After a long long wait Apple finally approved RaceBunny 1.0 for the app store. RaceBunny will let you send and receive tracks to and from your iPhone.
RaceBunny uses the new iPhone 3.0 build in maps and can record tracks. You can even send route courses to RaceBunny from within TrailRunner and follow the carrot symbol as it moves before your nose. Before you send a route course to RaceBunny, you can set a target speed.

Other than that, RaceBunny does not do much and but is free. Currently RaceBunny is the only application you can use to send GPS courses to your iPhone and follow them. So it might be an interesting use case to study for all other developers with great GPS solutions for the iPhone (hint, hint)

RaceBunny works best with the iPhone 3G and requires TrailRunner 2.1
To exchange data between TrailRunner and RaceBunny a domestic WiFi connection is being required.
RaceBunny uses the Build in iPhone OS 3.0 Maps requiring an internet connection to update the background map.

To use RaceBunny, follow these steps in a recent build of TrailRunner 2.1:
Go to Preferences > Synchronize and set RaceBunny as the iPhone partner application.
In the main document window, press the iPhone icon and select the send tab in the left pane. Start RaceBunny on the iPhone and press the send button in TrailRunner. The selected route should now be available in the list of routes within RaceBunny.
To receive tracks from RaceBunny, switch the iPhone tab in TrailRunner to Import.
Send a selected route in RaceBunny and TrailRunner should display it.

Download RaceBunny for free from the app store:

Tags: iPhone, import, export, NanoMaps, directions

Long on the list and now available: The integration with GPSies.com, the outdoor route sharing portal, has been improved.
The route course lookup is accessible through either the File > Find Routes Nearby command or the new toolbar-icon. A new importer pane will open on the left displaying all routes available near the current map location. Browse, check and import what you like and use TrailRunners merge and planning options to individualize what others have already explored for you.

Tags: planning, GPSies, routes, directions, sharing, community, import

TrailRunner 1.8 is out !
Have fun and thanks for your feedback!

> Download


User Interface
Reworked the overall application design to match the current state of the art


Map loading
Although already improved much in 1.7 this now should be it.

Track editor
Selections within the profile chart, route slider, track editor and route description window are now fully synchronized.



Routes vs. Workouts
One of the biggest problems for TrailRunner newbies was, that the differences between a route and a workout / the main document and the diary wasn’t intuitively clear. So I now changed the interface to make both approaches available in the main window.



Download here: http://trailrunnerx.com/download-beta-redirect.html

Tags: MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, Maps, routes, directions, diary

Klaus from GPSies.com wrote another cool trick in his weblog. Meaning you can plan a route in maps.google.com and import the course into TrailRunner. To do so, just follow these steps:
Goto maps.google.com and use the Get Directions tab to plan your course.
Click the Link to this page link.
In the Paste link in email or IM edit field, append &output=kml to the end of the url (with no blank inbetween)



Copy the whole URL and paste it into the address bar. Press the return key.
A kml file will now download. Drag the maps.kml file onto TrailRunner or the main window. The course importer will open.



How cool.

Tags: GoogleMaps, routes, Maps, directions, planning, weblog

As you might already know, the NanoMaps feature is available not only for the iPod nano but also for any kind of mobile device with a color-screen – especially for cellphones. To set the appropriate image-size the preferences for export allow you to set the width and height for the NanoMaps.

Images sizes for different displays
For all who do not know the resolution of their device I started a collection for common devices like the T610 on the left. You can find the list in the Library. If you did successfully export your directions onto any device that is not listed there, please leave me a note what device you are using and the resolution that fits best on its screen.



Image formats
TrailRunner exports the images as jpegs. Unfortunately not all cellphones can display them (like the K610i). Therefore you first need to convert the images to the png format. Heiko noted this and has sent screenshots of his Automator Action to easily convert the images :

- Select Files from Finder
- Change Image Format to PNG
- Change Finder Object Names


Image Transfer
In general I expect you to transfer the NanoMaps onto your cellphone using the Bluetooth File Exchange Application. Browse your device and drag the images into its pictures directory.

Tags: NanoMaps, directions, cellphone