I've always wanted to do GPS logging when I take a walk. It's been a
long time since I had a dedicated GPS device, though, and it ran Windows
CE and I don't think it could do what I had in mind. My Android phone
did not have GPS until I bought a new one last year, so I basically
forgot about this whole topic. :-)
Recently, it came up on twtxt again. So let's give it a shot!
I found this program:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.basicairdata.graziano.gpslogger
It's a simple GPS logger. Pretty much exactly what I had in mind. You
hit "record", go on your walk, and hit "stop" when you're back home. It
then shows you some basic info, like distance and time -- that's already
pretty useful.
Really nice: You can export your tracks as GPX or KML files. That means
I can transfer them to a proper computer and do fancy stuff with it. At
the moment, I just view them using GPXSee:
https://www.gpxsee.org/
Lyse on twtxt pointed me to OsmAnd -- and it turns out there's a bunch
of different programs called that. One of them is "Maps & Offline GPS":
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand
This is actually pretty intruiging. I don't have mobile internet access,
I just use my wifi at home, so I can't use those regular navigation
apps. With that OSM app, though, I could -- in theory, if I bought the
full version. Hey, it's capitalism, nothing's free, of course.
Other than GPXSee, none of that is Free Software. (One of my major
gripes about this ecosystem.)
Anyway. Let's see what fun things I'm going to do with the GPX files I'm
now going to collect.
Hey, that's the first time that I use my smartphone as something else
than "mobile telephone" or "basic camera"! Welcome to 2022.
