Android App Spotlight #18: SportyPal

Nike+ is the main reason I purchased an iPod Touch. It was pretty cool to have the software track the distance you've run, and I used it quite a bit after I got it. It was not without its faults, though - the device tracks movement via an accelerometer, which calculates distance via a standard calibrated step, so if your stride varies, it can throw off the measurement. The way the app interfaced with my music was a bit clunky, too, making it difficult to select anything other than a playlist. While the website provides a nice medium for tracking your runs and communicating and challenging other users, the site is absolutely drenched in Flash to the point where it affects usability. It's difficult to share general information, too.

Once I got my Nexus One I realized that there are apps that do a similar tracking to Nike+, though using the GPS, thereby making it quite a bit more accurate, and since multitasking is no big deal, it's easy to leave the running app... err, running, and switch over to the music player with no fuss. It didn't require a special dongle in my shoes, either. The only question then is to choose the best app.

When I started looking, there were only two main contenders: Buddy Runner and SportyPal. Buddy Runner seemed the most like Nike+ in that it duplicated pretty much all functionality - including the computerized voice telling you the distance remaining - but the interface of both the website and app was not very pretty, and it was hard to share my workouts. I ended up going with SportyPal - it looks quite a bit better, and you can do other exercises, like cycling, rollerblading, down to "exercises" like sailing and surfing. What's better is that you can manually add exercises - so if you do things like weightlifting or running indoors, you can add those to your profile. The thing doesn't speak to you like Buddy Runner, so if that's your thing, you might want to keep looking. The original idea was that I would use SportyPal outside and Nike+ inside, then manually add the run later to my SportyPal profile, though that idea never came to fruition and I sold my iPod two weeks ago because of lack of use.

I haven't had too much trouble working with SportyPal, though apparently the appscape has broadened a bit since I last looked. A Lifehacker poll  says good things about RunKeeper and Endomondo, but I'm not really interested in checking them out. SportyPal meets all my needs quite sufficiently.