Site updates syndicated from blog.ridewithgps.com
-
Interesting calorie tracking site
Published on March 1, 2010 at 2:07 PMComments
This isn’t directly Ride With GPS related, however I thought this calorie tracking website was a cool idea:
We have been thinking about how to best let users track their caloric intake and expenditure and the Jane Me folks have presented a neat model. It will be cool to see how their service evolves and I wish them well!
-
Fixed save functionality on route planner
Published on February 26, 2010 at 12:53 PMComments
Some users were experiencing issues saving routes. It turns out the issue was with some versions of the Firefox web browser under Windows. Took me a while to hunt down, but it is fixed. We are sorry for the inconvenience this caused some users.
-
From 1.0 to 1.0.5, and What's Next
Published on November 21, 2009 at 6:09 PMComments
Since our 1.0 release, Ride with GPS has been moving forward rapidly. We have received hundreds of suggestions and have been working hard to address bugs, improve usability, and build out important features. We opened up an application to join our beta program last month, and were pleased to receive several hundred submissions. This program will begin on December 1st, and we will be rolling features out to small groups of users in order to refine our upcoming training features quickly.
We have begun having scheduled releases in order to better handle suggestions, and more accurately let you know when things will be available. This is helping us stay organized and deliver features at predictable times. If you want to see our progress, you can always check out the changelog by clicking on the version at the top of the page. Right now it is 1.0.5, and clicking that will take you to a page that has a detailed list of everything that changes between each version. In this most recent release, most notably we have finally come out with time zone support (edit your settings to change your time zone), and the ability to upload as many TCX/GPX/KML files as you want at once! Just select them all, and see progress bars as they upload. Very easy and pleasant to use.
If you have a Garmin GPS unit though, there is no longer any need to get your data off with 3rd party software! Recently, we have released the Garmin Sync feature which allows you to directly sync your most recent rides from your Garmin GPS unit with our site. We are using this as an opportunity to kick off a series of video tutorials that will walk you through using our site to accomplish various things. If you have any suggestions for videos to make, let us know!
Subscribe to our Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/ridewithgps (or just check out our first video below)
-
Reliability Issues Fixed
Published on November 11, 2009 at 8:05 PMComments
Some of you may have noticed some reliability issues over the last two days. This was due to a package we use in background processing of certain items (your uploaded trips, creating the map images you see around the site) having a couple issues with how we were using it. I am happy to say that after spending 20 or so hours fixing some stuff, things should be much more stable!
If you see any reliability issues, please let us know as usual. A little delay in processing your uploaded file, or before a map image is created is normal, but if you see anything pushing past a few minutes give us an email. Also, re-uploading your TCX/GPX/KML files in this situation will just make duplicates :) You will know we are working on processing your file by the message on your profile page.
-
Version 1.0: Complete redesign, new features, new team member
Published on September 26, 2009 at 10:45 AMComments
We just released a set of bug fixes and minor feature enhancements on top of our new redesign built with our new partner, Cameron Gaut! We have also opened up a form to apply to join our private beta, where you will be able to check out our premium features before they are released, and hopefully help us by providing feedback. By iterating through a couple releases with our beta group before going public with these training and ride analysis features, we will come out of this with our best set of features yet.
Here are the details:
- Ride with GPS Newsletter, Volume 1!
- Apply to take part in our premium features beta test
- Changelog: Get here by clicking the version number at the top of Ride with GPS. It shows all the changes as we release them so you know what's new.
Lastly, for the social media users out there, you should follow us on twitter here.
-
Improvements almost here!
Published on August 15, 2009 at 1:07 AMComments
As some of you are aware, we have been hard at work on a large number of improvements to the site. We have brought a good friend of ours on board, Cameron Gaut, and he has crafted up a great new look and feel to the site. We're in the process of wrapping up these changes now, and we are almost there.
Expect the new version of this site to come online in the next couple of days. Once it is live, please send us your feedback through the Ideas? link at the top of the page. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the improvements.
-
Better international support, nice Facebook links, etc.
Published on July 2, 2009 at 10:24 AMComments
Quick and dirty summary of what we have going on: new user signup form is friendly for users outside the US. Existing users can edit their profile and set a specific latitude and longitude, using a map, to automatically zoom to when drawing a new route. Routes outside of US were hard to see because Google used red roads, and our route was drawn in red. Quick and dirty solution: routes/trips outside of US get a blue line for the route rather than red. US routes/trips still get the red. A better solution is in the works which will allow custom (and multiple) line colours when drawing a route. Also, internationally drawn routes would get US zipcode assigned to them. This has been fixed, and now a route should get a correct ‘city, state/province’ assigned to it. Lastly, pasting a link to a route or trip on your Facebook page is now cleaner. We tell Facebook to use a thumbnail of the route as a preview image. Check it out below:
We have a new redesign coming out in the next couple weeks that looks gorgeous. Cameron has done an amazing job in putting it together, and we are all very excited to see it go live. Additionally, I am spending a large amount of time expanding the route planner to encompass better cue sheet support, custom waypoints, geotagged photos and a few other things. Hoping to get this out the door with the redesign, but it is going to be tight! Stay tuned and we will keep everyone up to date.
-
More Accurate Elevations AND Static Map Images
Published on June 26, 2009 at 11:29 PMComments
Over the last two weeks, I have been hard at work doing two things: making elevations more accurate, as well as providing static map images that can be embedded into forums. After some hard work, I am pleased to say that both goals have been accomplished! There were multiple reasons for inaccurate gain/loss figures for both uploaded and mapped rides. A more detailed description of the problem and solution can be found at http://cullenking.com and I will let you read that separately, since it involves a decent amount of math :)
Static map images are now available for any route or trip on the site. There are currently two default sizes: a 100×100 pixel thumbnail, as well as a 480×480 pixel image. They are stored as GIF’s, and can be accessed by navigating to any route/trip view page and copy/pasting the link that is provided to the right of the map. The map tiles are provided by the openstreetmap project, which is basically the wikipedia of the mapping world. We are sketching out plans for custom map image sizes, but will likely reserve that feature for premium accounts.
Here is an example of a nice trip in Lake Oswego:
A more detailed post will follow when I have a spare moment. Just wanted to get the word out for now!
-
New importer, route planner and route viewer
Published on May 21, 2009 at 7:25 PMComments
It’s been a little while since we have posted an update, however this doesn’t mean we haven’t been at work! Within the last month we have pushed out some minor UI changes, bug fixes etc, as well as some not-so-minor. The two interesting changes that are now found on the site are an improved route planner and viewer, as well as a MUCH improved route importer.
The new route viewer and planner functions much the same as the old, however, the code behind has been written in a much simpler, cleaner and modular way. This is allowing us to work on several cool new features which should be released here shortly. With this more efficient and well thought out codebase, the route viewer and planner is about to get really cool.
Additionally, you can now import rides from Bikely. So, if you have a large amount of rides on either Map My Ride or Bikely, they can be imported with ease. Furthermore, the importer UI has been improved. You can now select which routes to import, as well as name and classify them inline. It is no longer necessary to edit each route after importing, in order to customize the route.
Keep enjoying the site!
-
New Layout!
Published on April 10, 2009 at 5:10 PMComments
A month or so back, a friend and user of the site, Garron Hale, gave me some good ideas on redesigning the user page. The result is how the user page has looked for a while now. After that, he offered to mock up a new layout to see if we liked it. He put together a design that we are happy with, and I set to cut it up and implement it.
This design will give us more flexibility as we continue to develop the site, and we're excited to release it. You can find him on RWGPS, but be sure to check out Garron's site here: http://www.croptool.com.
Shoot us some feedback if you have any thoughts!
-
Heart rate zones
Published on March 27, 2009 at 3:43 AMComments
We have introduced a couple new metrics recently, speed and heart rate zones. Max and average speed is shown when viewing trips, and you can toggle a speed histogram on the map with a checkbox at the top. I just now finished up the basics of heart rate zones.
Setting up heart rate zones is a really easy process, and once you do it you'll see your heart rate zone durations in your Activity Log, and when viewing your trips. You can set them up by clicking on "Set up heart rate zones" next to the Heart rate checkbox in your Activity Log.
You can also toggle what information you're looking at in the Activity Log now, by checking and unchecking the options.
If you have an opinion about the Activity Log, our use of heart rate data, or what more should be done, please leave a comment here or get in touch with us.
-
Embed maps on your own site
Published on March 18, 2009 at 8:31 PMComments
Just cooked up another cool feature as requested by a couple users, embeddable routes and trips! You can now embed any route or trip into your blog, website or other medium which allows an iframe to display. Rule of thumb: if you can embed a youtube video in the site, you can embed one of our maps.
Navigate to any route or trip page, and you will now see a small text box underneath the elevation information, labeled Embed URL. Just highlight the text inside, and copy to your site. You can change the width of the embed by editing the ‘width’ attribute of the iframe tag you just copied. By default it is set at 100%, but feel free to change it around. Things start looking crunched and ugly below about 550px though.
See for yourself:
Hope you are enjoying the updates!
-
Bad elevations data? We can help!
Published on March 18, 2009 at 2:17 PMComments
One of the nice things about the design of Ride With GPS from a technical standpoint, is Zack and I have layed a very solid foundation for the site. As a result, adding additional features has become relatively simple. Today we were notified by a user that his elevation data seemed off on his uploaded route. After a brief look at his TCX file (TCX is Garmin’s proprietary log format), it appeared to be his GPS unit rather than how we handle the data. So, after a few minutes of coding, any route or trip can now have its elevation data reloaded from our (accurate to 1 meter) local elevation dataset! This new feature is simple to use.
First off, you might want to read some informative discussion regarding how bike GPS units record their elevation data, and possible reasons discrepancies between our calculations and your bike computers display might exist.
blog.mtbguru.comTo refetch elevations for any route or trip, all you need to do is access the edit page of the route or trip. From the previewer on your profile page, you can edit a route or trip by clicking the (edit) link next to the relevant entry in the previewer. From the route or trip view page, the Edit Route link is located on the right side of the map, below the route information. You must be logged in to see these links.
On the edit page, you would just check the box at the bottom of the form indicating the elevation data is bad. Hit the update button to submit the form, and your elevation data will be updated. Your profile should show a notification of success when the process is finished (in about a second). If there is any sort of issue, an error notification will show instead. Alert us of any errors and we will be happy to resolve them as always.
Thanks again for the feature requests/bug reports. These are extremely helpful in our ongoing work to make this site the best out there. Keep them coming!
-
Import From Map My Ride
Published on March 17, 2009 at 6:16 PMComments
Given that one of the goals for Ride With GPS is to become the most used route and workout planner available, we fully expect to see many people migrating from other services to RWGPS. As a result, we figured it might be convenient for our users to automatically import the routes stored under their Map My Ride (MMR) account, without going through the hassle of exporting each route from MMR then uploading them one by one to our site. With that in mind, I took a little time to cook up this simple importer. The UI will be cleaned up here soon, and we will add support for other sites as they are requested by our users.
In order to use the importer, from your profile page select the “Import From…” link located above the main body of the page. This will bring you to some simple instructions, with a field for your MMR username and password. We do not store this information; it is only used for this one request. Any additional requests will require you to re-input your password.
After clicking “Start!”, the request will be generated and you will be redirected to your profile page. If everything goes well, the routes will be imported to your profile. Upon hitting refresh you should see feed items indicating success. If we run into any issues, a feed item will be generated notifying you of the issue. If any problems persist, we can always be contacted at ridewithgps@gmail.com.
Thanks for using our site!
-
New feature: Remember this
Published on March 15, 2009 at 12:30 AMComments
Ever ran across something on the site that you wanted to go back to later? Now, when you are viewing users, routes, trips, gear, or photos, look for a link that says "Remember this". It will save that item to your account, and shoot you right back to what you were looking at so your browsing is not interrupted.
I sometimes run across routes that I want to ride, or a cool bike I want to show one of my buddies later, or a user that is adding a bunch of interesting routes. Now I can just click Remember this, and I end up with a new tab on my profile page that looks like this:
We also added a "Support this site" link that is visible in this screenshot. This site is going to be our livelihood, but we are not quick to compromise our users' interests. If you support what we're doing and think this service is worth money, we greatly appreciate any support. If you don't feel like paying, no big deal, there will always be room for free accounts. If you have any ideas on how we can improve, that is greatly appreciated as well. We value your input and will work to meet your needs.