LandAirSea Tracking Key

The LandAirSea Tracking Key ($179 direct) is an oversized GPS tracking device that records location data every second. Unlike competing products, such as the LiveViewGPS Live Trac EZ ?and LandAirSea's own SilverCloud , you can't view real-time location data as the car is moving. In other words, the USB-compatible Tracking Key is a data logger that's strictly for historical trip information only. For a one-time fee of $179, it's a good buy if you don't need real-time monitoring, and as long as you can put up with some design headaches.

Design, Setup, and Testing
The Tracking Key ?is made entirely of plastic, save for the metal magnetic mount, which lets you position the unit anywhere inside or outside of a vehicle. The Tracking Key runs on two AAA batteries, lasts for up to 60 hours of continuous driving time, and stores up to 140 hours of data; it also has a sleep mode that it uses when the vehicle isn't in motion. Unfortunately, there's no power switch, so the batteries drain within a few weeks regardless. Worse, the battery cover is held down with four really tiny screws, so you'll need to find an eyeglass-style screwdriver to swap batteries. You don't need to use the Tracking Key in a car, but it's clearly designed for that purpose, and at least the case is water resistant.

For this review, I took the Tracking Key on several trips around Manhattan. The Tracking Key records the route travelled, as well as speed, direction, time, destination addresses, and the duration of each stop. Since there's no online component, you have to retrieve the device from the vehicle before you can review recorded data. On the plus side, this is the main reason why you don't need to pay monthly fees with the Tracking Key; there's no service behind it that LandAirSea has to offer and maintain.

The Tracking Key installs in any PC laptop via the built-in USB port, which makes it easier to access than competing products. That said, I needed the optional USB extension cable, and you probably will too, because the device is too bulky to slide into an open USB port. As is, you'll never be able to plug it directly into a laptop right-side up, at least without propping the machine up, without risk of breaking the connector. Unfortunately, there's no Mac support.

Past-Track, Reports, and Conclusions
The interface for Past-Track, the GPS Tracking Key's companion software package, is pretty obtuse; it just drops you onto a blank window with a bunch of grayed-out icons. It turns out I had to go to Setup > Setup Device, and then click Auto Find, for it to read data off of the Tracking Key. Once I did this and then downloaded data from the device, I could see data in the above window, which as you can see is pretty tough to read.

At any rate, I had no problem generating a reasonably accurate report of where I had traveled. The Tracking Key picked up enough historical info that even small changes in my route were detected, and I could play back my route to see where I went in real time. Zooming in helps, because it's tough to make out what's happening otherwise, thanks to the overly cluttered map graphics. There's no mobile app or configurable alerts, though. On the plus side, you can generate text-based reports with the desktop software, as well as map views in both street and satellite modes. But if?the driver groups the trips too close together, the reporting software will blend them into one entry; I couldn't find any way to refine the data further.?

Overall, the LandAirSea Tracking Key does what it promises, whether it's job-related or for creepier purposes, with a minimum of frills. The LiveViewGPS Live Trac EZ offers real-time monitoring, which depending on the use case could be much more useful, such as for commercial delivery drivers and other teams in the field. The service fees can get quite expensive, though, starting at $30 per month per vehicle and going up from there. The LandAirSea SilverCloud is more expensive up front, but offers greater control and more granularity with its reporting, and it's all available on the Web for easy access. Finally, the Garmin GTU 10 has a finicky website and is complicated to set up, but it's a small tracking device that offers online monitoring with a reasonable yearly subscription fee.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/we9SXHouT00/0,2817,2408727,00.asp

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