iconicflux

I've been seeing a lot of questions on various forums regarding apps for displaying their map coordinates to others.

Instead of asking about what apps people use, I thought I'd put down what I'd like from an app and I thought maybe others would want to chime in too:

1. report current address and gps coordinates at configurable intervals.
2. Shut off gps when not required by the app to save battery. Wake up gps automatically when needed.
3. Easily add 'friends' to ongoing tour profile (NFC, wifi, texting number, etc).
4. Friends location update via SMS/TXT (configurable). (SMS messages are almost always available.)
5. Track friends on map
6. Permissions for location - coarse, fine, friends only, etc.
7. Sense crash
8. Use Google Places API to look up local services
9. Display services, friends, etc. on a map

10. ...?...

Machka 

Can I ask ... why?


I know ... to each his own ... different strokes ... and all that ...

But quite frankly ...

1. When I'm cycling or touring, I know where I am. I don't need an app to tell me. And if I don't know where I am, that's fine too. That has happened a small handful of times, and adds to the adventure.

3, 4 & 5. I have no interest in "adding friends", and I have absolutely no interest in where my friends are or tracking them. And I especially don't want anyone to be able to track me.

Maybe that's just me.

When I'm on a tour, I don't want anyone to know where I am with the exception of immediate family and certain select people at specific times.

iconicflux

As you said, to each their own.

It's not always about knowing where you are but often I roll into a place and then roll out only to find out later that I missed something because I didn't know the town and never bothered to check.

As for your questions/comments:
#1 would be a way to have family members or others know where you were last seen. It's not so you can know where you are.
#3 /4/5 are because not everyone tours alone. Sometimes you'll be touring with people of various speeds/skills. It would allow greater flexibility between riders so a faster cyclist isn't necessarily stuck going at the pace of the slowest person. I've been the person way off the front before and I know well having to wait for the rest of my group so they can see the place to camp/eat/etc.

fietsbob

Get on the Programming then , someone writes those Apps, line By Line..

saddlesores

really? ya need an app for dat?

i s'pose i'm showin' ma age....but back in the
day, if we was bleedin' and had gravel pokin'
in our knees, we prolly done crashed.

no wait, as a society, we are doomed.
i just read this:

"Hydration-tracking water bottle glows when you need a drink"
https://www.cnet.com/news/hydration-t...-need-a-drink/

"It has a sensor inside that tracks how much you drink and it transmits that information to an accompanying app on your smartphone via Bluetooth. The app collects data about your physical stats and activity levels and then calculates your ideal water intake per day. A graphic of a drop fills up the more you drink till you've reached your goal. If it's been awhile since your last guzzle, the bottle will glow to remind to take a swig.

Additionally, the app can track your location and adjust your recommended water intake based on that. If you're in the desert in Arizona for example, you might need more water than if you're in the Louisiana bayou."

so yeah, now you got an app that can alert your friends that you
fall down go boom hurt your boo-boo, please bring some water.

indyfabz

LOL! Beam me up, saddlesores.

antokelly

i like that

indyfabz

My flip phone doesn't run those things called apps.

I just sent an email to some coworkers letting them know I will be on tour (SD and NE) starting next Wednesday and that during my absence I really won't be reachable. Just the way I like it.

apolloturner

One that gives you alternate stopping points would be nice. Say you have mechanical issue and don't make it the 40 miles you needed to in order to camp, it shows you alternate lodging.

indyfabz

You can already find them using Google Maps. If my tour is short (e.g., 10 days or so), I have them in my head or on a piece of paper which never needs connectivity or recharging.

veganbikes

Here is what I would want in an appetizer for touring (we were talking food right?): Handmade steamed vegetable dumplings. Obviously hard to carry touring but maybe they might exist in a small local Chinese restaurant I might visit after a long hard day in the saddle or maybe I might be at a warmshowers and someone can cook or maybe they just are there waiting for me.

I would go fried but I feel like I wouldn't need the extra oil while touring and would want something a little lighter.

Eds0123

Believe or not, Qualcomm is working on some type of technology, some kind of minuscule capsules circulating in our blood, constantly sending data about the anzyme levels, onset of different microscopic conditions, etc to your health center, laboratory, etc to see a d verify precursors to cancer cells, etc, before they become a problem,

I don't know about you but I want these tiny bity probes in my blood transmitting my health data to some place where it could be analyzed better and I could be alerted that something might be happening. to each their own. but then again I guess we could turn off all lights, turn off all electricity, and all live by candle lights, it is all just more romantic that way.

indyfabz

Yum-me!

saddlesores

yeah, and i'm waiting for an app that tells me i need to poo, cause, ya know, like
i'm never really sure and all. oh, and it'll twoot all my friends so they'll know all
about it in real time!

yeah...some place with a 3-letter name. "hey fred, we got some joker here that just
cut the tag off a mattress.......better call in a drone strike!"

shipwreck

This is the part that really makes me shake my head. Never bothered to check. If you might not be bothered to take a pro-active stance on looking into where you are and what there is to see or do there, but want an app to do that for you...

I'm all for technology, taking my smartphone really makes my tour more enjoyable in that I can monitor my business and banking, keep in touch in multiple ways, and know that it will help me find car rental, bus station, whatever in case I need to get back to an ailing/aging family member. But its a tool, not a crutch.

iconicflux

I've made dumplings on tour although not steamed. They're pretty easy although potstickers are far easier.

If I had a titanium wok that I could take with me, I'd be eating really well on most of the tour. I'd probably cycle between drunken noodles, pad thai, and rice w/ baby bok choy + garlic sauce..

As it is, pho is like $.25/bowl minus the meat and basil and the noodles are pretty good for carbs.

iconicflux

Sometimes, not having things planned is far better than planning out everything. I'll admit that thought it works far better in most of the world but not as well in the USA...

Walter S

Why does the USA call for more planing? I don't plan much further than where I'll stop tonight. And I frequently change that plan, and quite often the destination is hardly specific.

iconicflux

throughout a lot of the world they have information centers in all the little towns that will assist in finding lodging, food, etc. The US doesn't usually have those and when they have something like them they've been closed whenever I've stopped in..

Machka 

While that is true ... I suspect there's still a good chance you could find a quiet road and camp in the ditch throughout the US if necessary.

iconicflux

yeah you probably could. Unfortunately, I have a strange fear of ticks that sometimes limits my campsite choices.

Machka 

We travelled around the world with little notebooks which served us very well. We were able to do any business that needed attending to. We could keep in touch. I was able to process and post all the photos I took. And of course, we could do a Google search for anything we needed along the way, if we wanted to locate something. No extra apps need. And much of the time the notebooks were off and we were just out there, finding our way.

Machka 

Ummm ... you're going to find ticks in "official" campgrounds too.

One of my favourite campgrounds in Manitoba was thick with poison ivy and ticks. There were warning signs posted, and although I didn't go off into the bush around each campsite, I always ended up with ticks on me.

Machka 

What I'd like in an app ... and I might even be prompted to get some sort of phone or device to use the app ... is a calorie tracker. Those exist, you're thinking, but what I'm thinking is this ...

I'd like to be able to load up my plate with food, run a scanner over it, and have it tell me exactly what I've got there in the way of calories, carbs, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. Or if I order one of those lovely German ice creams we ate when we cycled the Rhine Route, I could scan them and be horrified by the number of calories they had. Or if I am considering a muffin at a buffet breakfast, I can scan it to see if it is a better choice or worse choice than the toast and jam.

And of course this wouldn't just be for touring ... in fact, I'd probably rarely use it while touring. It would be much more useful for everyday calorie counting purposes.

veganbikes

Yes indeedy

A TI wok would be sweet. There are at least 3 places near me that make a delicious tofu and vegetable pho and one that is pretty good but not great, it is awesome. Plus I do have a whole smattering of delicious Thai places with great Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodles).

I took a look around the internet and found one supposedly full Ti wok but it is coated in silicone or something which flakes off. Maybe I might talk to MSR or Snow Peak and see if they can't whip one up for us.