Three iOS apps to automatically track your location

My friend Mike wrote to ask:

"A year or so ago you posted updates about your location during a trip from New England to home. Do you remember which tracking tool or website you used? A friend of mine is planning to bike across the country next summer and something like that would make his wife feel a lot better."

First I'm going to answer the question that he asked, and then I'm going to give some "better" answers.

Each year on Christmas Eve, I drive overnight for about 12 hours to my mother's house. I wanted to give people some way to track my progress so that they'd know where I was without me having to call (which would either wake up my family and/or require me to talk on the phone while driving) or text (even worse while driving).

Last year I used GPS Tracker by InstaMapper, which is completely free; you can setup a website that will show people your progress. It's a great solution, and the app worked really well, but there were just a few shortcomings. First, due to limitations of iOS at the time, the app had to be running in the foreground for it to work. Also, the process of setting it up was a little convoluted. If you look at the reviews on iTunes, you'll also see a whole lot of iPod touch users who don't seem to understand that location detection works much better on iPhones and 3G iPads than it does on the iPod touch.

Sadly, the app has not been updated since November 2008, meaning that there is no iOS 4 compatibility to use the background API for GPS updates, and there's also no iPad app.

The good news is that there are at least two other options, and both are free. Click "Read More" to check them out.

The first is Find My iPhone. The Find My iPhone service was previously restricted to MobileMe subscribers, but Apple recently made the service free to anyone who has an iOS 4 capable device. (The name, as you might have guessed, is a bit of a misnomer, since it can find your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Then again "iTunes" does a lot more than "tunes" now, doesn't it?)

Every iOS user should have Find My iPhone enabled on all of their iOS devices, if for no other reason than the fact that most people will misplace their iOS device at some point or another, whether it's just slipped between the couch cushions or you left it in that cab that you took to the airport. There is another advantage for spouses, significant others or anyone else you're willing to trust with your MobileMe password: they can use the MobileMe website to track your location.

Adam Engst wrote about using Find My iPhone to track his wife (with her knowledge!) during her training rides. (Adam's article was written before Find My iPhone was free, and before there was an iOS app, but the principle is still relevant.) I've used it to track my wife's progress when she's on a car trip, especially in bad weather when I don't want to distract her by calling her to ask where she is.

Find My iPhone has lots of advantages. Once the iPhone is properly configured, which is fairly simple, nothing else is required. The information can be accessed at anytime, with no background processing required, so there's no battery drain. You can even send a message to the iOS device (sort of like an SMS, except there's no way to respond). Of course there are also advantages even when he's not biking across the country: if lost it can be remotely locked or even wiped if needed. The disadvantages are clear: you have to trust someone else with your MobileMe login information, which probably isn't a big deal when it's your significant other, but it's not something you're going to want to share with many people. There's no way to have the information sent to a web page, meaning that she'll have to log in every time she wants to check on him, which isn't onerous, but it's still a little less convenient than the last option I'll mention.

Google Latitude is a free service that allows you to share location information with others. Until recently, there has been no way to update it automatically. Back in early 2009, Google created a native iPhone app, but according to Google Mobile's blog, Apple "suggested" that Google make it a web app instead. A web app doesn't have access to the new iOS APIs, so it can't access the background GPS information. Fortunately, a free third-party app called Ladidude has recently been released for iPhone and iPad. It will update your Google Latitude information automatically in the background.

The advantages of using Google Latitude and Ladidude are that you don't have to give your MobileMe information to anyone, you can publish your location via a "badge" to any website, or you can simply share it via the Google Latitude service with anyone who has a Google account. The disadvantage is mainly one of battery life. If you set the app to update automatically (it won't by default), you have to choose between three modes: Cellular, Hybrid or GPS. In my experience, "Cellular" gave completely wrong information, locating me about 3 hours north of my actual location. However, this mode uses the least battery in exchange for the least accurate results. GPS mode gives you great accuracy, but it's terrible for battery life. That leaves "Hybrid" as the only logical choice. As the name implies, Hybrid uses both cellular data and GPS to give you a fairly accurate location with less battery usage. In my testing, it has been as accurate as I'd generally want or need. You can also set a minimum time between updates (0 minutes to 1 hour) and even be notified when Ladidude updates your location.

Of course, there are any number of services like Foursquare or Gowalla that will let you manually "check-in" and report your location, but that will require things like "remembering to launch the app and check-in" unlike the more "passive" options above. I much prefer to use Ladidude, set to "Hybrid" and updating no more than every 30 minutes, which seems to have a minimal effect on my iPad's battery life.

Update: there are lots more choices than just these 3 apps I mentioned. Check the comments for some other great suggestions from our readers - TjL.