DOWNLOAD
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REQUIREMENTS
Devices running Windows Mobile 5 or 6 for Pocket PC or Smartphones

Microsoft Compact Framework 3.5 Download from here

DESCRIPTION

This tool allows you to communicate mobile devices using your GPS and SMS messsages with no internet connection. You will be able to know how far is another phone/target and what direction you need to follow to reach it

Imagine the scenario... you are hiking with some friends in 2 different groups and later during that day you guys want to meet. How do you do that if you got a poor reception and you don't have an internet connection?

This is what happened to me a few days ago. I got signal only for a few seconds and when I tried to make a phone call it was dropped after a while because the quality was very bad.

This program allows you to add targets. You can request the position of these targets by sending a sms message.
If your PDA cannot send the message it will keep retrying every minute.

Once the other end gets the message, CatchMe will start the GPS automatically, get a fix and send a message back to the person who made the request. Again, if there are problems sending the message CatchMe will keep trying until success.

After getting the position of the target, you can start tracking and CatchMe will tell you how far your target is and what direction you need to follow.

OTHER FEATURES

- You can only receive requests from phones that have been added to your list. If you get a request from an unknown phone, the message will be discarded.
- You can also associate your current position to a target. This is useful if you want to mark a checkpoint to come back later. No SMS messages are sent at this point.
- In order to use this with another person, both persons need to run this program!
- You don't need to be tracking when using the program. You only need to do that when you are following a target.
- Auto Start and Stealth modes available

Notes

If you plan to test the program using only one phone, don't click on 'dismiss' when getting your own SMS message until CatchMe has processed the message, otherwise the message will be deleted before the program can access to it.



I hope this program can be useful for some people!

Please leave your comments, suggestions and ideas here.

Have fun!

Regards

I just uploaded a new version that also gives you the the estimated time left to reach the target. It also shows kilometers/miles when the distance gets bigger.

Hi Staryon,

thanks for this new software! That's a really good idea. I wish I had today, because a friend of mine could not find us at the beach .

I eagerly look forward when most of my friend have a winmo phone. This tool is just perfect.

Originally Posted by deuzeff  

Hi Staryon,

thanks for this new software! That's a really good idea. I wish I had today, because a friend of mine could not find us at the beach .

I eagerly look forward when most of my friend have a winmo phone. This tool is just perfect.

Thanks!

If this gets popular I may write compatible versions for regular phones (no windows mobile) so more people can use it.

Woo that would be awesome. But what do you mean by regular phones?

Originally Posted by deuzeff  

Woo that would be awesome. But what do you mean by regular phones?

I mean to have a version of CatchMe that can run from phones that are not running Windows Mobile.

At this moment you can still request a position from a device running CatchMe from any phone just by sending the sms catchme|0

Some more information about how CatchMe works...

When CatchMe receives an SMS will check if the incoming number (for example +336abcdefghi )
CONTAINS any number that you have in the target list. For that reason, CatchMe will find the target if you have 06abcdefghi, abcdefghi or any other combination in the list. The reason is done this way is to avoid conflicts with prefixes.

On the other hand, when the program tries to send an SMS it will dial exactly what you see in the target list.

Hi,

Originally Posted by staryon  

When CatchMe receives an SMS will check if the incoming number (for example +336abcdefghi )
CONTAINS any number that you have in the target list. For that reason, CatchMe will find the target if you have 06abcdefghi, abcdefghi or any other combination in the list. The reason is done this way is to avoid conflicts with prefixes.

On the other hand, when the program tries to send an SMS it will dial exactly what you see in the target list.

In the very last version (0.2.2.4), CatchMe refuses numbers with an international prefix. As incoming SMS messages appear with the international prefix on my phone, and as the local number is not contained within the interational number, I have no way to specify a correct phone number in the target list.

i.e.
Incoming SMS messages appear as +336abcdefghi
Local number is 06abcdefghi (notice that 06abcdefghi is not contained within +336abcdefghi because of the 0)

If I try to add +336abcdefghi (which would be correct, I can send SMS messages to these numbers with the Windows GUI), CatchMe refuses. If I add 06abcdefghi, CatchMe doesn't recognize incoming requests because of the +33. And if I add abcdefghi, CatchMe sends the messages to a non-existent number, because the 0 is missing.

In my case, as with all other French users, the only way to have it work is to allow people to enter an international phone number. I don't see why this is a problem anyway and I see no valid reason for CatchMe to refuse this.

Regards
Bertrand

well done man can't wait to try it out, i was very impressed with your track me, i hope this is as good as ur previous release on track me

PS: (does this support singapore numbers? or is it limited to some countries?)

As you just said the number that you use to dial is always different from the incoming number because of that extra digit.

Even if I allow to enter a number with the country code like +336abcdefghi
it wouldn't work because when CatchMe dials that number it wouldn't contain that required 0 that you need in France.

The only way to fix this is to write a specific rule for French numbers. If I detect that the incoming numbers starts with +33, I should add a 0 after that and then the matching will work.

I'm not sure if there are other countries with this problem as well.