Aug 21 2012
Phonelocator for Android, the battery friendly, low bandwith, open source GPS tracking app for Android and Symbian OS is is now available on Google Play! Phonelocator for Android supports GPS/3G Wi-Fi tracking, lost phone alarm and SIM card changed notification (Buddy message). If you are interested in contributing to the further development of this project, let us know
Jan 07 2012
Dec 23 2011
An alpha version of Phonelocator for Android is available here!
The app supports GPS and network location methods. You can enable and disable GPS from the settings. If GPS is disabled the network location provider will be used. It´s possible to configure how long the app waits for a GPS signal before giving up. If a GPS signal can´t be found, the app falls back to network location.
The registration process is more intuitive than the Symbian version. When you start the app for the first time, a web page pops up in the app where you can log in or register for the service. After logging in you´re returned to the app automatically.
So far we´ve used 55 hours creating Phonelocator for Android (a tiny fraction of the time spent on the Symbian version). There´s still loads of features to add:
Most of the settings on the web site releate to the Symbian version. However, it is possible to enable and disable updates from the web site and change the update frequency. The phone´s IMEI and IMSI numbers (and the app´s version number) are not updated to the web site and consequently is currently only possible to have one Android app per account.
Phonelocator for Android is free and open source. The source code is hosted on Github here. If anybody wants to get involved in the development please get in touch
The app has been tested on a Samsung Galaxy S2. I´ve been updating every 10 mins and running the app has not made any perceivable difference to battery life. Please let us know your experiences with it.
Mar 31 2011
In the fourth quarter of 2010, Android overtook Symbian as the world’s most popular smartphone operating system. We want to make Phonelocator available to as many users as possible, so choosing Android as the first platform to port Phonelocator to was a no-brainer.
The work has begun. Our plan is to have the first version ready for release by the end of the summer. Check the screen shots below:
Mar 02 2011
We intend to upgrade the phonelocator webapp, http://periodic.phonelocator.mobi, on 19 / 20 March. Please expect service disruption during that time.
Feb 27 2011
In an attempt to increase the number of users that complete the Phonelocator Periodic sign in process, we have created this video that runs through the sign in process that needs to be completed after Phonelocator Periodic is installed on a phone.
This process is the same for both Phonelocator Periodic versions 0.9 (free) and 1.0 (paid)
See below:
Feb 20 2011
The new version of the Phonelocator Periodic web app was rolled out today (20. February). The new version adds a ‘My Account’ page that allows the user to edit their account details and delete their account. Deleting individual location updates is now also possible. Behind the scenes we’ve upgraded the web app from Rails 2 to Rails 3 and fixed some defects in the Java Daemon process that communicates with the clients. Gzip context encoding has been enabled in the web server to reduce the amount bandwidth used to view the web page. This is especially beneficial for users connecting wirelessly over slower 2G links and those who pay for bandwidth by the megabyte.
Feb 15 2011
We intend to upgrade the phonelocator webapp, http://periodic.phonelocator.mobi, on 19 / 20 February. Please expect service disruption during that time.
Feb 12 2011
A new version of the Phonelocator web application is available for testing here.
Most of the changes are not visible to the user, we’ve upgraded from Rails 2 to Rails 3 and moved from restful-authentication to authlogic. The app has been given a visual referesh and the following new features added:
It’s possible to view and edit your login and email address. Account deletion is now possible without emailing support too!
It’s now possible to delete individual updates.
The app is not yet production ready, but it is now possible to test it. You will need Phonelocator 1.0 mobile app from the Ovi store. After installing and starting the application, switch to the settings pane and set the host name to stage.phonelocator.mobi. Then switch back to the status pane and sign in as normal. You will need to create an account on stage.phonelocator.mobi even if you already on perioidc.phonelocator.mobi. If you already have Phonelocator 1.0 installed on your phone, you’ll need to remove it and re-install using the Ovi store.
Jan 30 2011
I just noticed that there is an interesting review of Phonelocator Periodic 0.9 by Kevin Sharp on the Nokia Ovi blog
