I call Australia home - and last year I went on a trip to visit Thailand, Hong Kong and China (the astute will notice that it is these locations that are pinned on the GPS Log logo
).On this trip in most places I visited, I spent a fun day "getting lost" - that is just walking, or subwaying myself around checking out places of interest without too much care as to where I was - knowing that I could jump in a cab and get home when I wanted for a few Australian Dollars. Other times I would meet locals or other travellers and visited places under their direction. At the end if these days - I would often not really have a clue as to where I went. Where was that crazy market in Bangkok? Where did I find that cool shop? Where was the funky coffee shop with decent coffee (a rarity in asia)? Where was the restaurant or cinema I visited -- you get the picture. Now with GPS Log I can record these places - for my own memories and to return one day if I desire. This was my first requirement in creating GPS Log.
The second main reason I created GPS Log was that right now I am on a Round the World trip (with over 20 destinations planned). I'm starting in Shanghai where I'm spending a bit of time catching up on some programming work (including finishing off this App). I really wanted a quick way of being able to record and remember where I go. GPS Log with it's GPX export feature meets this need for me - I can export my entire trip and view where I've been to using Google Earth.
A very important issue for me is that when I am roaming I do not want to pay for stupidly expensive data roaming charges - and some places I will have no signal, so at the very core of GPS Log's design is that fact all the core features work without data connections. Chances are it will be many many months before I have a cellular data connection again. Not only that but as a traveller sometimes I can't afford to be draining the battery - so any sort of continuous logging feature I will not be using. Most of the other GPS related apps I could find when searching before I created GPS Log were all based around continuous point logging which is great... if you have a bag of spare batteries or are just going on short jogs, or something - pretty useless for my needs.
Another feature I have used - this one I hadn't thought of until I used it was logging destinations - that is if I want to go to a subway station I can log it ahead of time and use that as a bookmark. Sure this can also be done with the Maps app - but it's nice having everything in the one place.
So why do you like/hate about GPS Log? What do you use?
. I didn't have a data connection in Japan - so I pre-cached the maps I needed back in the Hotel by connecting to the Wifi, and zooming in and out a bit in the area I was visiting in the Maps app, to cache them (then I turned off the Wifi and checked they had been cached).
