Map2Route and Happy 2025

Happy new year, happy new app! Today I'm sharing another new mini-app that solves a very niche problem: converting Google Maps directions to Routable GPX files. Almost exactly a year ago I also shared a GPS-related app; perhaps you've forgotten, but Apple certainly hasn't, since they are ransoming it for the annual $99 developer program fee once again. Crying face.

Map2Route

Map2Route for Android and iOS is a super-simple one-screen application that creates GPX files from Google Maps. I use Google Maps to find out where I want to go, but I navigate using my watch. Previously there was no convenient way to combine the two, so this app's purpose is to bridge the gap.

        

Even the theme and icon are lifted directly from GPX Splice, only with new hex color codes.

Confession Time

With the new year come new resolutions, but first I need to look back at what I told myself I'd do last year. The conclusion: I failed.

I wrote that I'd try some kind of fun activity that wasn't cycling, running, or making apps for cycling or running. Well, that didn't happen at all, and the incriminating evidence is all here in the public eye. To be fair to myself, training for two marathons does occupy a lot of time...

The human reward function is all about balancing exploitation against exploration, so I think I'll discard that resolution this go around the sun. As a person who's about to say adiós to his 20s and officially become a grumpy old geezer, I'll probably just continue to do what I enjoy this year, and I forgive myself in advance for being this way!