Once your “workout” is over, open up your Training Diary, find the workout entry, hit Options and select “Upload to service.” This will whizz the data and any snaps and vids you’ve taken over to the Sports Tracker website (send it via Wi-Fi if possible, to avoid getting screwed on the data charges).
6. View your journey
Now login to the Nokia Sports Tracker site, hit the “My profile” link and your journey should be available to view in the latest workouts section. Click it and you’ll see a Google map with your route plotted on it, along with all your photos and videos. There you have it: an accurate online record of your road trip exploits!