Lacking in features, nothing new, overpriced

The fundamental premise of this application is cute - find out when a satellite "could" be spying on you. Mind you, these are only commercial/civil satellites, not real spy satellites. The app description clearly tells you this - so dont expect to find out about true spy satellites from the NRO. I say "could" because all of these satellites have a very small field of view for their camera (or SAR). Just because the satellite has a clear line of sight to your location does not mean that it will actually point its camera in that direction. Again, not a criticism, since the app description explains this.

The problem is that there are a number of apps already available that can tell you when ANY satellite is visible to you (has a clear line of sight, in other words - it is over the horizon). So what does SpyMeSat gain you that these other apps dont have? Very little. SpyMeSat limits its database to only imaging/SAR satellites, so in essence it provides a "filer" for this particular type of satellite. It does add a brief description and picture of each satellite. The one other unique feature the app has is the ability to filter satellites by type (EO vs SAR) and resolution of payload. But fundamentally that is it. So for $1.99 you get fewer satellites than most other apps and few additional features.

The other disappointing area is its map display. The map centers around your geographic location (can’t be panned or zoomed, though strangely it can be temporarily rotated). Ground tracks are only displayed when satellites are about to be visible at your location, so most of the time, the map is devoid of any ground tracks. There is no way to see where any of the satellites are at any given location. Finally, the way to select your location is extremely ineffective. You can have the app use your current location, but you have to go into a menu two levels deep. Alternatively you can “drop a pin” on the Apple map interface to select the location of interest. There is no way to type in lat/lon or look up a city in a database.

All in all, not worth your time or money. I know this company’s “real” products. They produce state-of-the-art planning software that is actually used to control some of the commercial imaging satellites like GeoEye or WorldView. But their foray into phone apps is a miss.

spaceman13 about SpyMeSat