Sportypal is outdoor exercise tracking application for your Windows Phone. Sportypal tracks activities such as running, cycling, hiking, skiing, and horseback riding. It collects performance measures from each activity, logs them on your Windows Phone and gives you the ability to upload the sessions to an online component.
To see how well SportyPal stacks up, ease on past the break.
Key Features
When you first begin using Sportypal you establish a profile and have the option to register the profile (create a membership) with Sportypal's online component. If you prefer to use Sportypal as a stand alone application, you can decline to register the information online.
The handheld aspect of Sportypal is fairly straight forward. The application uses your Windows Phone's GPS to track a wide range of outdoor activities. During the activity Sportypal will display the time duration, distance traveled, current speed, average speed and calories burned.
Sportypal will also map your activity using Google Maps which can be viewed on your Windows Phone, through the online component or shared via Twitter or Facebook. This is a really nice feature to allow you to review your running routes, hiking paths and the sort.
You can pause the activity recording and add photos to better document your activities. I like the photo feature which will come in handy if you need to record a landmark along a hiking trail or if you need visual proof the mountain you climbed was really that high.
Once completed, each session can be uploaded to SportyPal's website. From there you can review previous sessions and track your progress.
Overall Impression
Navigating around Sportypal was easy and the application is very clean looking. I found it to be a stable application but the GPS was an issue. For starters, GPS acquisition took noticeably longer with Sportypal than with other GPS applications. Once a signal was acquired, it wasn't very accurate.
In taking Sportypal out for a short walk, the GPS mapped my route about three hundred yards from my actual location placing me in the middle of the woods. In another instance, I took Sportypal for a drive and the GPS mapped my route in a straight line.
At first, I considered this to be an issue with my Windows Phone GPS and not the application. However, I was able to place my location with other GPS apps within ten yards of my actual position.
The online component of Sportypal is a strong point with the application. You not only have the ability to upload outdoor activities but you also have the ability to add indoor activities (i.e. weights, aerobics, etc.). In allowing such entries, Sportypal gives you a more complete picture of your activities and exercises.
I wanted to like the Windows Phone component but the GPS performance was a major drawback. If the GPS performance was better, Sportypal would be a very good app for recording and monitoring your outdoor activities. The ability to upload sessions to Facebook and Twitter along with the ability to associate photos with your activity adds a nice twist to keeping tabs on your outdoor activities.
If you're curious and want to try Sportypal, it can be downloaded at Sportypal.com and the application and membership is free.
