Rego 2.3, currently in review at Apple, is one of the most exciting releases to date, as we add support for GPS track files.
Many apps focus on the recording of tracks. But that?s of less importance to me, for two reasons. First, I don?t want to consume the battery of the device I?d need to use for calling in an emergency to record tracks. For that, I prefer my Garmin device. Second, most of the routes I do have already been recorded by someone else, and uploaded to a service like GPSies or Wikiloc.
So our focus in Rego 2.3 was to make it easy to get tracks into the app, and then provide a great user experience for organizing and making practical use of those tracks.
Here?s how it works.
In addition to ?Places?, Rego now offers an option to create ?Tracks? by either choosing a GPX file from locations like iCloud Drive or Dropbox, or by downloading a GPX file from an URL that you?ve copied to the clipboard. (Currently Rego only supports the GPX format. If you have other formats, like KML and LOG, they can easily be converted at GPSVisualizer.com.)
Choosing ?Add from a file?, you can pick from any document repository available to your iPhone. On mine, I have Dropbox, iCloud and BitTorrent Sync.
After adding a track to Rego, the app displays the track on the map, along with useful information such as the track distance.
Just like with Places, you can organize your Tracks into Collections. Here?s my collection called ?Tracks? that I plan to hike in my upcoming vacation.
Rego can help you navigate to your trailhead using external apps like TomTom and Google Maps.
When you’re ready to start the hike, open the Track in Rego, perhaps switching to the Satellite view:
Now here?s where things get really useful! Say you’re in the middle of the hike, and come to an unexpected crossing, or say you just want to double-check that you’re actually still on course. Just open Rego, tap the map on the Track screen, and toggle through the navigation icon in the lower left corner until it?s in ?Heading? mode.
Rego will not only display your current position relative to the track, but also assist you with directional heading!
While working on this release, we added a couple of useful touches here and there. For example, when tapping and holding on coordinates, you?ll now see the option to copy only the latitude or longitude, in addition to both, since some apps (like TomTom) only allow pasting of one at a time.
Of course, support for tracks has been extended throughout all the other areas of Rego, including sharing and Dropbox backup/restore. Want to share a favorite route with a friend? Just send it to them from Rego.
We hope you enjoy this new version of Rego as much we have, as it opens a whole new world of possibilities! And remember, running a business selling apps is hard, so if you enjoy Rego, we?d be tremendously appreciative if you?d help us spread the word!
That sound great!
I record tracks of my holiday and photo sessions since 2008.
I hope it will be easy to get a track wie iOS share into rego as well!
Marc, iOS will consider Rego an app that can open a .gpx file. So if, for example, you click on a .gpx link in Mobile Safari, Rego will be presented as one of the “Open in…” apps. That should also work via sharing as well, but let us know if you run into any issues. Thanks!
would this support the files the bad elf gps unit creates on the phone itself? or would i have to upload the file to an external source first? tks! /guy
Hello Guy, I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re referring to with “the bad elf gps”?
it’s a palm-sized external gps which uses bluetooth to communicate with the iphone. many pilots and travellers use them because they can leave them running for 24-36 hours without sacrificing the iphone battery. it creates and exports the two main gps file types.
http://bad-elf.com/pages/products
tks! /guy
Hello Guy, thanks for the clarification. It looks like Bad Elf acts as a replacement for Apple’s own internal GPS system, providing GPS data to apps that in the recording of tracks would normally get that data from the iPhone’s GPS. Currently Rego doesn’t record tracks; rather, it only manages collections of tracks that have been recorded by other means. So with Bad Elf, you’d record your tracks using some other app (and it seems Bad Elf has their own) and then importing those into Rego. Make sense?
tks matt! yeah, it’s a nifty little device that weighs nothing you can clip to a belt loop or your pack.
and yeah, that’s what i was asking–if rego could open these files from where the bad elf app stores them on the iphone–the same place where most apps store files and the user can access them using other iphone apps or from itunes ‘file sharing’ module.
of course, i can try it for myself when the update arrives. [g]
tks again, /guy