Frequently Asked Questions

Yes

Here's how:

• Log in to the website
• Go to your Settings
• Set your account 'Private' under the 'Privacy' segment

From that point on, only you and your buddies will be able to view your tracks and position.

To allow access for friends:

• Send your friends to your Profile page
• Let them click the 'Add to Buddies' button
• They will be asked to Log In or Register
• You will receive an email asking whether you want to allow the user into your buddylist

Here's how:

• Log In to the website
• Go to your Map page
• Switch to 'History Mode' and find the track segment you wish to export
• Click the 'KML' or 'GPX' link in the legend

This will get you a KML (Google Earth) or GPX file as download.

With a Basic (Free) license, you may download up to 5 individual segments of track per calendar month. If you wish to export more segments, or export all your tracks into one single file, you need a Premium license.

Free licenses;
Retention as long as space is available.
At any time the database gets too full, tracks may be removed.

Paid licenses (€ 12,00/year and up);
Retention as long as space is available, guarantueed up to one year or 1 million locations.
If at any point tracks need to be removed, the last calendar year, or the last one million locations will stay intact.
Also please note that any tracks created by leaving the app running in one spot, 24/7, may be removed at any time (and are concidered to be worthless).

Send your friends and family the link to your map page, and tell them to watch when you go out.
Easy as that.

If you require more privacy than just handing out a link to your map, add your friends to your Buddy list first.

Here's how:

• Go to the users profile or map
• Click 'Add to Buddies'

The user will get the option to either Accept or Decline your request.
As soon as you're accepted by the other user, you will be able to see their location.

In case you dont have an account yourself, but do want to see locations for a friend who does have an account, you can use the Register form to set yourself up an account.
In case you have an account and want to share your locations with friends who do not have an account yet, send them to the register form and ask them for their newly set up username, to become buddies.

If a user is currently submitting live locations when you look at Live Mode, it will update every 15 seconds.
If a user has been inactive or has not sent in any locations in the last minute while watching Live Mode, it will automatically switch to a somewhat lower frequency, and check for updates once every minute until the user becomes really Live again.

Here's how:

• Log In to the website
• Go to your Map page
• Click the 'Delete Segment' link in the Legend
• Press Ok

This will remove the specific track segment from your history and cannot be undone.

You can not change your username and email address yourself in order to avoid abuse.

In case you accidentally entered a wrong email address, please log in to the website and use the Feedback Form to request your email address to be changed in the database.
Only requests complete with current email, username and new email address will be processed (make sure your request is complete).

Log in to the website and go to your profile.
Click the 'Embed your Map' tab in the menu on the right.
There you will find snippets of code you can add to your own homepage in order to embed your map. These snippets can be used as long as your profile is set to Public.

If you need more advanced API access, please contact support.

See the Find Users page to find users on the map, or see the Current Activity page to find currently active users.

To find your friends, either ask them for their username, or give them yours.

Here's how:

• Log in to the website
• Click 'Settings' from the menu
• In the 'Privacy' field, select 'Buddies Only'

Internet Explorer is not capable of displaying some of the techniques used to build up the location of website. Especially the older versions of IE may look terribly in comparison with firefox or chrome. Aswell as how it looks, performance in IE is also a lot weaker, as it does not support script being executed as elegantly as firefox or chrome do. For maximum performance and a good-looking website, please do not use IE and start using Google Chrome.

Yes,

The example on the homepage is a recording created using the My World GPS Tracker app, in november 2011.
Although the example is not actually live anymore, it is still a perfect representation of what you may expect using the app on the road, under good conditions.
The recording was created on a Nokia N97 Mini.

Please Log In to the website and use the 'Feedback / Help' form on the left of your screen. Select 'A Problem' as Feedback Subject, and supply a valid email address. I will change this for you manually.Please note, all accounts with invalid email addresses will be purged.

Step 1:
Make sure your account still exists.
Surf to http://www.locationof.com/{YourUsernameHere}/
If the page is not found, your account may have been removed because either email could not be delivered, or your email address was not confirmed.

Step 2:
In case it still exists, have your password resent to your address.
Go to http://www.locationof.com/forgot_password/
Enter your email address and submit the form.
Your password will be resent to the address you used to register your account.

If you are -certain- your username exists and your password is correct, make sure your computer's time and timezone are set correctly. If your computer's time is -not- set correctly, your session may expire the same second you log in.

If none of the above helps you out, contact me through email, including your Username and Email address.

Check your spam-box and flag messages from Location Of as "Not Spam".

Our email will come from no-reply@locationof.com

To get a new activation mail, go to http://www.locationof.com/forgot_password/
This will resend your welcome mail.

Please note the welcome and activation mail may come as late as 6 minutes after registration, in order to let the phone submit it's first location first.

The currently available app is fully supported by Nokia Belle, though, it may be rather hard to install it. The menu buttons are nastily switched around, having the "Back" button serve as "OK" button, and "OK" as "Exit" and vice versa. I am fully aware of this, and working on an update which will appear on the store really soon. The app will function absolutely normally if you can manage to pass the installation and setup process aware of this behaviour, though, i know, it's not "nice".

You can track a mobile phone after installing the application on it. You need to start the application and set up a username. Make sure to enter a valid email address. An activation mail will be sent. Leave the application running in the background and surf to this website to view your tracks.

I recommend a Nokia E7 or Nokia N8.

Both will perform very well and have good general reception of GPS signal.

Compared to any other platform currently out on the market, the Symbian platform (Nokia) will have the longest lasting battery in exchange for some speed.

These remarks set aside, pretty much any Nokia phone with an internal GPS chipset and A-GPS support will do; Quality of the results depends on the model.

To use the application in offline mode, when starting up, choose the Offline Mode switch when you're asked for it.
The phone will start saving your locations to your phones main memory.
You can then go out, and once you are back in range of network or wifi, restart the application in Online Mode to submit your tracks.

More details can be found in the How To

No, if your phone has no connection to the internet, there is no way to get locations to the online-based system. You can create a track in offline mode, but you will need to connect to the internet sooner or later to submit the saved data to the net.

Depending on your phone model the tracker may reduce your batterylife quite a bit, especially in online mode. Tested on a Nokia N97 Mini, batterylife while fully active is around 14 hours, transmitting locations to the internet non-stop.

Yes,
Tracking is only active while the application runs.
You can let the application run in the background by selecting 'Hide' from main screen.
As soon as you close the application, submission and collection of locations will be stopped and no further updates will appear on the website.

Do /not/ leave the application active 24/7; In order to create useful tracks, start the app whenever you go out and start your journey, and exit whenever you've arrived at your destination. This will save you battery power, data usage, and above all, will only record nice tracks on your profile.
Make sure to read the How-To aswell, which explains this behaviour!

Yes, you need an internet connection on your phone in order to send data to the locationof.com servers.

This may be either a mobile network (GSM/UMTS/HSDPA/LTE) to use online mode or a Wi-Fi hotspot to submit data recorded in offline mode.

The application is quite efficient in it's data use (roughly estimated at 200kb/hour), though, an unlimited databundle is advised.

Yes, I have deceided to add functionality for this soon.
Check for an update in a week or so, you will be able to send locations once every -x- time you select.

This means the phone is looking for more satellite signals to pinpoint your position.
This is absolutely normal behaviour.
As soon as you go outside, the phone will have a clear view over the skies, and will start working sooner.
Both the 'Waiting for signal' and 'Signal too weak' indications are fully normal, especially when indoors.

When the application starts up, you get asked for permission to access location services, and network services.
You must accept the location services for the app to work, but you can deny the network connection to have the application switch to offline mode.
Once in reach of a WIFI network, or other, restart the app and accept network connection to submit cached (saved) locations.

Except for running the application on your cellphone, there is no way to 'input' a location to the system. Just download the application from the download page and install it on a compatible device.

If your friend has a Location Of account and is submitting locations with his or her phone, all you need to find your friend's position is his or her username to find it here on the website. Just tell your friends to install the tracker on their phones.

Try going outside where GPS reception should be good. Also, make sure your phone model supports GPS. Please note that getting your phone to get its first location by GPS can take up to a minute. Also, please enable A-GPS (Assisted GPS) if your phone allows you to. Please refer to your phone manufacturers website for more information.

First install the application on your phone. Choose a username, password, and provide a valid email address so your account can be confirmed. Then, leave the application active in the background, so it can receive locations by GPS and submit them to system. Please take into account that GPS works best outdoors.

Your phone can only submit whatever locations it measures by listening to GPS signals. If your GPS reception is poor the accuracy of the submissions will go down coherently. To get the best results, make sure to use the service when you are on the move. In a car, on a bike or just walking around. GPS reception within concrete buildings is minimal.

You can uninstall the application just like you would uninstall any other application, depending on your phone brand and model.
If somehow the service does not work out for you, you may also wish to close your account.

When updating the application and overwriting the older one, you will get asked "Preserve previously saved application data?", "Save application data?" or something similar.
Answer this with Yes and you will not have to reenter your username and password, and redo settings.

This happens in two cases:

- The username is taken
- The username you are trying to register contains illegal (blocked) phrases

Please note that most 4 and 5 character usernames have been taken by now, even the strangest ones..

For the symbian platform (the j2me version), this is not likely to be implemented at all.

For any other upcoming platforms (Android), this may very well be implemented.

Sadly, this question has not yet been answered.

Please check again soon!

A beta version is currently available; Although it is not ready for release yet, you may send me an email to join the beta team.

Yes.

Basic usage of the app and website for personal use are free.

Additional features and functionality like exporting all your tracks in one to KML or GPX require you to purchase a license on a yearly base.

From version 0.6.2 (and higher) the app will use around 200 Kb (0.2 Mb) per hour in online mode (estimated).
In earlier versions, this has been a conciderably larger amount.
An unlimited dataplan is recommended for usage.

No, unless the person currently holding the phone would start the application, there is no way I could tell where the phone is.

In fact, I have no idea. As long as you keep the phone in -flight mode- or -offline mode-, thus, not trying to connect to the network on the ground, I expect everything to be fine.
Receiving GPS signals does not require sending on any frequency. It just needs to listen in.
You might want to see and read this article

Please note that I am only showing this as a -possibility- and can in no way be held responsible or liable for any results or consequences of acting upon this information.

The current version is written in Java2ME using the Nokia Symbian^3 SDK.

To close your account:

• Log In to the website
• Surf to http://www.locationof.com/close_account/
• Submit the form

This will permanently remove all data associated to your account (locations, avatar, settings) from the system and cannot be reversed.

This has everything to do with GPS Accuracy. As long as you sit in one specific spot, without moving, the GPS will still receive coordinates, one slightly different than the other. If you stay in one point for a long time, the whole map will be scribbled full around you. Tracking works best once you are on the move, and the phone has a good indication of what satellites are overhead. There is no use in 'tracking' when sitting or standing still; At least not longer than a couple of seconds to send in a global indication of your actual position.
If your map is getting scribbled full, stop the application, and start it again when you go outdoors, just before you get on the bike or in the car, and leave it running while you are on the move. You will see the difference.

• Install the application on the other phone
• Select 'Existing User' instead of 'New User' when you're asked
• Type in your current username and password.

The system will automatically detect the different phone model, update your profile and you should be ready to go.

Any accounts with invalid email addresses that have not been confirmed or cause delivery problems for the mail server, will automatically be purged.
Make sure to sign up using your real valid email address, as that is the only thing you're asked for in return for a free account.

One. It's just me, Jasper.
Read more about me, if you are interested.

No! This is my hobby project, which I waste way too much time on. Please do not treat me like a company, as that sucks the fun right out of working on this thing for me.

Usually well-over 40 hours a week;
Aside from developing the mobile application, I maintain the website, respond to (almost) all email coming in, and provide live support here on the website.

Yes! Any help I can get is very welcome.
I especially need people with marketing and commercial skills, people to clone the application for several other mobile platforms, and someone to create a facebook app as that's a much asked-for feature.

I am open to suggestions, and almost-anything goes.
Just contact me through skype or email, and we'll see what comes out from thereon.
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