MBlog

One Last Update

2009-06-22T10:30:28-07:00

This will be the final entry to the MotionBased Blog. In case you hadn't heard, Garmin Connect is now available for all Garmin fitness devices. Hand held and outdoor devices will be accepted sometime this Fall. If you haven't started uploading to Garmin Connect you should begin doing so now.

MotionBased will no longer accept uploads from Garmin fitness devices on 31 July 2009. In preparation for the final day we are closing certain parts of the site. We have already turned off subscriptions and new registrations. This blog will be shut down in the coming weeks. We will keep it up for a short time for reference purposes. You will want to start following the Into Sports feed at the Garmin blog from now on.

We will be emailing you with more details very soon. If you do have questions feel free to contact support - support@motionbased.com.

Thanks for your patience.

The MotionBased & Garmin Connect Team

Garmin Connect opening to all Garmin fitness devices

2009-05-23T11:38:48-07:00

Garmin Connect will open it's doors to all Garmin fitness devices on May 26, 2009.

In a nutshell, here's what we're looking at:

Garmin Connect will accept activities tracked by all Garmin fitness devices - running and cycling
Garmin Connect is ready for the upcoming Forerunner 310XT and FR60
A good portion of activities have been migrated from MotionBased to Garmin Connect
The most recent activities have been migrated first as they're likely more pertinent to customers
The remaining activities will continue to migrate over the summer
Garmin Connect will accept activities tracked by outdoor and road devices later this summer
Garmin Connect will be available in 14 languages
Garmin Connect is compatible with Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4+
Garmin Connect officially supports production releases of IE 7/8, Firefox 3 and Safari 3
Garmin Connect uses the same username/password as MotionBased

You can find more detailed information on the Migration Update page at MotionBased.

BTW... Garmin Connect will be down from 7AM - 6PM (Pacific Time) on May 26, 2009 while we make these changes.

Update on Garmin Connect

2009-04-02T10:43:43-07:00

UPDATE: Garmin Connect will open it's doors to all Garmin fitness devices on May 26, 2009. Read more...

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With each update we are getting closer to the release that will allow all fitness device users to upload to Garmin Connect. As we stated in the last MBlog update on 05 March 2009, we are hesitant to give hard release dates. We’re providing an outline that sums up what to expect in the coming weeks.

We ran into some performance problems on Garmin Connect in the early part of March unrelated to the migration. As a result, we focused our energy to fix those problems. No sense in opening the flood gates to Garmin Connect for our MotionBased customers with the new site not performing on all gears.

As of yesterday, we’ve fixed the performance issues at Garmin Connect and will resume the migration process shortly. Our goal is to migrate 80% of activities with the first pass which should take 30 days. We are migrating the newer MotionBased activities first. At this time, many of you will start to see your MotionBased activities appear on Garmin Connect. The full listing will not be available until the Migration is complete, so do not be alarmed if you don't see everything right away.

During this time, we will be internally testing the next major release of Garmin Connect that will open the doors to all Garmin fitness devices. With this release you can shift from MotionBased to Garmin Connect and expect to see most if not all of your activities waiting for you. In addition to supporting all Garmin Fitness devices, this new release also includes:

Support for the new Garmin devices announced in the past month

            o Forerunner 310XT
            o Forerunner 405CX
            o FR60

Garmin Connect will be available in 14 languages

            o English
            o Czech
            o Danish
            o Dutch
           o French
            o German
            o Italian
            o Norwegian
            o Polish
            o Portuguese
            o Russian
            o Slovenian
            o Spanish
            o Swedish

Update on Garmin Connect Migration

2008-12-18T14:23:39-08:00

UPDATE: Garmin Connect will open it's doors to all Garmin fitness devices on May 26, 2009. Read more...

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With 2008 coming to a close, it’s time for an update. Unfortunately, we must report that we won’t be hitting our December target for migration.

We have been working hard to complete this migration before the end of the year while improving the overall feature set of Garmin Connect. To do this, the teams in San Francisco and Olathe, Kansas have been focused on bringing in the right hardware and database software to ensure the migration of activities from MotionBased to Garmin Connect runs smoothly while maintaining data integrity.

As of December 18, we have accomplished the following tasks for migration:

Installed new hard drive to store all activities at Garmin Connect
Optimized hard drive to ensure data integrity
Migrated all MotionBased activities to a test server to begin testing

What’s left to do before migration:

Identify bugs and make changes to Garmin Connect code (4 weeks remaining)
Migrate all MotionBased activities to the production server (4 weeks of transfer time)

The reason the transfer will take 4 weeks is because MotionBased has approximately 5+ million activities on 2+ terabytes of disk space. Each activity must be exported from the test server and imported into the live system.

Based on this 4 week transfer time and the 4 weeks of testing/code fixes, our revised migration date is late February 2009.

We hesitated to update you on this delay until we could be very confident with the new date. This was predicated on the success of installing and partitioning our new storage drive which successfully passed our tests today.

A few reminders…

Once the migration is complete, Garmin Connect will accept data from all current MotionBased customers and MotionBased-compatible USB devices.

MotionBased will be available for upload until the final transition day. After that, it will be available as a read-only site for fitness devices and read-write-upload site for devices not supported on Garmin Connect.

Mac Support - Mac support for the ANT Agent -- used for the Forerunner 50 and 405 -- is now projected for the first quarter of 2009. We are currently testing the beta software with solid results. However, it still needs more rigorous testing before it goes live.

Thank you once again for your patience during this involved procedure. We are excited to be at this stage of development and will keep you posted on further progress.

The MotionBased/Garmin Connect Team

ANT Agent Support for Mac Users

2008-11-21T15:30:12-08:00

UPDATE 10 MARCH 2009: In case you were wondering, the ANT Agent is compatible on the Mac. The only limitation is sending Courses and Workouts from Garmin Connect to the FR405. This is also a limitation on the PC.

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Hi all, with different updates being spread across the Internets from non-Garmin folk . . . this is the latest official information we have:

Mac support for the ANT Agent is now projected for the first quarter of 2009. We are very sorry for this unexpected delay. Unfortunately, a hardware provider was delayed with the shipment of key elements necessary for the implementation of the Agent.

Thanks for your patience.

The Garmin Connect Team

Update on MotionBased Transition to Garmin Connect

2008-09-12T17:06:08-07:00

UPDATE 5 March 2009: We have posted an update to the Garmin Connect Status Page. We are very sorry that we missed this latest deadline and we hesitate to give further updates with promises of release dates. We realize that we have not handled the updates properly and we are sorry for missed release dates and sloppy updates. You the customer deserve better. We do hope to provide better with the migration and release planned for mid-April. Thank you for bearing with us, and we hope you accept our apologies.

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As you may know, we've been working on building Garmin Connect to replace MotionBased. We're making strides in improving performance and fixing bugs that we hope will enhance your experience. You've been a great customer and we wanted to thank you for making MotionBased the community that it is.

Unfortunately, our anticipated date to complete the migration of MotionBased to Garmin Connect is delayed until December 2008. We're making sure that Garmin Connect is faster, more stable, and provides an even better user experience than MotionBased. As we ramp up toward migrating over 4 million activities that you've contributed to the Trail Network, we are making fixes and new improvements to Garmin Connect every 4 weeks. In the meantime, out of respect for your patronage and in recognition of your patience, we've decided to grant additional privileges to paid MotionBased subscribers.

For those of you who have purchased an annual MotionBased Standard subscription before September 30, 2008, you will continue to have access to MotionBased Standard and be granted free access into Garmin Connect Plus for 2 years starting from your original expiration date. Afterwards, you will no longer receive any subscription charges from MotionBased and your account at Garmin Connect Plus will not auto-renew at the end of the free access period. Again, we apologize for the delays and thank you for your support.

Accenture Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon Swim Course

2008-06-07T14:04:48-07:00

Early tomorrow morning, hundreds of triathletes will leap from the Hornblower into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay to start the Accenture Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. Even for seasoned swimmers the swim course is intimidating. It’s far from the warm, calm lanes they train in. The Bay is cold, rough, and tidal. MotionBased athlete, Gary Emich, is no stranger to the challenges of The Bay. With over 500 “Escapes” (sans wetsuit), he’s the obvious choice for swim course director.

The date and start time of the Accenture Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon is perfectly aligned with the tidal flow of The Bay. Swimming from Alcatraz to the St. Francis Yacht Club is only possible during an ebb tide, when water is flowing out of The Bay. Earlier today, Gary did a pre-swim to test the currents and determine the best line for tomorrow’s race. Here's a look at his swim.

Racers will take comfort knowing that Gary is in the lead boat calling the shots. While he leads the pros on the fastest line, he has a watchful eye on those brining up the rear. It’s an intense hour for Gary while he manages the entire fleet of support boats and kayakers. Novices will aim for the yatch club, where the swim ends, while support kayakers corral them closer to shore. The current is especially strong near shore, so Gary likes his racers close to shore early. Almost every year, a couple racers miss the swim finish and do the run of shame down the beach.

If happen to see Gary, give him a pat on the back for an outstanding effort to ensure a safe race.

Good luck!

The Happy Time of Year

2008-05-14T15:16:55-07:00

It almost got away from us. It's Bike Month, and THIS WEEK is Bike to Work WEEK! Thankfully, Brad-the-engineer sent out a cool Google Map to the entire office so we could all plot out our path for tomorrow's main event, BIKE TO WORK DAY!

Every year the League of American Bicyclists encourages everyone to leave the car at home and hop on a bicycle to commute to work for the month of May. While it would be fantastic if we all biked to work for the entire month, that may not be possible for some. We encourage you all to get on your bike and ride to work tomorrow and Friday. Why both days? Well, we in the Bay Area like to do things a little differently for some reason (check out the Bay Area's own Bike to Work site). Our Bike to Work Day is Thursday, 15 May. The National Bike to Work Day is Friday, 16 May. So take advantage of this amazing weather and ride to work for the next 2 days. You may just get hooked and win an award!

We'll have the full update on our Bike to Work Day tomorrow!