Simple Logger 4+

Simple, Effective & Low Power

I wanted a power-sipping GPS logger that I could turn to when my GPS watch ran out of juice on multi-day treks. Simple Logger fits the bill perfectly (by way of a ‘thank you’ I bought their GPX editor app) and after I managed to damage the watch part way through my visit to Iceland this really came into its own.

Although the app looks best when logging with a data connection (because you get the background as well), it works perfectly well without one. Side note: you can’t use GPS in airplane-safe mode as it shuts down the antennas entirely.

But for me the single most important feature is the ability to specify the sampling frequency for the GPS: I started off thinking I’d need to use a 15- or 30-minute sample, but by the end of my holiday I was using it with 30-second and 1-minute intervals because even at that frequency this takes very, very little power to run.

A nice addition would be pre-loading OSM maps/tiles (like Maps with Me) so that you could really get by without data, but I’m perfectly happy with the app as it is now. As a backup (or even replacement) for a dedicated GPS device this works well. Of course, it’s limited by the accuracy of the phone itself, but that’s never been a problem for me.

UPDATE: More than a year later I no longer even know where my GPS watch charger is as this app has replaced that entirely. Used with 5 second sampling it has negligible battery drain over the course of a day. Files can be saved to iCloud or other locations and you can save multiple tracks to a single GPX file (eg. Trip; Workouts). Genuinely useful, easy app.