TrackMyTour Blog
TrackMyTour v2 available!
Last updated January 19th, 2010 by chrisTrackMyTour v2 is finally available for download from the App Store! Many thanks to Demodia for their help with the site design and to all the testers who gave feedback. I still have lots of ideas for future versions, but for now I’ll take a break. Enjoy!
TrackMyTour v2.0
Last updated December 29th, 2009 by chrisWith all the changes going into the new version of TrackMyTour, I’ve decided to jump the version number directly to v2.0. Here are some screenshots of what you can look forward to. I hope to have this in the AppStore by February 2010.
New Splash Logo
View a Map of your tour
View and Edit existing Waypoints
See Comments left by your followers
Working on v1.3
Last updated August 31st, 2009 by chrisA new version of TrackMyTour is in the works! The website is getting a minor face lift and the app will be improved. Stay tuned!
Delay to v1.2
Last updated May 29th, 2009 by chrisVersion 1.2 of the iPhone app made it onto the app store, but I removed it after a user reported crashes on launch. I traced the problem to a rare condition when upgrading from v1.1. It wouldn’t have affected most users, but one was enough to take it offline.
I’ve meanwhile fixed the bug and submitted v1.2.1 to the app store. If all goes well it should be available for download in about a week.
Twitter Integration!
Last updated May 21st, 2009 by chrisTrackMyTour can now “tweet” your map updates to Twitter! Just go to the Settings tab to enter your Twitter information. Map updates will be “tweeted” as long as your Twitter login is correct, the comment field isn’t empty, and the map isn’t unlisted. That’s it!
Comments will be cropped to fit the 140 character limitation and include a link back to your map. A submission of multiple waypoints (through the Offline WPs tab) will only tweet the latest waypoint containing a comment.
You can also follow TrackMyTour on Twitter. Enjoy!
Changes in v1.2
Last updated May 3rd, 2009 by chrisI’m working on v1.2 of the TrackMyTour iPhone application and website, and some big changes are coming. Here is what you can look forward to:
- A new and more visual “Add Waypoint” page (see below).
- New tab bar icons (thanks to Glyphish).
- Photo support. You can now add photos to each waypoint.
- Twitter integration. Automatically have TrackMyTour “tweet” your new waypoints with a link to your map. (Follow TrackMyTour on Twitter)
The new release will also address a bug fix with the GPS accuracy after the iPhone comes out of sleep mode.
Below is a screenshot of the working “Add Waypoint” page, and on the dev server you can see how photo support may finally look.
v1.2b
TrackMyTour iPhone app v1.1 now available!
Last updated April 21st, 2009 by chrisTrackMyTour v1.1 is now available for download from the App Store! New in this version:
- bug fix with timezones;
- new weather icons for the evening hours;
- new airport waypoint type;
- maps can be unlisted from the homepage and RSS feed at create time;
- new “TrackMyTour” logo; and
- minor UI changes
Roaming Costs
Last updated April 19th, 2009 by chrisMinimizing cost is a primary feature of TrackMyTour. Roaming costs (the cost of Internet access on your phone in foreign countries) can be very expensive. For example, the AT&T pay-per-use international data rate is $0.0195 per KB, which converts to $19.50 per MB. It’s bloody expensive when you consider that a typical page can be up to 0.20MB in size. Checking your e-mail a few times or browsing a few pages can quickly put your phone bill into the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
TrackMyTour is meant to be used when traveling and has therefore been developed to minimize data transfer and roaming costs. This is achieved by the following:
- No hidden background process on TrackMyTour ever does an upload or download of data. Data is only transferred when you press a button that requires it.
- Adding a single waypoint requires about 4KB* of data (depending on the size of your comment), which works out to a few cents on your phone bill (depending on your data plan).
- New waypoints can also be saved offline without any data transfer. Offline waypoints can be submitted at a later time when you have WiFi access (e.g., at your hotel or at a coffee shop).
All other features should be used sparingly if roaming costs are of concern.
Always know the conditions of your contract and how roaming works before traveling abroad. Not doing so could leave you with a nasty surprise on your phone bill. If you don’t understand how roaming works then I advise you to disable it completely until you do.
* Edit: This post was written before photo support was added to the app. Adding photos can increase the data usage by about 7KB-20KB per photo.
MapMyTour.com becomes TrackMyTour.com
Last updated April 9th, 2009 by chrisI’ve been threatened with legal action from another MapMy____.com website for an apparent trademark infringement. I disagree with their assertions, but this left me with the choice of defending myself or changing the name. I chose the later since MapMyTour is non-profit and a personal project, and I don’t have the time, money, or care to challenge it.
The website transition is complete and any request to mapmytour.com will automatically forward to trackmytour.com. Your login and password are the same and all versions of the iPhone application should work fine. I’ll soon be releasing a rebranded iPhone app, which will also have some new features. Please let me know if you find any problems.
Commenting on maps now available!
Last updated March 31st, 2009 by chrisA new commenting feature has been added to the site. This allows any visitor to a map to post comments, which the map owner can delete if they find it inappropriate. It’s still rudimentary, but I hope to someday add:
- an option to disable commenting on a map;
- a comment summary page (i.e., “Show all comments on my maps”); and
- an e-mail notification system.
The new feature required me to add tabs to the left pane, which I find looks much better. Have a look.
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