Pinmarks.me – Usage Guide
Here are the guidelines on how to get the best experience out of using pinmarks.me.
Make sure the application is running on your phone, while participating an event.
After starting the phone application one has to make sure that the application remains running before putting the phone into keylock and into pocket. See below for the detailed instructions for individual phone models.
Protect your phone against moisture!
When you go for a sports event where you are about to sweat, it is important to protect your phone against moisture. To avoid moisture going into the phone, it is recommended to place the phone into a small sealable transparent plastic bag – the phones can be easily used through that bag. Such bags can be purchased from the office supplies stores.
On events that last for several hours, like beyond 3, 4 or 5 hours, the battery life of the phone needs to be considered. There are steps you can take to ensure a good experience in such cases. See below for the detailed instructions for individual phone models.
Android
Our Android app is expected to work on any GPS-powered Android device with at least OS version 1.6 or higher. However, we have tested it on real devices with OS versions 2.1 and 2.2 only.
Pinmarksme app on Android can work in background - just feel free to browse away from the application (or keylock the phone) and it will continue sending location updates. User acceptance is asked for the background behaviour if "Back" button is pressed while tracking is switched on.
On the events that last for several hours, there are some steps you can take to ensure longer battery life:
- On the settings screen, adjust the "Update frequency in seconds" setting into longer time intervals in order to save the battery for longer time.
- On the settings screen, adjust the "Min battery level to stop tracking" setting into the level you wish the pinmarks.me application would stop if battery goes below that level. This way you would save the battery for other phone functions (like making some calls right after the event).
- Place the phone closer to your body heat (don't forget to put your phone into a sealable small plastic bag in order to protect it against moisture).
The phones might be different in how much their batteries last. Try to experiment with your phone in order to figure out the best experience for you.
iPhones
It is important, that the application would remain running. If you have iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, make sure you are running iOS4 or newer. Then just start the pinmarks.me application, turn the tracking on, and you can freely keylock your phone and put it into your pocket, leaving the application running.
With iPhone 2G you have to use iOS 3.x, and that unfortunately doesn’t allow any application to run in the background when the phone is keylocked – so, these older iPhones are not well suitable for running the application while keeping the phone in your pocket.
For the newer phones described above, the phone calls that come in meantime, won’t disturb the application. During the call, pinmarks.me application is stopped temporarily, but resume automatically its operation when call ends.
On the events that last for several hours, there are some steps you can take to ensure longer battery life:
- You can turn off the map widget before putting the phone into your pocket.
- On the settings screen, adjust the „Update frequency in seconds“ setting into longer time intervals in order to save the battery for longer time.
- On the settings screen, adjust the „Min battery level to stop tracking“ setting into the level you wish the pinmarks.me application would stop if battery goes below that level. This way you would save the battery for other phone functions (like making some calls right after the event).
- Place the phone closer to your body heat (don’t forget to put your phone into a sealable small plastic bag in order to protect it against moisture).
In our tests, an iPhone 3GS, having update frequency set to 30 seconds and map widget not turned off (i.e. the map widget was running), the application was running for 4 hours and 40 minutes in a ski marathon (outside temperature was -15..-20 degrees Celsius – a sharp cold) before the battery switched off.
The phones might be different in how much their batteries last. Try to experiment with your phone in order to figure out the best experience for you.
Nokia Symbian Phones
While Nokia Symbian phones have the multitasking capability, the pinmarks.me application continues working even if you press on the Home button or run another application meantime. On the newer, Symbian^3 phones, the application is able to update its location even during an ongoing phone call. However, it is recommended that after you do something else with your phone, you’d still check that the application is running before you put it back to keylock and pocket.
On the events that last for several hours, there are some steps you can take to ensure longer battery life:
- On the settings screen, adjust the „Realtime update interval:“ setting into longer time intervals in order to save the battery for longer time.
- On the settings screen, adjust the „Stop if battery below:“ setting into the level you wish the pinmarks.me application would stop if battery goes below that level. This way you would save the battery for other phone functions (like making some calls right after the event).
- Place the phone closer to your body heat (don’t forget to put your phone into a sealable small plastic bag in order to protect it against moisture).
In our tests, a Nokia N8, having update interval set to 30 seconds, the application was running for 5 hours and 40 minutes in a ski marathon (outside temperature was -15..-20 degrees Celsius – a sharp cold) before its user turned the application off. The user of the phone was able to place several calls after the event.
The phones might be different in how much their batteries last. Try to experiment with your phone in order to figure out the best experience for you.
On Nokia phones we have experienced issues with Internet connection stability. If you check your phone screen and see it says that it is failing to post location updates, it is likely not able to recover from a network issue. Currently the only solution is to press on the Exit button on screen, and run the application again.