Using Instamapper & GPS Phone to Track MS150 Bike Ride
Yesterday I rode 75 miles in the MS150 (aka Harmon’s Best Dam Bike Ride) with my friend Trent Cameron. It was a great event that raised nearly $1 million for the fight against MS. It was a really great event — well-organized with tons of support.
On the ride decided to try out Instamapper, a free, real-time tracking app available for iPhone, Android, and several other smart phones. Once you install the app and register on the Instamapper site, you can share a link with people that allows them to see exactly where you are on a map while the app is running on your smart phone. It’s a great idea, but the user interface needs a little work for it to really take off. For starters, connecting a new device is a bit of a pain. I don’t see why you can just register directly from the app and have it take care of the rest for you, but instead it requires you to obtain and type in a device key. The map sharing link is also a bit hard to find, while a link to the raw data is available as soon as you login. I get the feeling the site was set up by a programmer, not a designer. Finally, there doesn’t seem to be a way to identify the start and end of a route. I had to change batteries halfway through my ride, and the two segments show up as separate routes. Still, I think being able to share out your location and path with a public link is a great idea and has lots of applications.
GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com
