Xtrail 1.0.1
Xtrail ($5) is currently my GPS fitness app of choice. Its configurable interface is reminiscent of Kinetic ($4), but it’s simpler and more accurate at tracking my route. MotionX-GPS ($1) has far better maps, but it requires a lot more taps to get things done. Xtrail is beautifully designed for making the common tasks easy. Alas, as is becoming common with iPhone apps, there’s no documentation or support. I e-mailed the developer some questions and suggestions (twice) and never received a reply.
Update (2012-07-06): After I blogged this, the developer sent a helpful reply and apologized for her support team overlooking my messages.
Update (2013-09-17): Sophia Teutschler:
CoverSutra and Xtrail are no longer available for sale and won’t get any more updates either. Both apps flopped and were also plagued with technical issues.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
I had been using Xtrail for the past month or so — indeed, the interface is beautiful, but I noticed some substantial omissions compared to the last such utility I tried — "My Tracks", from when I had an Android phone. In particular:
- There's no detection of stopped time in an activity, which breaks my average speed numbers.
- The average speeds are rounded to the nearest 1 mph (or mp/h, as Xtrail displays it).
- There's no way to see the time of an activity, just the date!
I bought Cyclemeter earlier this week. Cyclemeter's interface is a bit overcomplicated, and unlike Xtrail, the path/marker overlay on the map doesn't update (or hide, for that matter!) as you zoom — but it at least has the features I want.
Another impetus for this was ordering a Wahoo Bluetooth LE bike speed/cadence sensor, which integrates into Cyclemeter. Sophiestication had mentioned on Twitter that they were considering such integration in Xtrail, but nothing has surfaced since then.
I was planning on emailing with the above Xtrail comments, but your response does not inspire confidence. I wonder if lack of fluency in English has something to do with it. I struggle with my seemingly-outdated ideas of software value — regretting an unused $5 iOS purchase like a $100 Mac purchase. For some reason I've got more unused weather apps on my iOS devices than anything else. (Still happy with EagleFiler though :-)
@Nicholas Xtrail is currently a bit more minimal than I’d prefer, but I presume that some of these things will be added in time. Sophia’s English seems to be very good.
Yeah, I'm sure they will be too — I hope to revisit Xtrail in the future as I really do appreciate the attention put on its UI. And your experience was also heartening.
