Track your ski day with the Ski Tracks iPhone app

I went skiing at Vail today. It was (as usual) everything I had hoped it would be, and I even got a few knee-deep turns in my all-time favorite powder stash in the world. Here’s video of the snow, as seen from Lionshead at about 2:30pm today (along with some music I was listening to today: David Bazan).

Early in the ski season I was wondering if there were any apps out there that tracked your ski day using the GPS chip in an iPhone. All I had to do was look, and I instantly came across an app called Ski Tracks – which does everything I was hoping for, and even a little more. It’s super easy to use, you just fire it up and it starts tracking your day, including total vertical, max speed (which doesn’t really work right – there’s no way I went 70MPH yesterday), average slope steepness, total distance. You can also take photos in the app throughout your day, and it will create a great mashup of your day.

But the ultimate awesomeness is that the app exports a KMZ file and you can send it to yourself to view in Google Earth!

Here are some screenshots from my trip to Vail today.

The overview page (for some weird reason the date is incorrect, not sure if that was my fault or the app’s fault):

A GPS + Map mashup that shows exactly where you skied, and is broken up to lifts and runs automagically:

There are also awesomely nerdy graphs that show you your altitude and speed, which you can tap on each point to see what your exact altitude and (assumed) speed is:

It breaks down your day by the run and shows you vertical for each in an easy to read format:

Clicking on a run gives you a very detailed analysis of everything you did on that particular run. This happened to be Lodgepole

My only complaints are that it doesn’t seem to track everything perfectly, or at least the main overview page doesn’t reflect the data collected accurately. And it seems to really use up a lot of battery. But it’s still incredible. And only $0.99!

Brainstorm of the week: #fatindiebands

When those Twitter memes start to get big, I like to take them as an opportunity to flex my brain muscle. Being a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy, my professional expertise extends far beyond my skills as a graphic designer. I particularly like branding and copywriting, even though I hold a degree in Studio Art.

This week’s fun meme was #fatindiebands. Everyone from my friend Katie to Alyssa Milano (Sah-man-tuh!) were spewing out fun remixes of indie rock band names. The meme is still going strong and you can see what everyone is coming up with in real time by watching the #fatindiebands hashtag on Twitter.

Late last night I decided to jump on the bandwagon with my own list of them. And (as usual) I got carried away. Here are my 19 mashups for #fatindiebands.

• PinBabyBackRibs #fatindiebands
• She & Him & A Side Of Bacon #fatindiebands
• DeVotchKake #fatindiebands
• Gregory Alan Isakoffee Ice Cream #fatindiebands
• The Candy Apples In Stereo #fatindiebands
• Cap’n Crunch Jazz #fatindiebands
• CocoPuffsRosie #fatindiebands
• The Flaming Baked Alaska Lips #fatindiebands
• The Hold Steady I’m Trying To Eat This Chocolate Sundae On This Tilt-A-Whirl #fatindiebands
• Iron & Port Wine Cheese #fatindiebands
• Kaki Burger King #fatindiebands
• Kings of Convenience Store Hot Dogs #fatindiebands
• The Magnetic Mrs. Fields #fatindiebands
• MariBurgerTime #fatindiebands
• Nada Surf ‘N Turf #fatindiebands
• Neutral Chocolate Milk Hotel #fatindiebands
• The Postal Room Service #fatindiebands
• The Promise Ring Pop #fatindiebands
• John Vanderslice Of Cheese Pizza #fatindiebands

AT&T, I’m calling bullshit on you.

AT&T sent me an email yesterday telling me all about how they’re expanding coverage in Colorado:

Well, I tried to email my reply to their “reply-to” address, which just bounced back to me. Happy to know that you’re interested in my feedback, guys. So I’m going to post my response here:

Jace,

I would like to stick with AT&T in the future, but unfortunately I am completely dissatisfied with your coverage in Grand County, Colorado. I would like to know your specific plans for either upgrading AT&T’s network in the areas of Winter Park Resort and the towns of WInter Park, Fraser and Tabernash. Will Grand County be going to 3G any time soon?

My family uses Verizon in that area and her coverage is much better. I spend about half my time up there, and have serious problems using my iPhone. What good is a cell phone if I can barely use it?

Like I said, I want to keep with AT&T, but not if the service in Grand County continues to be way behind your competitors.

Thanks,
Josh

What irks me the most is this paragraph.

“What this means to you is simple: better coverage where it matters most, and fast access to information on the go.”

AT&T: what the hell kind of marketing bullshit are you trying to feed us? How do you know where we need coverage if we can’t even write you a reply email? Consumers know when brands are bullshitting them, and I think this is a perfect example of it. Give us some hard information to read about it, like the top 100 locations in Colorado where you plan to make upgrades (I like Evans between University & Colorado, and the entire Highlands neighborhood, not to mention that hill up near “Prairie Dog Town” above Boulder). Do something to show that you’re honestly going to make a change.

I think that with this potential “iPhone to Verizon at the end of the year” stuff coming up, AT&T is going to have to lobby hard for consumers not to switch to Verizon. And since their network is obviously inferior to Verizon’s, AT&T is going to have to make really broad statements about the quality of their upgrades, and how you’ll benefit (without giving any really specific information).

I’m calling bullshit.