Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[cfc]

Hi Ian,

Is there a way that I set POIs and street names bigger than this?
Line width is fine but text is not large enough for me. Size like this "Back" text would be great.
Using latest version with tip in the jar

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You can change the POI text size as shown at the bottom of your last screenshot. Changing the road text size as well is on my to-do list.

Note that if you tap either POI or road text on the watch map then it will temporarily magnify and also be shown at the bottom of the screen.

 

[cfc]

I had some problems tonight with a pair of pool swimming workouts. Everything was ok during the workouts, the distance was well calculated (500 m in both cases), but when the distance was saved into Apple health it was 0 m and 400m. The number of laps (20) and pool length (25m) are ok in Apple health. Calories are also slightly different, but this is a minor problem.

WOD 5.1, with iOS 17 Beta.

Sorry about that. There are strange problems when swimming with the watchOS 10 beta that I had to work around. In the past watchOS would provide the app with distance estimates and also an event for each lap. However the watchOS 10 beta does not provide the swimming distance estimates for some reason. So I had to change the app to calculate the distance from the lap events (num laps * pool length).

If the release version of watchOS 10 still has the same issue then I will save these distances back to Apple's Health system. However if it is a bug that they fix then that would result in double distances.

So I plan to see what the situation is with the release version of watchOS 10 and then save the distances if necessary.

 

[cfc]

Ian,

Conga rats on the new version. AOD! Woo-hoo!

I did a couple short walks with it earlier today; first impressions are extremely positive.

One thing that would be nice (but quite possibly not possible / practical) would be for the map to update with wrist down … say, every several seconds or so? I intentionally kept my wrist down for a a few hundred feet or so, and it only updated when I finally raised my wrist. By that time, I was clearly nowhere near where the map said I was.

I’ll mention anything else I come across … but, again, it sure looks like you once again nailed it. Thanks!

b&

The map updating when lowered is strange because sometimes it does update occasionally and sometimes it doesn't update at all. In the code I am specifically trying to prevent it from updating because I worry about battery usage, but I may change that in the future.

I find that I can't read the map when the wrist is lowered anyway, which is probably why I haven't spent too much time looking into it, but if many people like yourself find they need it then I will revisit it.

 

[Jago73]

Sorry, this is due to a strange issue with the newest Stryd devices which seem to occasionally publish strange data. I worked around this in the previous version with sanity checks on the data but my workaround wasn't complete and they were still included in the averages. This has now been fixed in the code so it should be ok when the next version is released next month.

Thank you for the update, the new version is great. Just to verify, should the problem with the newest Stryd sensor be fixed in it? I was on a run this morning and the ground contact time and vertical oscillation is still way off with spikes in the data points in Apple Health.

 

[Mac1211HR]

You can change the POI text size as shown at the bottom of your last screenshot. Changing the road text size as well is on my to-do list.

Note that if you tap either POI or road text on the watch map then it will temporarily magnify and also be shown at the bottom of the screen.

I didn't know that that you can tap on POI text, I can see much better with that. Thanks!

 

[cfc]

Thank you for the update, the new version is great. Just to verify, should the problem with the newest Stryd sensor be fixed in it? I was on a run this morning and the ground contact time and vertical oscillation is still way off with spikes in the data points in Apple Health.

I tried several workarounds to fix it but didn't manage it. Sorry about that. The latest footpods seem to occasionally produce very strange values.

I contacted Stryd about it back in January and they have been repeatedly avoiding helping me ever since. I contacted them regularly until early June when they said they were still too busy to help and suggested that I got back to them in 3 months time!

It's now September, so I should chase them up yet again, but things are very busy for me at this time of year and in any case they will probably tell me that they can't help until next year. They are very unhelpful.

It is probably something that I am doing wrong, but I have tried several workarounds without success so it would be useful to have their help, if only to tell me what changed in the data provided with the new footpod.

I may just stop reading ground time and vertical oscillation from Stryd and use the values from watchOS instead now that they are available.

Apologies for the rant!

 

[BenGoren]

The map updating when lowered is strange because sometimes it does update occasionally and sometimes it doesn't update at all. In the code I am specifically trying to prevent it from updating because I worry about battery usage, but I may change that in the future.

I find that I can't read the map when the wrist is lowered anyway, which is probably why I haven't spent too much time looking into it, but if many people like yourself find they need it then I will revisit it.

I’d definitely put this on the “when you get a round tuit” list; I’m sure you’ve got more important stuff to work on.

As with you, it’s not like I can read the map with the wrist down — but sneaking a quick glance was enough to see that the map showed I was still in the parking lot, not on the other side of the business administration classroom building. And it instantly updated when I raised my wrist, so it’s not like I would be in danger of getting lost.

Minding battery usage makes sense. I wouldn’t at all be interested in a real-time compass-swinging map update. But I would hope that a once-every-several-seconds update wouldn’t need much battery — and that would be more than enough to give the illusion of constant live updates.

One other thought, as an alternative … maybe blur the map on wrist down? Enough to signal that the map isn’t live, even though the other metrics are?

Thanks again again!

b&

 

[spiffy05]

Congrats on the update! Big fan of the always on display!

That said, I went for a run today and had probably the worst GPS that I've ever seen with WOD. Has poor GPS been something you've seen with v5.1?

Admittedly, I launched the app and went straight to the workout. I didn't 'wait' for the GPS % to creep higher... but it's also not something I've done any differently from many runs before.

 

[cfc]

I’d definitely put this on the “when you get a round tuit” list; I’m sure you’ve got more important stuff to work on.

As with you, it’s not like I can read the map with the wrist down — but sneaking a quick glance was enough to see that the map showed I was still in the parking lot, not on the other side of the business administration classroom building. And it instantly updated when I raised my wrist, so it’s not like I would be in danger of getting lost.

Minding battery usage makes sense. I wouldn’t at all be interested in a real-time compass-swinging map update. But I would hope that a once-every-several-seconds update wouldn’t need much battery — and that would be more than enough to give the illusion of constant live updates.

One other thought, as an alternative … maybe blur the map on wrist down? Enough to signal that the map isn’t live, even though the other metrics are?

Thanks again again!

b&

You can hide the map altogether when the wrist is down if you want. To do this go to the Settings on the watch and then tap More and Always on Display. Then set the Lowered Map Brightness to the minimum. The map is the black, which probably helps slightly in battery usage as well.

 

[cfc]

Congrats on the update! Big fan of the always on display!

That said, I went for a run today and had probably the worst GPS that I've ever seen with WOD. Has poor GPS been something you've seen with v5.1?

Admittedly, I launched the app and went straight to the workout. I didn't 'wait' for the GPS % to creep higher... but it's also not something I've done any differently from many runs before.

I haven't heard any reports of worse GPS with the new version. It comes direct from watchOS, just as before. I have seen occasional reports of watchOS delaying sending GPS locations to the app recently, but that has been happening with both the old and new versions of WOD.

Please could you send me the wkt file for that workout and I will take a look. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly and send to info@workoutdoors.net. The app now logs more GPS issues than in the past so I may be able to spot something.

 

[Jago73]

I tried several workarounds to fix it but didn't manage it. Sorry about that. The latest footpods seem to occasionally produce very strange values.

I contacted Stryd about it back in January and they have been repeatedly avoiding helping me ever since. I contacted them regularly until early June when they said they were still too busy to help and suggested that I got back to them in 3 months time!

It's now September, so I should chase them up yet again, but things are very busy for me at this time of year and in any case they will probably tell me that they can't help until next year. They are very unhelpful.

It is probably something that I am doing wrong, but I have tried several workarounds without success so it would be useful to have their help, if only to tell me what changed in the data provided with the new footpod.

I may just stop reading ground time and vertical oscillation from Stryd and use the values from watchOS instead now that they are available.

Apologies for the rant!

Wow, that sounds like the total opposite of what good customer support should be and the total opposite of what you provide to us!

Thank you for the explanation, and I totally understand the rant. As good as their footpod is, if I had known what type of company they are before buying it, I might have reconsidered my choice. Being busy is one thing, but that doesn't justify being that kind of unhelpful.

Maybe I'll use the pod with their app from now on, or it will find its way to eBay.

Thank you again for the great support!

 

[cfc]

Wow, that sounds like the total opposite of what good customer support should be and the total opposite of what you provide to us!

Thank you for the explanation, and I totally understand the rant. As good as their footpod is, if I had known what type of company they are before buying it, I might have reconsidered my choice. Being busy is one thing, but that doesn't justify being that kind of unhelpful.

Maybe I'll use the pod with their app from now on, or it will find its way to eBay.

Thank you again for the great support!

I was surprised too because they always seem so helpful to customers from what I have seen on social media.

8 months of avoiding me seemed so deliberately unhelpful that I wondered if it was maybe their way of trying to make people use their watch app instead of other apps, which I guess I can understand.

I will probably fix it eventually. My focus has been on the rewrite so I haven't really spent much time looking at it, especially as I thought they might eventually get back to me.

 

[firewire9000]

I just wanted to say thanks for the big update, you did a lot of work that’s why I tipped you. You deserve it.

 

[user1234]

When I went on a walk last night I noticed the WorkOutDoors watch app looked a bit different and nicer than last time I used it. That was a nice surprise! Thank you for your dedication to improving this great app even more!

 

[cfc]

I just wanted to say thanks for the big update, you did a lot of work that’s why I tipped you. You deserve it.

Many thanks for tipping! I really appreciate that.

 

[Akrapovic]

Fanatical tip sent. Well worth it.

 

[cfc]

Fanatical tip sent. Well worth it.

That's great! Many thanks for that.

 

[cfc]

I didn't know that that you can tap on POI text, I can see much better with that. Thanks!

Glad that helps. I have made a small change in the code for the next release where the "POI Size" map setting is now called "Text Size" and also controls the road text size.

 

[BillGates1969]

Just generous tip sent from me.

Will top it up over the next few months. Thanks for all your hard work on this - and most of all listening and caring about your end users 👍

 

[JanGruber]

Perfect, thank you very much for AOD, now I can start using your app instead of native one. One quick request, any chance to add manual calibration of treadmill run? My AWU are so inaccurate when I do tradmill run, so its very annoying. Btw. garmin has this feature.

Best regards

 

[firewire9000]

Many thanks for tipping! I really appreciate that.

That’s nothing for a 400 h use hours and 6800 km! (Loved the statistics haha)

 

[cfc]

Perfect, thank you very much for AOD, now I can start using your app instead of native one. One quick request, any chance to add manual calibration of treadmill run? My AWU are so inaccurate when I do tradmill run, so its very annoying. Btw. garmin has this feature.

Best regards

It is on my to-do list but other features are higher at the moment. Sorry about that.

 

[JanGruber]

It is on my to-do list but other features are higher at the moment. Sorry about that.

No problem, thanks for your reply. So if it is on your list now it means that maybe this year it could be implemented??

 

[cfc]

No problem, thanks for your reply. So if it is on your list now it means that maybe this year it could be implemented??

Unfortunately not. The next version will be about watchOS 10 and whatever Apple announce next week; and after that the navigation improvements will probably keep me busy for a few months. Sorry.

 

[Frankie_r]

I just gave a tip too. Amazing app and support. You’re doing all the good stuff that Apple refuses to do.