Runmeter 5.0 Review

Choosing between the roughly two billion (note: hyperbole) running apps in the App Store is a tall task and largely comes down to which one you find yourself most comfortable with. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "runner," but I do try to get out for a few good runs each week. Some would call me "old school" as I don't typically look like the bionic man on my runs; my ears are typically headphone free, I don't like things strapped onto my arms, and my wrists aren't strapped in with heart rate monitors and such. But for the sake of reviews, I'll try out running apps like there's no tomorrow.

Runmeter 5.0, to me, seems like the Rocky of running apps. It doesn't have the silky smooth interface of the Nike running app, nor does it have the backing of the Nike+ community, but it does work awfully well for a guy like me who just wants a good run. To set up a run, all you have to do is name your new path, hit start to begin, and done to finish. After you're done, and this is neat, the app will automatically detect when you've stopped moving and will remove those motionless moments from your overall running time (great for when you are too spent to hit the done button). Then day after day you can race against yourself on that same path (the app automatically tracks your path, time, and pace by GPS), or start an entirely new path.

If you like social running, Runmeter gives you an easy interface to post to all sorts of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and dailymile (which is pretty neat if you've never checked it out). If you are competitive at heart you can even set up local competitors to race against you on your preset path.

For a user like me, the only real difference between Runmeter 5.0 and the Nike GPS app is that Runmeter is slightly simpler to set up and doesn't have celebrities telling you how good a job you did at the end. If you like to run with your iPhone, don't hesitate to pick this one up.