Runmeter GPS review [iPhone]

It's been said by certain couch-stranded comedians that the day they see a jogger smiling, they'll give it a go. A thin excuse for inactivity, but they do raise a good point. Running seems to be quite a solitary exercise, and one that suffers the most from a lack of motivation.

It's hard to get out there in the rain, running the same old route, counting every step and passing every mental checkpoint at the same time. Let's be honest, even if it's your preferred form of exercise, it's hard to deny that running is a boring pastime.

The Runmeter GPS app doesn't entirely alleviate the exercise/entertainment dilemma, but it makes a damn good effort to improve on both aspects. Firstly, and primarily, it records your route as you run and overlays it onto Google Maps within the application, so you can see exactly where you've been, only from above.

This route can be saved, and more, different routes added to it as you please. But Runmeter GPS does more than just record the path you've forlornly traipsed around in the name of cardio vascular enhancement. Statistics are regularly recorded including speed, average speed, altitude (useful for seemingly simple routes that actually have lots of leg-wilting ups and downs) and more.

These routes and statistics aren't just for reference, either. Their main purpose is to give you a goal, or sequence of goals, that you set yourself by previous performances. When a route gets boring, or you get more comfortable with it, pushing yourself becomes difficult - even with your best intentions. Runmeter GPS knows exactly what your previous run was like, and offers you the encouragement and motivation to keep going, and to improve yourself.

You can run against ghosts of your previous races, in an effort to beat them around checkpoints and the route as a whole. This is surprisingly good motivation, which encourages you to improve - albeit incrementally - each and every time you run a favoured or regular route.

And if you do want to take things a little more social, you can share routes with other Runmeter GPS (friends and what not) so they can experiment with new circuits and even race against you asynchronously. Naturally this social aspect extends into Facebook and Twitter, with the app able to incorporate Tweets you receive in replay, or Facebook comments, into the experience quite seamlessly.

An audio accompaniment is included that allows you to make full use of the app while jogging, which essentially means knowing what's going on without pressing buttons or looking at the screen. You can download one voice for free, and purchase other accents if you want the app to speak to you in a particular way.

Which brings us to this encyclopaedic running companion's only real flaw. The complexity of its setup is hard to criticise, as Runmeter GPS is geared up to be tailored to your preferences. But figuring out just how you want it to notify you during runs (what your speed is, how far there is to go, and any number of other announcements) is all a bit much.

For the first half dozen runs at least, you'll find yourself inclined to stop and fiddle with these extensive preferences just to ensure you get the info you want, and to stop you're ear getting chewed off while you run. But that's the inevitable price of customisation, so it's certainly not a deal breaking criticism. Some presets might be nice, though, for those of us who aren't into reprogramming our own apps.

Otherwise there's little competition for this full-featured exercise companion on the App Store, except maybe Cyclemeter GPS and Walkmeter GPS. But considering that you can change the exercise method in Runmeter GPS's extensive settings, we're not quite sure what the difference is between any of these apps. Best just to buy one and use it for all occasions, we think.

But definitely buy one of them.