HardyWeinberg

Argh!

Google's My Tracks App Is Dunzo | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

PaulRivers

I just ran into this yesterday... :-(

Does Google Fit do the same mapping / tracking stuff? The last time I tried it it didn't seem to do the same thing, just gave you some vague stats. But I could have just missed it, or they could have updated it.

dr_lha

This is why I never use Google products unless I know they're winners.

Even then I'm been burned (Google Reader seemed like a sure thing for a while).

HardyWeinberg

6+ yrs of mytracks seemed like a decent run! But yes this is the 2nd rug they've pulled out from under me, the other was a to-do list thing.

noglider 

Google Voice turned out to be annoying. Before that, you used to be able to search for people's phone numbers, and in particular, you could search ON a phone number. I understand why people didn't like that, but damn, it was useful.

HardyWeinberg

not liking google fit as a sub for mytracks after 1 commute leg

Kopsis

Take a look at OruxMaps (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...oruxmaps&hl=en). Nice feature set. Works without a data connection. Exports to KML, KMZ, and GPX. Live tracking through various servers (if you want it). Etc.

eofelis 

I have been using My Tracks for a while and I like it, sorry to see it go. I am trying Google Fit and I will look into Orux Maps.

HardyWeinberg

Google Fit does record elevation and speed profiles (or its estimates of them) like mytracks, but does not separate moving average speed from total average speed, and also keeps recording time when you pause it which brings the total average way down (and makes the phone do more than it seems like it should). Also I can't figure out how to make it stop talking to me. I turned off sounds and notifications, it still keeps talking.

Osmand has been a mapping app I like for offline use (especially internationally where I don't want to pay for data) and it does record tracks but no summary info.

Orux Maps looks cool.

HardyWeinberg

Last day of mytracks, argh. Still have not found a replacement I like. Will re-check strava and ridewithgps I guess.

JohnJ80

Sign up for https://tapiriik.com. Then you can sign up for all the free services - Garmin Connect, Strava, RideWithGPS, Endmondo, etc... Tapiriik will sync them all. If a service goes away, you're still covered.

J.

Dave Cutter

That sucks! But.... a great reminder that many (if not most) of these products will be temporary. They are expensive to use with monthly fees and yet are wildly popular..... or they have some vague embedded advertisement and upgrade options (profit) scheme.

I've been using Cyclemeter. The app was insanely cheap with only a one-time purchase price. Period. I regularly (monthly) copy the most important stats into a word doc, that I email (a version of) to my phone (and store on the cloud). So.... I guess I could switch stat apps easy enough if... when.. the time comes.

Thanks for the reminder! I think I might just print a paper copy of my digital stats.... just to stick in my cycling equipment locker.

no1mad 

Despite not being totally accurate (but then again, what tracking app is?), it was still my favorite. No ads, didn't try to sell branded accessories like HRMs (Runtastic, Sports-Tracker).

Never cared for Fit. It has been wildly inaccurate- classifying some of my walks as runs and thinks I'm riding a bike when I am actually in a car.

Currently using S Health for Android. Too early to tell if it is a keeper or not...

Flinstone

boo. Apparently there's an open source version from 2013, and there are ways you can keep the apk if you already have it installed. The odd thing is the report seems to claim it won't work anymore. So that's odd. I would think it uses a standard google map api and the rest is all local sensor stuff so how exactly does that stop working? There must be at least some aspect of the api that isn't pure google maps. It could be possible for someone to hack around in the open source version and work out how to circurmvent any possible disabling mechanism and/or implement a new mapping api, like a standard google map one, or reverse engineer the fit one. I wouldn't count on anyone doing it.

In best case, the reports are confused and it actually just keeps working?

no1mad 

This is a bit strange. I attempted to look up My Tracks in the Play Store yesterday on my laptop (Win10-based) and my phone (Android 5.1.1) and I couldn't find the one by Google. Then I tried it on my Nexus 7 2012 (5.1.1) and it was there. I installed it, tried it, and it wouldn't get a GPS lock. Then I installed it on the phone and it appears to work- despite the warning up front that it won't (it got an accurate GPS lock).

I'll use it when I walk the dog in a bit and report back my findings.

no1mad 

Well, despite the "app no longer supported" when I installed it and an "unable to locate GPS" message, I have successfully recorded my walk- one for the outbound and another for the return.

So, yeah, I don't know what's going on with it...

no1mad 

I reinstalled Fit yesterday and then accessed previous activities (from last year) and noticed that they have updated to include mapping- though I didn't see a dedicated map/view route option.

I discovered that when I viewed a previous activity, the display was essentially split three ways. Part of a map on top, a colored banner in the middle (activity/file name), and then stats on the bottom. The banner acted as a shade- swipe down to expand the map, swipe up to expand the stats.

Flinstone

My version is way out of date. I turn updates off and don't generally do them unless I feel an urge, which often is never for things that are working fine. (I don't do this with computers, bad idea). Anyway, it works the same now as before. There's no GPS message, warning, nothing. It just works.

HardyWeinberg

Well, mine is also working today, so far so good...

rm -rf

I upload selected ride recordings to Strava or ridewithgps.

But I store all my rides on my PC using "My Tourbook". It's open source software that has ride statistics by ride, by month, and by year. I can tag rides into categories, and see the routes on the map window. I can see graphs of speed, cadence, heartrate, elevation,etc.

It's kind of the opposite of social media sites like Strava, just data and history.

It works very well, but there's a learning curve to get it set the way you like. All the displays are customizable. I have it set to keep the map tiles it downloads on my PC, so the next time, the map displays instantly. Download at mytourbook.sourceforge.net/mytourbook/


Some My Tourbook displays:

My standard display. Recent rides are listed at top left, with monthly and yearly totals. The highlighted ride shows the map, and the bottom has graphs of elevation (green), heartrate (red), speed (blue),


graphs zoomed in, and grade % (yellow)



The map zoomed way in. Each dot is a GPS recorded data point, color coded by speed. You can see the out-and-back tracks on opposite sides of the road.



Climbing up (blue) then zooming downhill on Stonehouse Road, Campbell County KY.

HardyWeinberg

That is very cool thanks for showing it.

a1penguin

One of the unique features that MyTracks had was showing live progress. This was a great feature when I was riding every street in Santa Clara. I want to do Sunnyvale as well, but really need an app that shows the track as it is being collected :-/

LesterOfPuppets

Strava shows tracks while recording. You have to pay $6 to see your personal heat map, though.

PaulRivers

Really? There are any apps available now that don't show the data as it's being collected? I thought everyone did that now.

I know RideWithGps shows you a map of where you are, have been, while collecting data. Auto-pause is great for biking, but I've turned it off so I can use it for Hikes/Walks and it's worked well for that as well.

Definitely shows you a live map of where you've been and where you are, as well as different kinds of maps available, some show you trails and routes that are not roads that I've found useful.

LesterOfPuppets

I think my favorite GPS recording app might become GPS Essentials. A little more complicated than most bike-oriented apps. I'm not sure if it has an auto-pause feature yet.

The thing that really has me loving it is that it has a built-in camera control with compass headings displayed on the preview screen and that records your location and camera heading with the photo. This is really handy if you want to make cue sheets with pics of the turns, or if you'd like to place pics on a map later, for example.

You can also leave notes that get tagged with your location and heading.

I guess I should take a screenshot...



That's just a thumbnail of the pic. In the app you tap on the thumbnail for a higher resolution pic.

I haven't found a way to show elevation profiles within the app yet, but haven't really looked. Also, hours:mins:secs on the timestamps would be nice.