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New Location Sharing Service Glympse And We Like It
Article by: Darren Griffin
Date: 25 Jan 2012
There's nothing new about location tracking solutions and there are countless apps and services that you can use to share your location with family and friends. But none have stood out, until now.
Glympse is a relative newcomer but it's kicking up quite a storm with it's service. It allows you to share your location and provide live tracking which can be viewed on a computer or smartphone. You choose who gets to track you and for how long. You can send your location to a single person, a group and you can even share it on Facebook or Twitter.
A simple timer setting allows you to set how long the sharing is active for which solves the worry of forgetting to turn tracking off. Better still, if you're sharing a particular journey, you can set it to expire on your arrival. A nice feature.
But by far the best feature is the quality of the tracking itself. Delivered in real-time, progress is displayed via a Google Map overlay with fluid movement and additional data such as ETA and, optionally, speed.
When you send an invite, or 'glympse' as the app authors call them, the recipient gets an email with a link which takes them to the Glympse website with your live location.
It's a great service, works well, and has a myriad of uses. It's the best of it's kind that we've seen and it is all free.
The Glympse app is available, free of charge, for Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry. For more information see their website at glympse.com.
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| Comments
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 Posted by Gl3n on Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:25 pm |
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Been using this for a while and it is really useful for letting people know where you are and how long you are likely to be before you get there. Not had the chance to test it from tyhe recipient side though.
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| Posted by Darren on Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:16 am |
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Yes, my apologies. A few people have pointed out that glympse isn't new and has been around for some years. It's only just come to my notice though, no idea how I've missed it until now!
I've been using it for a few days now and it really is very good, much better than services such as Apple's 'Find Friends' and similar.
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by 253 on Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:15 pm |
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Me and my mates have been using it for several months now. Beer and curry nights have us using it to see who's nearest and going to buy the 1st pint!!
There's probably a more mature reason to use it, but we are like little kids with it. Or maybe that's not doing kids justice. 
Triumph Tbird 1700. And now a Bonnie T100. |
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| Posted by alix776 on Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:53 pm |
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Just a it doesn't seem to be avaialable on windows phone in the UK or it could be my device but I doubt it for the moment it seams its a US only for this os
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .
Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl |
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| Posted by MaFt on Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:16 pm |
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| alix776 Wrote: | | Just a it doesn't seem to be avaialable on windows phone in the UK or it could be my device but I doubt it for the moment it seams its a US only for this os |
It says it's not available for my brothers Nokia Lumia 800 too... We've both emailed Glympse to query it!
MaFt
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| Posted by 253 on Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:29 pm |
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Not sure if this helps, the website offers downloads for Android, iPhone, Winphone 7 and Blackberry.
Maybe don't support the others yet.
Bob
edit by me,
also links for winmobo6 , 6.1 and 6.5
Also links for older versions of windows - v5, touch phones and non touch phones
Triumph Tbird 1700. And now a Bonnie T100. |
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| Posted by Darren on Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:34 pm |
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| 253 Wrote: | Not sure if this helps, the website offers downloads for Android, iPhone, Winphone 7 and Blackberry.
Maybe don't support the others yet. |
The handsets Alex and MaFt refer to are Windows Phone 7. But the app isn't showing the UK App Market store for Wp7, that's the issue.
Darren Griffin |
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| Posted by 253 on Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:41 pm |
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| Darren Wrote: | | 253 Wrote: | Not sure if this helps, the website offers downloads for Android, iPhone, Winphone 7 and Blackberry.
Maybe don't support the others yet. |
The handsets Alex and MaFt refer to are Windows Phone 7. But the app isn't showing the UK App Market store for Wp7, that's the issue. |
Ahhh right you are. I started to download it from the web onto the PC, but then said I had to sign up for the Zune account, and I stopped. I don't have a Win phone  so no point.
Thought that transferring from PC to the phone may be a way around it.
Triumph Tbird 1700. And now a Bonnie T100. |
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| Posted by alix776 on Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:21 pm |
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I had thought it could be my hd7 as its a first gen windows phone and was going to try and re download it when my radar arrives in the next couple of weeks. ( I did want the titan but HTC apparently have messed it up and it would work on O2  )
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .
Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl |
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| Posted by juwlz on Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:48 am |
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I too have been using Glympse for quite some time. You can find my own (rather more in-depth) review from June last year on my blog. It's great for keeping people up to date on your progress as you travel to meet them, or for helping somebody to find you when they're on their way to you.
One thing to beware of though - when you use the application, it will use the GPS antenna in your phone even when the application is in the background. This is different (on Android, at least) from other GPS-enabled apps, which don't use the GPS in the background. This makes it a real battery killer, so if you're going to use it for any length of time, your phone had better be connected to a charger. It also means that if somebody sends you a Glympse, you're wise to choose to view it using a browser rather than the Application, unless you need to send your position back to them.
Julie
Android user and occasional blogger
blog.juwlz.co.uk |
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| Posted by Darren on Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:16 am |
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| juwlz Wrote: | | You can find my own (rather more in-depth) review from June last year |
To be fair, ours wasn't a review, simply a news item. I'd hope our reviews were known to be rather more in-depth than that.
| juwlz Wrote: | | One thing to beware of though - when you use the application, it will use the GPS antenna in your phone even when the application is in the background. This is different (on Android, at least) from other GPS-enabled apps, which don't use the GPS in the background. |
That's a normal method of operation for many GPS app. If they didn't run in the background then, every time you switched focus away from the app the GPS tracking would stop. That would be a big problem for an app such as glympse.
Our own app, CamerAlert does the same thing as do many navigation apps I have tested.
Darren Griffin |
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