I saw this coming a mile away....

Ok, I have to say that I am quite pleased with Trekbuddy. The program works fine (except for the loading of atlases which seems totally random when it comes to it suceeding or not). The track log is detailed enough, I get a map, and then also the ability to import Waypoints from google earth and navigate too them. Excellent!

However, I am not sure about the program for general geo-tagging. Quite often, you want to go indoors, and that creates a problem. I am using a Sony Ericsson HGE-100 as a GPS, which is great, because you are then able to have just the small GPS module on the outside of a bags, while having your expensive phone safelly tucked away inside of the bag. Great, except that quite often you shift from being outdoors into being indoors. With no connection to a GPS signal, it makes no sense to log... but stopping the logging involves pulling in wires, extracting the phone, opening the keyboard lock and pausing the logging. Of course, the same procedure will have to be repeated when I want to start logging again, as well as each time I would like to mark a Point Of Interest (POI). As one can imagine considering this procedure, I have not been marking very many Points of Interests in my hikes.

Also, the GPS power is drawn from the battery of my SE P1i. So, at the end of a day of logging, I will have a beautyful log, and almost no battery power left in my phone. This has caused problems, when I was stranded by a canceled train in Shutton in the middle of the night after a whole day's logging in Liverpool. Not a very pleasant experience all in all. So, I had the idea of relieving Trekbuddy and my battery from logging duties for a while.

I started looking at stand-alone GPS loggers, and there are quite a few avalable for < £100. What I wanted was a GPS with accurate logging facilities, that would work on a Mac (of course). After a lot of researching and reading a lot of reviews on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.de (how come the German speaking people review gadgets more often, and in more detail?) I got a list of candidates

• Blumax Bluetooth GPS-4044
• Amod AGL3080 GPS Photo Tracker
• QStarz BT-Q1300 Travel recorder nano

They all seem to have merits. The Blumax Bluetooth GPS-4044 unit is the cheapest one, and the Blumax Bluetooth GPS-4043 unit hav had some good reviews in terms of accuracy and speed. However, the Blumax Bluetooth GPS-4044 unit seems to be less accurate. Also, there is no way to hang the unit outside of a garment or bag.. so I really don't see how you are supposed to use it (unless you want to attach it to one of your bags with super glue). Also, I think a designer shoudl really have a look at this unit... it may then be the first designer to do so. :-/

Amod AGL3080 is more expensive than the Blumax unit, but features at least something to attach it to a bag. However, it does not have bluetooth, so I could not ever use it as a more general GPS unit (like when I still want to log or navigate using trekbuddy). Furthermore, it runs out of three AAA batteries, which seems to be a convenient solution due to their general availability in shops when in need, but honestly... how do you charge 3 rechargable AAA batteries? Most of the chargers out there seems to be built for charging in two's. I can already see myself not using the product very often due to this factor.

The third unit, the QStarz BT-Q1300 Travel recorder nano, seems to me the ideal solution. Of course, it is the most expensive, but it seems to have everything. Nice, light, small, with a thing for attaching it to a bag, bluetooth.. and, it looks nice :-). Ok, it logs for only 12 hours, and then the log has to be transfered to a computer, but this is a minus I am willing to take, I think.
So, being a true Mac user, I went for the thing with most features and a nice exterior.... even if the price was almost the double of the cheapest unit. And to top it off... I feel like I made a good buy. Only time will tell if this is true.... :-)