Walking | Abvio

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.

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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:

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

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.

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

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

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