Feature Request

[Richard W. DeVaul Ph.D.]

Have a feature you want to see in STL? Post a follow up here.

[Chris Elledge]

Before we starting getting requests to make StepTrakLite work in the background, I thought that I would pre-empt them with a little explanation of why we can't do this right now.

Apple has restricted the running of applications to foreground use only. Even if we were to discover some way to work around the restrictions in the API, Apple would quickly remove STL from the AppStore for violating their Terms.

Apple's OS also explicitly stops sending STL accelerometer data when the phone is locked. So for the time being we cannot support letting people lock the phone and still count steps.

If Apple ever lifts these restriction, we would love to be able to provide support for these in STL. It would even open the way for us to work on providing some even more useful mobile products.

[fishbone]

How about features close to the Nike+iPod capabilities? I would be MORE than happy to pay for stuff like that!
The ability to maybe personalize STL with stuff such as age, height, sex and weight. In turn this info could potentially be used to calculate a ballpark figure of calories burned in each work-out session? The ability to upload this info on a personal blog, site, etc would be great. But maybe I'm WAY over-reaching here. Just thought I'd throw it out there. Such features are basically the only reason I am contemplating a Nike+ sensor for my iTouch. But like I said, I'd be more willing to support STL.

[Richard W. DeVaul Ph.D.]

Hey, Fishbone. I hear you -- in fact, estimating Calories burned and distance traveled is slated for an upcoming product tenatively titled StepTrakPlus. This will be be pay-to-play, though just what you will pay (up-front vs. ongoing) is still something we are working on.

So, don't buy that Nike+ sensor just yet -- StepTrakPlus isn't too far away. And it will cost you _way_ less. :)

Thanks for your feedback -- we really appreciate it. The more we hear from our users, the more likely our product roadmap will be something you want vs. my whims. Personally, I kind of like the idea of STL 2.0 being a giant, walking robot.... but you don't want that, do you? ;)

fishbone said:

How about features close to the Nike+iPod capabilities? I would be MORE than happy to pay for stuff like that!
The ability to maybe personalize STL with stuff such as age, height, sex and weight. In turn this info could potentially be used to calculate a ballpark figure of calories burned in each work-out session? The ability to upload this info on a personal blog, site, etc would be great. But maybe I'm WAY over-reaching here. Just thought I'd throw it out there. Such features are basically the only reason I am contemplating a Nike+ sensor for my iTouch. But like I said, I'd be more willing to support STL.

[fishbone]

I was sure you had plans in the works based on the name of the app alone (StepTrackLite) but I wanted to give my 2 cents just in case :)

[fishbone]

Include the online calculator in STL. Have the ability to define weight, stride and measure distance on the fly.

fishbone said:

I was sure you had plans in the works based on the name of the app alone (StepTrackLite) but I wanted to give my 2 cents just in case :)

[Richard W. DeVaul Ph.D.]

Hey, Fishbone. We hear you!

Very shortly we will be releasing version 1.2 of STL -- it is in beta now. (If you'd like to help us test it out, send me a private message and we'll get you set up.) This will allow you to post your step data directly to MapMyWalk.com, which will let you log your workouts and has a distance calculation feature.

Integration with our step-and-distance calculator will likely be in STL 1.3 or the upcoming StepTrakPlus, which will do even more accurate distance and Calorie calculation than are possible with the current web-based calculator.

[Huw Evans]

I know you must be totally bored with this request but have you taken a look at MotionX lite which faces a similar problem to you and appears to get around things by employing its own lock mechanism.

[Richard W. DeVaul Ph.D.]

Hey, Huw.

I'll definitely check out MotionX. And yes, I've thought about doing our own lock. It seems like a reasonable thing to do, but it would be much better to come up with a way to have STL still work after the devices "real" lock has been triggered.

I think I may have discovered a work around that will let us keep counting steps even after that has happened (its an awful hack) but regardless, some kind of better lock will be in the next update.

Thanks for your comments!

Huw Evans said:

I know you must be totally bored with this request but have you taken a look at MotionX lite which faces a similar problem to you and appears to get around things by employing its own lock mechanism.

[fishbone]

As far as I know I've never experienced any problems with STL counting steps when it goes in it's own "semi-lock" state. Am I missing something or am I just lucky? My auto-lock for the iPod Touch is set to 5 minutes. STL goes in it's own auto-lock in the sense that the screen goes dark. Upon touching the screen anywhere, it pulls up the display and the steps were still counting, as far as I can tell. Does it really stop counting once the screen goes dark?

[Richard W. DeVaul Ph.D.]

Hey, Fishbone.

Yes, STL has its own "semi lock" that darkens the display and prevents the iPhone OS from auto locking the device. Your experience is how it is supposed to work.

The problem is that some users just assume that the software should keep on working when they press the lock button and are disappointed (and post 1-star reviews) when it stops.

Another problem is that if you are an iPhone user and have auto lock turned on, an incoming text message or phone call can cause the phone to lock because STL is temporarily not the "foreground" process. This is an artifact of how Apple set up event handing on the phone.

For all of these reasons it would be best if STL could still count your steps when it is running while the phone is locked. There is no straightforward way to do this because of Apple's power management policy, but I as I post above I believe there may be an ugly hack that will make this work.

fishbone said:

As far as I know I've never experienced any problems with STL counting steps when it goes in it's own "semi-lock" state. Am I missing something or am I just lucky? My auto-lock for the iPod Touch is set to 5 minutes. STL goes in it's own auto-lock in the sense that the screen goes dark. Upon touching the screen anywhere, it pulls up the display and the steps were still counting, as far as I can tell. Does it really stop counting once the screen goes dark?