Problem with powerconsumption & accidential taps

I tried "Runmoster Free" which is really easy to do. Especially the startup "Start new workout" is easy. But when I put the phone in my pocket it kept the screen lighted and also the controls could accidentially be hit while sliding the phone in the pocket.

During my run I wanted to check the actual values (km/time) and let the phone slide back in the pocket after some time. At home I found out that exactly at this moment I must have hit accidentially the pause workout button. very bad!

Why do you not use the "Proximity Sensor" to disable just the screen? Why not provide a screen-lock-feature which disables accidential taps? If this feature is built in I will for sure buy the PRO app. I especially liked the map view of my track to see where I went running.

Great App, but please let me know if the features do exist or are available in the PRO version.

thanks,
Helge

Troy

Hey Helge!

Great idea about the proximity sensor! During beta testing, we actually did implement auto-lock using the proximity sensor. But the problem was that the screen would lock too often. If you tried to clean your screen, the app would lock. If you're tapping a button at the top of the screen, the app would lock. Sometimes when you were scrolling the map vertically, the app would lock. These false positives actually made the experience of using the app worse, so we took out the feature.

We also had a slide-to-unlock bar in the first version of the app, but Apple rejected our app because of it. We had to replace it with the pause button you see in the app now.

However, there is still a way you can disable the screen during the workout. After you start your workout, press the lock button on top of the phone. The app will continue recording while the screen is locked.

Let me know if you have any more problems!

Helge

Hey Troy, this is great news to me. So if I press the lock-button manually it will continue work in background, that's superb. I did some proximity-sensor stuff on my own and did not experience any difficulties as long as I did not move my hand in the upper left corner away from the screen. But you are right that putting a hand close to that area will shut the screen (as expected).

If you activate proximity sensors ONLY if the workout is in progress that will be fine for me. I won't use the map during running through the park... but locking the screen will do for me.

You should though provide information right after the start of the workout that it IS possible to lock the screen without any drawbacks on tracking the info needed by the app otherwise as a user you think it will stop tracking what you do. I tested all kind of apps until now tracking GPS. Yours was the one which really made it easy AND discoverable if LocationService really is ON and working with just one click. Nice.

By the way: Nice you provide a forum for customers feedback!!! Good idea I should copy that one for my apps, too. ;-)

Will now buy the PRO app. Keep it simple and if you need someone for localizing the app to german language... just let me know - see http://www.noxymo.com for more.
Perhaps I can help you on that one (pure egoism on my side: I want to use it in german language).

BTW: Strange that Apple did not let the app through with such a nice and completely appropriate feature like "slide to unlock". Some things...

regards,
Helge

Troy

Good idea about advertising the top-lock button! At the very least, it's a feature we should communicate the first time you use the app.

Thanks for the offer to localize the app! We're working on updating the app so we can start adding translations, but we'll be in touch when we're ready to localize.

Here's what the workout screen looked like when we had the slide-to-unlock bar in there: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3734360&id=316812397918 Apple started cracking down on custom lock bars around the time we submitted, and all of rebuttal emails and phone calls had no effect on their policy. Though we were fond of the slide-to-unlock bar, the new pause button does make it slightly easier to pause your workout when you come to a stoplight or intersection.

Sorry again that you had a bad experience with accidentally tapping the pause button, but using the top-lock button during your workout should help avoid those accidental taps.

Helge

This "Slide to pause" is such a great solution to the problem. I will E-Mail Apple to let you guys integrate this. It totally makes sense. By the way, I experienced one problem during running with Runmonster lately:

When running, the app shows at the top the absolute time, on bottom left it shows the absolute distance and right beneath the time PER distance. I found that the TIME PER DISTANCE just shows values during running which are of no use, because the average time seems to be largely incorrect and very much changing in a very wide spread which should not be the case.

So for for e.g. the TIME per KM was only an indicator if I already crossed over to the next KM (e.g. from KM #1 to KM#2) because as soon as this happens it looks like as if the app calculates from scratch. You should instead show the results for LAST 1000 meters I run. So having continous average values for the last 1000 meters instead of the values beeong calculated for KM#1, #2, #3 and so on. Ths would also avoid the nearly useless values.

regards,
Helge

Troy

@Helge Thanks for all the details. You're right that we need to display the data a bit better here. I believe the value you see that fluctuates is your *current* pace (pace over the last 10 - 15 seconds). This value can vary based on your GPS signal.

If you'd rather see your *average* pace, tap the pace value until it displays "Avg Pace". That value is your pace averaged over your entire run.

If you'd like to see your pace over the last kilometer, swipe the distance/pace area to the right. This view shows you your last split, that is, your pace over your last km or mile.

Helge

I have seen "Slide to Unlock" lately in many other apps integrated. It seems as if apple does allow this now in apps. Perhaps you could try to integrate that for locking the screen. This way I could keep the device holding in my hand while running, without the fear to hit some pausebutton accidentially.