Google released the My Tracks application for Android phones a little while back, and I’ve been testing it out every chance I get. A couple screen shots and links below show a day of hiking around Big Basin State Park near Davenport, CA, and a day skiing at Alpine Meadows near Lake Tahoe. I was immediately impressed that it does an amazing job of accurately tracking your movement, having used both recreational Garmin units and gigantic, clunky, Trimble units in the past. Granted, I used the Trimble unit 8 years ago, so this is not a fair comparison. But I was able to start recording tracks and toss the phone into my jacket pocket and forget about it for the day. It kept a good signal both days, and we put in just over 5hrs of skiing this past weekend.
This brings we to my second impression. After you set your phone to record tracks, the screen will timeout according to your settings, but the phone will continue recording. This maintains battery life throughout the day, which is the one thing you hope for with Android applications, as the phone’s battery life is less than desirable. Okay, onto some links and screenshots…
I added a couple photos from our hike to the final map, placed at the blue markers
Notice the straight chairlift lines…
Tracks on the phone, stats page, and elevation (we got in 17 runs)
