Avoid them all you like, but iPhones are a very popular and deservedly so piece of kit. There have been over 50 million phones sold with a further 35 million iPod Touches. Chances are then you have one or know someone who has one! Once acquainted with it you can delve into the App Store and the world is your oyster!
In here, you have a gallery of 185,000 Apps which cater for everything from cooking, how to tie a tie and of course our favourite: sports and cycling.
With 4 billion downloads this is big business for developers and consumers alike and here we’ve brought together our favourite 5 which we downloaded and used more than just the once for the novelty value.
Tour of Utah 2010:
First up and one which you’ll need to be quick to download is the Tour of Utah App. The race starts on the 17th of August (today) and you’re given a low down of each stage – map, distances and timings complete with a detailed map of the last Km’s.
- Cost: FREE (always good!).
- Features: Photo Feed, Live Dashboard, Stage Information, Team and Rider Information and Live Race News (allowing for a time delay of course).
Overall, a sleek looking App with integration with Flickr and some Youtube videos make it a great way to catch up with the race and how it’s unfolding.
[rating:4/5] – free and a nice way of keeping up-to-date. We’ll have to see how it goes this week.
EveryTrail GPS Tracking:
With a myriad of GPS Apps, choosing the right one for you can be tricky and could end up costly. I’ve been using EveryTrail since I got my phone and it’s worked fine (I’m really not sure where the bad reviews are coming from).
“Track, Share, Explore…Blaze your own trail with EveryTrail! Track your trips, take photos and add your story. Then share it all with one click at EveryTrail.com, Facebook and Twitter.
Take along over 200,000 trips from other global travelers that will inspire you on your next adventure – and guide you along the way. You can leave those heavy outdated guidebooks at home, because Every Trail maps and travel tips will be right at your fingertips wherever you go.”
- Cost: FREE or £2.39 (cost version allows you to add videos to your trip and upload to YouTube on the go).
- Features: Pretty much as it says – track, share and explore.
- Downsides: It turns every ride into a show – you can’t take it easy with this in your pocket or else everyone will find out!
An easy to use GPS App which hasn’t gone wrong or required a degree in computer science to figure out. If only they could improve battery life on the iPhone! Using the GPS soon runs it down.
There are of course many other (free) GPS Apps out there, it would be great to hear what you use already and how it compares – share the knowledge!
[rating:5/5] – free and an easy way of tracking your rides.
With our frame extravaganza going on at the minute, we’ve all had a go on the Bike fit App which Nick our Tech guru has.
SizeMyBike:
SizeMyBike computes the optimal geometry of your road or mountain bike’s frame that is ideal to your morphology.
Six body measurements allow for an accurate computation of the best geometry. This information is useful in choosing the right frame size and obtaining an excellent adjustment for your bike.
Ride fast and comfortably thanks to SizeMyBike!
Fairly simple, you just enter your measurements and it suggests what size frame suits you best. It also has a useful help section for getting those measurements just right.
But does it work???
I’m not Greg, seen here on the right, but on putting my measurements in I’m supposed to be riding a bike with:
- BB centre to saddle: 697mm.
- Saddle to Stem drop: 74mm.
- Crank arm length: 167.5mm.
A quick measure this morning reveals I’m actually riding (these are approx!) around 740mm/140mm of drop and 175mm cranks! So all is not as it seems.
It would be very interesting, and require deep pockets to build a bike up to the recommended spec and after a week see how it felt (if there are any money donors feeling generous please get in touch!).
- Nick here put his measurements in and was suggested to move up to a 120mm stem for the reach (not quite the Belgian Pro standard of 140mm measurements) and he honestly feels it has improved his position and ability to get his power down on climbs.
- It does cost £2.99 which while it seems a lot sat in the office, against the cost of a 2 or 3 thousand pound/dollar frame it’s probably worth purchasing.
[rating: 3/5] – could help you massively, could add a lot of confusion to your next purchase, or even make you question your existing and previously comfortable bike!
Eurosport:
There are two Apps from Eurosport, the first is simply a news reader and includes all the sports you’d expect plus a whole section dedicated to cycling.
Given that their coverage of events is the best we get here in Europe you can be fairly sure that the news feed is up-to-date and accurate. Having a check now we have news of Stefan Schumacher returning to race at the Giro del Veneto and Tylar Farrar’s great win at the Vattenfall Cyclassics which took place on Sunday in Hamburg.
“With Eurosport’s iPhone application, you can stay abreast of all the latest developments in the sporting world.
Read the best articles and keep updated with all the latest sports news.
Cycling: All major events, including the Tour de France, the Vuelta and the Giro.”
– A nice touch is that you can personalise your home screen and select your favourite sports so that cycling is most definitely more important than football.
Eurosport Player:
If you really want to get the best coverage and watch the live Vuelta this could be your best bet. This offers you full Eurosport coverage for a subscription fee – well worth it to be able to watch the Vuelta, in bed, half asleep.
“Eurosport on your iPhone!
The Eurosport Player application gives you unlimited access to the British Eurosport and Eurosport 2 on your iPhone or Touch.
Consult the TV schedule for the channels available through the application.
Available in the UK and Ireland only (sorry if I got your hopes up).
[rating: 4/5] – Free or cost, Eurosport are without doubt leaders of providing cycling coverage so worth it in our view.
Cycling 2010:
Our final choice and one which was bought while I was having a Twitter frenzy, this is basically a collection of Pro Riders’ tweets along with Team and Media tweet feeds.
“Cycling results and Tweets.
Live race updates via Twitter real time tweets – quick access to Tour race updates from major media, team managers in the race, cycling feeds and much more.
Complete race results for every stage of the Grand Tours of Italy and France.
Results by jersey/classification, team, country and contenders.
Cyclists, directors, commentators and team twitter with no Twitter account needed.”
- Just £0.59 gives you a great insight into what’s actually going on, though in the off season it could be a very quiet place!
- You don’t need to have a Twitter account.
[rating: 3/5] – good if you don’t get chance to catch the TV very often or struggle with the time difference.
What Apps have you found useful? What Apps would you like to see? Have we missed a blindingly obvious one?!
Let us know what you use below:
