6.0.2 Released

Version 6.0.2 has just been released, and it includes a number of bug fixes, as well as support for a cool new device.

The big new feature is support for the Wahoo Fitness Blue HR heart rate monitor for the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S is the first iPhone to support Bluetooth Smart, which is the 4th generation of Bluetooth network protocols. While other platforms have supported Bluetooth before, this new version of Bluetooth has been improved with a focus on extremely low-power devices. We have been personally using the Blue HR for a few months, and it is awesome.  No ANT+ key required, just strap the Blue HR around your chest, go into our app and turn on “Bluetooth Sensors” under More > Settings, and it will automatically pair.  You’re ready to go.

If you don’t have an iPhone 4S yet, note that the Wahoo Fitness solutions using ANT+ work great, too.  In that case, you’ll need either a bike case or key with an ANT+ transceiver, and ANT+ sensors.  See my blog on ANT+ recommendations.

If you have an iPhone 4S, and want to start monitoring your heart rate, get a BlueHR.

January 2, 2012 at 10:33 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

6.0.1 Released

We’ve been busy since our 6.0 apps were released and Apple’s iOS 5 hit the streets about a month ago. Here’s what’s in 6.0.1.

A majority of our effort was spent in tuning the announcements and messages you’ll receive. Our apps have more than 120 separate data items you can see or hear, from something simple like your current pace or speed, to something complex like the average heart rate for the previous interval. This was a lot of work, with the bulk of our efforts making sure we accurately handled splits and intervals. Our beta customers gave us great feedback that helped immensely. And so now if you’re at mile 16.3, and want to know your pace for the previous split, and the split distance was set in your activity settings to 0.5 miles, then we will accurately report on your average pace from 15.5 to 16.0 miles.

The other big improvement we made in 6.0.1 was that we split out the “one and only” announcement item list into five different announcement lists. Now you have one announcement list for on-demand announcements, another for time intervals, and another for distance intervals. You also have one for the end of splits, and one for the end of intervals. If you’re like me, you might want a very simple announcement every mile (distance, average pace for the split, and average heart rate for the split). But you might a whole raft of information for the on-demand announcement, including how far you are ahead of your best, median and worst workouts. Now you can more directly control what you hear.

We also made improvements to our reporting of ascent and descent, caused because iOS 5 included changes that seem to introduce a lot of noise into elevation readings. If you look at this graph image, you’ll see the very same hill being reported under iOS 4 and iOS 5. The iOS 5 elevation graph is much choppier, and this choppiness compounds in any ascent and descent calculations. We added in filtering that should filter out the noise, leading to more accurate ascent and descent.

One other cool improvement for ANT+ users is that we upgraded our code to allow us to continue to read the Wahoo Fitness sensors as our application shifts into the background. This is only available under iOS 5. In iOS 4, you should continue to be sure our app is on the screen when you press the top lock button or let it go to sleep.

Here’s the official “What’s New in 6.0.1″ list:

➤ Added dozens more data items to announcements, notifications, stopwatch display, Email Update, Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile. These are grouped under Current Split, Previous Split, Trailing Split, Current Interval, and Previous Interval.
➤ Added separately configurable announcement lists for Time Interval, Distance Interval, End Split, and End Interval. See More > Announcements.
➤ Added support for ANT+ sensors to continue recording while app is in the background. (Only supported in iOS 5.)
➤ Added elevation filtering to improve ascent and descent data under iOS 5.
➤ Added the ability to automatically stop the app when all intervals are complete. See the settings for each activity.
➤ Added Target alerts to iOS 5 Notification Center support.
➤ Added ability to import heart rate and cadence data from GPX files.
➤ Added odometer data items to Twitter, Facebook, dailymile, calendar, and notifications.
➤ Fixed issue where speed would display faster than fastest speed.
➤ Fixed bug causing 7th split and others to not be shown on the map.
➤ Fixed some issues where resource errors would cause announcements to stop playing.
➤ Other bug fixes and performance improvements.

Thanks so much for your ongoing support and feedback. We’re happy to keep improving our apps for you. Wait until you see what we’re cooking up now!

Steve & Kevin and the rest of the Abvio team

November 9, 2011 at 8:42 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

ANT+ Advice

It’s been a week since we announced version 6.0 of Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter, and the enthusiastic response from our users has been very gratifying. The first email we received after the release went live simply said “Wow!”.

We are often asked what equipment to buy to use ANT+ for heart rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors. Here is some advice.

Cyclists Wanting Speed/Cadence and Heart Rate

Buy the Wahoo Bike Pack and the Wahoo Soft Heart Rate Belt. This gives you a bike case, a speed/cadence sensor, and a heart rate monitor. Consider their new optional extended battery, too.

Install the bike case per Wahoo’s directions. By default, our app supports Auto-Lock, the ability of the iPhone to turn off the display after a short period of time. You can set our app to keep the display on by changing More > Advanced > Screen On to When Recording rather than Auto-Lock. Note that this will burn the battery about twice as fast, so we don’t recommend it for longer rides. In that case, you can manually shut off the display by pressing the top lock button on your iPhone.

Runners & Walkers Wanting Heart Rate

Buy the Wahoo Run Pack. This gives you a Wahoo Key, and a heart rate monitor. To carry your iPhone, I recommend the iFitness Neoprene Running Belt, which helps keeps your iPhone safe and the Wahoo Key snug. String your Apple Earphone & Remote inside your shirt. Within our app, set More > Remote Control to On, and use remote control to start and stop the app, and get on-demand announcements.

An Alternative To Using A Bike Case

A great way to use our app when riding is as follows. First, purchase the Wahoo Run Pack, a Wahoo Speed/Cadence Sensor, and an iFitness Neoprene Running Belt. When you’re riding, wear the belt with the iPhone behind your back and under your jersey or shirt, with the earphone and remote cable underneath your jersey or shirt. For safety, only use one earphone, and make it the one with the remote. Set an announcement to go off every 5 miles or km using More > Announcements > Distance Interval. Turn on remote control using More > Remote Control and set on demand announcements for On Every Click so your music stays off. Then every 5 miles you’ll get your stats, and if you want them on demand, just click the remote. As a bonus, you can take a call while riding, though keep your attention on the road. And you can use Voice Control to make calls, ask what time is it, and other commands.

What About Other ANT+ Products?

We have tested our apps to work with:

• Wahoo Bike Case
• Wahoo Key
• Wahoo Heart Rate Monitor
• Wahoo Soft Heart Rate Belt
• Wahoo Premium Speed and Cadence Bike Sensor
• Garmin Heart Rate Monitor
• Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor (Soft Strap)
• Garmin GSC10 Speed/Cadence Sensor

Other ANT+ heart rate monitors and combo speed/cadence sensors may work, though we have not tested with them. Write to Wahoo or us to check compatibility of such devices.

We do not currently support the Wahoo Footpod (but stay tuned), nor do we currently support powermeters. We listen closely to feedback, so if you have any particular device you want us to support, just write to email hidden; JavaScript is required and let us know.

Set the Settings

Be sure to adjust some settings to add your sensor readings to the display and announcements. Tap the gear icon on the Stopwatch to add any stat you want, and go to More > Announcements to adjust the announcements. You can also adjust your Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile posts to include your sensor data. (Stay tuned for 6.0.1, which will include many more displays and announcements, including previous split and interval averages for sensor data.)

Keep Our App In The Foreground

Under iOS 4, any app using the Wahoo system must be in the foreground. If our app is placed in the background, the Wahoo ANT+ system is powered down. Make sure our app is on the screen before the display is locked, and that our app is in the foregorund after you happen to run any other app. This will be rectified in iOS 5, and will require a software change in our app, probably in our 6.0.1 version, so stay tuned.

And Improve!

Best wishes for your training efforts. With our 6.0 sensor support, you have even more options to measure your fitness, and anything you can measure, you can improve.

 

October 12, 2011 at 7:49 am | Cycling, Running, Uncategorized, Walking

Huge 6.0 Update

Version 6.0 of Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter is available now. With more than year’s worth of development effort behind it, it’s our biggest release this year, and we hope you like it. Thanks to the dozens of beta testers who gave us awesome feedback!

Read the press releases on Version 6.0 and also about our  leading-edge iOS 5 support.

What’s New in 6.0:

ANT+ SUPPORT FOR HEART RATE MONITORS, BIKE SPEED, AND BIKE CADENCE
6.0 adds support for the Wahoo Fitness ANT+ system (purchased separately), allowing heart rate monitors and speed/cadence cycling sensors to be employed for performance measurement and feedback. Unlike other apps that only record sensor data for later analysis, our app provides a deep implementation and real-time feedback. For example, calories are calculated using heart rate and VO2Max data. Cycling distance, speed, and stop detection are calculated using sensor data. Target announcements can be set based on this information.

INTERVAL TRAINING
Interval training allows any kind of interval workout to be easily created and used, from simple repeated intervals to a complete pyramid interval plan. Intervals can be based on time, distance, reaching a specific location, or advanced using the lap button. Using text-to-speech technology, voice prompts for each interval can be customized to any specific command. Summary statistics for intervals are shown on the iPhone, within Google Maps, and can be exported for further analysis. To use intervals, just tap on the Activity button on the Stopwatch and edit or create an activity. Three interval activities are included, Cycle Intervals, Run Intervals, and Walk Intervals.

TARGET ANNOUNCEMENTS
Target announcements can be set for heart rate, speed, pace, or cycling cadence, providing real-time feedback. Targets can be set per activity or per interval. When you are outside your target range, an announcement gives you feedback, such as “Increase Speed” or “Decrease Heart Rate”, along with your current stats. Targets can be set for the whole workout or to individual intervals.

ZONES
Zones allows for easy selection of target announcement ranges, but more importantly, allows post-workout analysis of performance. Every workout can be analyzed using zones for heart rate, speed, pace, and cycling cadence. For example, you could see how much time, how much distance, and how many calories were spent while pace is in a certain range. Zones are configurable to any ranges, and can be applied to any workout, both during and after a workout.

LAP BUTTON
Tap the lap button at any point during a workout to record all of the data up to that point as an interval, and summarize a dozen different statistics such as time and distance covered, average pace, fastest pace, and maximum heart rate.

iOS 5 READY
Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter 6.0 have been thoroughly tested under iOS 5, as well as iOS 4, and iOS 3.

NOTIFICATION CENTER (requires iOS 5)
iOS 5 Notification Center can be used for a variety of messaging services, including receiving emails, texts and friend requests, and is also useful for iPhone fitness. In Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter 6.0, notifications can be set to be received at specified time or distance intervals. The notification will then show on screen displaying statistics from a configurable list of among 70 data items, such as time, distance, speed or pace, heart rate, calories burned, as well as split and interval information. If the screen is locked, iOS 5 will automatically show the notification for a few seconds, which saves battery power by only turning on the display when necessary. To turn on Notifications, visit More > Settings within the app.

AND MORE
➤ Split distance may be configured per activity.
➤ Splits/Intervals/Zones may be viewed via a button on the stopwatch.
➤ Easily enable and disable email updates, Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile via a button on the stopwatch.
➤ Dozens more statistics can be viewed in the stopwatch, announced, and listed in Facebook, Twitter, and dailymile. Includes splits and interval statistics.
➤ All graphs may now be viewed over time or distance. Added graphs for heart rate and bike cadence.
➤ Calendar summaries may be exported to CSV.
➤ An import URL can be entered in advanced settings for when iOS does not automatically launch our app to handle an import.
➤ Activities may be set to summarize into other activities, and then viewed using the Summary button in the Calendar view.

With 6 major releases and more than two dozen updates over the past two years, Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter continue to be the most powerful GPS fitness applications for the iPhone.

October 4, 2011 at 10:53 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

What Drives Us

Three years ago we began building Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter. We spent a whole year creating a strong architecture before we shipped 1.0, and added four major updates in the last two years, leading up to 5.0. We are very close to releasing a major new update, and this gives us cause to reflect on how we are doing so far.

We work hard every day to earn your trust, respect, and appreciation. More than 5,000 of our customers have taken the time to rate our applications, and deliver the report card you see below, our user ratings as of September 23, 2011.  Being rated 4.5 out of 5 stars is quite an honor, and we don’t take this for granted, though we remain firmly dedicated to raising that to a 5.0 star rating.

With the evolution of the iPhone platform and the impending release of iOS 5, this is a very exciting time for us. We are driven to create innovative, reliable and easy-to-use applications that far exceed the capabilities of bike computers and GPS watches that cost hundreds of dollars. This supports our mission to help our customers become healthier and live longer.

Thank you. We are so grateful, and we are intensely enjoying this journey with you.

Steve and Kevin, and the rest of the Abvio team

 

September 23, 2011 at 9:07 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: Ben & Dan Howarth Cycle from London to Paris in a Day!

My 16 year old son Dan and I cycled from London to Paris in 23 Hours and 20 minutes as part of a team of 10 riders. Dan and I rode to raise funds for Streets2Homes.org, a charity for homeless people based in Harlow in the UK.

It all started last summer, when we rode our first century. After completing it, we decided we needed a bigger challenge in 2011! We dreamt up the London to Paris in 24 hours plan with a number of friends who had previously done LEJOG in just 5 days. We started training in November 2010, with the first group ride in on December 31. A lot of the initial training was done indoors on a set of homemade rollers, but as spring wore on we rode outside as soon as the daylight and weather would allow.

The team had a number of group training rides, including a memorable night ride from London to Dover to test out our route and our lights in the dark. After arriving in Dover, we roughed it in a hotel for what was left of the night and then cycled back to London after breakfast the following day.

Unfortunately, one of our team was run off the road and then assaulted by an angry driver. The assault was recorded on a helmet camera by one of the team, and the video went viral on YouTube and the mainstream media a few weeks later clocking up hundreds of thousands of hits: you may well have seen it! The video resulted in the driver’s conviction, which was a victory for justice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKB9V7MNEXY

Several of the team used Cyclemeter to log our training rides. It was particularly useful for keeping track of cumulative miles each week – but also very helpful navigating the GPX routes we pre-loaded on some of the long group training rides. The clear screens, intuitive layout and email / social networking integration were all invaluable for sharing ride status and letting our “cycling widows” know where we were!

On the evening of July 9, we set off on the ride itself. We departed from Marble Arch at 8:30pm and were waved off by a large group of well-wishers on the first leg down to Dover to catch the 3:20am ferry to Calais. After a brief nap on the ferry, we set out from Calais at 6:15am for the remaining 182 miles to Paris.

The final section of the ride was superb – we rode up the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées into the setting sun with the Arc de Triomphe ahead of us and big grins on our faces. We arrived at the Arc with 40 minutes to spare.

We broke the ride down into six stages of about 40 miles each – two on the UK side and four on the French side. We used the rest stops between to refuel and top off our water bottles. I used Cyclemeter running on my iPhone in a Wahoo Fisica ANT+ case on the handlebars throughout the ride. To keep my iPhone running for the full 24 hours, I used a 9.6Ah external battery pack mounted on the bike frame. The pack performed faultlessly and still had 25% capacity left when we got back to the UK.

Here are the Cyclemeter summaries from the UK and French legs:

Route: London to Dover
URL: http://j.mp/n1TxHt
Ride Time: 4:48:50
Stopped Time: 46:28
Distance: 77.73 miles
Average: 16.15 mph
Fastest Speed: 34.38 mph
Calories: 3525

Route: Calais To Paris
URL: http://j.mp/nspXE4
Ride Time: 11:17:34
Stopped Time: 3:20:09
Distance: 182.07 miles
Average: 16.12 mph
Fastest Speed: 34.97 mph
Calories: 8427

That’s a serious number of calories!

The full 265 miles went like a dream. We had good weather, a light tail wind, enthusiastic encouragement from drivers and pedestrians, no punctures, mechanical breakdowns or any other problems except for the back doors of the support van being left open after one stop just outside Paris. One of the team – an ex-Olympic rower – sprinted after the van and managed to catch up with it a mile or so later – Fortunately nothing fell out!

Dan managed to combine his training with revision for his GCSEs and came away with a great set of top grades, so his dedication certainly paid off. There are no official records, but at 16 years old, he may be the youngest rider ever to complete this route in less than 24 hours. Between us, Dan and I raised over £1,100 for Streets2Homes. The complete team raised more than £10,000 in total for several charities.

You can see more details of the ride, other riders’ stories and the charities we raised funds for at: http://londonparis24.co.uk

September 23, 2011 at 6:32 pm | Cycling, Stories

5.0.8/5.0.9 Updates

Even though we’ve been at the Apple WWDC this week, the march of progress continues. Actually, make that the marathon of progress. Or the century of progress. Or the superultramarathon of progress.

New in 5.0.9:

➤ Tightened algorithms for stop detection to reduce false positives.
➤ Added units for speed/pace in Facebook messages.
➤ Fixed issue with Share page.
➤ Fixed two issues for support of iOS 3.1.3.
➤ Improved KML output.
➤ Fixed calendar summaries label wrapping issue.

New in 5.0.8:

➤ Fixed a bug with route selection.

June 8, 2011 at 9:22 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Runmeter Story: Marty Damrell Runs Boston!

I retired two years ago after serving 30 years in a small Colorado school district as a math teacher and technology director. I have been running for 25 years and have really enjoyed being able put a greater emphasis on running the last two years and improve all of my race times since retiring. I was never very fast but it is nice to still see improvement at 55 years of age and a big part of that is being able to use good tools in your training. Runmeter is a very important part of my training and racing in a number of ways. I have used other iPhone apps as well as a Garmin 305 and have found Runmeter to provide the best set of training features and Abvio has always been timely and friendly with any support issue or feature request. I believe that Abvio listens to their customers and makes every effort to add the features customers want.

To help me, my iPhone and Runmeter go with me on every run to provide accurate feedback on my training distance, speed, and time. I have a number of routes that I run on a regular basis and I can compare my progress on a daily basis or compete against my best performance. I have a few mountain routes that I ran several times during last summer and I am looking forward to running them again this summer to measure my progress. I have relied on the voice announcements during my long marathon training runs to keep me on the proper long run pace and have relied on the announcements during my marathon pace runs to keep me on my projected race pace. I am a geek at heart and love to combine my love of running with my love of useful technology. Hearing my pace and splits, seeing my data post-run, and recording and comparing my progress over time with Runmeter are now an integral part of my training. Good data can be a great motivator!

For my wife’s peace of mind, my iPhone and Runmeter go with me on every run to provide updates on progress and to identify my location. When I start each phase of my workout my wife receives an email with the route information and map link and she can follow my progress. I believe that the use of tracking for safety is one of the most underappreciated GPS tracking features in Runmeter. I know my wife appreciates the fact that she knows I’m still moving along on my training runs and I have been really appreciative of the proactive response from my biggest supporter when the weather turns ugly and I’m miles from home.

By the time I headed to Boston this spring I had 35 family and friends that wanted to follow my progress during the race. I decided that I would not listen to Runmeter during Boston, I would instead rely on the course mile markers and take in all of the sights and sounds of running Boston, but I wanted Runmeter to let my family and friends know how I was doing. I set Runmeter to email 35 people and to post to Facebook at the start of the race and when I was done. On race day I started Runmeter, tucked my iPhone into my iFitness belt, ran the race, and stopped the app shortly after finishing. Boston starts at 10:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. Colorado time and I had friends and family following me mile-by-mile. Runmeter was very reliable and accurate the entire race. I was surprised at how many comments I received via email or on Facebook immediately after the race. When I returned to Colorado I had a number of people who were not on my email list comment on my race because the map link had been forwarded on to them. I didn’t really think about it at the time but now I appreciate the fact that I had a number of supporters following my progress, they knew when things were going well and when things started to get tough. Letting friends and family follow you via Runmeter gives them a much greater insight into your race and allows you to share the good times and bad times. Runners and non-runners appreciate the data and map links that were made available to them on race day; they could be part of my Boston Marathon. Thanks again to Abvio for a great app!

Route: Boston Marathon
Google Maps URL: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/5a99/8dcf/4b54/9ad8/Runmeter-Run-20110418-1002.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/dYuKs2
Import URL: http://share.abvio.com/5a99/8dcf/4b54/9ad8/Runmeter-Run-20110418-1002.kml
Run Time: 3:13:59
Distance: 26.21 miles
Average: 7:24 /mile
Fastest Pace: 6:07 /mile
Ascent: 391 feet
Descent: 813 feet

May 9, 2011 at 6:20 pm | Running, Stories

5.0.7 Update

5.0.7 is now available in the App Store, and we encourage all users to update to it.

While we had made speed accuracy improvements in 5.0.6, we discovered a case where your location at the end of a workout on one day could lead to issues as you started out another day if the app was still in memory. Our apologies for this bug, but after two and a half years of constant coding and testing, we were due. It has been more than year since we last asked Apple for an expedited review. We also included a few other fixes as well.

Onward toward our next major release!

New in 5.0.7:
➤ Speed and Pace measurements improved to be less affected by GPS accuracy.
➤ Dailymile no longer displays DailymileCommaSepRouteNameFmt route name.
➤ Bug fixes and performance improvements.

May 6, 2011 at 4:18 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

5.0.6 Update

This is our sixth update to Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter this year. Why so many? Because we are entirely committed to making the absolutely best GPS fitness apps available for iPhone. With the release of v5.0.6 we continue our tradition of apps that are designed to be easy to use and powerful, while on the road, on the trail and on the run.

Thanks for your continued support. We have lots of cool new stuff coming this summer!

What’s New in 5.0.6:

➤ Speed and Pace measurements improved to be less affected by GPS accuracy.
➤ Announcements are now played consecutively, rather than interrupting an announcement in progress.
➤ Facebook support updated to post to body of stream rather than user comments.
➤ Added Calories Use Elevation switch under advanced settings, to control use of elevation in calorie calculations.
➤ Added Direction to configurable Stopwatch fields to show direction of travel.
➤ Added Total Time and Arrival Time to configurable Stopwatch fields.
➤ Selecting New Route no longer changes activity.
➤ Updated Calendar Sharing titles to not include “On” and “route”.
➤ Ciao! Italian now supported.
➤ Bug fixes and performance improvements.

May 3, 2011 at 12:17 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

A Free Voice

One of the most smile-producing features in our apps is the ability to speak replies from your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile. After it was introduced over a year ago, we received lots of positive feedback, but we also heard loud and clear that the robotic voice we used was hard to understand. In 5.0, we replaced the robotic voice with a high-quality commercial text-to-speech system from our partners at Acapela, and because we pay royalties to Acapela for their brilliant software, we charged for it through an In App purchase for US$0.99.

Going forward, we believe that text-to-speech capabilities are going to be very important for our future innovation. We also want past users of this capability to continue to benefit without additional charge. And so with our 5.0.5 update, we are making one free voice available to every customer, both past and new. To get a free voice, just go to More > Settings > Voices and then tap Get Voices and choose your voice and follow the instructions.

You only need to get a voice if you are using Twitter, Facebook, or dailymile, because we include a built-in announcement voice that uses audio files instead of the Acapela system. If you already purchased a voice, you still have one free voice available.

If you don’t need a voice just yet, or if you already purchased a voice, you might want to hold off using that free voice. More voices are coming, including some that will not only bring a smile to your face, but will also make you laugh. And laughing while exercising is a great way to improve your health.

April 12, 2011 at 2:19 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

5.0.5 Update

Here’s what’s new in our 5.0.5 update, just released to the App Store.

➤ Now get one free voice for speaking replies from Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile. See More > Settings > Voices > Get Voices.
➤ Decimal separator always pronounced as “point” in English.
➤ Added Clock to Stopwatch fields.
➤ Bug fixes and performance improvements.

April 12, 2011 at 2:17 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

April Fools: Introducing Dogmeter!

April 2, 2011 – We here at Abvio love helping people lead healthier lives, and being dog lovers, we thought it would be great if could do the same for our four-legged friends. But we love a good joke, too, so we have to let you know that Dogmeter is a side effect of that part of our brains that invents all those other features. We’d like to thank our neighbors Echo (the collie) and Molecule (the chihuahua) for being such good sports about posing with our iPhones. After the photo shoot, we took Echo for a walk, and you tell from Molecule’s face that he’s about to get a treat! OK, back to coding that next cool feature and taking care of our customers.

If you missed the joke because you were too busy running, walking or cycling on April 1st, good for you! The press release is below, and visit the Dogmeter product page, too.

---

New application from Abvio targets the 23.7 million dogs whose owners have iPhones.

San Francisco – April 1, 2011 – Abvio Inc. today announced Dogmeter, a new application that pioneers a completely new market: canine exercise. Canine obesity and related disorders are rampant among the world’s dog population, with more than 42% of all dogs not meeting a healthy canine BMI standard of 0.27. The new Abvio application has been shown to increase dog exercise an average of 23% among its beta users.

"Abvio created a wonderful application for people, but by adapting it for the world’s dogs, they can help man’s best friend have longer active lives," said Bassett Shepard, professional dog trainer. "Never before have dog trainers been able to measure real results of dog exercise, and use Text-To-Bark technology to command the pack."

Abvio’s applications have been known for their ability to provide audio feedback to runners, cyclists, and walkers, and now dogs can benefit. Dogmeter’s Text-To-Bark technology uses recent discoveries in dog linguistics to transform commands such as "Stop" into the fundamental phonemes of dog language. Studies have shown this technology to be twice as effective in causing immediate obedience. By setting up a Twitter or Facebook account for your dog, any tweet or posts that you make are communicated directly to your dog.

"I couldn’t believe it. My dog Corey had sprinted far ahead of me, and was just about to have his way with the neighborhood poodle, Fifi, and I tweeted ‘Dismount Now!’ to him, and all of the sudden he turned tail and came back," said Charlie Millan, dedicated dog owner. "But even better, one day I saw that he had wandered into the yard of my cranky neighbor, so I tweeted my special command ‘Bombs Away’, and well, let’s just say that I didn’t have to waste a plastic bag."

Dogmeter works with any canine iPhone carrier, and will be available in the iTunes App Store as soon as we can catch up with our friends’ dog, Norman, who sprinted away with the source code. Users who purchase within the first thirty days will receive our the new Canine Command voices, which include the commands like "Bombs Away", "Dismount Now!", "OMG Don’t Eat THAT!", "Who’s a Good Boy? Who’s a Good Boy?" and the ever-popular "SQUIRREL!!!!".

Learn more about Dogmeter at www.abvio.com/dogmeter.

About Abvio Inc.
Abvio Inc. is a privately held, award-winning San Francisco-based iPhone application developer devoted entirely to building comprehensive, easy-to-use applications for human and, uh, canine fitness. Please visit
www.abvio.com to find out more.

###

Media Contact:
Lori Scribner
Abvio Public Relations Representative
Phone: 619.993.1784

March 31, 2011 at 10:30 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

5.0.2 Released

After we do a major release, we follow up with a number of smaller releases to add features and fixes. 5.0.2 just became available on the iTunes Store, here’s what is in it:

➤ Added Duplicate/Compete command for competing against your own runs, rides, and walks.
➤ Added Cross Country Ski activity.
➤ Added individual switches to control sharing options on activity completion.
➤ Fixed Sync All Now button on the Calendar Settings page so that you can once again sync all your workouts to the calendar.
➤ Added ability to import KML files not created by our app.
➤ Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Here’s a repeat of what was in 5.0.1:

➤ Added support to change first weekday in calendar. See More > Settings > Calendar.
➤ Added on/off switches to the prompt after Done button for Twitter, Facebook, dailymile, and Email Updates.
➤ Added odometer options to stopwatch for year, month, week, day.
➤ Added announcements for speed and pace, which override the activity default.
➤ Offline Mode renamed to Internet Access in Settings.
➤ Bug fixes, including fixes for voice selection and purchasing user interface.

Thanks as always for your questions and suggestions!

Steve and Kevin
Abvio

March 3, 2011 at 2:50 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

5.0.1 Released

Here’s what’s new in 5.0.1:

➤ Added support to change first weekday in calendar. See More > Settings > Calendar.
➤ Added on/off switches to the prompt after Done button for Twitter, Facebook, dailymile, and Email Updates.
➤ Added odometer options to stopwatch for year, month, week, day.
➤ Added announcements for speed and pace, which override the activity default.
➤ Offline Mode renamed to Internet Access in Settings.
➤ Bug fixes, including fixes for voice selection and purchasing user interface.

As usual, simply get the update using iTunes on your computer or the App Store app on your iPhone.

Thanks for your feedback!

February 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Massive 5.0 Update

App development is a marathon, and we’re happy to let you know we’ve finished our first ultra. Today we’re announcing our 5.0 update, which has been developed over the past six months, with months of user testing. It’s been submitted to the App Store for review, and is available now. Thanks to the dozens of beta users who gave us feedback, and to the hundreds of customers who wrote to us with suggestions and comments.

Scroll down to read what’s new, or read our press release, or better yet, view screencasts of the top three features in 5.0.

dailymile Integration

Import and Virtual Competition

Voices

What’s New in 5.0

VOICES
➤ A new built-in voice speaks your announcements without the need for purchased voices.
➤ Includes a professional text-to-speech engine, replacing our prior engine. (We heard your feedback!)
➤ Purchased voices are now required to speak replies from Twitter, Facebook, and dailymile.
➤ Voices are available through In App Purchase at a low price.
➤ Many voices are available, both male and female, with more to come. See More > Settings > Voices.

IMPORT
➤ To import, tap a GPX or KML link or file attachment in Mail or Safari. (Note: after installing our app, restart your iPhone to assure that iOS will launch our app to handle GPX and KML files.)
➤ Import the official path for a route, so you can see where you are going on the map and elevation graph.
➤ Import your previously recorded workouts from other social fitness sites and devices, so you can include them in your workout history.

VIRTUAL COMPETITION
➤ Import a workout as a virtual competitor, so you can hear announcements of how far you are ahead or behind, and see their location on the map and graphs.
➤ Every map and email that you share includes an import link so that it can be imported.
➤ Added a leaderboard to every route. See how your most recent workout compares to your competitors, as well as your best, median, and worst workouts for that route.

DAILYMILE INTEGRATION
➤ Login to post your workouts to dailymile.com, a rapidly growing community of 200,000 members who have logged more than 20 million miles while running, biking, and walking.
➤ Updates your workout every few minutes with dailymile, optionally including a map link to your location and stats.
➤ Speaks replies from friends on dailymile during your workout for encouragement.
➤ You can add comments on your workout and on the replies from friends, during and after your workout.

AND MORE
➤ Each of the six stopwatch displays can be configured to show one of 40 different statistics by tapping on the settings icon on the stopwatch.
➤ Added the ability to enter notes before or during a workout by tapping on the notes icon on the stopwatch.
➤ Improved responsiveness of speed and pace displays.
➤ Added official distances and times that can be set for each route.
➤ Added the ability to set the default route. See More > Settings > Stopwatch.
➤ Added split pace / speed announcement type. See More > Announcements.
➤ Added support for descent, kilojoules, and grade.
➤ Updated to the latest Facebook integration library to fix unrequested log outs.
➤ Fixed issue that caused iPod volume to stay lowered.
➤ Improved cycling calorie calculations.
➤ Changed GPX export to create segments between stops.

Check for our updates often! In the past year we have released 5 major updates and 15 minor updates, supporting our goal to be the best GPS fitness app in the iTunes App Store. Thank you for your feedback. Please recommend us to your friends!

January 26, 2011 at 11:35 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: J. D. Hollway

In February 2010 I had bariatric surgery…I lost about 100 pounds before I started cycling. I started using iPhone app Cyclemeter after a friend saw me cycling. Since then I have lost another 92 pounds! I am just an average joe, not a pro. I always hated to exercise, but I fell in love with biking. The Cyclemeter app works fantastically…I track my rides and everything I eat. I am 45 years old and have 4 boys, now we bike together and I’m going to live! My favorite feature is the tracking…breaking it down per mile and the calories. I average about 8 to 15 miles a day, five days a week..my longest ride was 48 miles. I will ride and use this app forever. I have turned a lot of my friends onto this app. The tech support is excellent!

January 18, 2011 at 8:30 am | Cycling, Stories

Make and Keep New Year’s Resolutions

San Francisco – December 28, 2010 — With 2011 less than a week away, New Year’s resolutions are also just around the corner. Abvio Inc., the developer of iPhone fitness apps Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter, believes that the mobile phone in your pocket and your computer may be two of the best fitness gadgets money can buy. In addition to Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter, which all use GPS to track and continually record the time, location, distance, elevation, and speed of your runs, rides or walks, there are a number of low-cost or free apps in the Apple iTunes App Store, such as Lose It!, iFitness and DailyBurn which provide a combination of exercise training programs and calorie tracking features.

“Thanks to the advancements in smartphone technology, the iPhone fitness app market has exploded over the last two years,” said Steve Kusmer, co-founder of Abvio. “There are now many quality apps available to help people maintain their health and fitness. Our customers have used Runmeter, Cyclemeter, or Walkmeter to run their first marathon, complete their first century ride, or start a walking exercise program. All it takes is an iPhone and the desire to get fit.”

Also helpful in the effort to start a fitness program are web sites and social networks focused on fitness, such as dailymile.com, ridewithgps.com, mapmyfitness.com and trainingpeaks.com. According to Kusmer, “Don’t underestimate the importance of social community and its link to fitness. The motivation you receive from your friends and peers through these sites, along with Twitter and Facebook, help to keep you in the game and on track to achieve your fitness goals.”

About Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter
Be the first to see what’s new in Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter version 5.0 at Macworld, held January 26-29, 2011, at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Visit Abvio in the Mobile Apps Showcase (booth #818) and get a demo firsthand from company founders Kevin Wallace and Steve Kusmer.

Runmeter, Cyclemeter, and Walkmeter are built from the same core foundation, but come preconfigured for running, cycling or walking respectively. Abvio’s apps are the first to incorporate text-to-speech technology so users can hear replies to their workout-related status updates from their Twitter and Facebook communities. Spoken replies from friends, family, and coaches encourage and motivate users to go farther, faster and be healthier.

Abvio recently added Automatic Stop Detection and Calendar Sharing to all three apps. Automatic Stop Detection senses when movement stops and attributes time automatically to stopped time, so elapsed time and other statistics are measured only when you are moving. This feature adds more accuracy to workout tracking. Calendar Sharing makes it easier for users to share workouts with friends, family, coaches and personal trainers. It synchronizes workouts to the iPhone Calendar when a workout is completed or edited. The iPhone Calendar may be shared with iCal or Outlook, and with external calendars, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange.

Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter are entirely iPhone-centric, require no web site login or monthly subscription and are completely ad-free. All three apps are available now on the Apple iTunes App Store (iTunes link) for $4.99 (US). For a product tour please visit www.abvio.com.

About Abvio Inc.
Abvio Inc. is a privately held, award-winning San Francisco-based iPhone application developer devoted entirely to building comprehensive, easy-to-use applications for fitness. Please visit www.abvio.com to find out more and follow us on Twitter: @Runmeter, @Cyclemeter and @Walkmeter.

###

Media Contact:
Lori Scribner
Abvio Public Relations Representative
Phone: 619.993.1784
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All company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

December 28, 2010 at 11:34 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

The Bike Doctor is In

One of the great things about the iPhone is that it is a platform with unlimited potential. Besides using our app to track your rides, it can also store other applications that might be useful to you, without adding a gram to your riding weight.

I recently downloaded and checked out the Bike Doctor application, built by our friends over at London Cyclist.  I highly recommend it. Besides the more tricky repairs like adjusting a derailleur or replacing broken spokes , it also answers the one that has vexed me: how often should I lubricate the chain?

Learn more at www.bikedoctorapp.com

October 5, 2010 at 7:36 am | Cycling

Our 4.1.1 Update

We just released the 4.1.1 update to our Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter:

• Added “Screen On” setting for bike mount users who want to keep the screen on while riding. See More > Settings > Advanced.
• Increased the maximum number of mile or kilometer markers shown on maps.
• Improved calendar sharing settings by adding the calendar type to the name, for users who have multiple calendars with the same name.
• Twitter, Facebook and Email Updates now post the activity name instead of the activity type.
• Fixed bug that prevented updating announcements unless you restarted the app.
• Fixed bugs in calendar sharing that would sometimes not post maps or change calendar names for updated events.

Also, we added in an activity type for mountain biking.  New customers will see a “Mountain Bike” activity. If you purchased our app before 4.1.1, we didn’t want to possibly step on any activities you already created, so you should create your own “Mountain Bike” activity.  From the Stopwatch view, tap the Activity button in the upper right corner, then Edit, then Add Activity, and the create an activity named “Mountain Bike” (or whatever you’d like to call it), and choose an Activity Type of “Cycle (Mountain)”.

Thanks for using our apps, sending us feedback, and recommending us to your friends.

October 2, 2010 at 8:23 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: Liana Lehua

I had the privilege of being on a talented and hard-working relay team at the San Diego Triathlon Classic 2010. My duty was to “rock” the bike leg of the triathlon, which included 2 loops through the city and Naval Base at Point Loma.

Two of my long-time favorite Cyclemeter features, Google Maps sharing via Twitter and Facebook and audible playback, proved, once again, to be what helped me hammer up the moderately challenging hill (elevation gain approximately 300 feet) for each of the two loops required to complete the 25 mile course. There was one particularly memorable moment: on my second trek up the hill, as I felt my muscular endurance waning, I was passed by a guy just as a friend commented on my Cyclemeter update posted to my Facebook status, which was spoken to me out loud as:

“This is so freakin’ cool. You can do it!”

The cyclist slowed, on a hill mind you, to ask if I was on the phone. I said no and briefly told him about what he heard. He then asked, again climbing a hill, the name of the app. He said, “I’m going to have to check that out.” Too funny. I loved the encouragement at a time when I really needed it and that it prompted a mini-app overview during a race.

As a Sports Performance Coach, I appreciate the data I can export, analyze and do what needs to be done to improve my cycling. Both Cyclemeter and Runmeter have been integral tools in my training arsenal this year for the benefit of both my athletes and I. Comparative analytics at the level of detail Abvio provides is unmatched, especially splits, calendar sharing and the ability to export in several useful formats.

Thank you for continuing to build training and fitness applications driven by this awesome user community you’ve built.

By the way, my relay team placed third in the Open Women’s Relay Division. Yeah. We ROCKED it!

Route: San Diego Triathlon Classic

Activity: Cycle
Google
Maps URL: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/dd2f/581d/4c82/a738/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100918-0717.kml

Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/9mlM7c

Started: Sep 18, 2010 7:17:35 AM

Ride Time: 1:43:41

Stopped Time: 0:00

Distance: 23.86 miles

Average: 13.81 miles/h

Fastest Speed: 34.55 miles/h

Climb: 676 feet

Calories: 0

Official Route: Yes

In Good Health,

Liana Lehua

View Larger Map

September 22, 2010 at 10:37 pm | Cycling, Stories

Walkmeter Story – Robert Troccoli

On September 6, 2010, I began a six-day, 118-mile walk from Denver to Vail to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter, which I named the “Muir Wolfe Memory Walk” (MWMW). For the last five years, my dear friend Fred Wolfe had made this trek, solo, as a personal tribute to his father who passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2007. However, due to personal reasons, Fred was unable to make the trek this year. In order to carry on the tradition, and with Fred’s expert guidance, I completed the walk in his honor. Fred was able to join me on the first leg of the walk; however, I completed the remaining five days solo, with the accompaniment of my iPhone 4 and a wonderful application, Walkmeter.

I found the Walkmeter application in July just as I started training for MWMW. I used it to track all of my training walks – some 20 in total in the mountains of Colorado (from Loveland Ski Basin – up an over Loveland Pass (11,990 feet in elevation) to Keystone, Keystone to Frisco and Georgetown to Bakerville, in Maine while I climbed Mount Megunticook, and back in Colorado when I climbed Mount Bierstadt (one of Colorado’s fourteeners). Walkmeter worked like a charm! I especially liked the GPS feature and the way it connected with my Facebook page. In fact, my assistant printed out all of the maps, graphs (elevation, pace, etc.) for everyone to enjoy at my retirement party once I reached Vail. Facebook interaction kept my friends abreast of my progress, and the feature that actually speaks posts (in this case – words of encouragement) on Facebook through one’s iPhone was fantastic!!

I never lost reception during my trek, and now I have a record of my walk that raised more than $70,000 for Alzheimer’s (Colorado Chapter) and also celebrated my retirement from KPMG after 39 years.

Map of Robert’s Georgetown To Keystone Day 3 Route:

View Larger Map

September 22, 2010 at 10:29 pm | Stories, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: Matthew Prieto

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Lake Tahoe California/Nevada and I wanted to email you about how FANTASTICALLY Cyclemeter performed. The latest update that added Auto-Stop to the app was exactly what I needed. The Tour de Tahoe ride was a perfect real world test for that feature. The ride had 6 stops, and since I also had two friends tag along it allowed me to pull into a rest stop and wait for them and not have to worry about stopping and restarting the counter. Cyclemeter is so efficient at utilizing the GPS signal, that my 7+ hour ride was entirely recorded on a single charge while listening to music and taking 82 pictures with HDR enabled.

At mile marker 20 (enabling the feedback at 10 miles and 1 hour), I was surprised to hear all of the responses via the auto-posting to Facebook. I enabled that feature with very little expectation. I was very surprised to hear the app read the comments to me in such a clear tone. Given it was a computer-based voice it was still very discernible. I also have auto-email enabled, which works flawlessly, along with Calender Sharing, which also works perfectly with my Exchange-enabled account. Thank you for a great product and allowing me the opportunity to use it. I also wanted to share the information that I received from the auto-email for ride completion:

Finished Ride: Sep 12, 2010 2:30:10 PM
Route: Tahoe – Bike The West
Google Maps URL:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/2504/57f9/4ba8/3517/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100912-0641.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL:http://j.mp/b1RtTI
Distance: 72.74 miles
Ride Time: 4:36:53
Calories: 3650

Thank you for making my life easier,
Matthew Prieto

See Matthew’s Lake Tahoe Ride embedded in a live Google Map to the right. Just zoom in, and Google Map will show the mile markers instead of the blue placeholders.

September 19, 2010 at 9:13 am | Cycling, Stories

Nike+ GPS Review

Nike just released Nike+ GPS, their new iPhone application. I love competition, so I took it for a few runs to compare it to Runmeter. Disclosure: I’m one of the developers of Runmeter, but I’m an engineer, and the truth is my goal. If you see anything incorrect here, please write to us at email hidden; JavaScript is required and I will update it.

Here is a competitive matrix, summarizing all the features of Runmeter and Nike+ GPS against other popular running apps.

To learn more about Nike+ GPS, I took four short runs.  You can see them all here on the Nike site, because I have switched their default privacy setting to be more open. (Props to Nike for a respectful privacy default. )

After launching Nike+ GPS, you see a screen with your overall distance total, plus other  overall stats.  In addition, there are three tabs: Home, History, and Settings.

To start a run, you choose “Start a Run”, then one of “Basic”, “Time”, or “Distance”, and then decide whether you’re doing the run indoors or outdoors. That unveils a strength of the app, the ability to measure running on a treadmill using the iPhone accelerometer. Then one more tap and you are off and running. A simple display shows distance, pace, and elapsed time, along with a stop/start button.

A small icon in the corner views a map. Oddly, when you tap Done after viewing the map, it stops the stopwatch. (Maybe they thought you were not running any longer.) The map is simple, it just shows your path, but I do like its ability to color the path with a green-to-red scale indicating your slowest to fastest pace.

Compared to Runmeter, though, Nike+ required a lot of tapping and choosing to get started. With Runmeter, you just launch the app and tap Start, rather than the four taps it takes to get going with Nike+ GPS. And more importantly, Runmeter has remote control ability, so you can use your earphone remote to start and stop the app while your iPhone is stowed away. With Nike+ GPS, I had to start it, then fumble with my iPhone for 10 seconds putting it into my running belt before I could run. At stop lights and at the finish, I had to go through the same fumbling to get it out of my belt so I could stop the app. With our new stop detection capability, you could even forget to stop and start at a stoplight, and Runmeter will not count that time.

Upon finishing, the voice of Lance Armstrong congratulated me on finishing my first run. (Thanks, Lance, but it was only 0.37 miles!) Paula Radcliffe congratulated me after another run, presumably nodding her approval.

I was especially interested in seeing how Nike+ helps you compete against yourself, because we had spent a lot of effort making this possible in Runmeter. The competition capabilities in Nike+ GPS are limited, and a little odd, too. One set of options allows you to compete against your very last run’s stats (distance, time, pace). Another option allows you to try to beat your record of farthest, longest, fastest 1k, or fastest 1 mile runs. Nothing more. While you are running, there is no way to get feedback to know if you are on track to beat your virtual competition. You only hear time, distance, and pace.

In Runmeter, by simply running a route multiple times, you automatically get your best, median, and worst runs for that route competing with you on a map, and also announced as a you run. If you run different routes, say one that is hilly, you can still compete against prior runs even for routes that are inherently slower. I always listen for the announcement to saying whether I’m faster than my median run for my hilly routes here in San Francisco, and it makes me run faster. You can’t do any of these things with Nike+ GPS.

Nike+ GPS doesn’t have a calendar. The history tab, shown to the right here, can’t even show 3 complete rows of runs, all just to display a distance and a couple of icons. I like the wet table visual style just like the next guy, but Nike+ GPS could be improved by considerably tightening up the user interface.

Syncing with the Nikeplus.com site was simple, I just signed up and it automatically synced when my runs finished. The Nikeplus.com site itself is beautiful, though a little slow to load, sometimes by design.
Graphs take five seconds to draw so a little running man animation is shown. It does not include a calendar, just a list of runs in your history. But Nikeplus.com’s goal setting and coaching plans are a big plus of the system.

While the competitive matrix gives the fine grain detail, here are the top 10 biggest missing items from Nike+ GPS:

1. Ability to stop and start using the earphone remote.
2. Automatic stop detection.
3. A calendar and model that keeps all your runs on the device.
4. Ghost running against previous runs, not just your very last run.
5. Configurable announcements.
6. Sending Twitter, Facebook, and Email announcements on the beginning of runs, including a link to map so your friends and family can know where you are.
7. Export capabilities of ANY kind. (You can check in any time you want, but you may never leave.)
8. Ability to edit any of the data you put into nikeplus.com. (You can only delete, or change notes, or feeling or weather icons.)
9. Real-time feedback about whether you are exceeding (or not exceeding) your goals or virtual competition while you are a running.
10. Ability to support any other activity besides running.  (Triathletes beware.)

My bottom line: Nike+ GPS is a well-designed entry-level running application, likely intended by Nike to drive more users to the Nikeplus.com site, where they will see promotions for Nike products. If you are a serious runner or triathlete, a more powerful application like Runmeter would be a better investment of your money and more importantly, your time.

Lastly, one word of caution: The inability of NikePlus.com to export any of your data means that when you start with their system, you are committed forever. We believe your data should belong to you, and that is why Runmeter supports both summary and detailed exports of your data, in standard GPX, KML, and CSV formats.

September 7, 2010 at 10:14 pm | Uncategorized

Our 4.1 Update!

Apple released iOS 4 within a few days of our 4.0 release. Now we’re about to release our 4.1 version, and wouldn’t you know, Apple plans to ship the iOS 4.1 release later this week. If anybody wants to know when iOS 5 will come out, we’ll consult our development calendar and let you know.

We’re pleased to announce that the latest update (version 4.1) of Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter, which have been in development for about four months now. What’s new:

• Automatic Stop Detection senses when you have stopped moving and attributes time automatically to stopped time, so that your elapsed time and other statistics cover only when you are moving. Elapsed time will continue to increase until the stop is detected, and then will roll back to when the stop started. Note: Off by default, turn on in Settings.
• Calendar Sharing synchronizes your workouts to your iPhone Calendar when you tap the Done button in the Stopwatch view, and when a workout is edited. This is useful because the iPhone Calendar may be shared with iCal or Outlook, and with external calendars, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange.

Click the links above to learn more. The update is free, just use iTunes or the App Store application on your iPhone.

September 7, 2010 at 7:19 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

Automatic Stop Detection

We love a good technical challenge. Whether it is how to race against yourself (showing your best, median, and worst runs on a map in real time), how to tap into the earphone remote so you can stop and start our app while the iPhone stays safely in your pocket, or how to dynamically filter errors out of GPS data, we love hard problems.

This is why we had a blast coding our newest feature, automatic stop detection. Just tap More, then Settings, and turn on Stop Detection. And it just works. Whenever you stop, our app analyzes the incoming GPS data, and then rolls back your elapsed time to when the stop started, and attributes the time you are stopped to the stopped time display.

While you are underway, stopped time is shown underneath your elapsed time. And then after your workout is done, you can see the summary in your detailed workout data. You can even edit the workout and turn off stop detection to see what the time would have been otherwise.

Because GPS accuracy varies, using Stop and Start or our remote control will provide the most accurate results possible. But we’ve been testing and refining it for months now, and we’re quite happy with the results. We hope you are, too!

Thanks to the hundreds of people who wrote to us requesting this feature, your input raised automatic stop detection to the top of the list.

On to the next big technical challenge!

September 7, 2010 at 7:15 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

Calendar Sharing

September 7, 2010 at 7:11 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: Roger Bailey

Five friends and I just completed a cycling adventure in which we travelled the whole length of the UK from John O’Groats in Scotland to Lands End in Cornwall!!

I used your Cyclemeter application to keep all of my friends, family and work colleagues up to date on our progress and I have to say it worked perfectly! Everyone was amazed at the updates that Cyclemeter provided and how it kept people interested in our progress as we travelled across the country.

We all raised money for different charities amounting to more than £10,000!!

Here are the final brief stats from our ride as follows:

Journey Time – 12 Days
Distance Travelled – 931 miles
Elevation climbed – 33,000 feet – higher than Mt Everest!!
Calories burnt – 49,000

I would just like to thank all the people who helped develop this great application. I tested Cyclemeter out in some pretty severe rain and wind, yet it never faltered once!!

September 4, 2010 at 6:37 pm | Cycling, Stories

Runmeter Story: Quynn Morehouse

I love the Runmeter application for iPhone! I’ve been running with a Garmin GPS watch for years and this app is so much better. The GPS on the iPhone and Runmeter is so much more accurate than my Garmin. The app is fantastic. The way you can see your splits, see your route in a map format, look at prior runs and compare progress is awesome. I just started training for my 5th marathon and I hope to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Since using Runmeter, my runs have been getting faster and faster. Prior to using Runmeter, I wouldn’t have a sense as to how much faster I was running unless I did the calculation manually. It’s great to have feedback while you’re running so you know when you’re slower or faster than your average pace. I haven’t qualified for Boston yet, but when I do Runmeter will be the one to thank. This application is by far the best one I have on my iPhone. Thanks!!!

September 4, 2010 at 6:36 pm | Running, Stories

Cyclemeter Story: Barry Grabowski

I, and some fellow riders, recently completed the BC Cancer Foundation Ride to Conquer Cancer. This was a 250 kilometer ride from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, Washington, which took place over two days. It supports fundraising for the BC Cancer Agency, a leading research centre in Canada. We have been training for the ride since early March 2010. One of the first apps I installed on my iPhone was Cyclemeter, and I’ve been using it ever since to track our training rides so we could see our progress as the distance of our rides increased. Just being able to visualize our rides on a map made it easier for us to appreciate our gains and give us continued confidence to go farther and ride longer.

At one of our fundraisers, we had supporters guess our accumulated training mileage and Cyclemeter was a cool way to verify to everyone how much we had accomplished.

I think the app is great and I’m looking forward to the next upgrade to Cyclemeter.

September 4, 2010 at 6:34 pm | Cycling, Stories

Walkmeter Story: David Gary Henry

Thanks so much for creating Walkmeter. I’ve tried several other GPS-related fitness apps and they just didn’t suit me.  A little more than a year ago, both of my knees were so bad I could no longer do the outdoor activities I’ve been doing all my life.  So, At 66 years young I decided to have both knees replaced. I had the left one done last May and the right one done in December 2010. Now I’m back walking, biking, hiking and swimming and can walk stairs again with no pain.  A couple of month ago a friend told me to try Walkmeter and now I’m using it daily for walking, hiking, biking. It’s great! The app sends me an email when I’m done and I can log my progress to a spreadsheet. It puts the notes directly on Facebook and my friends’ replies to my status updates keep me motivated. I love that fact you can see your results on Google Maps and can do some sets over again to keep improving.  Great Job, and thanks for the very prompt update to 4.0.

September 4, 2010 at 6:30 pm | Stories, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: QJ Henderson

I’d like to share a recent experience I had using your Cyclemeter app. A friend and I recently tackled the challenge of riding across Kansas in an organized ride called ‘Bike Across Kansas.’ (http://www.bak.org/) It was the 36th year for the ride, which had more than 800 riders. It’s a 475 mile journey taking 8 days and 7 nights. About a month before the ride, I started looking for bike computers that I could take along on the ride. I have an iPhone so decided to look for appropriate apps too. I was impressed with the description of Cyclemeter, but the user ratings were what convinced me to download it. I tested the app for several weeks. My wife and family really liked its ability to email them a link to a map that would allow them to track my progress across Kansas. So, instead of spending $300 on a high-end cycle computer, I chose to go with Cyclemeter. I loaded up email addresses for our immediate family members as they were looking forward to tracking our progress, in real time, each day of the trip. So many people wanted these updates I ended up with 40-50 people on my email list! I’m really excited to see the continued updates to the app. I will end by saying that the Cyclemeter app is a 5-star application that I look forward to using for a long time. Congratulations to your team on an excellent job.

September 4, 2010 at 6:20 pm | Cycling, Stories

Walkmeter Story: Michael Allen

As a postal delivery officer in Sydney, I was missing quite a few deadlines until I bought the Walkmeter app. I use Walkmeter to track my position during my postal route. It has helped me to stay motivated by monitoring how fast I’m walking compared to previous routes and whether I’m going faster or slower compared to my deadline time. Walkmeter also tracks how many kilometers I walk each day and over a week’s time. I have used many GPS fitness tracking applications and Walkmeter is the most accurate and energy-efficient application I’ve used yet. I recommend Walkmeter to any postal delivery officer who has an iPhone. It does the job!

September 4, 2010 at 5:48 pm | Stories, Walking

Cyclemeter Story: Sean Overend

I just completed the annual 300km ride around Lake Vattern in Sweden along with 21,000 other riders. I used Cyclemeter for the entire ride and for me, the highlight was that it allowed me to send out email messages to my friends and family every hour, throughout the ride, entirely automatically. My son in Newbury, my daughter in Istanbul and local Swedish recipients all knew precisely how the ride was going and were able to send messages back to me via SMS (which I could see on the screen without stopping the app), or email or by way of Facebook. I’m so glad to see that the latest version of Cyclemeter can run in the background, thanks to the new iPhone operating system that allows multitasking.

September 4, 2010 at 5:42 pm | Cycling, Stories

A Great Week: iOS 4 and iPhone 4 Support

It’s been a great week!

• Monday: iOS 4 available.
• Wednesday: Apple approves version 4.0 of Runmeter, Walkmeter, and Cyclemeter.
• Thursday: Received my new iPhone 4.
• Friday: Took my first run  the iPhone 4.

Here’s a video about our support of multitasking and iOS 4.

Thanks to all of our customers who wrote to us, and for the all the encouragement for our apps and iOS 4!

June 25, 2010 at 6:03 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

3.0.3 Released

Version 3.0.3 of Cyclemeter, Runmeter, and Walkmeter is now available in the App Store. Here’s what’s new:

• We added a setting to announcements that gives you two options for how our announcements interact with iPod audio.  In the past, the default had been to interrupt the iPod audio.  Many of our customers said they’d rather have the iPod audio “duck” (lower in volume) while the announcement is play, so we made it an option.  If Interrupt iPod Audio is On, then the iPod will be interrupted during announcements.  If off, the iPod volume will be lowered.  This also helped with an issue in which an announcement would happen, and iPod audio would stay off.
• We added a setting called Power Off Remote After that helps save battery life.  If you lock your iPhone, this setting controls how long the app will keep listening for you to use the earphone remote to start and stop.
• Settings for “Run Shows” and “Walk Shows” was added, which controls whether those activities show speed (distance / time) or pace (time / distance) measurements.  This is also available if you edit the Run or Walk activities, but we wanted to make this easier for folks to find and change.
• By popular demand, we added “Day” and “All” summaries to the calendar.  Now the app can summarize by day, week, month, year, and overall.
• We added more distance intervals for announcements.
• We improved calorie calculations for cycling.
• We also improved performance, especially for generating KML files and and drawing large routes.

We work continuously to improve our apps, and we answer all of our support requests personally, and quickly.  Our 3.0.3 version is the 17th update we’ve done this year, all providing more functionality, improved quality, and enhanced performance.  We hope you like it.

May 23, 2010 at 7:37 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

Announcing 3.0!

We’re very pleased to announce availability of the 3.0 versions of Runmeter, Cyclemeter, and Walkmeter. Lots of great features, from best-in-class Facebook support, including text-to-speech announcement of comments, to the very practical Offline Mode (for our European friends who want to avoid roaming charges), and intense exporting of all of your running data. And finally, email updates so your friends, family, and coaches know where when you head out, and where you are.

For more detail, see our press release, or better yet, take a product tour of Runmeter, Cyclemeter, or Walkmeter.

April 19, 2010 at 10:02 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Buzz

In the past month our applications have been increasingly catching the attention of the media, and we are truly grateful for the kind words written about us. We’re thankful for inspiring customers and the wonderful iPhone platform. Here is a sample of what has been written about us. To see a full list, visit our Press page.

Runmeter and Cyclemeter for iPhone Review

in Macworld by Matthew Honan
also in Businessweek as Runmeter and Cyclemeter for iPhone

At one point in the very near past, if you wanted to track your speed and distance over a bike ride or run, calculate your calories burned, listen to music, share exercise data with friends, and view your route afterward, you’d need a cyclometer, a calculator, an iPod, an e-mail program, and, of course, a map. Today, however, all of these functions have been rolled into one device, the iPhone, thanks to great fitness tracking applications like Runmeter and Cyclemeter from Abvio.

Abvio Runmeter: The new King of iPhone fitness apps?

in PhoneDog by Noah Kravitz

For months now, RunKeeper Pro for iPhone has been my favorite running app. That all changed when I went to MacWorld this past January and met the folks from Abvio. Abvio’s Runmeter 2.0 is a seriously great GPS-based fitness app for iPhone.

Best of Macworld: Abvio Runmeter, Cyclemeter, Walkmeter

by Beatweek (formerly iProng)

Are you a fitness enthusiast? If you enjoy running, cycling, or going for a walk, try out Abvio’s new line of fitness apps — Runmeter, Cyclemeter, and Walkmeter. These exercise apps use the iPhone’s GPS to track and visualize exercise activities as well as help improve athletic performance and health. Each of these apps are similar to one another except for the fact that they come pre-customized to suit the needs of its user — the walker, runner, or cyclist.

This is just the beginning. We have big plans in store for the product, and we’re always glad to hear from our customers.

March 16, 2010 at 5:01 pm | Cycling, Running, Walking

Best of Show!

We’re proud to let you know that the good folks at Beatweek Magazine just chose Runmeter, Walkmeter, and Cyclemeter as Best of Show at Macworld 2010!   Today’s the last day of Macworld, and we’re having a blast demoing the product to hundreds and hundreds of people.

 

February 13, 2010 at 10:27 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

See us at Macworld 2010!

Abvio Demonstrates Innovative iPhone 3G/3GS Fitness Applications for Running, Cycling and Walking at Macworld 2010

San Francisco – (February 9, 2010) — Abvio demonstrates the latest release of their iPhone 3G/3GS GPS-based fitness applications, Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter, at Macworld 2010. All three are among the top 100 paid applications in iTunes’ Healthcare & Fitness category, and Runmeter was recently featured by Apple in “What’s Hot” on the App Store.

WHAT: Abvio executives, including founders Steve Kusmer and Kevin Wallace, will be on hand to show the applications and discuss how rapid innovation has contributed to the success of Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter. Application “firsts” include the ability to use the Apple earphone remote to start and stop the app; Twitter text-to-speech for voiced Twitter replies and direct Google Maps sharing via Twitter and email.

WHERE: Macworld 2010, Mobile Applications Showcase, Booth 1366, Station 67, at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.

WHEN: February 11-14, 2010

About Abvio
Abvio LLC is a privately held, San Francisco-based iPhone application developer devoted entirely to building comprehensive, easy-to-use iPhone applications for fitness. Please visit www.abvio.com to find out more.

Press Contact: Lori Scribner, 619-993-1784 or email hidden; JavaScript is required

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All company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

February 9, 2010 at 10:13 am | Cycling, Running, Walking

AppStoreWeek Review of Walkmeter 2.0

Jack Latham at AppStoreWeek wrote a review of Walkmeter 2.0:

http://appstoreweek.com/2010/01/03/walkmeter-gps-for-fitness-weight-loss-iphone-app-review/

Thanks so much for the thoughtful review, Jack!

January 20, 2010 at 3:27 pm | Walking

Announcing Cyclemeter 2.0

Cyclemeter 2.0 Transforms the iPhone 3G/3GS into a Powerful Cycling Computer with Google Map Sharing, Twitter Text-to-Speech and More

iTunes’ best selling cycling app Cyclemeter makes training easy with control via Apple earphone remote and motivational support from Twitter community

San Francisco – January 20, 2010 – iPhone fitness application developer Abvio LLC today added Cyclemeter 2.0 to its list of health and fitness offerings for the iPhone 3G/3GS. Already an iTunes best seller for cyclists, version 2.0 adds new features to turn the iPhone into a powerful GPS stopwatch, giving cyclists the feedback and motivation to ride faster, go farther, burn more calories and become healthier. Cyclemeter 2.0 also offers built-in Twitter text-to-speech so cyclists can hear Twitter replies during rides from coaches, fellow riders and family. Cyclemeter 2.0 further improves ease-of-use and safety with voice announcements and the ability to use the Apple earphone remote to start/stop the app.

“I have tried a few of the other bike apps out there and nothing compares to Cyclemeter. I had been using another iPhone app, not designed for cycling, but so much of the ride information was uploaded to a Web site and not kept on my phone,” said Rick Savage, Cyclemeter user. “I absolutely love the voice announcements, which allows me to train harder during my daily 20 mile route to and from work.”

The new Google Maps feature in Cyclemeter 2.0 lets riders send links to maps of rides and routes via email or Twitter. Cyclemeter continually records ride time, location, distance, elevation and pace and allows riders to see results on maps, graphs and a calendar organized by routes and activities. Cyclemeter 2.0 is battery-friendly, unlike many GPS applications for the iPhone, so cyclists can train for up to six hours without recharging, or for many days using battery extenders. For training and sharing purposes, cyclists can export the ride data from their iPhone in GPX and KML or in CSV directly to a spreadsheet.

“Cyclists want first-rate equipment, and we built Cyclemeter with their expectations and needs in mind,” said Steve Kusmer, co-founder and CEO of Abvio. “We are grateful that our customers have made us the top selling iPhone application for cycling, and we are continuing to improve Cyclemeter at break-neck speed.”

Cyclemeter 2.0 is entirely iPhone-centric. It requires no Web site login or monthly subscription and is completely ad-free. Cyclemeter 2.0 is available now on the Apple iTunes App Store (www.abvio.com/getcyclemeter) for $4.99 (US). For a product tour, please go to www.cyclemeter.com.

About Abvio LLC
Abvio LLC is a privately held, San Francisco-based iPhone application developer devoted entirely to building comprehensive, easy-to-use iPhone applications for fitness. Please visit www.abvio.com to find out more.

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Media Contact:
Lori Scribner
Abvio Public Relations Representative
Phone: 619.993.1784
email hidden; JavaScript is required

All company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

January 20, 2010 at 7:00 am | Cycling

Announcing Runmeter 2.0

Runmeter 2.0 for iPhone 3G/3GS Powers Your Training with First Text-to-Speech Tweets and Google Map Sharing

Apple earphone remote start/stop and other groundbreaking capabilities make Runmeter the most usable and powerful running application available

San Francisco – December 16, 2009 – iPhone fitness application developer Abvio LLC today announced Runmeter 2.0, the most comprehensive running application for the iPhone 3G/3GS. Runmeter turns your phone into a powerful GPS stopwatch, giving runners feedback to run faster and increase endurance. Runmeter 2.0 is the first iPhone application to offer built-in Twitter text-to-speech, so runners can hear Twitter replies during training from their coaches, friends and family.

“Runmeter is very easy to use, and it has more power than any other application and sports watch I’ve tried. I’ve logged over 250 miles using Runmeter,” said George Ayoub, a runner and Runmeter user.

It also is the first iPhone application with the ability to start or stop the application from Apple’s earphone remote, and is the first iPhone fitness application to allow direct Google Maps sharing via email or Twitter. Runners can now easily share running routes with friends, coaches, running partners and their entire community of Twitter followers. And, unlike many GPS-based applications, Runmeter 2.0 is battery-friendly — runners can train for up to six hours without recharging or using a battery extender.

“Runmeter 2.0 is the first running app that you can control and use while your iPhone is sleeping and secure in your pocket or armband,” said Steve Kusmer, co-founder and CEO of Abvio. “We are an extremely customer-centric, innovation-driven company and use the products ourselves. These influences drove the creation of Runmeter, and will continue to drive us forward and benefit our customers.”

Runmeter 2.0 gives you all of the tools and data you need to help meet fitness and running goals, whether that goal is to complete your first 5k race or train for a full marathon. It includes maps, a complete calendar of all your runs, graphs of elevation and pace, spoken announcements of your statistics as you run, and much more.

Runmeter 2.0 is entirely iPhone-centric. It requires no Web site login or monthly subscription and is completely ad-free. Runmeter 2.0 is available now from the Apple iTunes Store for $4.99 (US). For a complete product tour, please visit: www.runmeter.com.

About Abvio LLC

Abvio LLC is a privately held, San Francisco-based iPhone application developer devoted entirely to building comprehensive, easy-to-use iPhone applications for fitness. Please visit www.abvio.com to find out more.

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Media Contact:
Lori Scribner
Abvio Public Relations Representative
Phone: 619.993.1784
email hidden; JavaScript is required

All company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

December 16, 2009 at 10:06 am | Running

Good For Your Knees

In my prior blog post Live Longer, I wrote about the study that shows that running extends your active life up to 16 years.

Well, there’s more good news. In the NY Times article Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees? another study is cited that shows that running may actually help prevent your knees from becoming arthritic:

Instead, recent evidence suggests that running may actually shield somewhat against arthritis, in part because the knee develops a kind of motion groove. A group of engineers and doctors at Stanford published a study in the February issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery that showed that by moving and loading your knee joint, as you do when walking or running, you “condition” your cartilage to the load. It grows accustomed to those particular movements. You can run for miles, decades, a lifetime, without harming it. But if this exquisite balance is disturbed, usually by an injury, the loading mechanisms shift, the moving parts of the knee are no longer in their accustomed alignment and a “degenerative pathway” seems to open. The cartilage, like an unbalanced tire, wears away. Pain, tissue disintegration and, eventually, arthritis can follow.

NYTimes.com:  Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees?

August 12, 2009 at 9:04 am | Running

Walking Your Way To Running Marathons

The New York TImes has an article about the benefits of incorporating walking into your running training regimen. This approach was popularized by distance coach Jeff Galloway, a member of the 1972 Olympic Team, and could be your key to completing a marathon.

NYT: Better Running Through Walking

June 3, 2009 at 7:03 am | Running, Walking

Live Longer

Why do you run? Is it for the runner’s high? For feeling healthy? For maintaining a healthy weight? Do you do it for competition? For community?

How about this reason: running will add 16 years to your active life.

A study by Stanford University researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Archive of Internal Medicine tracked 538 older runners for 21 years. Major findings of this study:

• The first disability for runners occurred on average 16 years later than that of a control group.
• Not only does running delay cardiovascular mortality, it also delays deaths due to cancer, neurological disease, infections, and other causes
• Running does not increase rates of osteoarthritis.  Runners do not require more total knee replacements.

For further reading, see Running slows the aging clock, a news release from the Stanford School of Medicine.  For the study itself, see Reduced Disability and Mortality Among Aging Runners from the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Journal of the American Medicine Association.

And get back out on the road, the trail, the treadmill, your skis, or on your bike.

March 8, 2009 at 10:03 pm | Running, Walking