iPhone GPS software

March 4, 2013 3:55 PM

Since I'm semiretired now, I've offered to help our local land conservancy plan, map, and develop a new preserve just a mile from my home. One of the tasks will be to map all existing trails and roads on the property. The staff at the conservancy asked that they receive the files in a GPX format. Soooo... I'm looking for an iPhone GPS app (I'm using a 4s running 6.1.2) that will allow me to: Map a hike, indicate and name multiple waypoints, and export the hike as a GPX file. It would also be great if I could attach geotagged photos within the app. Any suggestions? And, if anyone has any experience with this type of activity, is there any function that I'm not thinking of that would be useful? Thanks much!
posted by HuronBob to technology (7 answers total)

I use MotionX-GPS to capture GPX tracks (4S, using 6.1). Supports custom named waypoints and can email the files from within the app. Support has been very good.

Doesn't do pictures - and I don't normally do much photo work when I'm mapping - so I can't help you there.
posted by neilbert at 4:56 PM on March 4

I have been really impressed with Gaia GPS as well as GPS Kit. Although, a while back there was a bug in GPS that caused problems for me with photos, it could have been resolved by now (I haven't used it since this summer). I do like the Track Editor that is available for GPS Kit as a second app that allows you to go in and tweak your files a bit on the phone (remove anomalies and other spikes in speed, etc).

GPS Kit seems a bit more user friendly, however Gaia has far better customer service / developers.

The last I checked they were both a bit pricey, but you can do a ton with them (both allow for geotagging photos). I also like the ability to drag and drop into and out of the apps through iTunes if you are doing any work on the files on your computer.

Oh, another cool thing -- you can open the GPX/KMZ files on Google Earth on your phone. It's hard to explain, but it is kinda cool to export your route to a 3D view of the same terrain in Google Earth (which is a bit easier for panning around to show other people).
posted by This_Will_Be_Good at 5:29 PM on March 4

I use ViewRanger for my trail mapping needs. I just checked, and you can download GPX files from your routes. I haven't tried to upload photos within the app. I have done that through fulcrum, though. Yay mapping!
posted by bellbellbell at 1:10 AM on March 5

The OpenStreetMap Wiki has a good list of iOS mapping apps. You can find it here.
posted by Morgangr at 2:35 AM on March 5

Thanks, Folks, you all get "Best Answer"! for the variety of responses.... I'll check all of these out..
posted by HuronBob at 2:58 AM on March 5

Photos taken from the iphone camera come geotagged. You can also sync your camera time to gps time, and geotag your photos using something like this (never used this particular software, I don't remember which I've used)
posted by defcom1 at 4:48 AM on March 5

I do user support for Gaia GPS (although on the Android side of things) and I can confirm that it meets all of your requirements, and also gets frequent updates with new features and bug fixes. I can also tell you that if you buy it and find that it doesn't meet your needs, you won't have a problem getting a refund.

If you have any more specific questions about the app, you can use the chat widget on the website between 10AM and 6PM Pacific time or email [e-mail] and you should get a very quick response from Savannah, who does iOS support.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:36 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]