Sports-Tracker: The Free GPS app for Nokia Smart-Phones!

Its no secret, I am envious of the Apple-People for all their wicked, cool applications. Not so envious that I would decide to lug around that obtuse device, but still, a little envious.

Until I found this whilst cruising the Ovi shop for free apps.

So, out of curiousity, I installed the app on my shoddy N97 (the WORST phone made by Nokia in terms of GPS capabilities!)

Last saturday I decided to rise early and go for my routine, weekly morning jog (previously mentioned in my blog, heres the link to that page)

I had mapped it out (With painstaking difficulty and agony) on MapMyRun (which btw offers a similar app for IPhoners).

I decided for the first time ever to take my phone along for the run, and attempt to use this app (as it had worked previously whilst I was messing about with it during my warm-up for the Gaelic football I took part in on friday).

I slipped it into my sweater pocket, zipped up, turned on my iPod (don't judge me!) and hit the pavement.

To maintain your attention, please follow the following link to see Sports Tracker in action.

It kicked in halfway through my jog (testament to Nokia's shoddy crappiness of N97 GPS ability), but it DID work!

The actual length of my run is roughly 12KM, Sports-Tracker kicked in and counted 5.71KM, but it counted 11,136 steps! (for rough distance calculation, divide the steps by 1,000 for KM)

Soon as I saw it was actually tracking, I got my second wind and slapped the side-street of the 30 as I ran down, taking pictures along the way (for my own reference, or so I thought).

Stats given by Sports-Tracker:
Distance
Duration
Avg Speed
Avg Pace
Steps
Step Rate
Heart Rate (you need a separate hardware for that I believe)
HR Avg
HR Max
Energy

Once I got home, I signaled the end of my run, Sports-Tracker immediately locked in to my wireless network and said, "would you like to upload your activity online?", followed by "would you like to include the pictures you took along the way?", and last but not least "would you like to link this to facebook?".

I was dumbstruck. The keyword of technology for the 21st Century is truly INTEGRATION.

You can also use this app for cycling, walking, running etc. Any activity! It even measures speed, elevation etc. And given the recent trend towards healthy living, I am sure many of you will find this app as spectacular as I did.

After Whatsapp Messenger, this is my favorite application for Nokia!

Note to all the unfortunate souls who share my conundrum in owning similar crapola N97s, you can hasten the speed at which GPS signal is picked up by doing the following:

1) Get the latest version of Nokia/ Ovi Suite
2) Connect your phone to the Suite, switch on the Maps application
3) DOWNLOAD the map for Kuwait, it is 4.8MB
4) Turn on MAPS before Sports-Tracker and leave it on (locate my position)

Ofcourse, this means your battery will be drained fast, but hopefully it will last long enough to catalogue your run.

Great news for Nokia owners!

PS for all those joggers out there, trust me when I say that running shoes MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

I started buying my Adidas running shoes @ Sportsman in Salmiya a long time ago. But I never paid attention to "wear-&-tear", I thought, as long as the shoe fits, I can run with it. Sadly I was mistaken. Even if the shoe is"intact", after a number of runs it no longer supports the soles of the feet as it should, and you end up seriously hurting yourself. I used to think something was wrong when my shins hurt during the first leg of my run, but when I changed my shoes (for saturdays run) to a new pair, I felt no pain.

Decent Shoes = No Running Blues

(figuratively & literally!)

PS This application would go great with The 3 Club & AYMSTRONG activities =D