posted September 12, 2008 by trek7k

Back in July I posted a theoretical comparison between the iPhone and the Edge 705 for mountain bike navigation and made this point:

Speedometer / Odometer / Elevation

The iPhone doesn’t track these things for you but the Edge 705 does (and it does it very well I must say). Unfortunately Garmin’s lead may not last for long since iPhone app developers are sure to throw together a simple (and I predict free) application to do just this. Winner (for now): Edge 705.

Sure enough, speed and elevation tracking software for the iPhone is available now, and while I haven’t found any free programs, they are certainly cheap (like $2.99 cheap). Perivision talks about using his iPhone on an electric bike and posts this interesting screen shot of an (unnamed) iPhone program:

There’s also a piece of iPhone software called iTrail that tracks the usual suspects (speed, elevation, distance) and even records your route GPS track-style. Although the name implies it’s good for trail use I’m not sure I’d take an iPhone on a rocky track - and what about reception under tree cover? The good news is that iTrail costs just $2.99 at the iTunes store. Screen shots:

 

Of course there are other smartphone options for GPS riding - check out the singletracks GPS forums to connect with other GPS-enabled smartphone users and stay tuned as we deliver the latest GPS / mountain biking news from Interbike in less than 2 weeks!

Related posts:

1. 3G iPhone vs. Garmin Edge 705 for biking
2. GPS software review: TopoFusion
3. GPS software review: Delorme Topo 6.0
4. Singletracks Mobile for iPhone
5. GPS tips for mountain biking

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under GPS for MTB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response by logging in and using the form at the bottom of this post, or trackback from your own site.