iPHone bike applications, round 2

I went ahead and purchased the Cyclemeter product and just don't think it stacks up to the BikeBrain Lite. Unlike the BikeBrain lite product where you can sweep across from one screen to another, with Cyclemeter you have to press little icons and I found these hard to pinpoint when actively riding.  The map tracking  and input interface was also less polished in comparison. No odometer settings and once you stop a track, you can't restart it...Note to self: Pause, don't stop!

 I also discovered that if you have data roaming off, it doesn't take long before your map turns into a grey background, showing just your track. This was also true for the BikeBrain lite product. I need to see if there is a way to pre-load maps as I don't want to pay for roaming charges while riding. So much for slick maps!



Finally, the default options keep powering down the phone. Not a big deal as the application keeps running but I found this annoying. Certainly this should help with battery life, but I like to see, if not the map,  at least the numbers while riding.

I was out for about 2 hours and the battery drained down to about 40% remaining charge.  Better than I expected especially with the video experiments I ran, but it  looks like I would need to invest in an external battery if I want to make sure I have a phone when I need it.

As far as video quality goes, I was using the Otter Defender case mounted on my handlebars. This blocked the back camera but the front camera was still unobstructed. Though its resolution is lower, it seemed to work as long as you avoided any vibrations, which is difficult when riding, even on nicely paved Swiss roads. But it was fun to do and I enjoyed talking to my self as the video rolled on...

Here's a sample...



At best, I'd give it a C- as a video camera. The distortion effects are likely due to the case optics and possibly software. Interesting.

For now, I'm going to stick with my love hate relationship with my Garmin and keep the iPhone in my back pocket. It might be interesting to play with a helmet mounted video where the vibrations will be less noticeable and see how the bike applications progress.

Cheers, Dave

Footnote: I just read that if you preview your planned route in the BikeBrain application (probably also true in the Cyclemeter) the maps you need will be cached. That's neat!