bobped

Got a response from prod support regarding updated user guide, here is a link: http://coursefinder.uprogps.com/medi...guide_V1.6.pdf

Haven't had a chance to surf around any more today regarding other posts on 4.0, but just wanted to send an update after my round today. I was able to use the shot tracking features, pretty much acts as I had hoped, where you used to just hit mark and then mark again when you got to your shot (to see how far you hit it, and mark start of next shot), now when you first hit mark, it asks you to select a club. Then when you get to your shot, you hit the button again and there are some choices there, i.e. you can tell it you're about to hit another shot or have reached the green or are Done. So you can enter another club, ad nauseum. Once you hit the green, you can't enter any more shots for that hole. I couldn't figure out how to get it to keep my score and stats, though. Didn't really try too hard, probably just missed something easy. There is a configuration screen where you tell it what aspects of shot tracking you want to enable, and I enabled them all... At the end of the round, I was able to view the stats, could see exactly how many shots I hit with each club and min/max/avg distance. Callaway has not yet updated their manuals and guides to reflect this new feature, so I emailed prod support to find out when they plan to do so. Prior to yesterday, it had been a few weeks since I had been to their website, so perhaps I just happened to catch it on the day they first offered shot tracking. Not used to being on the bleeding edge of such things... Interested in hearing how others are finding the new shot tracking features...

ok, first update. I was able to easily enable the scoring plus feature, you can either pay $20 or buy with course credits. I purchased another course and re-sync'ed, and now can see the new shot tracking features on the device. The new 4.0 version has a different top-level look and feel, will take some getting used to after working with the old one for a while, but looks nice. The new top-level display allows you to preview a course, and while previewing you can play around with the shot tracking features. I did that for a few holes, looks pretty simple, so will give it a try at the course tomorrow. One thing I noticed right away is that it seems all the tracking is local to the upro, i.e. it doesn't come with a PC software package to complement it, or integrate with any 3rd party software like intelligolf, as far as I can tell. But you can see the stats as you're playing, which is pretty cool...

I just went to uPro website to download a new course and it seems the day we've been waiting for has arrived without much fanfare. They now have available version 4.0, and you can enable a new feature they're calling "Scoring Plus" for an additional $20. There are a few screen shots and a small description of the feature on their website. I just googled a bit and haven't found any mention of it anywhere. Very surprising, you'd think Callaway would be bragging loud and clear on this, as the first GPS device to have shot tracking/recording capabilities, it would be a major selling point, I'd think. I for one have been waiting > 1 year for it. I was going to wait until I heard from others regarding the feature, but since there is no sign of anyone even knowing about it, I think I'll go ahead and buy it and post here some thoughts after my round tomorrow. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, anyone else using Scoring Plus yet?

Three months ago I bought Callaway X-forged irons with ProjectX 5.5 shafts, which were recommended by a Callaway fitter at a demo day. After a couple weeks I replaced them with S300's at a more sophisticated (launch monitor-based) Callaway fitting session. The PX's were lighter but stiffer, so I felt like I had to rip them to get the same feel from the S300's, which is what I had been playing the past few years with my old clubs. I think I hit the PX's a bit further than the S300's, but the combination of lighter/stiffer resulted in me getting pretty quick at the top and losing shots right and left. And the feel was just not right for me. I'm much happier with the S300's, much tighter dispersion pattern. My 6i swing speed is 80-85. But I have a buddy who had the exact opposite experience, replaced S300's with PX 6.0's and loves them. He has a bit higher swing speed than I. BTW, Callaway was cool about replacing the shafts, even after two weeks of playing with the PX's. No cost, but I did have to give them the irons and go without for a few days, because the irons were also custom-sized/bent. The Callaway fitter said it's pretty common for guys to try the PX's and then go back to S300's.

I'm 49 and I've had great results from a variety of work-outs. There are several golf-specific training books out now written by trainers who work with pro golfers (I've picked up multiple via Amazon.com) and also the TPI web site is fantastic. The stuff that has benefited me most are flexibility, mobility, stability adn core strength training. Much less shoulder, back and hip pain, much more able to get my body to make a solid swing. IN my experience, aerobic training definitely also helps with durability and staying fresh until last hole.

Got an update from uPro product support, with respect to voice recognition, shot tracking and scorekeeping, indicates late '09 release of software updates for these features: "When the uPro was originally designed, the hardware was designed to include all the physical requirements that were necessary for current and future planned features for the uPro. At this time, there are not any plans to upgrade the physical device, while the software will be upgraded as necessary. Optional software features and updates will be 100% software based including Voice Recognition, Shot Tracking, and Scorekeeping, due out Late 2009."

I just surfed around Callaway's upro website, it has a nice description of the GO, along with a comparison with original. I haven't seen the GO in person, but it seems instead of flyover mode and sat imagery, it has an enhanced view of the green, which looks pretty cool. But I've used the sat images to assess layups on unfamilar courses and it has saved me strokes, so that alone is worth the extra $$. As a side note, I'm a bit miffed by lack of shot tracking and voice recognition. I received email from support back in early spring, and they said they were in final stages of testing. My guess is that the entire GPS device market is assessing the impact of smart phone-based golf GPS programs and trying to figure out how they're going to continue to compete. Can't imagine it will be easy. Meanwhile, upro helped me realize a personal best 74 last week-end. LOVE IT!!!

On the device, if you go to the Settings menu, then click on "Info", you see the Version #. Mine is 1.30.30.30.30, which I think probably means 3.0, as kfowler indicates. We've heard they'll be charging for some upcoming features (eg. voice recognition, shot tracking), so not sure how they'll handle firmware upgrades. But thus far, the one upgrade that has occurred since I bought mine was indeed automatically done when I sync'ed after buying another course. Hope that helps...

Thansk, Certfi__able, any idea how long that's been on the FAQ? Here is an excerpt from an email I received from Sean Lightfoot from uPro tech support on Feb 15. Actually now that I re-read, I think the question I asked was whether or not we'd need to buy a new device to get the additional features, and Sean indicated the updates would be via firmware, i.e. that the current device was built to support the voice recognition and shot tracking features. I didn't actually ask if they'd charge us for new firmware updates/features. That probably explains my confusion... I used a PDA with touchscreen for shot tracking before, not sure how they're going to do it with the simple device they have now! Very curious to see... Thank you for contacting uPro technical support. In regards to your question below, any up coming modules to be released for the uPro will simply be firmware updates. So in other words, any existing device will be able to accommodate shot tracking, voice recognition, etc. We truly appreciate the kind words you pass along and believe you (and hopefully your buddy) have made the right choice on selecting uPro, the golf GPS unlike any other. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask.

I contacted them last fall about shot tracking, etc., and they indicated "spring", so they're a bit late with that. I'm assuming the Callaway acquisition probably has had an impact in some way. mruseless, my understanding is that this will simply be a free download, i.e. no cost for the software upgrade.

Yes and yes. You can scroll to a spot, see how far it is from there, and then scroll to another spot (which may or may not be the green), and it will tell you how far from you to the first spot and then from the first spot to the second spot. You can use it to assess layup spots, but frankly I haven't used it much on the course, I guess mostly because I'm pretty good at math, and since I know how far I am from the green and how far to a proposed layup position I can usually do that math quicker in my head than fiddling a few secs with the uPro.

Yes, it comes with a 1GB SD card, which they say holds 50 courses (I'm only up to 6 myself, but next season I plan to get that into the twenties or thirties). You can buy additional SD cards directly from upro (or presumably cheaper elsewhere), and you can store 50 per card, but only one card can be used at a time. Once you purchase a course, it remains on your personal course list on their website, and you can easily control which courses go into your "playlist" (by adding to the playlist or removing from the playlist), which is the list that is synched to your upro device. Works very well.

I saw your post and ran to the upro web site, which already has the Callaway logo on it, so that certainly confirms this, and I agree this is very good news. So did they tell you whether the voice recognition and shot tracking would be available via firmware update (i.e. new software download) or you have to buy a new unit? I'm trying to imagine how they could support data entry for shot tracking with the current hardware configuration. I use Intelligolf for shot tracking, it runs on my PDA, and is pretty easy to use, but I stopped using it on course when I got the upro, because it was too many devices to carry around and I looked like a super-geek! But Intelligolf requires PDA stylus-sensitive screen, for selecting club, which shot it is, etc. Any details on how the upro shot tracking will work?

Thanks for the quick reply. After I posted I read what I had written and realized answers to these questions weren't really going to sway my decision, so I went down to golfsmith and bought a uPro last night, and stayed up late last night getting it set up, so I could use it for my round earlier today. I was very pleased with the unit's performance (although my round was impacted by sleep depravation!), here are some more detailed notes of my experience and thoughts. BTW, I am a 47 year old software development manager, working for Intuit, maker of Quicken, TurboTax, Quickbooks, etc., so I know my way around software-based products, and am a bit of a gadget lover as well (proud to say I actually own almost all the products that were finalists on "Fore Inventors Only" on the golf channel). I of course own computers, PDAs, cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, TIVO, etc. And I have been using Intelligolf for a number of years also, so you get an idea of my background... Anywho... Here are my opinions on ugolf after 1 round: 1. The sync/course download process is nerve wracking, good thing you dont' need to do that every day! I have cable modem with > 10 Mb/s download speeds, but it still took almost 30 minutes to do my first sync, using 4 courses. I was hoping others who had reported slower speeds were perhaps using slower network connections. The files are actually not terribly large, should download in seconds, not minutes, so not sure what takes so much time. Maybe they'll fix that... 2. The flyover video for the course I played today was a bit faded and difficult to read in intense late morning/early afternoon sunlight here in San Diego. I could see the numbers ok, but it was really hard to get a sense of the layout of the hole. It seemed the image was taken at a time of year when the fairway was pretty brown, so the fairway and rough blended together. And in intense sunlight the image was a bit bland. and the screen is awfully small. But it at least gave me a basic idea of what the hole was about, including where all the trouble is. Another nit is that it doesn't help you get any sense of slope, i.e. where there are hills on the hole. In San Diego, most courses have interesting elevation changes, and the satellite images of course aren't capable of showing any of that. Not sure how to solve that one... 3. I'm not crazy about how the mark feature works, will have to play with this some more. It looks like you get only one chance to measure distance with the mark feature, i.e. you push the button to mark start and then push button again to mark end. I couldn't figure out how to, say, use the mark feature to measure the tee shot distance to both my ball and my playing partner's (I guess they want my buddy to buy his own uPro if he wants shot distance measurement!). I like to track distances of all my shots (using Intelligolf), so this feature was a "must have" for me. 4. I wish it had Intelligolf features, i.e shot tracking and score keeping. I have been tracking a number of statistics of my golf game the past few years, using Intelligolf on a PDA. Now I jot down notes on a spare scorecard, including for each shot the club used, the distance the shot went, fairways hit, GIR, etc. So all the uPro does for this is supply the shot distance, which is helpful, but it's tedious having to write it all down, when the uPro could be tracking all that for me, and then hand-entering it into Intelligolf when I get home. I've heard they're working on support for scorekeeping and shot tracking, guess we'll see how that goes, I imagine it would significantly complicate the user interface, so am sure they're taking some time to figure all that out. 5. Need to get used to the Pro Mode, found myself mostly using Basic Mode, including hazard view and green view. The Pro Mode images were difficult to interpret at times, but I think I'll just need to get used to it. I like how in Pro Mode it can quickly switch between 3 different views. Need to get used to the pan/zoom, felt a bit self-conscious slowing down my group to play around with that stuff. Didn't like the fact that you can't use Mark or advance to next hole with one button push when in Pro mode. That's pretty much it for now, will post in future if I gain further insights or have anything to share.

Hi guys, I saw the uPro up close during a demo day at a local driving range, was very impressed, and I'm leaning toward buying one (the only thing stopping me has been dedicating enough time to do a thorough analysis of all available GPS, to make sure I wouldn't be missing anything if I did buy it). Here in San Diego my buddy and I take the variety approach (btw, doesn't work with women, so don't try it!), we basically play a different course each week. Luckily for us, uPro appears to have mapped pretty much every course in Southern California, and the two that I've played that they haven't mapped are scheduled for next month. Sweet! I do have four quick questions which I didn't see discussed on this thread, hoping one of you current users can answer them. First, on the uPro online course finder ( http://coursefinder.uprogps.com ), there is a column titled "Estimated Availability", and the values I've seen in this field include "Version 1.0", "Version 1.1", "Requests:1" and then calendar dates (eg. "11/25/2008") for the courses scheduled to be mapped. I was wondering what the "Version" info is, is that the version of that specific course map, i.e. used to track changes in the course maps, as they evolve over time, or does it refer to a version of uPro software that is needed to use the map, or something else? And does "Requests:1" mean that only one person has requested it? I didn't see many of these, and all the ones I did see indicated only 1, no larger numbers. Second, there is also a "Rating" column on the course finder, but I haven't seen anything but 5 stars on the courses I've looked up. Are there any other valid values? What does 5 starts mean? Any idea what data they use to fill in the "Rating" column? Is it based on user opinion, uPro's opinion on the quality fo the satellite images, or something else? Third, Sky Caddie touts this Intelligreen feature, which looks pretty nice, as it updates the distances to the front/center/back of the green, based on your angle to it. Have any of you rated the uPro's abilities with respect to this feature? Does the Sky Caddie have something uPro doesn't here? As a single handicapper hoping to head toward scratch (on schedule for my 5 seconds of fame during the first round of a qualifier for the senior tour in ~3 years!), I think one of the most critical aspects of GPS is the ability to plan smart shots around the greens (key is sometimes missing to the right spot on the green, even when your approach is from an interesting place), and that Intelligreen feature looks like it would do quite nicely. Thoughts? Finally, has anyone done any research on the company itself, and with this market already saturated a bit, whether or not it will be here even next season, let alone 5 years from now? I've heard bad things about SkyCaddie, but with Natalie Gulbis, Butch Harmon and others touting that brand on TV the company itself is clearly stable, and seems likely to be around a while, bad customer service or not. BTW, I am not personally affiliated with Sky Caddie, or know anyone who is, so sorry if I'm coming off sounding that way... I have no bias toward any parcitular GPS (although the SkyCaddie would definitely come home with me if Natalie came with it!). Thanks in advance for any thoughts!