Welcome to the iStats roundup. We are just touching base with you guys to let you know that we’re still here and still making updates to the site to make it as friendly as possible.

This post was inspired to the new target market of 40 Million new OpenID’s. We’re hoping that the ability to login through OpenID on iStats will encourage more users from around the globe to start tracking their fitness online.

What we’ve done…

We’ve been concentrating on fixing bugs, and we’ve fixed alot of them..

We have iPhones!!

That’s right! The developers of iStats now have iPhones, so we’re getting really exciting about developing the iPhone interface to iStats - we’re not sure how we’re going to do it yet, but expect it in the next few weeks.

What’s Next?

Apart from an iPhone / mobile interface, we’re responding to user feedback by adding a dashboard after member’s login. This will allow you to find your way around the site and interact with your favourite parts. We might even add a personalised RSS feed per member aswell!

Stay tuned!

Being able to enter data without having to use the mouse is great! Your hand’s can concentrate on one tool, that’s why there is so many keyboard shortcuts out there. We realised that not many people know about the tab key and how it can be used when entering workouts. Guess what! We’re included in those people and so we have made some minor updates.

Here’s how to use the “tab” key when entering workouts..

1. Once the page loads, hit the “tab” key to be taken to the first exercise metric. The text will be automatically highlighted so you can immediately start typing new sets.
2. Hit the tab key again to proceed to the next metric, if it was the last metric for that exercise you will be taken to the next exercise.

And last of all here and some helpful points….

• When you focus on a metric - the text is automatically highlighted - you can easily start typing new sets wsithout having to delete your previous ones.
• When you start typing sets the check box for that exercise will automatically be clicked, including it in the workout.
• You can use any of the following characters to enter multiple sets ‘,’ <space> OR ‘-’

Screen casts coming next!

Our first MAJOR upgrade has arrived and we believe it will be our most popular yet one. It means that the .au suffix of our domain name can now be ripped off, unfortunately that domain name isn’t available.

In short and sweet, you will now be able to select between Imperial (pounds, miles) and Metric (kilograms and metres), for EACH exercise.

As a bonus, whenever you update something to do with weight (your initial weight, goal weight or individual workouts weight), iStats will automatically convert it into KG’s if it guesses that you entering Imperial units. Hint: Type lb, lbs or pounds into the weight box.

Your settings for each exercise (Imperial or Metric) will be reflected in your progress graphs. Your logbook and latest sets (latest sets appear grayed out when you go to enter a new exercise) will also reflect your settings.

We feel that ease of use is the most vital factor to encourage you guys to keep track of your exercise and keep fit, we had some trouble fitting this new feature in. We’re excited about how we’ve done it, there are no extra settings, no extra screens, no extra screencasts, no extra tutorials. In fact, we’re hoping you don’t even read this post and you know how to change between systems. Being even more optimistic we hope that you just “expected” it to be that way, and you never realise that we had to go through this whole “upgrade”, “testing”, “quality assurance”, “user interface design”……………… ( the list goes on and on)

Some Basic Instructions

On the workouts enter screen you will now see a flag next to your exercises. Simply click on the flag and you will switch between units.

Will appear next to your exercise if you currently have Imperial units set for the exercise. Click to swap to Metric (the flag will change)

Will appear next to your exercise if you currently have Metric units set for the exercise. Click to swap to Imperial (the flag will change)

Conclusion

This is an upgrade I desperately needed, even though I am from Australia, a lot of the gym equipment supplied to Australian Gyms is exported from overseas. Most of these have the kilogram equivalents posted on the weight, however they are ugly numbers such as 43.75 compared to a much easier to remember number such as 100. The best part is that all your previous workouts will be automatically converted when you change your setting (this means that you can change your setting for different workouts and it doesn’t matter). Say for example you did the same exercise at different gyms but each has different weight measurements!

What’s Next

We feel that we’re at the peak of where iStats will be. We are now looking at implementing some sort of Private Teams / Personal Trainer type upgrade. Trainer’s will receive their own domain such as http://joe-wrights-training.istats.com.au, where they can create clients and enter workouts for them, clients can login and view their progress. They would also be able to put their own logo. We are hoping this will bring in some income to keep iStats running free for all the rest of us.

While we explore what they call a “business plan”, we’re going to work on getting the iStats help up to scratch which includes the screen casts, FAQ and website tour. Hopefully they will help you to be able to understand iStats and use it daily to help keep you motivated.

Happy iStatting,
iStats Fitness Team - Share your fitness journal!