One of the apps on my iPhone is called gpsCompass which is a marginally useful application. Using the built-in gps information, the app shows the direction I’m traveling along with up to four other pieces of information. I have it set to show latitude, longitude, avg speed, and altitude. The most important of those for me was altitude.

I’ve checked it with the highway signs as we go over a summit and there’s a sign telling us our altitude. It’s usually pretty close. Right now the app tells me that I’m at 4,462 feet, plus or minus 156 feet, meaning that my real altitude is somewhere between 4,306 feet and 4,618 feet. If I let the phone sit still for a while, it’ll eventually resolve the altitude to be plus or minus 56 feet. I’ve never seen it get any more accurate than that. I’d certainly not want to pilot an airplane at that precision, though.

Another capability is that it’ll send an email with a google maps link. Clicking on the link supposedly brings up a map with a pointer to my location at the time the email was sent. However, my WordPress blog doesn’t handle the email correctly, or else the email is poorly formatted. First problem is that there’s no timestamp on the email. Consequently an important piece of information is missing: When was I at that place? Second problem is that the link to google maps is incorrectly formatted, so the blog software doesn’t think it’s a link. The email gets posted to my blog, but the link can’t be clicked until I later go into the post and modify it to be a real link.

Maybe it’s time to look around for something a little better.

There are currently 134 applications in the iTunes application store related to navigation, one of which is the gpsCompass app that I already have. There are more than ten applications that will send the current location by email. There are a couple that are setup to aid geocaching. There are others built specifically for subway systems (including New York, Seoul, Korea, Paris, and a bunch more, including the Utah Transit Authority, Trax, and FrontRunner maps and schedules). Others show traffic information (but only in places where that information is free, such as in London). There are some built for bicyclers. One is set up to help you find your car (take a position snap when parking the car, then it guides you back to the car later).

An application called Altitude does just that … shows the current altitude in either meters or feet. It costs $0.99 … pretty inexpensive. Another shows only speed (it’s free).

An application called iHere sells for $9.99 and contains all the functionality of my gpsCompass (which cost $1.99) but that seems pretty steep for this one, particularly where the application notes says:

If the application crashes during start, try resetting the iphone, or deleting and reinstalling the application….

At that price, it shouldn’t be crashing anything!

I’ll probably try a couple of the “email my location” applications and see if I can get something a little more useful. But, I’m not sure I want to clutter up this blog with that information. Maybe a new blog just for location information???

Meanwhile, it’s a fairly warm Wednesday afternoon. We’re going to a concert this evening, a French group Samarabalouf. They’ve been here once before and had fairly interesting music. This is the first Season of Note concert this year and it should be fun.