Author Archives: Gunther

New look and feel!

RowingCoach has just received a new GUI which concentrates on an increased contrast and more streamlined optics both on your iPhone and Apple Watch. As we do not want to wait for the new iOS 13, RowingCoach adds a new dark mode today.

The new version also introduces monthly statistics right in the history overview and fixes many bugs. For example: If you listen to music, sound alerts do not stop your music anymore!

RowingCoach dark mode on iOS
The new dark mode of RowingCoach on iOS.
The new design on Apple Watch
The new design on Apple Watch!
Light mode
Now with monthly statistics right in the history.

Customize your workflow with Shortcuts

Shortcut

Apples new Shortcut app speeds up lengthy tasks.

With iOS 12 Apple has released the new Shortcut app. This allows to speed up often recurring workflows.

One such workflow for me is starting a workout with RowingCoach. So I created an exemplary shortcut which enables “Do Not Disturb” for the next hours, starts the music and launches RowingCoach for an outdoor workout at the same time. Just add a Siri command word like “Rowing” and the next time you say “Hey Siri, Rowing” all that happens automatically!

You can download it here (on your iPhone) and adapt it to your personal preferences.

A custom shortcut for rowing

A custom shortcut for rowing

New version with iOS 12 support

One  comment that I received really stuck with me:

I’m using RowingCoach on a nearly daily basis for tracking my rowing workouts. […] My only issue is that it doesn’t start automatically! I’m forever forgetting to start it before launching off. Operator error, hah!

And that is not the only comment I got where someone reports forgetting to start a workout. So how to prevent this from happening?

Fortunately the new iOS 12 offers added Siri functionality. RowingCoach now uses Siris machine learning capabilities to learn when and where you usually row. Siri will then intelligently suggest to start a workout when you approach your rowing club.

Siri Suggestions for RowingCoach on the Apple Watch

The Siri watchface intelligently suggests a workout based on your previous workouts.

Siri Intent on the iPhone for RowingCoach

Quickly start a workout on your iPhone with a Siri suggestion.

RowingCoach also supports the new shortcut functionality of iOS 12. So if you want to include starting a RowingCoach workout into any of your routines, you are good to go!

Other new features in this release are:

  • Heart rate alarm: You can now see when your pulse is higher than your configured threshold and you should relax a little bit.
  • Pulse is now also shown during a workout pause.
  • You can now configure a countdown that will be shown before the workout starts.

Four ways to start a workout

When you are about to go onto the water or getting started with your erg, the things you least want to waste time on your tech gadgets. After all aren’t these things supposed to save you time?

That’s why there are many different ways to start a workout with RowingCoach. You decide which you feel most comfortable with and fits the current situation – whether you have your hands full or are among people.

  1. “Hey Siri, start workout with RowingCoach”. That works with both iPhone and Apple Watch and is very useful when you have your hands occupied. Of course you can also pause, stop and resume the workout.

    Workout start using Siri

    Quickly start a workout with RowingCoach. Handsfree!

  2. Just press firmly on the RowingCoach icon. With this ForceTouch a context menu appears from where you can start, stop and resume your workout without the need to opening the app first!

    RowingCoach

    Just press hard on the app icon and the menu appears.

  3. From your Search screen. Just add the RowingCoach Widget and you can quickly start a new workout. As a bonus you get your weekly and monthly distance shown in the widget.

    RowingCoach widget

    The widget shows weekly and monthly statistics. You can also quickly start a workout.

  4. And for completeness: There is of course the obvious way of pressing Start from within the app itself.

All roads lead to Rome. Find yours!

New version 1.2.0

The new version just got released! Here are some new features:

  • You can now use your Bluetooth heart rate monitor with your Apple Watch.
  • The app is adapted to iOS 11 and watchOS 4, a separate post will focus on some of the new features.
  • Your workout routes are now visible in Apples Health app!
  • And of course the new version also contains some bugfixes and minor GUI enhancements.