The next posting in our experiment will feature the RunKeeper iPhone app.

Late Breaking news…..yesterday Work It Training attended the Austin Marathon Expo at the Palmer Event Center.  Work It Training ran into the Strands people.  Strands (strands.com) is another iPhone app that is similar to TrailGuru and RunKeeper.  After a quick demo of the Strands app, it looks interesting enough to add to our experiment.  So a 3rd horse has entered the race. 

Here is my write up on the TrailGuru iPhone app.

• Version: 2.0
• App size: 293 KB
• Free / Paid: only available as free app
• Ads: the google maps view shows banner ads

Here are screens shots of the iPhone app interface:

• Main window (Fig 1)
  

• • Very intuitive.  You start/stop/clear just like you would on a standard stopwatch. The main window also contains a lot of good data to keep you posted on your progress.
  • So far, we have only used TrailGuru to track our daily runs. We listen to music while running, so we have to go to the ipod app first and select the songs/playlist before running the TrailGuru app.  This is OK unless you decide in the middle of your activity that you want to switch playlists, which means that when you switch to the ipod app to change your music, you have to switch back to the TrailGuru app and then press Start again to continue the tracking.  This is not a flaw with TrailGuru, but rather a “feature” (ahem…limitation of the iPhone environment). Hopefully, one day soon Apple fixes this limitation as it will prevent many apps from truly mashing together.
  • There is a lock feature on the main menu that is handy to lock the display to prevent accidental touching while you are moving.
  • The camera feature is simple and straigth-forward, nothing special about it.
• Map window (Fig 2)
  • Displays google maps pretty fast
  • The GPS tracker will track exactly what you are doing until you hit the Stop button on the Main window.  This makes perfect sense and the way it should be.  However, remember when you are finished with your activity to press the Stop button otherwise you will end up with a rather crazy looking mapping when you realize hours later that you never press the Stop button.  
  • The Map window shows a banner ad at the top, minor inconvenience for a free app.
• Posting window (Fig 3)
  • You can post your activity as Private, Public, or have a “Friends group” set up.  You can create the “Friends group” on the TrailGuru web site.  It would be cool if the app could connect to services like Facebook, Twitter, Gyminee, Nike+, etc  so your Friends or the Public could see your postings.  This would be very helpful for my group activities.
  • You can tag your activity using the Description field to further keep track of your postings.
  • You can select from about 19 categories plus an Other category to tag your activity.  Although I am curious to know who would risk taking their iPhone out kayaking with them.
  • Posting is super simple, just press “Post Tracks.”
• Profile Settings window (Fig 4)
  
  • As with the rest of the app, this window is clean looking and very intuitive.  Once you have your TrailGuru account set up, your activities get posted to the TrailGuru site and you receive an email confirmation.  You will also receive periodic (i.e. weekly, monthly, etc) email updates from TrailGuru showing your recent activities.
  • I got a chuckle out of the setting for the distance measurement.  Most people know what the Metric system is, but I wonder how many people know that the US uses the “Imperial system” for measurement.
  • You can set tune the accuracy of the GPS logging by adjusting the Units and Record Every options.  However, remember the more granular you set the tracking, the faster it sucks out of the iphone battery.
  • Although I have the Audible Cues option set, I do not know what it does.  I have yet to receive any kind of TrailGuru “voice from above”.   I was hoping that this option would work like the Nike+ audible cues option which tells me how far I have run or how long I have run.
• Web site (trailguru.com)
  • have not reviewed yet.  This will be coming shortly
• Overall
  • The main strength to the TrailGuru app is the inuitive design of the interface.  It does what it advertises, and its FREE!!.
  • The GPS tracking is decent.  When two of us start at the same point and run the same distance, we have seen differences in the distance tracked that range from 0.03 – 0.33.  Hopefully the accuracy of the tracking will improve over time.

I have an iPhone, and I love it.  I mean….I really love it.  I am amazed at how many great apps there are for the iphone.  When I go jogging around Austin I really like to know the distance I have traveled, an approximation of calories burned, and also the duration of the run. I also want the ability to review previous runs.

I was very happy to come across TrailGuru and RunKeeper. I had downloaded TrailGuru a few weeks ago and have been using it regularly to track my runs.  I recently came across the RunKeeper app.  Say what you will about social media advertising/viral marketing (i.e Twitter, Facebook) but that is how I discovered Runkeeper (kudos to you Jason .

I am going to conduct an informal experiment on my user experiences with TrailGuru versus Runkeeper.  Stay tuned for my updates….and good luck to both apps.