Swing by Swing Android App - Review, WOW. Live mapping, distances, etc.

[Eleven]

I used SbS 2 years ago, on a Blackberry Storm. I think the only reason I moved away from it was that I switched to an Android and they hadn't yet released the Droid version. I mapped both courses at my local club very quickly and easily and they were available to me in very very short order.

I've been using SkyDroid since last year, only because it was available at the time for $1.99. I may switch back to SbS, my issue with SD is that it reset my phone so much. Sometimes 4 or 5 times in a round. It doesn't do it when I'm actually using it, I hear the phone restart.

From what I remember, the emails from SbS were a little goofy, the 'off color' humor ones weren't exactly my flavor but it's not a deal breaker. I also remember Travis being very cool to deal with, any questions I had were answered quickly.

I think I'll give this a go again, and might even pay for it this time :)

Are there any known bugs on the Android version of SbS now? What's the battery usage like? My Samsung Galaxy Nexus is kind of a battery hog already. One thing I do like about SD is that when the screen is off or the app is in the background it doesn't utilize the GPS, saving battery.

Make me a user again Travis!

[Travis Giggy]

OK, I think we got Moparman all figured out. He's gonna take it on the course and let us know how it works.

Eleven,

Welcome back to the good side!

I'm just a little to modest to say that we're better than everybody else. I personally think it's true, but I'm also extremely biased... Instead, read some of the reviews from our Google Play (android market) listing. We have 1,721 reviews with a 4.3 star rating:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.swingbyswing&hl;=en

Hope you decide to give it a shot.

T

[Eleven]

Thanks Travis,

I re-installed today, even remembered my old account info. How can I find out if I had previously purchased the Scorecard and Analytics module? I seem to remember getting that last time but I cannot be sure!

I'll definitely try SbS on my next round, my only real concern is the battery consumption.

[Travis Giggy]

Anything you purchased back in the day will automatically port over to this new version/platform. We store the information with your account credentials, and not on the phone, so it will all transfer like magic.

Be sure to lock your phone after each reading. The part of our app that takes the most battery is just the display. When you lock the app between readings, you save a TON of battery. If you have a newer phone, it will be enough to get you through the round easily. (Most people with newer phones will use about 50% of battery life over 18 holes when following this best practice)

[moparman426]

Originally Posted by Travis Giggy

OK, I think we got Moparman all figured out. He's gonna take it on the course and let us know how it works.

Ok, I have a couple of rounds under my belt while using the app.  Score entry is very quick, and very basic for the free version.  The GPS tracking seems to be fairly accurate, although a couple of times, it had jumped around within a 20 yard (+/-) range.  My favorite parts are the low battery consumption, and the touch to distance.  Makes it very easy to measure my drives, and distances to any obstacles from anywhere on the course.  The one thing I don't like is the fact that (even though this is the free version) I can't track my handicap.  I'll probably upgrade to the Looper version.

[Travis Giggy]

Originally Posted by moparman426

Ok, I have a couple of rounds under my belt while using the app.  Score entry is very quick, and very basic for the free version.  The GPS tracking seems to be fairly accurate, although a couple of times, it had jumped around within a 20 yard (+/-) range.  My favorite parts are the low battery consumption, and the touch to distance.  Makes it very easy to measure my drives, and distances to any obstacles from anywhere on the course.  The one thing I don't like is the fact that (even though this is the free version) I can't track my handicap.  I'll probably upgrade to the Looper version.

Alright! Considering where you started... I'll take that as a damn good review! Thanks moparman.

Now for the bad news... you can't track handicap, even in the Looper version - yet. We have some stuff in the works to address this deficiency. Hopefully in the next month or two we'll have something in place. Lots of other good stuff in the works as well.

Anyway - thanks again for giving us a shot, and I'm happy to hear you've had a good experience. If you upgrade to Looper, I'm sure you'll have an even better experience.

Travis

[mattyd]

I have an android phone, and have used this app before.

Recently i have done an upgrade to the phone (rooted)

and now it wont install.

Where can i get the apk file, and see if i can install it myself (outside of the google play market)

[Travis Giggy]

Hi Mattyd - please post this question to the Swing by Swing support forum , and we'll get ya taken care of.

[KC-LansingMI]

All phones use an autonomous GPS position that is uncorrected.  This is one receiver out in the world calculating it's position (your phone is a GPS receiver).  With this, the very best you can expect is about 4 meters (±13') and that's if you're lucky because this represents 24 hours of averaged data. Some of the collected positions will be spot on and some way off.  Generally speaking for 5 seconds of data, you're most likely less than 10 meters of accuracy (±30').  This has nothing to do with Swing by Swing and everything to do with the GPS constellation itself.

If we want to improve accuracy, we need a correction to the autonomous position.  In simple terms, if we put a "base" receiver on the golf course at a known (or assumed known) position and calculate the difference between the actual and the currently calculated position we get a 3-dimensional vector which represents the error in the system at the time that the calculation was made.  Remember that this floats second by second.  If we take this error and broadcast it to a "roving" receiver (your golf cart) and remove the error from rovers calculated position for that slice of time we correct the position and get a much more accurate result.  With this, we're now in the decimeter range for error (6 inches).  For golf, this is great.

Notice the data plot below (from earthmeasurement.com) of a receiver placed on a known point.  The dots represent measurements over a 24 hour period and the deviation from the known position.  The 2DRMS position over 24 hours is only 4 meters.  So when you ask why Swing by Swing is not accurate, we're asking the wrong question.  It's not a Swing by Swing issue as your phone is providing the position.