Trimble Outdoors v4.0.4 Review

trimble
Application Review By Eddie Koulak

You like outdoors? Maybe mountain biking, hiking, or exploring a trail in the woods? I love the outdoors and if I don’t know my way around a new trail I need a GPS to guide me. I also love to snap photos and shoot occasional videos for memory’s sake. I also need a phone “just in case”. When the hike is a long one you probably want to pack light, but to do all of the above the traditional way you need a lot of gadgets. The problem is that’s just too many fragile things to carry along with you. But with this app you can use your phone for all of these things.

Trimble Outdoors is a one of a kind GPS application lets you do all of this. Never get lost again when your out in the trails, find your way home and so much more, let me explain a little bit about this application.

Application Name: Trimble Outdoors ( Website )
Written By: Trimble Navigation Limited
Application Type: Recreational GPS
Cost: $9.99

Find your way off-road – Most of the trails are remote places and most of the time you will not have network coverage. Trimble Outdoors lets you wirelessly download maps onto your sd card. Navigate your way using a compass or waypoints. Follow a trail or create your own, since every step you make is precisely recorded you can review your trail later or find your way back.

Plan your trips and workouts – Don’t know where you are going yet? Look online and discover millions of guided trips, some created by professionals like the Backpacker magazine. Or use easy to use tools to draw your own trip on a map. Find things you want to explore and add them to your trip.

Track your fitness performance – Review your runs, hikes, rides and any other outdoor activity. You have the ability to see how many calories you have burned, or how many miles you have covered. Combine the info and review statistics. See if you are making progress.

Geocaching – Search for geocaches in your area on-the-go Read logs, descriptions and hints on your phone. Connect wirelessly to the Geocaching.com cache database, the largest in the world. View cache locations on a map. Navigate to the cache using a digital compass or unique radar-like display.

Share stories, trips, and media – While recording your trip you can take picture, record sound, or shoot video. All the media becomes part of the trip, geo-tagged, and easily shared with friends on the Trimble Outdoors site or Facebook.

At first glance it seems a bit complicated and overwhelming with the amount of options and features. Fear not, it took me approximately five minutes before I could use it like a pro. When you start the app for the first time you get a very easy to follow tutorial that explains pretty much everything you need to know. The options and features and self explanatory and easy to navigate through. Instead of scratching my head while trying to figure out how to use the application, I was able to be more attentive to my trip.

While everyone has their own opinion on what looks good, I think this app is suitable for anyone. It’s not too flashy yet very pleasing to the eye. Sure there could be more things with it that I like my way but it was designed with good detail. Most options and features are easy to access and are close to your fingertips. Advanced settings can be tweaked with ease as well while they are put in the background. I really like the fact that only essential options are visible on the main screen. More is less, and I like less clutter.

After test driving this app for quiet some time now I can report that I’ve found no bugs or issues with instability. That’s how I would want an application of this type to run on my trip, it wouldn’t be a good thing if it kept having issues while I’m trying to find my way. The overall performance of the application is nothing to complain about either. While on the move the application does a great job of smoothly rendering the display and map with no hang ups.

The application does everything it says it does, and it does it very well with an ease. I didn’t have to be an expert in GPS systems to figure out how to use this, those GPS devices look intimidating to me with three thousand buttons. I like the simplicity and mostly the features it brings. I can find my way around and record media all in one application which means less things to hassle with while enjoying my time outdoors. My favorite feature has to be caching maps onto your SD card to explore areas with no network coverage. The turn point navigation is another cool feature which lets you know ahead of time where to turn.

Another important thing to know about is technical support. They were very kind in explaining features of the app. For someone who decides to purchase this app and has questions, it’s good to know that they can get good answers quickly.

Download the application from the Android Market using the QRCode below: