Craig Dodge - Blog

A feature of my new HTC Desire HD that I haven't used much is GPS. There hasn't been any real need for it, and I haven't had any interest in the information it provided......until recently.

I like to bike. Biking in the mountains surrounding Taipei provides exercise, fresh air and spectacular scenery. Because I don't know my way around very well, though, I've depended on either tagging along with others, or sticking to a limited number of routes that I already knew. I also never had any idea of how far or how fast I've gone. Neither of these things really bothered me, although I did occasionally wish that I could explore more on my own and get some information about my rides.

Well, there is a way: My Tracks by Google. It is an amazingly simple to use Android application that integrates with the phone's GPS. I simply push "Record Track" when I start out, and "End Recording" when I get back. The program not only creates a Google Map showing where I rode, but creates a spreadsheet with all the statistics from the ride: time, distance, speed, elevation, etc. It saves the spreadsheet in my Google Docs, which I can share with anyone who might be interested in the ride. Having the GPS linked to Google Maps also gives me more confidence to explore new routes.

Here is a map that My Tracks created on my ride to WuLai last weekend:

View WuLai 2011-05-08 05:42 in a larger map

You can see the spreadsheet it creates HERE.

Now, if it would just stop raining, I could go out and make some more maps........