Map My Tracks

New feature: activity comparison

Being able to compare two activities together has been on Map My Tracks for a while now but it was a little tricky to use. We've listened to the feedback from users who had trouble using it and have now rolled out a new and improved way to select and compare any two activities.

Activity comparison is a great way to find out it you’re making progress in your training. It makes is easy to select an activity you may have carried out six months ago and compare it to a more recent one. What’s more you can compare your performance against other peoples’ activities who may have done the same route.

To compare any two activities of your own visit your activity wall then click ‘Compare activities’. Drag and drop the maps of the two activities you want to compare to the edit bar at the bottom and click Compare. You’ll then see both activities presented together. Click the play button in the top of the sidebar and watch a replay.  It’s that simple.

If you’re keen to compare your activities against other peoples first add their activity to your Favourites. All favourite activities get listed on your activity wall favourites so you can select and compare any public activity. To compare yours against other people’s you’ll need to make your own activity a favourite as well then simply use the activity comparison tools to view both at the same time.

We hope you enjoy using the activity comparison tools. Please let us know what you think here on the blog, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Enjoy.

New feature - GPS track comparison

Two tracks on one screen, replayed together. Well that's what you asked for so we built it. Track comparison lets you choose any two tracks to replay together and compare their performance. For the first time, this new feature allows you to compare against your own earlier activity or better still have a virtual race against someone else! It's a great way of seeing if you've improved or just to compare against a buddy's tracks.

All the usual speed, distance, course and position are displayed for both tracks with the option to synchronise the starting positions so that you can get an accurate comparison.

Comparing GPS tracks is simple

First choose the two tracks to compare from the explore page and click ‘Compare tracks’ at the top and bottom of the list of tracks. The track comparison page overlays both tracks on one map. Synchronise the starting positions of each tracks by sliding the player controls for both tracks in position. Once synchronised, press play and watch both tracks replay together. As with all the tracks you can speed up the action.

GPS track comparison was a feature request from our users. Keep the requests coming so that we can make Map My Tracks even better.

Version 1.1 released

To celebrate our attendance at the Dinghy Show this weekend we have rolled out another release of Map My Tracks Mobile that improves our support for many Windows Mobile handsets.

This release, v1.1, helps to extend the range of compatible handsets that Map My Tracks supports. One of the key features added on this occasion is the addition of an onscreen QWERTY keyboard.

This provides an alternative way of entering text using an onscreen keypad instead of the handset’s numeric buttons. This is especially useful for users whose phones have QWERTY keypads. To launch the onscreen keypad, simply click the select button when highlighting a text field.

To further extend the range of phones that we can support a manual GPS setup has been added. On some phones, the Java is unable to connect to internal GPS hardware or external Bluetooth devices. This is most common on some Windows Mobile devices whose Java does not support the required APIs. To accommodate this we have introduces a manual setup within the GPS settings page that allows you to choose the COM port that the internal or Bluetooth GPS device is associated with.

Also in this version are a suite of improvements to the accuracy of information and data and a couple of bug fixes.

To make the most of these features grab the latest version from http://www.mapmytracks.com/install.

Enjoy.

New feature - track preferences

Different sports require different statistics, which is why we have added the ability for you to set your default map type and distance units for viewing tracks. Now you have the choice to set street, terrain or satellite maps as your standard view together with the option to view your tracks using imperial, metric or nautical distance units.

As before, these options can also be changed as you view a track so you can still adjust the way in which track data is presented should you decide that nautical miles don’t really apply when you have just completed a bike ride!

Preferences are set on the ‘my profile’ page.

New feature - split times

Understanding your performance is essential in any training regime. To help in that understanding we have today introduced split times and pace indicators on tracks.

Split time analysis and pace summaries provide some useful benchmarks for a lot of land-based sports activities like running and cycling. As with all of the distance data displayed we have made it possible to switch between kilometres, miles and nautical miles. Whatever suits your needs.

We’re keen to continue improving Map My Tracks to make sure that you have the right tools for your sport. Let us know what you like to see.

UPDATE: Split time markers have also been added along a track on a map.