Looking Forward

I love it. The more I think about the bike computer app for the iPhone, which uses GPS to record where you go with your bike, and how fast, and how steep a grade up/down. That's pretty cool stuff, and its easy to see that it's going to get so much better.

I'm looking forward to what's coming soon, to the iPhone.

It will/must happen soon that the iPhone will have a much improved camera, and video is a natural progression. Memory is getting cheaper and smaller. Vibration and shake correction software will make bike video look like flying low, and I can definitely relate to that. Hi-Def, of course. Continuous, live broadcasting will become commonplace.

Just as every NASCAR racer has multiple video cameras, people will have one as well, the iPhone camera and full-time high speed internet connection. Personal publishing will have arrived at a natural fulfillment. Personal safety will be greatly enhanced by being able to recall exactly what happened. It will be virtually free to record and store and even broadcast continuous video.

Applying that to biking, and some day in the not too distant future, when the weather turns nasty outside, and it's no fun to ride, we can take a virtual tour. We peddle away, the bike securely mounted to a programmable treadmill while we watch the videos other riders recorded on their rides with their iPhones. And then shared with you on the web. Free.

Snow on the roads? Maybe you'd like to take a hill or two of the Tour de France? Too much work for me. But France is OK. I'd prefer a perfectly flat cruise on the Mediterranean sand and through town, at sunset, in Nice and Cannes, during the Film Festival. Now there's an iPhone ride video I could play more than once during the harsh stormy days in San Diego.

For those selling old-style bike computers, the ones that only have a single purpose, like the one I just bought: much thought needs to be given to the business model.