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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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Right now i use map plus because i can attach short text and photos to my saved locations. I use them only from app. It is a little complicated but i can use.
cfc!
Poi imlpementation will has very warm welcome
Thank you!!!In the future can we have the option to edit/rename our pois or attach short text? It could be a great feature.
And i can ask only very guiet: do you think we can attach photos from iphone to our workouts and/or pois?
Right now i use map plus because i can attach short text and photos to my saved locations. I use them only from app. It is a little complicated but i can use.
cfc!
Poi imlpementation will has very warm welcome
In the future can we have the option to edit/rename our pois or attach short text? It could be a great feature.
And i can ask only very guiet: do you think we can attach photos from iphone to our workouts and/or pois?
When I add POI creation I plan to allow you to attach text using Siri or Scribble.
You are the first person to ask about photos but it is something I have been working on in the background. I may add a Photos tab on the iPhone app that shows POIs for the photos that were taken during the workout. The POIs may have little thumbnails of the photos but I haven't decided yet. I would probably allow the photos to be exported in some way as well.
This is just a low-priority task that I am working on when I feel like it, so it may never appear in the app, but it is good to hear that someone might be interested in it!
Being a geeky developer I enjoyed WWDC, but there weren't many fitness related changes announced. In some ways this is good because there is not much for me to react to by September. However I had hoped for several improvements that didn't happen, such as improved sensor connectivity; gear tracking; access to the Always on Display; more activity types (e.g. mountain biking, e-bikes) etc.
At the moment I am focussed on releasing the next version, which is in the final stages of testing. Once that is released to the App Store then the iOS 14 and watchOS 7 betas will have been out long enough for me to have a better idea of whether there are any gotchas in them that I will need to work around.
If everything goes well with the release, and watchOS 7 / iOS 14 do not require much work, then I plan to start on coding the Stryd connectivity and improving the route functionality. However that may not be released for a while because I want to keep my schedule free for September / October when the series 6 watches come out.
Whenever Apple release a new watch it means that developers have about 9 days to adapt their apps. This is usually not a problem for a small change like the series 5, but the force touch changes seem to indicate that the series 6 could be a major redesign, which may mean new screen sizes or shapes. This can involve a lot of work for some apps and especially for WorkOutDoors, which tries to make the use of every pixel.
The series 4 changes took me quite a while, during which the app was getting poor reviews on the App Store because it didn't support the new screen size. It is annoying that they give us 3 months notice for a few minor changes at WWDC and then give us 9 days to adapt to massive changes, but I completely understand why.
So any new functionality such as Stryd is unlikely to be released to the App Store for a while. Sorry about that.
WatchOS 7 does exactly the same thing when you long touch on the screen as previous versions do when you force touch. So there is no need to make any changes to the app for that. The current version of the app should work on watchOS 7, at least from that point of view. It's too early to tell if there are any other issues, but so far it seems to work the same apart from that.
It has been stable for me but other people report that the watchOS 7 beta is less reliable (which is understandable for a first beta). I haven't yet heard of anything that requires me to make specific changes to the app, but it is early days.
Thanks, didn't know. My assumption was that it is gone.
So don't you see any issues when using the watch in rainy conditions when trying to do long presses? Or accidental long presses. Sure one could water lock, but doing intervals in rain is cumbersome when manually advancing. Ok slightly bit of an edge case.
Is it possible to detect other gestures programmatically? E.g. double finger taps or something like that?
I am definitely worried about accidental detections. I think it is a bad decision by Apple but I am going to see how it goes before I decide to change the app.
You can always use shortcuts to associate commands such as ending the workout with any one of a wide variety of gestures. I think that pressing the side buttons would be best because that is least likely to be affected by rain etc.
I am hoping that Apple add more physical buttons that can be used by apps. These would be much more useful for workouts and would make up for one of the deficiencies of the AW when compared to dedicated fitness watches. A couple of buttons on the left side of the watch would be perfect.
Apple do not allow gestures with multiple fingers as far as I know. Just multiple taps with the same finger.
You are probably right, but I can dream! I think they should release a special "sports" edition of the watch that is more rugged and comes with a bigger battery and more physical buttons, but I am probably biased...
Hi @cfc, thanks for such good support on this forum, I'm sure it absorbs a ton of your time you'd rather devote elsewhere. So here's my question of the day: is there a way to edit the exported activity name so that it appears in whatever platform we use, using a user-defined name?
Example: I use the HIIT module quite a bit but not as a HIIT activity but as a conventional Gym/Strength Training workout. When done, RunGap ingests the exercise and syncs it to my Garmin Connect, Sporttracks, and Polar accounts using the long-form activity name "High Intensity Interval Training" when I'd just like it to say "Gym", so I then have to edit the activity name on each of my 3 platforms. Is there a solution for this? I have searched but no joy. Perhaps a "save-HIIT-module-as (insert preferred name here)" option?
Thanks for your time
Example: I use the HIIT module quite a bit but not as a HIIT activity but as a conventional Gym/Strength Training workout. When done, RunGap ingests the exercise and syncs it to my Garmin Connect, Sporttracks, and Polar accounts using the long-form activity name "High Intensity Interval Training" when I'd just like it to say "Gym", so I then have to edit the activity name on each of my 3 platforms. Is there a solution for this? I have searched but no joy. Perhaps a "save-HIIT-module-as (insert preferred name here)" option?
Thanks for your time
Hi @cfc, thanks for such good support on this forum, I'm sure it absorbs a ton of your time you'd rather devote elsewhere. So here's my question of the day: is there a way to edit the exported activity name so that it appears in whatever platform we use, using a user-defined name?
Example: I use the HIIT module quite a bit but not as a HIIT activity but as a conventional Gym/Strength Training workout. When done, RunGap ingests the exercise and syncs it to my Garmin Connect, Sporttracks, and Polar accounts using the long-form activity name "High Intensity Interval Training" when I'd just like it to say "Gym", so I then have to edit the activity name on each of my 3 platforms. Is there a solution for this? I have searched but no joy. Perhaps a "save-HIIT-module-as (insert preferred name here)" option?
Thanks for your time
I rename mine before exporting .... seems to work for me (using Strava)
Good day! After hearing about this app a few weeks ago, I finally bit the bullet and bought it. Wow — it's really marvelous. Loved it after one run — the downloadable map feature alone is fantastic. Great job, @cfc! I know some people gripe about the design, but I kind of like the very "technical" look to it.
Two questions:
1. I briefly tried the Footpath app and really, really liked the "draw route with finger, and it'll snap to the nearest path depending on what you're doing" system of planning routes. (I didn't, however, like the subscription model. Don't mind a one-time "pro" upgrade, but to keep paying feels a bit much.) Any chance that a feature like this could come to WOD?
If not, does anyone have a suggestion for a similar app that I can use to plot out routes in a similar fashion, and then send the .gpx files over to WOD?
2. I did a 10-mile run yesterday with just my Apple Watch on, and it worked great, no problems. Today, I went kayaking but had the phone with me. Although my workout time was about the same, yesterday the battery drain was perhaps 10-20% on the watch. Today it was almost 70%!
I think I saw something stating that there is a significant energy cost to keeping a BT connection up when using WOD and your phone is nearby. Is that the likely reason for the battery drain? If so, is there an easy way to stop that? I usually have my phone when paddling to take photos, but not when running.
3. I have years' worth of workout data in MapMyRun, which is what I'm migrating from (was initially on Nike Run Club, migrated to MMR, now on WOD with export to Strave for social sharing). I know one can export each workout as a TCX file and then import that to WOD, but that's a LOT of clicks. Anyone have any tricks to do a one-time import easily?
Thanks!
Two questions:
1. I briefly tried the Footpath app and really, really liked the "draw route with finger, and it'll snap to the nearest path depending on what you're doing" system of planning routes. (I didn't, however, like the subscription model. Don't mind a one-time "pro" upgrade, but to keep paying feels a bit much.) Any chance that a feature like this could come to WOD?
If not, does anyone have a suggestion for a similar app that I can use to plot out routes in a similar fashion, and then send the .gpx files over to WOD?
2. I did a 10-mile run yesterday with just my Apple Watch on, and it worked great, no problems. Today, I went kayaking but had the phone with me. Although my workout time was about the same, yesterday the battery drain was perhaps 10-20% on the watch. Today it was almost 70%!
I think I saw something stating that there is a significant energy cost to keeping a BT connection up when using WOD and your phone is nearby. Is that the likely reason for the battery drain? If so, is there an easy way to stop that? I usually have my phone when paddling to take photos, but not when running.
3. I have years' worth of workout data in MapMyRun, which is what I'm migrating from (was initially on Nike Run Club, migrated to MMR, now on WOD with export to Strave for social sharing). I know one can export each workout as a TCX file and then import that to WOD, but that's a LOT of clicks. Anyone have any tricks to do a one-time import easily?
Thanks!
My opinion your app righ now is the best workout logger. Unfortunatelly it was hard to find, after some info collecting i download 3 different app an test one by one. This was the greatest and hard to imagine i can find better because it know or will know everything i need.
I think theese kind of features can help to get more downloader. But with or withoute thees, this is the best. At the begining it was hard to understand the huge number of settings but when i give it some time this become clear and fast.
So, i hope you will have enogh time and passion to continue the work. And first of all, thank you for it!
Hi @cfc, thanks for such good support on this forum, I'm sure it absorbs a ton of your time you'd rather devote elsewhere. So here's my question of the day: is there a way to edit the exported activity name so that it appears in whatever platform we use, using a user-defined name?
Example: I use the HIIT module quite a bit but not as a HIIT activity but as a conventional Gym/Strength Training workout. When done, RunGap ingests the exercise and syncs it to my Garmin Connect, Sporttracks, and Polar accounts using the long-form activity name "High Intensity Interval Training" when I'd just like it to say "Gym", so I then have to edit the activity name on each of my 3 platforms. Is there a solution for this? I have searched but no joy. Perhaps a "save-HIIT-module-as (insert preferred name here)" option?
Thanks for your time
As @ukms says you can edit the name of the workout in the iPhone app and then export it. In the future I may add some sort of naming configuration option where you can define the name in terms of various parameters about the workout, such as the type, time, location etc. Unfortunately it is not high on my list at the moment though.
You could try the EasyRoute app, which is free but with a relatively cheap In App Purchase: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/easyroute/id605127860
I may add routing in the future, but it would mean paying for a service every time someone used it. This would not be viable with the app's current business model and would probably require an in-app purchase or a cheap subscription (along with other features with on-going costs).
The BT connection to your phone uses very little battery power and actually saves power for outdoor workouts where the phone will then provide the GPS. I think the problem you had was because your paddling action meant that the watch was waking with every stroke and was therefore almost continuously on with full screen brightness.
The best way to avoid this is to change the Wake Screen settings so that it only comes on when you touch it. You may even need to switch on water lock. Sorry about that - it is a design issue with the watch that is hard to avoid.
The app does not allow you to import workouts in any format. It is mainly intended for creating workouts, with analysis of those workouts created with the app. I do not want to get into importing and analysing workouts created with other apps because then I would effectively end up debugging other apps.
For example say you imported a workout created by another app and there were problems with it because of a bug in that app. As a result you would probably would ask me why it didn't look right in WorkOutDoors and I would have to investigate, which I really don't want to have to do. Sorry.
I love the idea of making own routes in the app (with distance, elevation etc), and not only download other gpx-routes.. Not many of them in my area
That would be a huge welcome
Thanks for buying the app. I am glad that you like it. Sorry that it was hard to find. I am just a one-man operation with no budget for marketing so I pretty much rely on word of mouth.
I have given up asking Apple to feature the app, and Apple news blogs and websites to mention it. It's a bit catch-22 for obscure independent developers like myself: if the app is not well-known then they won't mention it; and if they don't mention it then it is hard to get the app well known. I am just glad that MacRumors allow developers to have threads like this where we can post about our apps. Most other forums don't allow it.
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I love the idea of making own routes in the app (with distance, elevation etc), and not only download other gpx-routes.. Not many of them in my area
Apps such as Footpath and EasyRoute allow route creation, as do various websites, such as www.plotaroute.com
In fact I saw recently that plotaroute includes turn by turn navigation in the routes, so I am tempted to allow the app to read and speak those instructions when following the route. In the long term I want to be able to add navigation to any routes, but that would require a service, which would cost me money. So a short term compromise could be making it so the navigation could be spoken if it is already in the route file, as generated by a service such as plotaroute.
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Thanks! I understand the ongoing costs if routing were to happen (as well as weather, etc) — a cheap subscription would be fine to unlock some features like that, but I also realize that would be a fair amount of work, so I wouldn't expect it to happen for a while. Appreciate the pointer to EasyRoute, which I will take a look at.
Thanks on the battery issue — I would think it would have actually have saved power by offloading the GPS to the phone. I didn't think it would have been the screen waking continuously since I've paddled with other apps (like MapMyRun) and didn't have the same issue, but I'll try modifying settings so it doesn't wake unless tapped and see if it happens next time I head out.
Completely understand that you don't want to deal with the headache of imports. Does anyone have any experience in importing from MapMyRun into Strava? (Not asking you, @cfc, just seeing if anyone else has done this.)
Thank you again for such an excellent app! I would happily tip you if you told me where to do so...
That is interesting that other apps use less power. I can see why WorkOutDoors might use slightly more power because the CPU/GPU has more to update on wrist raise. This is usually negligible on a normal workout but could make a slight difference when it happens every second or so. However by far the main power draw is the hardware, and I am sure that the screen being constantly on, or frequently switching on and off, would increase power usage for any app. So maybe your paddling action isn't the issue. Maybe it is something to do with the water on the screen or a sleeve or glove touching the screen. In either case it might be worth switching on water lock for the next kayak workout.
Many thanks for the offer of a tip. I haven't got a mechanism set up for that (it doesn't seem right after charging for the app) but it would be great if you could spread the word about the app.
If you restore from a backup then it should keep the workouts. Alternatively you can use iTunes File Sharing to copy all the files to a computer and then back again. This also allows you to backup your workouts if you want.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201301
I would vote for that one... pretty confident that an Apple Watch "Pro" or "Sport" would make sense !
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Best setup to have nearly 8 hours of battery life using GPS on the watch without an iphone :
- Theater mode
- Airplane mode
- if possible connect a BT belt for heart beats
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