iPhone on the bike

I always ride with my phone in my pocket though more as a safety than functional piece. I’ve certainly had occasion to snap a few pics, make a call or jot down a new buddy’s email. I’ve checked Google Maps when in new places to make sure my route was going to lead me back home. All this has happened while pulled over (ok a few pics while riding) as I’ve never really considered the iPhone hardened enough to serve as a real piece of bike kit.

There are a few companies out to change that perspective with what look like real businesses focused on making the iPhone a bike accessory.

Pedal Brain has a already approved iPhone accessory and developing app ready to try and take on the bike computer market.  The richness of the display data is certainly appealing and they say they are working on battery life.  If they can make their goal of 8 hours (2G only) they’d had a pretty competitive product.  I don’t like the idea of paying a monthly fee for my data … Garmin Connect is free, but this might be cool to have as a commuter.  Not sure I want my iPhone mounted on the handlebar.

Pedal Brain

Via Bike Rumor this am I learned about yet another and more daring approach called ARider. Through the use of augmented reality a Japanese researcher is looking to overlay mapping data into your view – live. This is certainly cool sounding in theory, but it looks (and I know it’s just research now) way too wonky. I can’t see projecting anything across my field of vision while riding at speed or in a city. I want my vision clear!  I also really can’t see having my iphone helmet mounted …

In each of these cases, I’d be willing to bet it would not be long until you ran into the need to run another app (inbound call, arriving email etc) that would start to reveal the limits of a single tasked device. The nice thing about using a bike computer is that it totally stays out of the way and lets you focus on riding. I glance down for a look at my progress, but spend my time really checking out the data when off the bike …

Pocket Universe Brings Augmented Reality to the iPhone

I’ve always been interested in astronomy but would hardly call myself an expert. Now though with the help of Pocket Universe, I will be able to learn quite a lot.

Pocket Universe Pocket Universe

Pocket Universe Pocket Universe

The coolest feature is hands down the virtual sky which offers an augmented reality type of experience. As you are not looking through the camera the data is not viewed as a layer, but at night that would be pretty hard to see anyway. As you’ll see in the short video below, the full feature set of the iPhone 3G S is called into action. On launch, my location is queried, and then the compass guides your view of the sky to reveal exactly what can be found at a given time and place. It’s awesome! In this video I do a quick search for the big dipper and you’ll see Pocket Universe guides me to find it …

I’ll apologize for the blurrycam … the Flip Mino HD apparently does not like close up night time photography. I should also note this AR feature is part of an unreleased beta but coming soon …

I’m looking forward to exploring the night skies with the kids on our upcoming vacation and now that summer is here, we can get the telescope out as well for a closer look. Pocket Universe is amazingly rich source of astronomy info and to be honest I’ve just started to scratch the surface, but I really like what I see. It’s well worth $2.99.