Symbian in Motion

GPSed by SHAPE Services

by Zach at 5:30 am | February 13th, 2008 | Category: Application Reviews, Location-Based Services

Last month, acclaimed developer SHAPE Services released a cool app that builds upon the ever-growing popularity of GPS-related services. Their preliminary entry into the LBS space is called GPSed, and it packs quite a punch I must say. At first glance you might think to yourself, “why should I bother with this app, I already use Nokia Sports Tracker?” It’s true that each app offers similar functionality, but GPSed takes the concept of track recording and applies a social networking / sharing twist as opposed to a sports tracking twist. Social networking = popular within our online target demographic. Working out = not so popular within our online target demographic. Sad but true, and lord knows I certainly fall within that first category lately.

At the core of GPSed lies an app and a service working in tandem to record GPS tracks and publish them to the GPSed site. The site uses Google maps as the backbone, and displays paths that you track and provides coloring options to distinguish one path from another. Tracks are recorded by the app and then uploaded to the site. You can even upload GPS tracks that you already have (in a variety of formats as opposed to just GPX, as with Sports Tracker) if you have been using a different service prior to GPSed.

Next come the management and social aspects of GPSed. The web service provides a variety of management functions to enhance core functionality. Options like changing track colors, managing multiple tracks and adding track information are among a few supported functions. In terms of social aspects, users can also adjust privacy settings to determine whether or not each track record is available for public viewing. Individual trips can also be shared with friends very easily. What’s more, a recent update allows users to add waypoints either from the mobile client or from the online account. Waypoints are essentially notes that can be tied to a specific point on a trial. For example, while on a walk a user can input “great cafe, check it out” as a waypoint in the app. The map will add the note to the tracks along with the latitude and longitude reads recorded while the note was being typed.

The web service is complemented by Take’n'pin; a PC application that allows you to geotag photos and upload them to your GPSed account. Photos can be taken with a camera phone or any other digital camera. Take’n'pin will then add location data and tie each photo to a point on your tracks. You can use the software to preview photos on a map using Google Earth and upload your them to any service you like (Flickr, Picasa, etc). Photo support within the GPSed web app itself will be added shortly - remember it’s currently in beta right now so development is fast and furious.

In terms of where I would like to see this app go, why not take the social aspects of it a step further? The wide device compatibility and ease of use make this app tremendously accessible. The GPSed mobile client is java-based which is usually a bad thing in my eyes. For a social LBS however, it’s great that GPSed is compatible with a huge range of smartphones and standard-OS handsets as well. If your device has internal GPS or is capable of communicating with an external GPS unit, odds are pretty good that you can utilize this app. As such, I’d like to see SHAPE expand on friends, sharing and communication. Features like the ability to instantly share waypoints across two devices running the app would be great. Imagine walking around town and hearing a chime. You glance at your device and a pop-up message from your friend states, “meet me here in an hour!” Enhance that with the ability to export waypoints to Google Maps and Nokia Maps so that you can easily get directions or even navigate to the location, and now we’re in a whole different league.

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