Speed/Pace Tracking on 3G iPhone

I have been thinking about getting one of these phones, is it worth it?  What are pros and cons.  Does it skip while listening to music on a run?  Sorry to hijack. 

I found a tread from earlier that talked about what I think is a similar app called trailguru.  I would post the tread link but do not know how.  If you put the word trailguru in the seach function I'm sure you'll find it, or the next person who I'm sure is more savy than I will do it for me.

Please post if you like app and works well because that my help me make up my mind faster.  Thanks for the info!!

Mel

I started running with my iPhone to listen to the iPod music, be able to get calls from wife/kids while running, and used the stopwatch feature to record times and splits.  It worked fine for a while, but then I found the iPod started working badly - it would just quit playing music randomly.  This only happened after I had been running a while, my best guess is that it was just getting pretty hot being right up against my side (clipped on waistband) under my shirt.  It was also a pain to get it out every time I wanted to check my time or record a split.  I switched over to an iPod shuffle and a $30 Timex digital watch with stopwatch/splits function, and this system works MUCH better.  In fact this AM I forgot my watch and had to use the iPhone again, but it bugged me so much that I ended up just laying it on the ground and stopping to record splits when I passed it.

Having said all that, I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this phone for every other imaginable reason.  I would seriously encourage you to get one - they are awesome in so many different ways.  I got mine as an upgrade for the $299 deal (16GB), but if they took it away from me I'd pay the $599 to get it back for sure!    I'm buying my wife one for Christmas.  I've been told they'll be rolling out a 32GB model for Xmas sales.  Get it, you won't regret it.

As for training use, I can imagine it could be pretty useful on the bike, especially the GPS feature to show you where the heck you are when you get lost, and possibly apps like Trail Guru, Run Keeper and the like. 

Chris

Thanks for that, I'm think if I don't get one before that santa will definantly be bring one!

Mel

I checked out the trailguru website and it looks like a really cool app too. The best part is that it's free! Because it's an early app, there are still bugs they are trying to iron out. I guess the GPS function cuts out after a while. It has something to do with the GPS not tracking constantly. If you check out the website, it has forums too. There you can read about the issues with the app. It seems like they are going to fix it though. Only after reading the negatives about trailguru, I discovered RunKeeper. It seems like they got rid of all the bugs and are now at the phase of adding cool features. The only negative, if it is one, is that it's $10.

bugawako - 2008-09-25 7:57 PM Woops. As for getting an iPhone, it's by far my best tech toy. It does everything I've always hoped for in a phone. Well not all things. I still wish it had a video recording app. Hopefully that's coming. If it's time to get a new phone, this is the one to get. I just want to take advantage of the GPS funtionality of the phone. I've always wanted something to tell me how fast I'm going (for running anyways). Instead of putting money into a garmin forerunner, I might as well get something that plays music and makes calls too.

Thanks, those were/are my thoughts exactly and just wanted to make sure it was living up to all the hype.

Mel

That's too funny - I did the exact same thing.  I have an 8GB Nano, and my 7 year old got a Shuffle for Xmas.  He likes the Shuffle OK, but he still prefers to borrow my Nano - he likes to be able to see the names of the songs and switch around to specific songs that he likes.  Now that I have the 16GB iPhone I have little use for the Nano - I ran with it for a while, but the armband annoyed me and always got steamy/sweaty inside (couldn't be good for the iPod), plus I wanted to be able to use the "shuffle" function on a specific playlist (my running-specific music), which it seems you can't do on the Nano.

So, I traded him my Nano for his Shuffle!  He was thrilled.  Win-win.  :) 

Chris