The best thing about running and riding with an iPhone?  It’s like cracking open a frosty can of instant motivation.

It’s 6pm on Monday afternoon.  You’re still recovering from the weekend, not to mention the work train that hit you 100 mph this morning.  You’re tired, hungry, and just a little bit cranky.  The last thing you feel like doing it lacing up your sneakers or jumping on a spin bike.  But wait!  You’re a Wahoo user so you’re taking your iPhone with you when you run or ride.  Aren’t you smart?  We’re all motivated by something a little different:

Are you a data geek?
We are.  If you’re one of those people who does math in your head while you run/ride you’re going to love the Triggers and Actions setup in our Wahoo Fitness App.  Choose running or biking and then click on “Quick Settings.”  Scroll down and choose “Triggers and Actions” from the menu.  Now add a trigger—or how often you want to hear your data—and associate it with an action—the specific kind of data you want to hear.  Hit “Play” in the top right corner of the screen to preview the audio announcement you’ve created.  Now hit the road with more data than you can shake a stick at.

A little competitive? 
Think you’re the fastest guy on the block?  Now prove it by uploading your data to Strava.com after your workout.  Challenge your training partner, arch nemesis, or good old fashioned strangers to a race on one of your regular routes.  See if you have what it takes to be King of the Mountain. 

Ever the multi-tasker?
Since you’re hooked up to your iTunes music library and the internet you can now listen to audio books, podcasts, and even educational lectures while you get your miles in.  With version 2.5 of the Wahoo Fitness App you can control your iTunes without ever leaving the app.  So skip through that boring lecture and get on to more important things, like R Kelly’s smooth jams.  And speaking of music… 

Just want to rock out?
When you’re running along and a song comes on that’s perfectly in sync with your pace it hardly feels like you’re running.  Here’s a few of our team’s favorite running songs for your enjoyment:

Wahoo Molly
Stereo Hearts –Gym Class Heroes 
Party in the USA- Miley Cyrus
Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
Don’t Stop the Music- Rihanna
Tick Tock- Ke$ha 

Wahoo Sean
Good Feeling- Flo Rida
Sexy and I Know It- LMFAO 
We Found Love- Rihanna
Give me Everything- Pitbull
Some Chords- Deadmau5

Wahoo Mike
Kickstart my Heart – Motley Crew
The Power is On- The Go Team
Gimme Shelter- Rolling Stones
Don’t Burn the Pig- Dave Matthews Band
Crazy Bitch- Buckcherry 

Wahoo Christian
Not My Time- 3 Doors Down
Show Me What I’m Looking For- Carolina Liar
Lose Yourself- Eminem
Closer- NeYo
Fly Away- Lenny Kravitz 

Wahoo Chip
Collection of Goods- Collective Soul
Distraction- Angels and Airwaves
Godzilla- Blue Oyster Cult
She- Green Day
Shooting Star- Bad Company
Back in Black- AC/DC

Wahoo Murray
My current number 1 running song is actually a 40min mix from Krafty Kuts. It is perfect for my 5-6km runs, has a great build around the 3km mark.

Wahoo wants to know: What gets you going and keeps you motivated while you workout?  Comment below! 

Introducing The Protector: A Tough iPhone Bike Case

You asked for it, so we made it.  We’re proud to announce a brand new product from Wahoo Fitness,The Protector It’s an awesome iPhone Bike Case with NO ANT+ technology.  What does that mean, you say?  Let me tell you.

First, we had a bunch of folks emailing, facebooking and tweeting us that they love the idea of our case, but were less interested in measuring cadence and power information.  And if all you need is a case to protect and hold your iPhone while you’re cycling, $150 is a tough price point.  If you’re more of a casual rider, beach cruiser, etc. this might be just the case for you!

Second, as we learned more about Bluetooth Smart and how the iPhone 4S and other phone are starting to use it, we thought it’d be great to have a case without the “integrated Wahoo Key.”  As we release new Bluetooth Smart enabled sensors (like the Wahoo Blue HR- coming soon!) You’ll be able to use this less expensive case to connect to them to your iPhone 4S. 

The Protector features the same rugged construction of the Wahoo Bike Case, with a hard plastic case and 6 clips to secure your phone in place.  It’s water and shock resistant so your phone will be protected from the elements and from any spills (not that any of us have EVER fallen…).  It mounts easily to most bikes with a semi-permanent mount and quick-release connection.  This way you can purchase extra mounts for all of your different rides and use the same case.  It also features all of the same ports as the Wahoo Bike Case—front and rear view camera, headphone port, and Micro-USB port so you can connect our optional Wahoo Extended Battery for double the battery life.  The touch screen is fully accessible and functional.  To be perfectly clear, this case WILL NOT connect to your ANT+ sensors. But it works with lots of awesome cycling apps and is perfect if you don't need to connect to ANT+ sensors.

As the experts in smartphone fitness technology, we’re always working hard to bring you the latest and greatest solutions to track your fitness activities on your phone. If you have any questions about The Protector iPhone Bike Case or suggestions on other new products we should explore, let us know! Shoot us an email at molly@wahoofitness.com or join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.

The excitement. The anticipation. The leaks and the PR stunts. The gossip.  And finally, the iPhone 4S.

Apple’s veiled approach to releasing new products always generates to a lot of excitement and even more rumors, and the chatter around release of the iPhone 4S was no exception.  Even as developer of Apple compatible products, Wahoo Fitness and others were left in the dark, forced to wait for the official Apple announcement before beginning any development on compatible products.  Well, here at Wahoo we don’t like to wait.  One of the things we love about working for a small company is that we can be flexible and get things done quickly.  And we can take risks.  Big risks.

While the rumor mill was pumping out chatter on what the iPhone 4S would include, we had our ear to the ground.  We like to think of ourselves as leaders in fitness technology and wanted to do the best things for our users. And with what we were hearing, we decided to take one of those big risks and go out and develop some products that we hoped would be compatible with the new iPhone 4S.  Lucky for us, the bet paid off.  And lucky for you, we’ve got some AWESOME new products for iPhone 4S users coming down the line.

In case you haven’t heard, the iPhone 4S has integrated Bluetooth Smart technology—it’s “Bluetooth Smart Ready”. This is the latest generation (4.0) of Bluetooth wireless technology and features ultra-low power consumption.  TheBluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) released a great statement about all the potential uses of Bluetooth Smart:

“Bluetooth Smart devices are designed to gather a specific type of information—are all the windows on my house locked, what is my insulin level, how much do I weigh today?—and send it to a Bluetooth Smart Ready device. Examples include heart-rate monitors, blood-glucose meters, smart watches, window and door security sensors, key fobs for your car, and blood-pressure cuffs—the opportunities are endless.”

At first read, you are probably thinking, “Great! I can now do a few more awesome things with my iPhone 4S (and other Apple products like MacBook Air).”  But this statement actually means a lot more – it's a seminal event in Apple’s accessory strategy and is a huge benefit to the end users. It’s an open door for inventive, creative companies to develop any accessory they can dream up and use Bluetooth Smart technology to connect it to an iPhone. In the past developers (like us) had to wait for established and approved protocols in order to connect something to an iPhone.  Wahoo Fitness has been successful in pushing the boundaries with the ANT+ technology, but Apple just took it to a whole new level. Now there are no restrictions. This is a classic example of Apple “thinking different” – and Wahoo Fitness is committed to embracing this shift and making awesome, cutting-edge fitness sensors for smartphones, no matter what flavor of technology.

So coming to you (soon!) is the first ever Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Strap, Wahoo Blue HR, which will connect directly to your iPhone 4S without the need for a Wahoo Key.  Of course, your existing ANT+ Wahoo Key and ANT+ Heart Rate Straps will work as well.  We only ordered a limited quantity, so if you want to be the first to have one you'll have to join our Wahoo Blue mailing list for the lastest news and for pre-order information.  

Investing in products that work with this new technology is just another way Wahoo Fitness is working hard everyday to connect smartphones to fitness and make tracking your workouts as easy and seamless as possible so you can worry about the technology less and “Wahoo!” more.