Everfelt the need for trailing someone remotely? PhoneLocator lets you do just that on your symbian phones. The catch is you need access to the symbian phone of the person you need to track and it should be a GPS enabled device. PhoneLocator is an advanced real time GPS tracking application for s60 devices. To moms and dads, reading this post, please get your kids a 5800 and install this application on their devices to keep a tab on them. Moreover, its fun to have a record of your own trail and you can even embed the trail on your blog. Now this is something I have seen only on screen in CSIs or Mission Impossible series and other movies/sitcoms of the same genre. Isn't it cool that you can have such an advanced real time GPS tracking application on your 5800 and flaunt it on your blog/website all for free?

Installation

PhoneLocator can be downloaded for free from ovi webstore or ovi store client on your 5800s. Download and installation is a breeze with just a couple of clicks keeping you away from using this amazing application on your 5800s. Installation file is just 0.067 MB and should take around 15 s to download from the ovi store client over wi-fi. Considering the small package, one can download PhoneLocator over 3G without burning a hole in your pocket.Features

Before you start using this application, you need to register for an account with phonelocator.mobi and you can do it right from your 5800, from this very application. When you start the application for the first time, it will prompt for a username and password and if you don't have an account, it will straight away open the registration page on the symbian browser.

During this registration process, phonelocator started connecting over my 3G rather than my preferred wi-fi (coz it doesn't cost a dime for me ). In order to change the access point, you need to play around with the settings and set the access point: you can either set it "Always ask" or select your trusted access point for default data access.

One can set "Intelligent Update" to "On", which will reduce the data usage by application and "Battery saver" optimizes battery usage by turning of GPS when the signal is took weak or the if device is stationary. You can chose to keep the application running in background for real-time tracking but bear in mind the data costs as charged by your telcom. This is the best application to keep running in background if you are on an unlimited data plan and even with a "pay as you use" data plan, the application won't abuse your data with the "Intelligent update" ON.

Once GPS locks on to your position, your location will be displayed on the screen and depending on the settings, will be uploaded to the phonelocator server. You can even check your location on a map, by going to options-> open-> webpage-> select my map. Check out the screenshots highlighting some features of phonelocator:

Pros

1. Brings real time GPS tracking for free to laymen
2. Embedding trail on website/blog is very beneficial for remote tracking
3. Intelligent update and battery save modes optimize data and battery usage

Cons

1. Doesn't rely on the faster A-GPS for tracking
2. Official website doesn't have the feel and functionality of web 2.0

Verdict

PhoneLocator is one of the best free applications for 5800s today. I haven't seen an application which brings in real time GPS tracking in such user friendly features. The innovative Intelligent update and Battery save modes have been excellently designed and executed in the application. Embedding trail on website/blog is definitely one of the coolest features of this application.  PhoneLocator can effectively be used for tracking your dear ones in real time and all that for free (without considering the data costs involved). The developer team of PhoneLocator have done an awesome job with this application and its certainly in the league of paid applications.  So go ahead and download this application while its still free.

P.S- PhoneLocator was a semi-finalist at 2009 Navteq LBS challenge, a  global program that challenges developers around the world to develop innovative location-based services (LBS) that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ maps.

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