Several years ago, one of the first services that Nokia ever launched was called SportsTracker. The service has progressed steadily through the years, and is a rock-solid way to track workouts, including a step counter, GPS tracking, and a host of other features, even including a heart rate monitor feature on the N79 Active! However, I’m starting to believe that Nokia is trying to kill off its most innovative service now, after I’ve tried to use the service for the past few months. Here’s my evidence:
Last night I went for a run with Mrs. Guru, and thus switched my SIM card to my 5800 XpressMusic, so I could use SportsTracker to keep track of how far we ran and all that. To my great frustration, somehow or another, I had uninstalled SportsTracker from the phone. No worries, I should be able to easily re-install, right? Wrong. SportsTracker for the new touchscreen smartphones is incredibly hard to find – it’s not in the Ovi Store, and the Download! client (where I used to find it) is now empty (as well it should be). There’s no mobile-friendly version of the SportsTracker site, but it doesn’t matter, because apparently you can’t download the touch-friendly version through the site anyways – neither the 5800 XpressMusic nor the N97 are listed in the fancy new drop-down list. I was able to re-download it from NokiaAddict, instead.
So, now that I’ve got the app on my phone, everything’s peachy keen, right? Well, sort of. It works, sure, and I can upload to the service and all. But what happens when I want to get social with SportsTracker? It’s a well-known fact that most people need to have social accountability if they’re going to continue to work out, and Nokia has recently been blabbing high and low about how important social is, so shouldn’t I be able to Tweet my workouts, or connect to Facebook to show off my recent achievements?
There used to be a Facebook application for SportsTracker that allowed you to post your workouts to your profile, so that your friends could see that you were out there bustin’ it, trying to stay in shape. Unfortunately, when I’ve tried to load it up several times in the past few months, I get an error message that ‘the server at nst-api.nokia.com is taking too long to respond’. There was also a widget that you could place on your blog or wherever else, but that’s not working any longer, either.
There’s currently no option to automatically send out a Tweet every time you complete a workout, but to be fair, it *is* possible. When you are logged in to your SportsTracker account, you can pull up a single workout, and there is a row of buttons along the top right, like this:
You need to click the ‘Other Options’ button, and then the ‘Share’ button. From there you can choose Twitter, and it opens Twitter in a new browser tab, with a short-URL to the workout, and an incredibly worthless ‘via @addthis’ text following. You’ll need to manually update it to say something useful, such as ‘I used my Nokia to record my workout here’ or something like that. How incredibly worthless. I might as well just shorten the link myself.
Also, the aforementioned Nokia N79 Active, which we reviewed a while back, is an awesome step forward for the service, adding the ability to track your heart rate. Unfortunately, I’ve confirmed with both Nokia and Polar that Bluetooth chest strap is not planned to be sold individually. The only way to get this awesome accessory is to purchase the Nokia N79 Active ensemble, and then try to sell the phone itself. I’ve already suggested an ‘Active Pack’ accessory bundle, with the chest strap, an armband, and some high-quality headphones, to no avail.
It’s frustrating that one of the most innovative services that Nokia has actually launched – there are very few competitors with the same features – seems to be doomed to death by negligence. Are you an active SportsTracker user? Are you also frustrated by the lack of attention the service has been getting from Nokia?
