The iPhone can assist you with the build in GPS tracker. Basically it’s used to find your current position and displayes it on the GoogleMaps app which is bundled with the iPhone.
Beside this app there are also some additional navigation tools available on the iTunes store – some are paid apps, some for free…
I was looking for an app which is tracking my paths in the background and shows me the data afterwards in a way that can be used with an external app on my MBP.
What I found was ‘Trails’ – a little app which syncs via mail, TrailRunner application hosted on my MBP over WiFi and a direct account at ‘EveryTrail’.
I played around a little bit with Trails – and I have to say that the export is really working perfect for me. So it was time to test the app on the road.
And well – that is the point here which is giving me a ‘no go’ for this app: I mentioned that the app is definitly not working on standby mode – so you always will have to run the application in the ‘open’ mode which shows up the following problems:
+ display is on – so the power is exhausting very, very fast
+ buttons are on duty –> sometimes you push them when you don’t want to
Other apps support ‘Button-locking’ and / or ‘Display dimming’ – which would solve both issues I found with this app…
Another big problem: incoming calls end the app –> no more waypoints are stored until you restart the app; you don’t have to answer the incoming call – it’s enough that the call is there… bad behavior
I tried to put the iPhone into standby when the app is still open – but (as mentioned above) it didn’t work.
In my opinion the app is not working for me because the power is running out too fast to use it on a longer trail.
What I will have to try in the next days is to test the app with a jailbroken iPhone which supports background tasks… we’ll see.
I know – there’s another app available: MotionX GPS (Lite). But this app does not support the export functionality I expect of such an application… Trails seems here really to be the better choice…
iPhone jailbreak via QuickPWN worked really fine…
Now Cydia is on the phone and everthing is really running fine – Mainly used Winterboard now to show up a new style for all the buttons & backgrounds.
First impression: dummy safe installation – small benefit up to now… will have to dig a little bit more the next days to get out more of the iPhone… backgrounder is a beginning – but not the end 😉
Rowmote 1.5 - works like a charm
After a few weeks of testing Rowmote now I’m really happy with this toolset.
I never – never! – had any kind of problems with the application. Since I’ve started using it the app has updated continuatly (now I’m using version 1.5) -installation process was really easy and I never had to do it manually! Once connected to the MBP I was notified about the availability of a new version (Rowmote helper – this part runs on the MBP). On the iPhone side updates have been pushed via the AppStore update functionality for applications.
Also very convenient: not updating the Rowmote Helper tool does NOT mean not to be able using it anymore – it still worked like a charm.
Rowmote at iTunes
Rowmote Home
Well, after a while of being offline – my iPhone is now online in HOKI too!
In the past I owned a Sony Ericson D750i – and one of a beloved feature was to control my PC remotely with this mobilephone.
I missed this feature on my blackberry – but now i found a really successor on this feature.
On the appstore of Apple you will find a little application called ‘Rowmote’ – currently in version 1.1 – and this little application allows you to control your mac remotely… not all of the mac’s features, but the most important…
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Rowmote 1.1
You will be able to fully control ‘FrontRow’ – including starting and ending ‘FrontRow’ remotely. That’s for me one of the good news. Another good news is that the DVD-Player, iTunes and PowerPoint are also controllable via the app.
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In addition to the iPhone app ‘Rowmote’ you will need a little app installed on the Mac you want to control – it’s called ‘Rowmote Helper’ and will be started automatically after startup of the Mac.
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Apple Remote
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Also a nice iPhone Application is the Apple internal developed ‘Apple Remote’ which allows you to extend you iPhone Library to any wireless available library the tool is able to find.
iPhone 3G
Now after a while the iPhone came true on my flying circus.
And it’s really fun – especially the wordpress app…
So, let’s see if the number of posts will increase the next time – but I hope so 😉