Is there an accurate app for recording distance on a phone?

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sallykate Aug 2013 8:29am, 21 Aug 2013 3,360 posts	0 sallykate I can't upload from my 305 (5 years old and still working fine) to my work PC since a Windows upgrade as I don't have the right privileges to install communicator (or something). So I've been using Garmin Fit and exporting a GPX file to Fetch but it's totally useless for accurate routes, which annoys me. This is what it thinks I ran on Monday I know it's not the end of the world and is a bit of a #firstworldproblem but I like to be able to see how fast (or slow) I'm going, especially at the moment when I've not run for a while and would like to see how (or whether) I'm improving. Is this a problem with the app or just with using an iPhone? If it's the app, is there a better alternative? I've downloaded ~~strava~~ to try that but will I be able to export files to upload here? I hope I'll be able to upload to a Mac before too long so I'm just looking for a temporary solution but one that's reliable. Any ideas welcome!
K5 Gus Aug 2013 9:02am, 21 Aug 2013 245 posts	0 K5 Gus Looking at this a slightly different way, and ignoring apps altogether..... If you're running to work in the morning, or out at lunchtime, are you running routes that you've run before and know the exact distance ? If so then you just need to time the run and could add the training manually, and enter the distance (or use a previous Route ) - that will then show your pace, etc, although not mile splits I find it quite rare to run a route I've not done before That may work for you as a short term solution. I guess you don't have access to a PC or laptop at home, or are you too impatient to wait that long ?
HappyG(rrr) Aug 2013 12:52pm, 21 Aug 2013 20,760 posts	0 HappyG(rrr) SK, here's a review of some apps vs. the Garmin runneracademy.com Endomondo and RunKeeper are the two I've heard of, but no experience of them I'm afraid. Good luck. :-)G
ReturnoftheJuddi Aug 2013 1:15pm, 21 Aug 2013 2,187 posts	0 ReturnoftheJuddi I find mapmyrun quite good although if you are trying to track improvments then K5's suggestion is a good one because once you have loaded a route into fetch you can re-use it over and over which means you get some pretty cool performance graphs!
ChrisThePuma Aug 2013 1:35pm, 21 Aug 2013 2,024 posts	0 ChrisThePuma i read somewhere that all GPS watches/apps etc are only accurate to 5 or 10 meters - and they check "where they are" at time points rather than using a linear type thing - so what you have is probably as good as yo uare going to get with gps - if you need it totally accurate i would map it by hand (using the follow the roads option)
HappyG(rrr) Aug 2013 1:57pm, 21 Aug 2013 20,764 posts	0 HappyG(rrr) Chris, the watch does a "smart recording" thing, where it decreases time between data points if you are going more quickly, to reduce the rounding errors. Yes, they're only accurate to 10m, but when you are moving in a straight line or curves (i.e. not just jumping back and fore by 1m at a time!) they are pretty good. But yes, you can get to end of a marathon with it showing 0.2-0.4 miles too long. I think the phones may suffer, like the review up there says, from not being dedicated to distance measuring, interfering iwth other electronics. And def losing satellites, in built up area e.g. London in Canary Wharf affects watches and phones both. I even used to lose signal along a stretch of canal with my Garmin 305 (though new 310 is much better - more sensitive GPS receiver?) I think the phone apps should be fine. But the actual phone GPS may be a bit pants? SK, try someone else's phone (they all have GPS nowadays - a newer iPhone, or a non Apple phone like a Samsung, Nokia or HTC)? Use same app and see if it's any better? Finally, where was your phone? Buried in a back pack, or on your arm with clear view of the sky? Remember, the satellites are up there ^^^ ! :-)G