I downloaded a new version of Nokia Sports Tracker the other day and discovered that it now has an online community aspect as well. This is a feature that we originally used on SportsDo, our previous gps tracking tool. The main benefit over SportsDo is that Sports Tracker allows you to upload via your mobile phone OR by importing a GPX file directly into the application. Sports Tracker also still allows exports directly from the application in CSV, XML, GPX or Google Earth (KML) formats to either phone or SD card- a real advantage.

On today's cycle ride, it tells me I got a speed of 42.1mph (which does not match what my cycle computer says - 21.7mph). I've started hunting for tools to spot and remove anomalies from GPX or KML files, but in the meantime have come up with a workable alternative.

1. Export the file in CSV format
2. Also export the format in GPX format
3. Open the CSV file and sort by the Speed column
4. Look for any readings that look extraordinary - in my case I had lots around the 20, 21, 22 mph mark, and then 3 at 37, 38 and 41 mph - obviously incorrect. Make a note of those numbers, they'll be used in a minute
5. Open up the GPX file in an editor
6. Search the file for "Speed " and use the numbers recorded above
7. For every anomaly you spot, remove the whole trkpt node (see example below)
8. Save the GPX file
9. Head over to Sports Tracker and upload the new file
10. Check that the file looks about right

After working through these stages, I now have an uploaded trail that looks more accurate.

Sample trkpt
<trkpt lat="50.824980" lon="-0.148063">
<ele>91.0</ele>
<speed>0.07</speed>
<course>193.8</course>
<desc>Speed 0.2 mph Distance 0.00 mi</desc>
<time>2008-01-13T13:50:34.95</time>
<name>2</name>
</trkpt>

Labels: 6110, gps, sportstracker

// posted by Jane @ 2:55 PM   

This morning I made my first purchase of a map from Route 66 for my Nokia Navigator. After an unsuccessful attempt using VMWare on the Mac, I took the DVD to work and tried it there.

First step - installation. No problems, just followed the instructions on the screen - although the phone does have to be attached to the PC.

Second step - choosing a map. One discovery I made, the hard way (by buying the wrong map), is that for France I can buy either the whole of France for EUR49.95, or sub-areas for EUR9.95. These sub-areas are nothing more than cities, they aren't provinces or regions, so for my trip I ended up needing the whole of France.

Third step - buying a map. At the top left hand corner is a button marked Switch to Route 66 Store. I recommend doing this rather than using the DVD.

Select the appropriate map from the left hand side (don't forget to check out the Free travel guides at the top of the menu as well)

When you select a map, the view will alter to something similar to below

Pressing the Add to cart button moves the map into the Shopping cart in the right hand side of the screen.
Pressing the checkout button allows you to enter your personal details and a credit card and when payment is successful the Download screen should be displayed. This will firstly download the map to the PC, and then to the phone.
Closing the screen will not activate the map on your phone at this point but will display a message similar to the following:


Fourth Step - Activating the map. Close down Route 66 Sync and disconnect the phone. Reconnect the phone and start up Route 66 sync again. On my PC a bubble was displayed informing me of new content. I clicked on the bubble and allowed the content to be updated. This seemed to activate the maps for me.

I didn't find the process particularly easy. These notes are as much for me as for anyone else, with the hope that next time I need to buy a map I can do it far easier than the 4 hours it took today trying out different things.

Labels: 6110, gps, route66

// posted by Jane @ 1:06 PM   

Whilst we were on our recent holiday, we took the opportunity to try out the built-in Route 66 navigation software.

The main observations are as follows:

• The battery life with the navigation system running is obviously impacted. In Liverpool the phone ran out of battery a mile away from our accomodation. We bought an in-car charger for the unit to prevent this from happening at other times.
• The software likes direct routes. Despite having selected fastest rather than shortest it sent us through the Snowdonia mountain park, (the road in the photo), with cattle grids and gates etc. Even when I told the unit that I was in a lorry it sent me the same way.
• It is very optimistic about how long a journey will take. Unlike google maps' directions which I've found to be pretty accurate, at 100% Route 66 seems to expect 60 miles per hour on all road types, including that mountain pass.
• In city navigation is excellent, getting in and out of cities and towns using the navigation system was really good, and really helpful.
• The postcode to longitude/latitude conversion is problematic at times - I don't think this is the software's problem but a complication with low population areas. Something to be wary of - next time I'll check the position of the landmark on the map against any other map or information availabile

In summary, I'll probably still print out google maps, and I'll still have a road atlas in the car, but I'll also let Route 66 guide me in and out of cities and towns.

Cross posted to Jane and Richard's yak and natter.

Labels: 6110, gps, photos

// posted by Jane @ 9:10 PM   

I'm just back from a weeks holiday, during which I used my 6110 Navigator to check my emails every now and again. Unfortunately I didn't quite have the settings sorted out completely to allow me to send email from my phone, so I had to wait until I got home to a proper internet connection again to investigate further and review what those settings should be. Anyway, for the record, those settings (found under Messaging -> Options: Settings -> Email -> Mailboxes -> [mailbox name] -> Connection Settings -> Outgoing e-mail) are:

My e-mail address, User name and password - normal settings
Outgoing mail server: smtp.googlemail.com
Security (ports): StartTLS
Port: 587

This seems to work :-)

Labels: 6110, gmail, smtp

// posted by Jane @ 10:34 PM   

We're planning a trip to Wales for later in the year, and one of the places we're looking to stay at has the following disclaimer:

Please DO NOT use postcode search on Google, Yahoo, etc. as you will be taken to a wrong address. If you are using satellite navigation please ONLY use the coordinates in the format below:
Co-ordinates
N52.85005
W3.91084

My new phone has GPS and the Route 66 navigation software. Great I think. I'll just pop in the coordinates and away I'll go. Not so easy as it turns out. Under the Search options there are the following:

• Free Text (enter some text and hope for the best)
• Address
• Nearby (i.e. close to where the gps detects I currently am
• History (a list of places I've searched for or been at recently
• Landmarks (places I've entered and saved)
• Contacts (people I have in my address book

I tried entering N52.85005 into both Free text and address, but to no avail.
I did a quick search on the internet, and just found postings from people saying that Route 66 didn't work with longitude and latitude inputs - you can send a longitude and latitude by selecting Send -> Cursor Position or Send -> GPS Position which displays the settings in a text message or other format.

After a bit of playing around, I discovered that if you choose to add a Landmark, via the My Landmarks -> New Landmark -> Blank method you can enter the usual information - Name, Street, Zip code, City etc, and at the bottom, tucked out of the way is Latitude and Longitude. By entering the information in as a landmark, and saving it, I can then show this on the map and use it for navigation purposes.

So, not a straightforward method - but it works!

Labels: 6110, gps

// posted by Jane @ 10:22 PM   

I've just got a Nokia 6610 (and very nice it is too) and have spent the last couple of days configuring it. As I have a months free internet usage (thanks Vodafone), I thought I'd make use of it. I set my email settings up (I use IMAP) and could send and receive emails, however, messages deleted from my IMAP server, weren't being deleted from my phone's inbox. This confused me for quite some time, and I couldn't find anything on the internet to help me so I fiddled with a few settings until I got it to work.

Within the E-mail settings section there are 4 options:
Connection settings - the incoming and outcoming options for the email servers
User settings - name, signature, new email alerts
Retrieval settings - what to receive (headers etc) and how many, IMAP folders to retrieve
Automatic retrieval - E-mail notifications and E-mail retrieval.

The Automatic retrieval details holds the key, it is badly described in the user manual as:
E-mail notifications — To automatically retrieve the headers to your device when
you receive a notification of new e-mail in your remote mailbox, select Auto-
update or Only in home netw.
E-mail retrieval — To have e-mail headers automatically retrieved at set intervals,
select Enabled, or if you only want headers to be retrieved in your home network,
select Only in home netw. Headers can be automatically retrieved for two
mailboxes at most. You can set on which days, at what times, and how frequently
the headers are retrieved in Retrieval days, Retrieval hours, and Retrieval interval.
E-mail notifications and E-mail retrieval cannot be active at the same time.

Quite frankly I didn't understand this when I read it first time, and I still don't fully understand it. What I do know, however, is that by choosing E-mail retrieval and setting it to "Only in home netw." a message is displayed on the screen which says "All e-mails are retrieved to mailbox when automatic retrieval enabled. Continue?" which led me to believe I was on to something. I set up some Retrieval days, hours and interval and then when chosing to connect a proper synchronise took place. I'm not sure if this is because some other settings behind the scenes were magically updated, or that this on its own was the key. To try and work this out, I set the E-mail retrieval back to disabled and re-connected and deleted emails didn't get removed, so I'm assuming that this is the key.

I'm not sure how much I want to use email on my phone, but I'm pleased to have worked out how to make it work.

Update:
More confused than ever. Whilst it worked once, and sync'd my mailbox, I then deleted some more emails from my server IMAP account and re-connected and nothing changed. New emails were received, but deleted ones didn't go away. However, if I delete an email from the phone inbox (and asking it to delete on the server as well) a proper synchronise seems to happen. This would appear to be the most reliable method currently.

Labels: 6110

// posted by Jane @ 8:49 PM