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Map My Tracks blog

Handy hints to get the most out of Map My Tracks

We've put together some handy hints to help people get the most out of Map My Tracks.

Protect your privacy

Map My Tracks lets you create privacy zones around important places like your home or work. The size of the privacy zones can be adjusted to blanket a larger area and, if need be, multiple privacy zones can overlapped to fully obscure the area further. Users will see their own data in full while others will not be able to see the data inside the privacy zone.

Upload data and photos by email

Each user on Map My Tracks gets their own personalised email address that can be used to upload FIT, TCX, GPX and photo files. It’s a great way to upload activity data from third-party apps that allow you to export these types of files as attachments to emails. You can find you own personal Map My Tracks dropbox email address on the website at Settings > Account Settings.

Follow live

Anyone using Map My Tracks Live will appear on the app’s Activity Map. It’s a great way to follow the progress of others while they are out and about. Live tracking is a PLUS feature which is bundled in to the monthly subscription costing $3/month.

Heart rate and power zones

People with heart rate monitors or power metres can set custom zones that are displayed in the activity’s charts for detailed analysis. They also let you set your Threshold Power and Heart Rate.

Tagged activities

Each activity can be tagged to help organise your profile data. Each tag is then available as a Hub that showcases all the activities sharing that tag. Hubs organise the tagged data over defined periods so you can browser them by month, year or all time.

Timeline

When activities are sycned or uploaded to the Map My Tracks website they get added to your personalised timeline that breaks down your data by day, week, month, year or all time. The timeline is great for reviewing your performance over time.

Sync activities with your calendar app

Map My Tracks let you sync your activities with your favourite calendar app. The personalised iCal feed can be set up to populate your calendar app with each activity you upload to Map My Tracks. To get your iCal link log into the website then browse to your own profile. The iCal link is at the bottom of the right hand side bar.

Live performance sharing

When tracking live with Map My Tracks all the available data is streamed live for others to follow. That includes location, heart rate, cadence, power, speed and elevation. Each data set is streamed live to the website and can be followed by others when logged in.

Connect to Garmin Connect

If you use Garmin Connect then you can connect your Map My Tracks with it. Once connected each activity uploaded to Garmin Connect will automatically get synced with Map My Tracks.

Moments

Each activity gets its own breakdown of key moments. Moments include weather conditions as well as the moment you were the fastest, the moment you were at the highest elevation, the moment when your heart rate was the fastest and more. Moments also include any photos that have been pinned to the activity.

Your guide to tracking live at events

We have put together this handy guide to help the thousands of riders and runners attending events this summer. This guide will tell you how to get set up to track live so friends and family can follow your progress and also how others can follow your progress.

Your guide to tracking live at events

Step 1

If there is an official event set up on Map My Tracks, and you are participating, then click on the ‘Attend’ button on the event page. If there is no official event then either create one yourself or skip to Step 2 By declaring that you are attending the event, your progress on the day will be shown on the event maps.

Step 2

Download one of the Map My Tracks apps to your iPhone or Android mobile phone. There are two apps to choose from.

Map My Tracks Endurance is a long distance live tracking app. It’s great to track live for well over 12 hours. It’s a super simple app that is designed to only update your location so that others can follow your progress live.

Map My Tracks OutFront is a performace tracking app that is best suited for live tracking for up to 3-4 hours. OutFront measures your performance including speed, distance, heart rate and much more.

Both are available for iOS and Android phones.

Step 3

On the day of the event, launch the app you’ve opted for and start tracking live. If you are using OutFront you need to set the status to ‘Online public’. If you are using Endurance that you need to ensure it’s set to ‘Visible to everyone’. Once you have started tracking you can pocket the phone and get on with your event.

Friends and family can follow live on the day

On the day of the event, there are a few ways that friends and family can follow people’s progress.

If there is an official event on Map My Tracks then you can follow their progress on event maps on the Map My Tracks website. If there is no event then an individual’s progress can be followed on their Map My Tracks profile page on the website.

Our OutFront app also lets friends and family follow user’s live. It’s the best way to follow other people’s progress. Open the app and either use the Activity Map to see who is tracking live or search and open a user’s profile page to follow their progress.

Friends and family can follow people’s progress free of charge through the app or website.

If in doubt on how to get set up get in touch with us on TwitterFacebook or our support channels.

Seamlessly migrate from Google My Tracks to Map My Tracks

With the recent announcement that Google My Tracks is shutting down we thought it would be helpful to outline how users can easily migrate from Google My Tracks to Map My Tracks.

In short, it’s super simple to migrate from Google My Tracks data to Map My Tracks.

The simplest way is to take advantage of the personal email address given to any Map My Tracks users. Once set up simply email over any activity from Google My Tracks to your Map My Tracks email address.

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1 - First create a free Map My Tracks account.

Step 2 - Get you Map My Tracks email address from Settings > Account Settings.

Step 3 - Export individual activities by email from Google My Tracks to your Map My Tracks email address.

That’s it. Each activity emailed over will be added to your Map My Tracks email account.

Once all the data is ported over it can be viewed within the Map My Tracks android app as well as online.

In addition to all the usual Google My Tracks features Map My Tracks also includes live tracking options, segments, photo sharing and online tools to examine every second of your activity.

Follow The London-Paris 2013 live on Map My Tracks

image Starting June 20 there will be 450 riders making their way by bike from London to Paris. Map My Tracks Event Tracker will be tracking the three day event and presenting live action of each group live online and also on the Map My Tracks OutFront iPhone app.

Six groups are starting out and their progress is being tracked live by Map My Tracks for spectators to follow as the riders pedal their way to Paris.

This year the Map My Tracks London Paris 2013 event tracker includes more ways to follow the event online and includes statistics highlighting the achievements of each group. Just like a standard Map My Tracks Event any rider can join the event to include their progress by using one of the Map My Tracks apps. For riders wanting to track their rides we recommend using Map My Tracks Endurance for Android or Map My Tracks OutFront for iPhone in conjunction with Wahoo extended battery pack.

Each day online spectators can follow the peloton’s progress on Map My Tracks or through the Map My Tracks OutFront app. Here’s how to get set up to follow each group on OutFront.

Follow L2P2013 live on an iPhone

First download Map My Tracks OutFront from the App Store and create a free user account via the app.

Then tap ‘Activities’ then tap the cog icon in the bottom right corner.
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Then in the search bar type and search for ‘l2p2012’.
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This will display a column of all the rider’s activities. To save the column tap the cog in the top right.
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Then finally tap ‘Add to Wall’ to include this on the Activity Wall in the app.
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Once added tap back twice and you’ll have a new option to quickly browse all the L2P2013 tagged activities. During the event the live progress of each group will be listed here each day.

From here you can follow the progress of each group live on the iPhone.

To get started and set up download Map My Tracks OutFront from the App Store.

 

Improvements to time zone management

To ensure that your activities are logged on the day that they are done we have made some improvements to the way that activity dates are managed. Now it's possible to set your local time zone which controls when your activities are logged in your activity stream, weekly and monthly charts.

If you are based outside the GMT time zone we recommend that you set your local time through your setting preferences.

It’s a small, but useful, change that helps keep your activities in shape.

Follow the Cisco Riders live in the Ride Across Britain

A team a riders from Cisco will be taking to the saddle over the next nine days as part of the Ride Across Britain 2011 cycling event starting from John O'Groats and finishing at Land's End. By riding this event Cisco aims to raise £50,000 fundraising for ParalympicsGB.

Their progress will tracked live by Map My Tracks and available for spectators to follow on the Cisco Rider hub here on Map My Tracks. Online spectators can follow the progress of the riders live each day, provide encouragement through Twitter and Facebook and support their activity by donation through Just Giving.

The Cisco Riders Hub features a range of statistics highlighting the achievements by each rider and just like a standard Map My Tracks Hub any rider joining them for the day can also include their progress by using one of the Map My Tracks apps and tagging their activity with ‘ciscoriders’.
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For those not able to stay in front of your PC during the event they can keep up to date with the progress of riders by downloading the Map My Tracks OutFront iPhone app. With this app each rider’s progress can be followed live. Here’s how to get set up to follow their progress with OutFront.

Follow the Cisco Riders live on an iPhone

First download Map My Tracks OutFront from the App Store and create a free user account via the app.

Then tap ‘Activities’ then tap the cog icon in the bottom right corner.
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Then in the search bar type and search for ‘ciscoriders’.
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This will display a column of all the rider’s activities. To save the column tap the cog in the top right.
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Then finally tap ‘Add to Wall’ to include this on the Activity Wall in the app. Once saved to the Activity Wall it’s easy to keep track of each rider and follow their progress live on the iPhone.

Download Map My Tracks OutFront from the App Store to get started.

 

Facebook sharing and a temporary fix

If you're having trouble sharing your activities from OutFront to your Facebook profile then this tip might help.

We’ve notice a bug in the app doesn’t save the settings correctly when you first connect the app with Facebook. The bug will be fixed in the next release but while Apple is reviewing the update the steps below will let you work around the problem.

Step 1. Open app and tap ‘Settings’ then ‘Sharing settings’.

Step 2. Tap ‘Connect with Facebook’ and log into Facebook. Once the Facebook login is complete tap on ‘Settings’ to return to the main settings page.

So far this is normal behavior but the bug is stopping the changes from being saved so we need to force the page to save the changes. If you do not see a ‘Save’ button in the top right corner you will need to adjust another setting to force this onscreen. To do this follow the next steps.

Step 3. Tap the weight settings then make an adjustment on the weight and then tap ‘Settings’ to return to the main page. This will force the ‘Save’ button to appear in the top corner.

Step 4. Tap ‘Save’ to store the changes to the settings. This will also save the Facebook sharing settings as well.

We sorry we didn’t spot this problem in the app but by following these simple steps you can successfully save the Facebook sharing option and then be able to post your activities on Facebook.

The next release will have a fix for this. If you continue to have trouble please email support [at] mapmytracks.com where we can provide direct assistance.

 

Android apps that play nicely with Map My Tracks

imageWe are often asked if there is an official Map My Tracks Android app and right now the answer is not from us. However, all is not lost as there are number of developers who have put together some nifty apps that play nicely with the Map My Tracks website.

We have every intention of rolling out an official Map My Tracks Android app but for those of you that can’t wait we’ve put together a handy list of apps so that you can get you started on Map My Tracks.

To keep things simple we have broken down the list into two categories - those that can provide live tracking and then those that work by recording data to be uploaded afterwards.

Live tracking Android apps

Map My Tracks OutFront - Map My Tracks OutFront for Android comes is available free with a pro version available featuring more tools and options. The app lets you track live for other to follow your progress on mapmytracks.com and features:

  • Live tracking
  • Route following
  • Export by email as GPX
  • Analysis of activities
  • Personal profile
  • Following of friends

Orux Maps - OruxMaps is a free application for Android phones and provides live tracking embedded here on Map My Tracks. It uses the Map My Tracks API to provide live tracking so that your friends can follow your progress.

This app lets you connect and upload to Map My Tracks by:

Offline tracking/upload Android apps

My Tracks - My Tracks is free application for Android phones that enables you to record GPS tracks and view live statistics.

This app lets you upload to Map My Tracks by:

OsmAnd - OsmAnd is free application for Android phones that provides navigation & routing based on Open Street Maps

This app lets you upload to Map My Tracks by:

If you know of any other Android apps that provide GPS tracking we’d love to hear about them. Get in touch and we’ll add them to this list.

Make maps in your area

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Map My Tracks Mobile uses map data supplied by Open Street Map. We use OSM maps as the background on the handset to show where you are right now.

Map My Tracks MobileOne of the interesting things about Open Street Map is that it is a community of members that all contribute GPS data to help build a detailed street-level map of their area. The fact that a street or building is displayed is a direct result of members submitting GPS data and marking up any key features or road names. As more data is submitted the better the maps become adding greater detail and coverage around the world.

The detail displayed on the maps used within Map My Tracks Mobile depends on where you live. For example, the UK has considerable coverage and is nearly fully mapped. In other areas the detail is not as comprehensive but one of the great things about Open Street Map is that they regularly hold mapping parties for members to come together and concentrate their efforts to track specific locations in one go. The results of each mapping party is added into the mix of data and ends up on display in maps.

Contributing tracks to OSM

Given that Map My Tracks generates GPS data we would encourage all our users to get involved and start submitting their tracks to Open Street Map. Doing so is simple: after making a tracking use the export as GPX option on the track page and submit the data at Open Street Map. Having added your data you’ll need to edit and mark up the information before it can be used in the maps. One of the benefits of submitting tracks from your area is that you’ll begin to see the results of your efforts within Map My Tracks Mobile.

If you’re interested in Open Street Map and getting starting have a look at the OSM wiki.

Internal GPS vs. external GPS receivers

Over the past month we have been testing a number of phones with internal and external GPS receivers with some great results. Both types result in some very accurate results due to the way that we have set up Map My Tracks Mobile.

One of the main factors for phones with internal GPS receivers is that it it takes a lot longer for it to acquire enough satellites to track accurately. On most occasions internal GPS receivers take around three to four minutes to complete its GPS cycle. By comparison an external GPS receiver generally takes around 20 seconds to one minute to acquire a position. Curiously, the second time an internal GPS receiver is used it acquires a position much quicker in around 30 seconds.

To ensure that a complete track is recorded this lag needs to be taken into account when you wish to start tracking. Due to the variable time, to get an accurate position, it was often useful to spend a couple of minutes before needing to track to have the phone pick up its GPS location. This isn’t a problem with external GPS receivers as they are able to pick up a good position very quickly.

Round of golf with a Nokia 6110 (internal GPS)

On this occasion battery life got the better of our test. When starting the track the phone battery was well below half charged resulting in an incomplete track finishing around the fifth hole!

Apart from the fact that my golf is not as good as it should be the track is very accurate. On this occasion it successully provides some insight into my lack of golfing skill!

We’ll be featuring some more results of our recent testing over the coming weeks. Keep up to date with everything Map My Tracks by subscribing to our feed.

 

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