In case you’re wondering, i-gotU is a GPS travel logger. This tiny little device can track and record your journey for up to 40 hours on a single charge. When the data is uploaded into a computer, you can view your journey on Google Earth. You can also tag any photos you took along the way with GPS information, pinpointing the exact location where the photo was taken, making it a must-have for any landscape photographer. It costed me NZD 70 though you can now get it for less.

i-gotU has a very minimalistic interface that consists only of a single button and two LEDs. For the most part, the simple interface works well but there are definitely times when I wish there is a bit more information and feedback on what the device is up to. It took a bit of getting use to before I could remember what the various light sequences mean, though there’s only less than five that you’ll commonly encounter.

In terms of accuracy, I’m definitely impressed. I took the device with me on my tour of South Island recently and it managed to track almost the entire journey accurately, down to the road I’m on. It did have a bit of difficulty getting a GPS fix while I was in the dense bushes of the West Coast. Errors also start to increase in more densely populated areas. Indoor performance is poor, with error in the range of up to kilometres, but then again that’s not what it’s designed for.

The bundled software does an adequate job of what it’s designed for but does leave a lot of room for improvement. The main functionality that I find lacking is the ability to import and export the raw GPS data. So, I did what any hacker would do.

The obvious thing to do is of course to locate the data store where all the GPS information is stored. After a quick hunt through the machine, I located the Tracer.mdb file under C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\MobileAction\GPSTracer. The file is password protected to prevent users from doing silly things and corrupting the data store. As I’m not silly, I guess it’s safe for me to hack it.

After a bit of playing around, I concluded that the password must be stored somewhere within the program. So, I downloaded a disassembler and proceeded to pull apart the program. After a quick scan through the assembly code, voila. The password for the Tracer.mdb file is mytracer. Couldn’t get any simpler than that. Now that you have access to the secret code, use it wisely. Always backup before messing with the file as I’m not responsible should you lose your data.