Moves
I know I’m a bit late to this (thanks @toddml @rstaicut) but after seeing Moves announce their API yesterday I took the plunge and installed the app. First impression - it’s pretty awesome.
Moves tracks your movement using your iPhone’s sensors and GPS. I already track my steps with the Fitbit Ultra so the first thing I was interested in was how close Moves came to the number Fitbit tells me. After a day, the numbers are close enough for comfort.
But the real beauty of Moves comes from its GPS data and Foursquare venue tie-in. This goes way beyond what Fitbit provides. Moves knows when you walk but also can determine when you take transportation or run or bike. Looking below, you can see in my Storyline (great name btw) that I walked from Work to the subway, then transferred to another subway, then walked home. Later I left home, took a subway to Riverside Park, then walked home from there. Moves knows when you are at a place for a while, and allows you to label that place with Foursquare venue data (or generic terms like ‘Work’ and ‘Home’). This is pretty mind-blowing and clearly the future of geo-tracking.
So what’s the downside? You guessed it - battery life. Even though Apple and geo developers claim background location apps only effect your battery by 10%, in reality it’s a lot more than that. At this point, I’m not sure if I will use this every day. But one thing is clear to me. This issue will be solved soon enough and after that, I expect the adoption rate on apps like this to explode.
