Android Cycling Apps...Depository

[RIHans]

I am a convert to Android. One of the reasons for an upgrade to a Smartphone would be the GPS tech.

I gotta admit upfront, I'm a tech geek, I dig the new stuff. I may be late to the party, but it's 'cus
I was lurking, checking out the Google OS, and, looking for the yeah and the no thanks.

After some interweb looking, I'm gonna check out the My Tracks app.

I'm thinking this could be an Android Cycling-centric thead. Whats good, don't go there, tricks, tips...

What you got VS?

[rydesteel]

Just picked up an HTC EVO shift yesterday, fun little toy. Other than Angry Birds I haven't really looked through the apps yet. I'll check out My Track though. Look forward to any hints as well since my 15 YO had to show me how to run my last phone and that gets expensive ;>).

[tele]

My Tracks works pretty well, have had the gps go fuzzy on a few rides and then nothing gets recorded. Sometimes I have run Cardiotrainer as well, it seems ok, but again the gps gets dicey in the hills and dales so who knows. I certainly dont want to pay for any app so these free ones are fine for now.

[fatallightning]

i've been using endomondo as my track app du jour. for snowboarding i've used alpine something, mainly because it track hang time. cool.

[rec head]

I downloaded Mytracks a long time ago but haven't really used it. I always forget. I haven't had a problem with GPS for driving directions though.

[sae]

Mytracks announced ANT+ support and Bluetooth HRM support as well in the latest 1.1.0 release. Or well, 1.1.1 is out now.

All I've gotten so far is you need a phone w/ TI's WiLink chip in it to use ANT+. HTC spearheaded the deal in the last TdF with custom firmwares on HTC Desires, but haven't publicly released firmware updates to unlock the ANT+ functionality iirc. Sony announced that their newest Xperia phones would have this capability enabled from the factory. Motorola reportedly uses this chipset as well.

Google spec'd Broadcom chips for their Nexus One and Nexus S, so you Nexus owners are SOL.

[rec head]

Just did a little research and it sounds like no Android phone has the WiLink chip. Would be cool though.

I think my wife will be getting ANT+ for her iphone for her birthday.

[fatallightning]

Just did a little research and it sounds like no Android phone has the WiLink chip. Would be cool though.

I think my wife will be getting ANT+ for her iphone for her birthday.

i was digging into this a little while ago on google. i have a droid x which eveidently has the hardware to do ant+, but as of yet, it is an unsupported feature.

Android Let me start off by stating that no current Android supports USB dongle-type adapters, like those available to iPhones. While this isn’t great news, I’m more keen on native support solutions anyway than to have something else plugged into my phone before every run. That said, to have native ANT+ support we need the right hardware and firmware specs. Texas Instruments is one of the first, or only, to supply chip sets for mobile phones that supports ANT+ connectivity. I say “supports” because the phone’s firmware has to be written to activate the ANT+ radio, and I have not been able to find an example of this yet. The Motorola Droid X contains the Texas Instruments ANT+ capable WiLink 6.0 chip, however it lacks the out-of-the-box firmware to make ANT+ connectivity possible. Even if you were to enable ANT+ by hack, there still isn’t an app in the Android Market that’s ANT+ ready. Bottom line, widespread Android/ANT+ solutions are going to take some time to be available. *EDIT Sony Ericsson is now the first Android handset maker with ANT+ connectivity solutions. On February 1, 2011, SE began rolling out firmware updates activating ANT+ hardware on their X8 and X10 family. No word found yet on compatible applications. ENDEDIT*

[-HvA-]

MyFitnessPal is a great calorie counting app.