Kinetic for iPhone Review

Our rating:

By: Nick Hingston, Stuart Eaton, Tim Juby

Version #: 1.0

Date Released:

Developer:

Price: 2.99

User Rating:

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Looking to leverage the power of your new iDevice in your training regime? Mothership Software has what a new app that they say will help improve your performance in outdoor activities like running or cycling. Kinetic is a GPS tracking application that offers a customizable interface and lots of options to fit your training needs. Whatever your training preference, tracking your progress is vital to staying motivated and making sure the exercise is effective. Lets look at Kinetic and see what it has to offer.

The basic interface is so basic that it belies the power of this app. At its simplest Kinetic has a start/stop button that toggles the GPS tracking. It keeps track of speed, altitude, and time, as well as charts your movement on a map. What really sets Kinetic apart from similar apps is how each part of the interface is modular and can be moved and swapped for any of the nine plugins. These include convinces like iPod controls, as well as great features like an embedded map that can be shown in a small box, or laid out in the background behind the other controls. This features makes a nice map to view if you have your iPhone mounted on the handlebars of your bicycle. The app has separate sections for different events and for different exercises like running, walking, or cycling. These helps you keep your charts organized. If you are someone who needs a little help with your training schedule, Kinetic has preset events for various length runs and marathons.

Kinetic stores all captures in the history tab where you can review each entry by type and event. The log gives you a great chart of speed, time, and altitude that will help you focus on where you need to improve your performance. The records can only be shared by email and this gives you a KML file that can be opened in Google Maps or Google Earth. One issue I have had with this is that the iPhone does not natively recognize the .kml file type in an email. This means that unless you are able to upload the file to a server and then type the URL into the maps app you will not able to see the information on an iPhone other than the one your recorded it on.

I would like to see support for opening the files and being imported into the Kinetic app, so it would be possible to send the file to someone else and they could view the same data on their phones with their Kinetic app. Also support for social networks or at least some other way to share the data would be appreciated. The lock screen on can also be a bit unresponsive at first when unlocking the screen. These issues are all fairly minor and could be addressed in future updates. It is hard to get excited about such a simple tool, and I think adding more ways to manipulate and share your data will help bring people in to use this app. The implementation of this application is solid and you can really tell that Mothership Software took a lot of time to think about what runners and other distance athletes would need in a training tool. Remember that use of the GPS can suck the battery power from your iPhone faster than an Angry Birds marathon, so if you are find yourself going for longer stretches, you should invest in a battery case. Kinetic is available for $5.99 and they also have a lite version that is ad supported, so grab this app and I’ll see you out on the trail.

We rate this app 3.5 out of 5 stars.