Synik103
05-23-2008, 02:27 AM
I went looking for a Geotagging app and I think I found a winner: GPSed.com has a pair of nifty little apps that do just that. (OTA download from wap.gpsed.com, but you'll need to set up the account from a pc) For those of you wondering what Geotagging is, here's MY explanation.
When you record and attach a GPS location to a photo, it's called a Geotag. This is useful because the geotagged photo can be attached to a map, like google earth, to let you see the map point in better detail or to show you EXACTLY (accurate to 3 meters) where you took the picture. Cool, huh! If you've ever played with Google earth, you've seen lots of these pictures.
How does it do this? GPSed uses what it calls "Tracks". It records your GPS location from your internal GPS or an external GPS attached to your BB, and records the time that you were at that location. This is a track. You use the app to start the track, walk, drive, or fly around a bit, and end the track. The info then loads to your account (it's free - for now, I'm sure they'll charge one day. All the good ones do, eventually). Once the track (which are nameable, for different trips, occasions, etc.) uploads to your account, you can attach photos you've taken to the track from your Picasa or Flickr account. The site then compares the time stamp on the pic to that of the track and matches them up. NIFTY! It's just important to remember a few things: Start GPSed BEFORE YOU START TAKING PICS, and BE SURE YOUR BB's TIME IS CORRECT and matches that of your track (timezones make a difference). I had some trouble with loading pics from Picasa, because my username on Picasa was different from my GPSed username, so I created a flickr account and was up and running in seconds. Once you load your pics, you get a google maps view of the photo! AWESOME! You can choose to keep your photos and tracks private, or share them with other users.
But that's not all...
Tracking is also useful for other stuff. Wanna measure your running route to see that you really ARE working off that morning donut or keep track of how long taking that new shortcut to work saves you off your drive time? The tracking app will give you time and distance info too! There is even a "YOU ARE HERE" function that will show your location (again, accurate to 3 meters) with zoomable views via the BB web browser!
Final thoughts: The setup and first go round were a little confusing and tedious. Once I got everything worked out I was EXTREMELY SATISFIED. It showed me exactly what I wanted to see and the interface works well. I was a little disappointed that photobucket isn't supported as I can send photobucket pics from my BB directly. The "where am I" function was a little wonky, it said I was on my street, in my city, but said I was in Alabama (which is fightin' words where I come from, I live in GA, but to be fair I'm 5 miles from the border). All in all, I highly recommend this one.
When you record and attach a GPS location to a photo, it's called a Geotag. This is useful because the geotagged photo can be attached to a map, like google earth, to let you see the map point in better detail or to show you EXACTLY (accurate to 3 meters) where you took the picture. Cool, huh! If you've ever played with Google earth, you've seen lots of these pictures.
How does it do this? GPSed uses what it calls "Tracks". It records your GPS location from your internal GPS or an external GPS attached to your BB, and records the time that you were at that location. This is a track. You use the app to start the track, walk, drive, or fly around a bit, and end the track. The info then loads to your account (it's free - for now, I'm sure they'll charge one day. All the good ones do, eventually). Once the track (which are nameable, for different trips, occasions, etc.) uploads to your account, you can attach photos you've taken to the track from your Picasa or Flickr account. The site then compares the time stamp on the pic to that of the track and matches them up. NIFTY! It's just important to remember a few things: Start GPSed BEFORE YOU START TAKING PICS, and BE SURE YOUR BB's TIME IS CORRECT and matches that of your track (timezones make a difference). I had some trouble with loading pics from Picasa, because my username on Picasa was different from my GPSed username, so I created a flickr account and was up and running in seconds. Once you load your pics, you get a google maps view of the photo! AWESOME! You can choose to keep your photos and tracks private, or share them with other users.
But that's not all...
Tracking is also useful for other stuff. Wanna measure your running route to see that you really ARE working off that morning donut or keep track of how long taking that new shortcut to work saves you off your drive time? The tracking app will give you time and distance info too! There is even a "YOU ARE HERE" function that will show your location (again, accurate to 3 meters) with zoomable views via the BB web browser!
Final thoughts: The setup and first go round were a little confusing and tedious. Once I got everything worked out I was EXTREMELY SATISFIED. It showed me exactly what I wanted to see and the interface works well. I was a little disappointed that photobucket isn't supported as I can send photobucket pics from my BB directly. The "where am I" function was a little wonky, it said I was on my street, in my city, but said I was in Alabama (which is fightin' words where I come from, I live in GA, but to be fair I'm 5 miles from the border). All in all, I highly recommend this one.