Sprint Family Locator app for Android

[domovoj]

I published my first Android app - client for Sprint Family Locator.
Search market for "Sprint Locator"
Sprint Family Locator client - Cyrket

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Gottria]

Very nice! Clean and just enough info to see where someone is at.

 

[Linx]

Great app and nice work. Would like to give two ideas. First one I might of missed, but the web app gives an address of the general location the person is at. Could this be incorporated in your app? Also with the web app on the phone, you can click on that address which will give you the Google map view, and then if you click your trackball you will get the option for Street view. Can these two things be put in? Other then that I really like this app. Thanks.

 

[Thefoodman52]

Up and coming developers get my download + associated feedback.

 

[redman722]

Nice! Does this only track sprint phones or does it track others?

 

[domovoj]

Nice! Does this only track sprint phones or does it track others?

It can track only Sprint phones as it uses sflmobile.com URLs to pull data. Might be easy to extend to other provides if they have similar web interface. I was just using my Sprint account to figure out how it works.

 

[slimboutit]

It's a great app as is. I like that you incorporated satellite view too. It would be even better if you could add birds eye view and street view even if it was in a paid version.

 

[dominicanyor]

The bad part about it is that we have to pay 5 dollars amonth after 15 days. Thta sucks.

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

Hmm, haven't used this sprint locator before, but how is it different from just turning on latitude or loopt? Wouldn't those two apps work much the same way for free?

 

[dominicanyor]

Hmm, haven't used this sprint locator before, but how is it different from just turning on latitude or loopt? Wouldn't those two apps work much the same way for free?

so your saying that the loopt will be able to located where my kids are at all time?????

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

Loopt works like that, in fact you can have it update your location in facebook too. Google Latitude does this also. The only thing that may or may not be different is that with both loopt and latitiude you can turn it off in settings. Not sure about the sprint one. If you can trust your kids though to leave it on, either of the free options would save you $5 a month. By the way, Latitude is built into Maps. It's one of the settings.


Edit:
You could also see if wavesecure would work too. In that program if you send a text to your phone it will send the location of the phone to whatever phone or email you have setup. There is even an addon to wavesecure that makes it so that if someone tries to uninstall it the phones locks and they can't use it.

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

It looks like this program would have no benefit whatsoever over loopt or latitiude. It uses location and GPS, which the two free programs use also. It also appears that this program will not lock the gps or location on so the kids couldn't turn it off. I see no reason to pay the $5 a month. I would go the latitude/loopt route if I were you.

 

[dominicanyor]

It looks like this program would have no benefit whatsoever over loopt or latitiude. It uses location and GPS, which the two free programs use also. It also appears that this program will not lock the gps or location on so the kids couldn't turn it off. I see no reason to pay the $5 a month. I would go the latitude/loopt route if I were you.

Thanks for the info.

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

No problem, if you end up trying out the two programs I mentioned would you mind letting us know what you decide to do? I am sure that you won't be the last person to ask your question, so any extra info you can provide everyone on your findings will be beneficial to the community.

Besides, I'm curious to see the results myself. Thanks.

 

[dominicanyor]

no problem, if you end up trying out the two programs i mentioned would you mind letting us know what you decide to do? I am sure that you won't be the last person to ask your question, so any extra info you can provide everyone on your findings will be beneficial to the community.

besides, i'm curious to see the results myself. Thanks.

no problem.

 

[dan330]

Loopt works like that, in fact you can have it update your location in facebook too. Google Latitude does this also. The only thing that may or may not be different is that with both loopt and latitiude you can turn it off in settings. Not sure about the sprint one. If you can trust your kids though to leave it on, either of the free options would save you $5 a month. By the way, Latitude is built into Maps. It's one of the settings.


Edit:
You could also see if wavesecure would work too. In that program if you send a text to your phone it will send the location of the phone to whatever phone or email you have setup. There is even an addon to wavesecure that makes it so that if someone tries to uninstall it the phones locks and they can't use it.

Wavesecure cost $.20 a text if in usa

 

[domovoj]

It looks like this program would have no benefit whatsoever over loopt or latitiude. It uses location and GPS, which the two free programs use also. It also appears that this program will not lock the gps or location on so the kids couldn't turn it off. I see no reason to pay the $5 a month. I would go the latitude/loopt route if I were you.

Keep in mind that SFL can locate any phone without installing anything. It is a network service. When loopt should be installed and turned on on a compatible phone. Same for Latitude.

 

[domovoj]

Another difference that you have to pay for a data plan on each line you want to locate and your kid should not be smart enough to uninstall the program which he/she is being tracked with . My niece did uninstall it next day . Plus it is draining battery fast on phone where loopt or latitude is running.

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

as for turning off service, really if you can't trust your kid even the sprint one is not going to work. It says right on their site that if there is no gps or if it is out of service area or roaming it wouldn't work. So all the kid has to do is go in setting and turn off gps and location.

Oh, it also said that if the phone is deep inside a building it can be less accurate or not work. It's a tough choice, but none of them are perfect solutions for following kids. I would not plan on using this to try and catch them doing something, I would use it as a way to make sure if they got kidnapped or something i knew where they were. You could sell it to the kids as that, a safety feature.

I have used latitude myself and as long as you don't have latitude open in the foreground, so just run it as a background service, it doesn't use gps, only wifi and tower locatation. So it isn't as bad as it could be on battery.

 

[Twice]

Wavesecure cost $.20 a text if in usa

I use wavesecure and have never gotten charged for a text message

 

[slimboutit]

It seems to have problems if the the user can't be located. It just seems to want to search forever. That can really kill your battery in a hurry, and it makes it confusing trying to search a different user.

 

[dedPak]

nice app, домовой, thank you
missing cancel and exit buttons.
also would be nice to keep messages on the screen until next action.

 

[domovoj]

nice app, домовой, thank you
missing cancel and exit buttons.
also would be nice to keep messages on the screen until next action.

Android apps do not really need the Exit button. OS should take care of them. But probably it needs something to cancel current location cycle. It makes max 15 attempts with 15 sec interval or until it locates a phone.
I'm on vacation and traveling for the next 2 weeks. I'll put update when I'm back.

 

[domovoj]

A
I'm on vacation and traveling for the next 2 weeks. I'll put update when I'm back.

I had to change my travel plans because of flights cancellations in Europe. So I was able to post an update. I added login help (link to sflmobile.com) and ability to terminate location request. Also I fixed a couple of bugs.

 

[anacrusis]

Nice app. Much easier than using the mobile version from Sprint.