When the boss told me I was to take a look at a GPS Tracker, for some reason I was expecting a hand-held digital display type tracker, but the Maplin i-gotU GPS Travel Tracker is far from that. This tiny tracker is actually designed to allow you to document your journey alongside your own photos using accurate GPS location technology. Small enough to fit easily in the pocket, a backpack or on a key fob the unit is made with the adventurer in mind.
Weighing in at only 20g and only 13mm thick the tracker really isn’t a burden to take anywhere with you.
The unit has a built in 16mb memory and is powered by an inbuilt Lithium-ion battery and is impressively capable of recording over 65,000 waypoints along your journey. The unit is suitable for use in a temperature range of -10°c -+50°c so really can be used globally. Water-resistant and fitted with a silicone jelly case the tracker is designed to be robust and ideal for outdoor use.
The battery housed within the tracker when fully charged is capable of logging position every 60 seconds for 70 hours, although the user can adjust the logging frequency to record every 60/30/15/10 and 5 seconds. This is particularly useful depending on the mode of transport or activity being undertaken. There is no point recording data every 5 seconds when walking on a beach in flip-flops! The GPS attainment time is less than 35 seconds from a cold start, meaning you can get going almost immediately from switch on.
By syncing the time on your camera with the GPS unit you can accurately record the location and time whenever a picture is taken. This can then be used to map a very accurate record of your journey, trip or training session. Used in conjunction with Picasa or flickr you are able to geotag your pictures using the recorded data and this allows you to share your pictures accurately on photo sharing websites. Impressively, using Google Earth and Google Maps your data can be used to create a precise route, mapped out before your own eyes.
Included with the Travel tracker is the necessary lead to allow charging and data transfer and a CD-Rom with necessary software. Unfortunately this disc only contains the OS for Windows systems — Windows 200, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. It is possible to find software to allow use with Mac-OsX but it has to be said it isn’t easy or straightforward to find and download this information. I tried to load the software on both Windows and Mac systems and it was a lot easier to just slip the Software disc into the Windows system. Even with the Software loaded within Windows the Software is not very intuitive and easy to use and is frustrating to get acquainted to.
It is worth noting that this isn’t a live time tracker unit and cannot be used, for example, to track movement of a vehicle in real time — it can only show where it has been after the journey has been completed and the tracker connected back to the computer.
So this diminutive tracker is ideal for looking back at a journey or trip and syncing, accurately with your own photographic records. It can be set to record positioning at regular intervals or can be manually operated to capture positioning, allowing the operator to create a personal mapped diary or blog of their adventures. The GPS Travel Tracker is available from Maplin for £39.99, however at time of writing, the Tracker is temporarily unavailable for home delivery and can only be collected in store.
