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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

➤ 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.