[Talk-us] Quantified Self Location recording, was: Currently available good GPS for use with OSM mapping in the USA?

[Martijn van Exel]

On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 10:07 AM, Richard Welty <rwelty at averillpark.net> wrote:
> On 11/26/13 11:13 AM, Martijn van Exel wrote:
[...]
>>  Logging on your
>> phone will also eat your battery.
> there are USB battery supplement thingies out there, probably best
> to have one or more if you're going to do this away from a car
> with a lighter socket or USB power port.
>

Yes, I have a Mophie around my iPhone that approximately doubles
battery life. Pretty much essential if you do want to rely on your
phone for extended GPS track logging.

Speaking of phones, there is one other thing I wanted to mention,
which is what I call 'coarse position logging'. This is not too
relevant for OSM but as location enthusiasts you may be interested
nonetheless. I have been interested in the 'quantified self' movement
for quite some time. Quantified Self is about systematically tracking
different aspects of your life and making them quantifiable. Location,
your whereabouts, is one of those aspects. Rather than precisely
logging location all the time, which requires preparation and thinking
ahead, and is not really all that useful if you ask me, I set up
Tasker on my Android phone to append the approximate location to a CSV
file on my SD card every twenty minutes. This requires minimal
resources and gives me a long term view of my whereabouts.

On iOS (and now also on Android I think) there is the wonderful Moves
app for this, which records your approximate location in the
background and also distinguishes between walking, running, biking and
other transport. I really like the app, but it is too resource
(battery) hungry for day to day use.

Here are some screenshots of my Tasker setup on Android as well as the
Moves app on iOS:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/my20nr41c1v6qog/X3SzQISE1h

Sorry about the tangent!
-- 
Martijn van Exel
http://oegeo.wordpress.com/
http://openstreetmap.us/