iBike Dash + Power: New Owner with some ??s

[Brandy]

I got my new iBike Dash last week and I'm quite impressed with the overall quality and design of the product. I have been using a Gen III iAero this year and love it. I was intrigued by the iBike Dash concept and wanted to give it a try. I don't think I'll be using my iAero anymore...

iBike is well known in the industry for providing their customers with outstanding product support. For that reason, I take the time to articulate what I feel is missing from the iBike Dash + Power. I'm just an average Joe cyclist. I'm hoping that John can individually address the issues/questions:

1) Missing Bike Odometer: I can't find where total bike miles is kept. Since, even a cheap $20 bike computer has this feature, I can't imagine you overlooked it. Assuming it is there somewhere, can you make it more obvious? And, can you tell me where it is? My old CatEye had a trip reset that I would use to keep track of when I need to do regular bike maintenance. Something like that would be nice, too.

2) Huge Temperature Error: I experienced almost a 30 degree F error!!! Holy Cow!! My Dash said it was 83 degrees when it was actually in the mid 50s. I read in another post that problem of the iPhone being a big heat emitter. Any future temperature readings will be meet with serious skepticism. And what a pain to get my bike set to the ambient temperatures. I just want to go and ride. I don't want to worry about acclimating my bike to outdoor temperatures. Since this is a physical design limitation of the product, why not think outside the box -- literally! Can you get 20 min temp updates from a web based source since the navigation system knows where you are located? It would not give me the micro-climate of my riding condition but at least I won't second guess the validity of the numbers.

3) Can't Customize Workouts: I really like the stock workouts you have assembled. However, come springtime, I'm going to want to customize my workouts. When will this feature be available?

4) Can't use it to navigate around town: I would love to be able to plan a new route on my home computer and then send this to my iBike Dash. Prompts on when to make a turn would be nice, especially AUDIO prompts so I can concentrate on the road more. I can't see how to do this on the iBike Dash. Is it currently possible?

5) Calendar Feature Doesn't Work: I see there is a calendar feature but when I try to enter into it, nothing happens. Is this feature still in development? What will it do?

6) No Audio Signals: When doing interval workouts or FTP test, audio prompts with a beep would be really nice! That way I could concentrate more on my riding and not worry about always looking at the screen for changes in my workout. Is this feature available? If not, will it be someday??

7) No elevation profile: You have all of the data to construct a nice elevation profile. Maybe not so interesting for those of you in Florida, but I live at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains!

8) Gauge Feature Graphics: This is one of my favorite layouts options but there is this shaded section at the top of the gauge which I suspect was done to give it the illusion of a convex shape. However, I find it a bit distracting when trying to glance down for that split second to get a power reading. I think a plain white background would be better choice.

Thanks!

- brandy

[Velocomp]

Lots of good points:

1) The missing bike odometer is a boo-boo that will be fixed in the next app revision.

2) It's hot inside the Phone Booth! The iPhone gets pretty warm when it operates continuously. Your idea about web updates is very interesting--we'll investigate that one.

3) Customized workouts are coming--all good things take time

4) Elevation profile is easy to do

5) Others like the gauge, but we will consider this too.

[Brandy]

John -- Thanks for your quick response. A few follow up questions:

1) When do you plan to update your app software for the iBike Dash? You might not have an exact date, but do you have a ballpark idea?

2) Will this update include audio notices for intervals or navigation?

thanks!

- Brandy

[Velocomp]

Hopefully we'll have an app update prior to year-end.

We aren't working on any audio features in this release.

[DennyS]

Any ideas if the comments posted here:
http://ibikeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=1740#p10139

are bugs that could be fixed in a near future?