The primary motivation for the updates were to improve the performance of the views of the stopwatch, and to reduce lag when you press Stop or Start.  We’re not quite done with all that tuning yet, and 7.0.3 will provide further improvement.  One of our beta users on an iPhone 3GS who used a 7.0.3 beta has said “Wow. It is so snappy now … “

We also incorporated a new sensor library from the good folks at Wahoo Fitness. Now, not only do we support Wahoo’s really cool Blue HR, we also support the Polar H7.  Note that these only work with the iPhone 4S, which includes Bluetooth Smart.

If you use Bluetooth headphones, we’ve made some changes that improve your experience.  Some Bluetooth headphones go to sleep if they’re not hearing audio, so we added a “Awaken Bluetooth Audio” setting in More > Settings > Advanced that precedes announcements with a two second silence so the headphones may power up.

In addition, we squashed a lot of bugs, and sped up the drawing graphs by a factor of a hundred.

Stay tuned for 7.0.3, which should be available in the next two weeks. Not only will it have some fixes and performance improvements, but it will also include a highly requested new feature.

Thanks to our beta users and to the many of you who have sent your feedback and bug reports. We learn so much from your input.

Many many thanks to our beta users for the amazing feedback, killer bug finds, and the helpful encouragement you provided during the long road to 7.0.  We are intensely grateful for your efforts.

At the bottom of this post is the long list of new features in 7.0. But first, we want to tell you about our favorite feature.

Our favorite feature is the new stopwatch pages.  Here’s a video that previewed how they work. Existing users please note:  We kept your six selected data items as the first page of the stopwatch, plus a couple more.  If you want, you can delete that page, and you’ll be left with the defaults we provide in the app.  Feel free to reorder, add, or delete any of the pages, or customize what you see in the pages.  And if you want BIG NUMBERS, add in the page called “Large and Small Stats” for an example of how to create a page with two panels, one large number in the top half, and four small numbers in the bottom half.

But wait, our favorite feature is iCloud support! By default, we back up your database once a week after a workout when you’re on wi-fi.  Feel free to crank it up to every day if you want.  We can sleep better knowing that your data is backed up all the time.  And if you lose your iPhone and install our app on another device, we’ll ask you if you want to restore your data.

Oh, but getting a new iPad means that iCloud support is our favorite feature. Because now we can use iCloud to load my data right into my iPad.  While we’re not a native iPad app, it’s great to be able to make your data available on the best tablet around.

This might not qualify as a favorite feature, but it was the result of many customer requests: We replaced the launch screen. The old dark leather splash screen is gone, long live our bright and colorful new splash screen!

Now that we think of it, the training plans are our favorite feature. We can now help people begin running with our new 5K training plan, and that this will help them live longer.  Helping people live more healthy lives is a great mission!

But come to think of it, we just can’t make up my minds. What’s your favorite feature in 7.0? Tweet us at @runmeter, @cyclemeter or @walkmeter or on Facebook  at facebook.com/runmeter, facebook.com/cyclemeter, or facebook.com/walkmeter and let us know.

Steve, Kevin, Lori, and Leland
Abvio

What’s New in 7.0

Stopwatch Pages

• Multiple stopwatch pages accessible with a simple swipe.
• Intensely configurable to include any of 150 statistics, and dozens of graphs, maps, splits, intervals, and zones displays.
• Pages can be added and rearranged to include the statistics you need most.
• Includes an integrated music player.
• Works great with bike mounts and with one-handed use.
• Color code your statistics!
• Tap the Settings icon in the upper left of the stopwatch to configure your pages.

Training Plans

• 5K, 10K, Half, and Marathon training plans added.
• Build your own training plans.
• After setting the start date for a plan, you can then synchronize to your iPhone calendar, and from there to your online calendars.

iCloud – Requires iOS 5.0 or later

• Save and restore your data to iCloud.
• Schedule automatic backups of your data.
• Load your data from your iPhone onto your iPad.

iTunes File Sharing – Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

• Save and restore your database (Meter.db) using iTunes.
• Connect your iPhone to your computer, launch iTunes, click on your device, click on Apps, then scroll down to File Sharing.

History

• The new History tab gives you a view of your most recent workouts, and makes it easy to see your summaries by Weeks, Months, Years, Routes, Activities, Competitors, and Plans.

Much more!

• Added Auto Connect New Sensors switch under Settings to prevent random pairing notices.
• Added Notifications for Begin Split and Begin Interval, and added vibration to Notifications.
• New activities can now be created by copying existing activities.

For background, over the weekend we worked with hosting provider and determined ways to upgrade our infrastructure. We made some key changes, and will expand further this week.

If you want to follow up and re-send any emails, you can do the following:

1. Starting with the Calendar, tap on the workout you want to send.
2. On the workout info page, scroll down to “Email / Export”.
3. Tap Email / Export.
4. Choose Google Map URL (or another data format).
5. Enter the email addresses.
6. Tap Send.

If you encounter an instance where you believe that an email update has not gone through, please contact us.

Thanks,

Steve, Kevin, Leland, and Lori

Some of our customers have let us know today that Email Updates from our app are not being sent. We are investigating this right now with our hosting provider, and hope to have the issue resolved soon.

This issue only affects email updates sent during your workouts. If you want to send an email with your workout data after your workout, the following will work:

1. Starting with the Calendar, tap on the workout you want to send.
2. On the workout info page, scroll down to “Email / Export”.
3. Tap Email / Export.
4. Choose Google Map URL (or another data format).
5. Enter the email addresses.
6. Tap Send.

We’re sorry that the emails aren’t going through, and are working to resolve this issue soon.

Thanks,

Steve, Kevin, Leland, Lori

I’ve impressed many of my runner friends who watch me run with my iPhone, ear buds in, taking calls and fully utilizing the multitasking ability Runmeter offers.  Being a busy mom who likes to log 2 to 4 hour runs on occasion, I really appreciate Runmeter’s ability to track my runs and allow me to answer phone calls if need be.  Most importantly, my friends are impressed with the results I’m getting with Runmeter’s help!  I’ve helped to sell so many Runmeter apps just by telling people about it, and by them seeing my results, my husband says I should own Abvio stock!  Thanks for such a great app.

View Larger Map

Route: Road To Hope
Activity: Run
Started: 2010-11-07 8:14:02 AM
Run Time: 3:48:41
Stopped Time: 0:41
Distance: 26.28 miles
Average Pace: 8:42 /mile
Fastest Pace: 7:24 /mile
Ascent: 149 feet
Descent: 553 feet
Calories: 2133
Official: Yes

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