Nokia Beta Labs

Sports Tracker used on my new N82 is great - better than my Edge 205 in almost all respects. Battery life is a real worry though, as I am a cyclist and need 3-6 hours of tracking. I've adapted the Brodit mount for my bike, which is fine, but I am a bit worried about rain ingress. Exporting tracks for input into SportTracks (not Nokia, but a superb training log) is easy.
Maybe collecting gps data points less frequently would help with battery life, perhaps giving us a setting of say 1-5 seconds. If not, then I agree with the others that we need to be able to pause and resume for a battery change.

I have the following suggestions:
My Tracker
TrackMe
GeoTracker
Geo Suite
GPS Companion
Nokia Tracker (Gets Less Personal)
GeoLog
LocaLog (Location Log ;))

I'll try to think some more and share later if anything pops up

Hi guys..

I have been using sports tracker and n82 for a week now.. im just loving it. :) Trying to better my timings everytime on set routes etc.. really motivational.

There were some bugs i found:

Once i noticed, the gps lock was lost and the sports tracker couldnt re-lock? the total duration of my run was about 40 mins and distance tracked was just about 0.5 Km :) whereas i generally run at a pace round 5 mins/km should have covered around 8 kms then. So a better Gps satellite status indicator, than the small text it shows (ex: 7/10) on one of the screens.

Maybe a beep to indicate loss of lock and some method to resume tracking upon re locking.

There are times when i click ok for a new workout.. and the main screen does not appear, instead i have to click it once more for the main screen to actually appear.

Some additions id like to see:

1. Bluetooth based heart rate monitor as accessory.
2. Temperature, wind speed / direction tracking (which i saw in garmin 305)

Il have some more inputs to share .. later :)

Keep up your good work .. guys

I think that Sports Tracker is great and the creative misuse could/should lead to developments in Maps to record your journeys.

Like others I'd like to see the sports functions of this package developed. Most importantly I'd like to get audio time/pace information as I run. Training schedules you can import into a training calendar for common distances, 5K, 10K, 1/2 Marathon and Marathon, would also be good along the lines of Nike+.

A new feature that I want is an option to pause my tracking, turn off my phone, change my battery (I need more than 4-5 hours of use live streaming!), turn on my phone an recover my tracking (like the step counter does).
That option wiil be very useful for me.

Thanks
Pablo.

Nokia Life on Track

is anyone else having problems since upgrading to latest beta?

i can no longer upload pictures since the phone keeps disconnecting from the wifi connection in sports tracker?

i've been using this software pretty extensively and like it. it would be good to see the track overlayed on a map in the phone and eventually i'd like to see a heart rate monitor built in (with nokia coming out with a one piece bluetooth gps/hr monitor/headset.

regarding picture tagging, seems a bit silly just using the time stamp to locate the picture in sports tracker... since the gps is on and recording, why not just tag the picture with the gps coordinates?

The tracker is awesome, but the omission of the word "sports" couldn't hurt. The problem here seems to be branding, so why not offer both? Prompt the user to describe the use of the tracker: sports or general. If it's sports, direct them to the sports-branded site. Otherwise, maybe something like Nokia Geo Tracker. I would advise against using 'log' in the name like "Geo Log," because it will eventually be shortened to "GLOG."

On another note, does anyone know what parameter to set in the widget code so that the default map style displayed is a map and not satellite? I've looked everywhere and even tried guessing the parameter name. It would be awesome if this could be changed to map by default. Thanks.

^zomg is that maddox?

But I second many of the ideas here: Sports Tracker needs to be integrated with Maps or Lifeblog (which in it's turn needs another name, as it's not only about blogging)

Just imagine the current sportstracker.nokia.com functionality together with what will be maps.ovi.com. It would all tie togheter.

Again there's the worry of not making one super application that mixes all together costing the speed and simple UI of separate ones.

Dear all,
waiting for the update of Sports Tracking, I would like to suggest you to try a similar freeware program that doesn't require any connecton during the tracking time.
It is also possible to set the logging frequency of the GPS points, to change the scale of the trace of your route (zooming in or out), as well as to make a lot of other settings.
In my opinion it is more advanced in comparison with Nokia.
The name is: Mobile Trail Explorer v1.10.
This is the link http://www.substanceofcode.com/
Best regards
Piero

Not sure where to post this issue, but i'll give it a shot here.

I was out cycling this weekend, and was using an external gps receiver (as it's hard to cycle with the keypad open :)
I wanted to use sports tracker to keep a history of where I have been, and also use maps every now and then to see where I actually was. (I did get a bit lost) Every time I did this, the GPS signal meter would turn red and I would nto be able to get back GPS lock until I restarted the phone.
In the end I have up on sports tracker and just used maps to find my way home.
Should more than one application be able to get GPS position at the same time?
Is it jsut me, or is the map feature of sports tracker a bit useless. All I see is a line, so I can kind of figure out which direction I went in, but that's it.

Hi,

I've just realized that "Check for Update" feature in my Sports Tracker v 1.66 doesn't work because there is version 1.72 available. Anyone else has problem with autoupdate?

Even if it's not working what's the way to update app without losing currently stored training logs?

best rgds,

You can just download the latest one from the site, and when you run it it will update your existing install, and retain all of your logs.

At least, it worked for me.

Something more like "Nokia Location Recorder" would make sense. I don't use it for sports other than sometimes to get information about my walks. Mainly I use it to record position tracks when I'm traveling. Recording a track on a plane trip certainly does lead it to report some interesting "sports" results. To me "Tracker" implies more real-time position tracking - while I realise Sports Tracker can do this, I don't think it is the main use.

I would like to see much better power saving options, so that it would continue to record the position while otherwise having the phone in a low-power mode.

Hi

Upgraded to the latest beta and now I cannot access my training diary. I've tried removing sports tracker and re-installing but stiill no joy. Any suggestions?

thanks

Hi Tracker's fans,

I like the commenst by Pablo & Hugo about possibility to pause tracking for changing the battery and resuming session. It would be really needed and it'd have a huge impact on usability with long distance sports (I'm tracking 4-5 hrs bike trips).

Moreover it would be great if there would be a possibility to merge/combine recorded tracks. It happens that the app doesn't see GPS (lost BT connection, or lost satellite signal) and the only real time solution is to stop current session and start new one. It doens't look fine on the web page and it gives no info about real average distance/speed/etc.

Anyway it's still my fav app :)

best regards,

I think Sports Tracker is a good name. Of course, people can come up with clever ways of "hacking" it for other users, like Ricky says, it's a powerful tool. But many of the exisiting features are exactly for tracking sports -- workouts, routes, maximum/average speed, laps etc. Why make the name bland and generalised and make it lose its main focus?

PS I agree with Pablo (no 31.) -- my battery went dead twice when on a three hour walk in Nuuksio forest. This sort of thing often happens, N95 8GB drinks batteries so quickly when GPS tracking. Rather than pause-change-resume, it should cope with batteryflatautoshutdown-change-resume.

A big problem I have with the application is I'd also like to put my photos from my real camera onto the phone, and have it find those AND the cameraphone photos and upload them all. Sometimes it finds them, but most times it doesn't. I've tried changing modified dates, Exif values, etc, but haven't figured it out. How does Sports Tracker determine if photos were taken during a workout?

Hello!

I think that the original Sports Tracker application was/is correctly named. The application is now evolving into something I don't like. My opinion is that we have other applications for blogging and geotagging. I think that you instead should focus on implementing new "sportsfeatures" i.e a voice that tells you speed/distance every 1 km so you don't need to pull up the phone from your pocket to see how fast you are going. Sports Tracker should focus on what it got known and popular from, sports tracking.

I tend to agree with Allwise here. Rather than seeing the possibility to upload video, I would have liked the see the possibility to upload heart rate data. I'm all for creative misuse, but would still like to see further development in the actual SportsTracker functionality. As for th whole picture / video thing, tt least the pictures I take while running usually turn out too blurry to be shared...

What the Sports Tracker/Wellness Siary combo really needs is a decent Bluetooth heart rate monitor to a) come on the market and b) get integrated with the apps.

From a personal point of view I would prefer Sports Tracker to evolve as an alternative to Garmin Connect, and to concentrate on sports tracking. I am considering replacing my Edge 205 and old mobile phone with a Nokia N82 - then importing the tracks into SportTracks (which is not Nokia software, but easily the best sports training log I have used - it knocks spots off Garmin TC and MotionBased).

And while we are speaking of sports tracker, can it use Nokia Maps to show my location on the map while jogging?

Yes the name needs to change... I do not think I can use the excuse that sports tracker says I have burnt 126,000 calories whilst sitting on a plane as a reason to have another glass of wine any more. :-)

Anyone having problems running ST 1.78 on their N73? I recently upgraded from 1.49 and now the program won't start at all. It just "blinks" back to the application menu of the phone. I've googled and there seems to be a few people with the same problem in the Nokia UK forums. I've gone back to 1.49 and it works fine. Help!
Thanks

Hi Guys,
i use sports tracker for my cycling and something i would like to do is to import some tracks for my phone so that i ran cycle in some places i just dont know. Anyone can help me?
I already can make it as a dat file but the phone just don´t recognizes it...

After a week of experimenting with my new N82 and Sports Tracker I've made a few discoveries! Firstly, even without assisted GPS the N82 is just as good for outdoor use (in my case cycling) as my Garmin Edge - in fact, the GPS receiver is less likely to loose the satellite signals in overcast or tree-sheltered conditions. Also, I have had no trouble with vibration even on fast descents on roughish mountain roads, and the modified Brodit mount held the N82 in place just fine.

As I don't need A-GPS, I tried using the N82 as a GPS alone, ie with the profile set to Offline. After a ride of over 4 hours I still had 5 battery bars left, so used this way my problem with short battery life is solved. Anyway, I don't want or need any phone calls whilst training or in a group ride, so running offline suits me fine. And, there is plenty of battery power for a return to the general profile for any emergency calls for support vehicles if needed.

I have the very excellent Digital Clock power saver, so while riding I had the time of day visible. However, it struck me that it would be easy to have a Sports Tracker screen saver displaying one or two Sports Tracker fields instead - perhaps current speed, average speed, distance, time, time of day, etc. Even better, perhaps the power saver could let the user configure what fields to display on the power saver. This power saver would save me even more battery time, as I wouldn't need to activate the screen to see my current speed, average, etc.

So, a Sports Tracker power saver which automatically replaces the Digital Clock (or whatever else is running) when tracking is what I need (with return to the default power saver on stop tracking), and ideally Sports Tracker settings to allow me to autoselect the Offline Profile when tracking (also returning to General on stop tracking). I reckon that I will get around 5-6 hours tracking, maybe more, from a full battery when used in this way.

Is this sensible/feasible?

Further to my earlier point out the frequency of collecting tracklog data points, I notice that my Garmin Edge collected 2147 for a 4 hour 72 mile ride (cycling), and over the exact same route my Nokia N82 with Sports Tracker collected a massive 14459. This must have an impact on battery usage, and on the size of the tracklog file (the gpx exported from the Edge file is 332KB and the gpx exported from the Nokia file is 2.17MB!).

Super. It took almost a day to find this info. Thanks, great job. :)

I like the name Sports tracker, and would like to see additional sport related features in the application. E.g.

Possibility to plan a running session, with warm-up, running and cool down, and interval sessions, with running (time/distance) and rest (time).
This could be with a audio feedback when outside target speed zone.

Support for Hard rate monitor (the Siemens/Adidas MiCoach has a bluetooth HRM) and Nokia could then sell a Bluetooth HRM.

The Garmine Forerunner has a very limited user interface, so there is a major advances for a phone based solution like Sport tracker, as the user IF is much better. As the phone is a bit clumsy to run with in the hand, the phone will need to give audio feedback, (voice) like the Nike+/iPod solution.

I really like the Nike+/iPod's linking music and audio feedback with running, but it's not always possible to run and listen to music, e.g when running with a club, or in a race.

regards Jan

It is an interesting program but I have two comments.
The first one is that as soon as I open the program it automatically starts a GPRS (or 3G) data connection on my E61i.
I’ve checked that only few Kb are exchanged, but I can't understand the reason why during all the tracking time the phone needs to be connected. In my opinion the connection is only necessary at the end if I decide to upload the file to your web service. I suppose that the opened connection also reduces a lot the charge of the battery.
The second comment is concerning the tracking of the route. When I’m using the bike in the streets of the town and I turn left or right, the track on the map cuts the corner of the cross. This fact is probably due to the logging frequency of the GPS points (I suppose that the frequency is about 8 – 10 seconds). I would like to suggest Nokia to give the possibility to set, through the menu, different frequencies for the logging of the GPS points.
Piero

Piero, great comment (no. 37). I usually start application at home, where I have hot spot installed and it irritates me thet the app automatically connect to the hot spot. WLAN connection consumes the battery very fast so I need to turn it off manually before I start training.

best rgds,

I think these blogs are right. People have found so many uses for 'Sports Tracker' that the name doesn't really fit. While it is still a great app for tracking sports activities, it is good for so much more. Anything where you want to record your journey from point A to point B.
So I'd definitely suggest having the marketing guys have a discussion about this. Maybe even present a contest to users of this application to come up with a new name.

Sports Tracker isn't a good name anymore - Life Tracker sounds much better...

Mark

Definitely a job for the marketing department, I can't think of anything else besides "Nokia Tracker"

Sports tracker= gps+photos+video=Life blog+gps (plus cell info)= Life Routes or Life Tracker

Life blog could be: Activity monitor + Sports Tracker + Life blog= My Life

Activity Monitor is now Nokia Step Counter, sorry.

by the way, Sports Tracker could be Activity monitor :)

Thanks for the link, Tommi. Hopefully the team behind the Sports Tracker don't take offense to the new name suggestion - it's not that they mislabeled the product, but more that they've built it into such a powerful tool, the current name, while once a great description, is now rather limiting in the scope of what all the application is capable of.

I stick with my suggestions of Nokia Traveler.

Thanks for the link Tommi. I share the exact same thoughts with Ricky. For someone new to Sports Tracker, he/she probably won't even imagine the possibilities it offers if they try and judge this book by the cover.

Nokia Voyager comes to my mind, its too over the top but then again I coundn't resist.

How about "Tracker"? i never saw the name "sports"-tracker as a good name: it's not water-proof, it's broken when you drop it and it has no heart-rate monitor. simply the killer-features i like on a forerunner 305 and such neat devices for heavy outdoor use!

and i guess "tracker" is shorter & simpler and covers it all. imagine it yourself. life-tracker - no. it does not track my life. life is more than the moments i use sports-tracker. same for lifeblog apps. nice name. but life is more. much more.

the name needs to be changed...
may be something like "Nokia Global Mate"

Me, personally would like Sportstracker to include Maps folder and possibility to view on this maps other Sportstracker users placed in nearby in online mode

How about dividing the present sports tracker to a couple of different products: maybe a life/journey tracker and sports tracker on their own; not trying to get all the possible things to fit all-in-one packet but to keep things more focused, that is. Different use cases usually need somewhat different feature set (even if the some core features remain the same).

I still think most of the features and main use of the app is still sports related. I use it for walks and runs and not much more. Maybe it's more and a Activity Tracker?

No matter what you call it, it's still one of the main reasons why I'm staying with Nokia for my phones because all this software (maps, sportstracker, steps, etc) just makes the my phone so useful it's the second thing I take after my house keys.

Still wish it would allow you to continue a workout though when it's crashed.

I wish sports tracker could show you actual maps (like nokia maps 2.0) for your journey. All I ever get is a blue line which eventually turns into a kind of loop (when I get back home) No idea where I've been until I upload it and look on google maps.

I like the application. I use it a lot when walking, cycling and driving.
I have two problems with the application:
- Same as #38: I don't like the WLAN connect attempt. I always have to cancel that after startup.
- If I pause the application, I can not conintue. The only option I have then is to re-start. So being able to continue recording after restart is very useful for me. (Better: a fix of the continue option)
Regarding new features:
- Integration of Location Tagger which inserts the GPS coordinated into the EXIF header of the image file is a very useful feature for me (and maybe a lot of other people).
- Integration with Blogging is OK for me as long as I am not confronted with controls which I don't want to use (since I don't use blogging).

Same as above. Does anyone know a way to import routes into the Nokia Sports Tracker?

i have the same problem as in post 44!
Does anyone has a solution to how to import other traks like garmin to the nokia sports tracker?

ThaNKS
PEdro
Gomestoc@hotmail.com

hmm.. thank you very much. usefull information

i have a new phone N82, how can i import the results and tracks from my old phone to the N82.

Dear Fernando, I had the same problem. I try installing SportsTracker_GA_31_v178.SIS instead of SportsTracker_GA_30_v178.SIS and it works. So use the installer for Nokia E71, N76, N81, N81 8Gb, E51, 6110 Navigator, 6120, 6121, 6290; S60 3.1 (v1.78, 19-06-2008).

I've upgraded recently to the newest version of Sportstracker but I can' see workouts from older version (~1year old instalation). It seems that .dat files contains details about each workout but new version doesn't recognize old .dat files. Is there a way how to solve this?

Hmm it's working but no current stat data like speed, altitude etc :(

I accidentally deleted a workout. Is there a way to recover it?

HI all.

Have just been sent this link to a BT HRM open source project. Not sure how good it is, but might be worth a look.

http://code.google.com/p/zephyropen/

does anyone can tell me how I can make the sport tracker work on my E71?

I've just bought the new phone and i need it!!
(before I used to run with my 5500 step counter..)

answers also emailing to critarghet@tin.it

Great little app !!

One thing I would like to see in this app is the ability to track back over a path. For example, hiking for a few hours out bush and then when you decide to turn around and come back the app wil lead you on the 'track back' over the same path that you took, with maybe an option of a compass/pointer to show you the direction of the 'track back'.

Great work never the less, and so many different uses.

Hi. We are getting lots of requests/enquiries regarding our HRM and HxM - people want to know "When will Sportstracker" support the Zephyr HRM and HxM? Anyone know?

The Sports tracker is great. Agree with the thoughts earlier that a name change might be needed to reflect the diverse use.

Of interest: a BT HRM (Zephyr Technology) is now available. We have managed to get it talking to a BB Pearl (sorry). The SDK is available from Zephyr. I would be keen to see if it can work with the Sports Tracker (once HR is supported).

oh.. the SDK is free and open to use in a consumer product/software:

http://code.google.com/p/zephyropen/

So, no need to write your own BlueTooth connection and parsing libraries. The framework will be in SVN this week, and will compile to just about any target platform. (CLDC)

Hi,

I do long trekking routes (24hr) and obviously N81 battery does not last all route.

I'd like to use a Bluetooth GPS logger and then import log into SportsTracker every hour to know distance altitude and speed. Is that possible ?

Hello,
The similar software+service for WM RunGPS now supports bluetooth heartrate sensors FRWD B100/B600 and Zephyr HRM/HxM.
Why Sport Tracker doesn't do this yet?
I believe this is more useable feature for fitness than video,isn't it?
Rgds,
Ernst

by the way (if you'll decide to do this :-),
as far as I understand all you need to append Sport Tracker with BT HRMs support is clear protocol descriptions, both ones works via SPP bluetooth profile and HRR/cadence/speed/distance(HxM) and HRR/speed/distance/alti/temperature(FRWD B100) data can be readed using ordinary socket's technique
this is documentation:
http://www.frwd.fi/images/text/147/FRWD_B-series_Bluetooth_Protocol_desc...
http://www.zephyrtech.co.nz/assets/pdfs/bluetooth_hxm_api_guide.pdf