These days, a runner has plenty of choices to track his workout, informations like the miles he ran, body fat loss, calories consumed, etc.
You can find many websites, smartphone applications and many other devices that can track your activity.

I’ve tried a few of these applications, but most of them are not worth paying attention to. But recently after a few feeds from my friends on facebook, I decided to try out the program they were using as their personal fitness coach. This is how I discovered RunKeeper. It’s a mobile fitness platform that leverages the location technology in smartphones to help runners and other fitness enthusiasts better track, measure, and improve their fitness training. Besides that, it’s fun, social, and helpful and has many fitness programs for any level.

The good thing is that we all love competition, and what’s better than competing with your friends? Runkeeper comes with a social ladder board, where you can see your results, achievements, and your rank among your friends using RunKeeper. Yes, achievements which are good way to motivate you. And besides that, you get professional fitness programs and reminders, so there’s no way you can miss any training session.

But wait, you want some more? No problem. You can get a “premium” version too. It’s called RunKeeper Elite. For a monthly or yearly paid plan, you: “Get more from RunKeeper.com and the RunKeeper mobile app with the premium RunKeeper Elite subscription. Enjoy live activity broadcasting, discounted Training Plans and advanced reports to track your training.”

I advice you to use in the beginning the free RunKeeper edition, because it features enough options to do your workouts very well.

What I like the most about the Elite plan is the Broadcast activities and races live feature, and the fact that your followers can see live where are you running and your results in real time.

Happy running!

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Smartphones, smart watches… how much smart tech do we have to have?

I don’t know of any peers that don’t have a cell phone. Of those that do, I don’t know of anyone with a clamshell or candy bar phone any longer. It’s all iOS, Android or Windows Phone from what I can tell, with a smattering of Blackberry flavors here and there. Recently, Ars Technica got their hands on a Pebble Smart Watch, and this sparked a bunch of debate among my friends –

• Is this the next big thing?

• Do I need one of these?

• Why do I need one of these?

• Where’s the value for something that costs almost $200 after tax?

These are all good questions. Here’s my take on the whole smart watch deal.

Checking the time on your phone is much like using a pocket watch. the same actions and paradigms apply in that regard.

The big deal with smart watches is the notifications your smartphone receives. A smart watch sitting on your wrist is going to vibrate or notify you of the incoming event. It’s not as easy to miss as the buzzing of your silenced phone might be. However, the thing I have to ask myself is where is the MUST have functionality. There’s a reason why smartphones are everywhere – they provide an essential piece in the new, always on, “I’m [tweeting] from the toilet in the new edition of my house,” totally 150% accessible, communications paradigm.

It used to be that if the person you were calling wasn’t home, the phone rang 10 times, you hung up, and you called back later. Then answering machines took over and my mother-in-law could fill up an entire 30 minute tape with messages. Then paging, two-way paging, email, text messages, occasional phone calls and then the “checking in from the potty in the new edition…” thing. Awesome.

the difference between the smartphone and the smart watch is that the phone provides the critical yet portable communications hub that most everyone has or feels they need. The smart watch may enhance that experience, but it doesn’t do much more than that; and I’m not certain that its design will support much more than JUST that.

getting your notifications may be important, especially if you’re talking about mission critical, work related emails, but you have to ask yourself, “do I REALLY need to know [someone's] exact location every time they do their business (what EVER that may be)?” do I have to get every text message, every email; or is it ok if I miss a few and pick them up later?

there’s something here… However, I’m not entirely certain what it is yet. But I’m not convinced that insuring that notifications are received/viewed is the primary reason or need for this type of device. Telling time – even an approximation of time – its [about] “a quarter after 5pm,” I can really live without.

Anything else it might do – like the Johnny Sokko video watch thing might be cool, but it’s not a must have feature. In fact, there’s not much else that a tool like this could do, aside from function as a remote for my iPhone while it plays audio (so I don’t have to pull the phone out of my jacket or bag), but even that can be handled by headphones…

Where are the must have uses, applications (not apps/programs) that a tool like this provides? That’s what’s going to make a tool like this successful. Unfortunately, I just don’t see the gaping hole, and just don’t know if this has any real staying power.

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Enough already, will ya?!  I want interoperability!

Attention computer vendors everywhere – I use your software tool it because it solves problems for me, not because it makes you money, or it looks cool, or any other reason other than it solves problems for me. So when you either don’t allow something to work OR if you reduce functionality – i.e. make something stop working that was previously working before, all you’re going to do in the long term is lose a customer.

Case in point – the latest update to the Mail, Calendar and People ModernUI app in Windows 8 removes Google Accounts from its syncable and supported accounts list. This is driving me nuts, because I spent a good 3 years in the Android camp before switching back to my iPhone. Unfortunately for me, my “master PIM account” is my Google Apps account.

This is a problem in an iPhone world because Google and Apple don’t’ work and play well together as they used to do. Both companies are busy having a “smartphone measuring” contest, trying to figure out whose smartphone is bigger, better, faster, etc.

I’ve got the same problem with Google and Microsoft over in the Windows 8 camp. Google recently removed Exchange ActiveSync support from its Google Apps suite. If you’re using a non-Google tool to sync PIM data, you may soon be out of luck. What this means is that if you have an Android Smartphone and a Windows 8 tablet, you can’t sync your contacts from Gmail to your Windows 8 tablet with Windows 8 Mail. An email program without your contacts in it is useless.

If you have an iPhone, you might be able to use CardDAV and CalDAV, but…oh yeah… Windows 8 doesn’t support those either. Apple is also dropping support of EAS from Mail.

So what we have here is a RETURN to the non-interoperability of 2007-2009 before both Google and Apple announced support for Exchange ActiveSync and everybody worked and played nice together.

From a vendor perspective, this is Google, Apple and Microsoft trying to lock users into their paid services. From a consumer perspective, this is a giant pain in the @$$.

Now, more than ever, until everyone decides that it’s politically correct to work and play well together, consumers must pick and choose their tools wisely. If you want all of your information to sync where and when you want it, you’re likely going to have to choose compatible tools.

In other words, due to the fact that it’s becoming increasingly harder to use off-vendor devices and service together, you aren’t going to be able to mix and match devices any longer. If you want to use an iPhone, you’re likely going to have to work with a Mac computer and an iPad tablet. If you have an Android smartphone, you’re going to be tied to Gmail/Google Apps and an Android tablet. Same thing for Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT.

All of these vendors have software and SaaS products to sell you and they want to insure that they hook you, and keep you in THEIR camp, in THEIR ecosystem. This is going to do nothing more than widen the gaps between vendors, their services and tools and firmly draw lines in the sand that users are going to have to cross.

This is going to create some very interesting opportunities for 3rd party developers who might be able to setup sync and consolidation services – think The Missing Sync and Plaxo – but both of those are having their own issues and problems to get around. All of this may do nothing more than narrow and eliminate choices for users as vendors like MS, Google and Apple try to lock them in. it’s going to be an interesting couple of years before this is all worked out. We may end up back with interoperability, but don’t think that it’s going to be for free… if it comes back, users are going to pay subscription and licensing fees.

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Compared with the very successful Galaxy S3, the brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 is by far the greatest smart phone from the market. Samsung raised once again the standard before any of its competitors did.

I don’t think they focused on very much on the case quality, because, as they say, the plastic won’t brake so easy as the glass does. So, it’s light, big and very fast. The display size is a bit bigger than the S III, and it’s now 5″. Also, the resolution was raised to Full HD 1920/1080 with Super Amoled display.

No Speed limit?

Well, it is a limit… But the good news is that is very high, and you have some awesome features. And the processor you either get an 1.9 GHz Quad Core, or an 1.6 GHz Octa Core, depending on the market you’re in. In my case, I would like the 1.9 Quad Core, because the Octa Core is quite a big energy consumer. Speaking of energy, the battery capacity is now bigger (2600 mAh) and they have constantly working on software tweaks to ensure you get the most of your battery.
The RAM memory is 2 GB and internal storage is 64GB and supports another 64 on SD-Card. Really, you can’t get more than that in a single phone! The phone cameras were also improved to 13 Megapixels rear-facing camera and 2-megapixels forward-facing camera. One particular new feature is that Samsung S4 allows you to take a photo or a video with both front and rear camera at the same time. This new feature is called by Samsung, Dual-Shot. Another cool feature is Cinema Photo, similar to Cinemagram, which lets you choose on piece of your photo to move, while keeping the others still.

Software improvements? Yes, there are plenty of great improvements. Samsung S4 is running the latest Android version, 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with other particular Samsung software.
Smart Scroll feature, allows you to scroll through websites by tilting your phone. The Smart Pause feature lets you control the screen with your eyes. The feature stops and starts a video based on whether you’re looking at the screen or not. This feature is similar with LG’s Smart Video feature. Also, if you’re watching a video and you put the phone down to do something else, video play will stop until you return and look at the screen.
The S Translate feature helps you translate your text messages or emails into nine different languages, using text or voice translation. The feature can also translate from both speech-text and text-to-speech.
With Air View you can hover your fingers over an email, S Planner, or image gallery to view a larger preview of content before selecting it, and the Air Gesture feature allows you to change a song, scroll through a web page, or answer a call by just waving your hand. Also this feature is awesome if you wear gloves, or your fingers are full of chocolate and you don’t wanna touch the phone.

Group Play – Now this is fun. You can share music, photos, videos and games with the people near you. You’re in a parking lot and you wanna turn the party ON? Transform the phones into a cool surround system and all the phones connected and playing the same song at once, will sure heat the things up!

So, Samsung is not focused on very much hardware improvements, because is already high-end, and they make their hardware to run spectacular with innovating software. All right, not all the features and softwares are original ideas, but they managed to gather all the cool features from many other phones, and set up an awesome engine under the new S4′s hood.

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Watch any futuristic film and you’re usually confronted with the Directors ideas of what future technology might look like.

If you’ve seen a computer display in a pair of glasses you might be forgiven for putting this in the realm of fiction but technology writers and experts are getting excited by Google Glass, an Android-powered head mounted computer display which Google say will be on the market by the end of 2013.Practically Google Glass operates on a similar level to a Smartphone or Tablet. Think of varied apps like maps or restaurant finders, a camera, email and internet surfing all with voice activation. All these feature with Google Glass. The different is the hands-free nature of the devices. The small device can sit on a pair of glasses and Google’s initial promo video’s give the feeling of text and information displayed right infront of your eyes whether snapping a picture or reading as message.

Google are saying the devices will be available to buy at the end of 2013 and prices seem to be around the $1500 mark, although no one is quite sure. There is a secretive and low key approach from Google that has got some people asking some questions. Recently a Google Glass appeared on eBay at a $16000 price. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin quickly spoke out that people should avoid these fake or counterfeit models. His TED seminar on the subject was again a little low key and he said that although a 2013 launch was likely there was still a lot of work to do on the product.

This doesn’t seem like an Apple-style reveal but rather a trickle down information cycle on this new product – with the hope that customers will not be able to restrain themselves when the Google Glass is finally launched. Some people have been able to get hold of a Google Glass as product testers. Through an application procedure on Google+ members of the public have been able to apply to try out the devices. Using a #ifihadaglass hashtag you can say what you would do with a Google Glass in your hands. The best ones get the chance to try it out – but apply quickly this is only running for a few more days. When thinking about Google Glass the key question would seem to be around it’s likely impact.

Do we really need a computer built into our glasses? Other than looking cool there seem to be some great benefits. Imagine a surgeon relaying his first person perspective of an operation to medical students online. This immediate capturing of life events or the ability to see through someone’s eyes is incredibly attractive. But concerns exist around Google’s ongoing collecting of data about us as we search. Will what we see and where we go be added to this? Are the days of face recognition and of real-time customer information even closer? We’ll have to wait till the end of the year to find out.

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2CFILM, a newly founded film company, recently launched its first project. Named APP, the project is actually a motion picture that involves the usage of your mobile as an additional screen. Your device will be fully synchronized with the movie in order to receive extra content while watching the movie in your beloved cinema.

APP will be the first film in a series of similar titles produced by 2CFILM to feature this technology. Good news is that this technology will be brought by an application based on  SyncNow^® digital watermarking developed by Service2Media and Civolution for iPhone and Android devices.

The movie is about obviously an app that becomes autonomous and dangerous. Nothing new on the narrative side, but the good thing is that the audience will be able to follow a parallel storyline via the app on their mobile phone while still watching the movie. Overall you will get a new dimension of the movie right in your pocket. APP is due for release in the Netherlands on 24 February 2013, and will be distributed by Just Film Distribution.

The partnership between 2CFILM, Service2Media and Civolution  will not end here. They will bring this technology not only in cinemas, but also on DVD’s, television and online TV channels. As Edvard van ‘t Wout, Founder, 2CFILM, states:

“App is our first step on to the international stage with our new approach to film, creating commercially-successful films that fit with how today’s audiences consume content and which resonate with the modern world.”

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Android has thousands of useful apps to socialise, entertain and help with just about anything you can think off. Until now, they have been exclusively available on an Android phone or tablet.

BlueStacks App Player brings together your Android apps on your desktop with the rest of your software onto your Windows or Mac.

Apps launch on your screen quickly, filling the full screen of your computer or laptop. They often also run faster and smoother than on your phone when run on your more powerful Windows or Mac device.

Most apps are easy to control with your mouse and laptop, but some games designed specifically for touch screen devices become more difficult to control on your Windows or Mac.

All your Apps are organised in an attractive and easy to use interface, similar to that of Apple’s popular iOS software. It’s simple to organize your apps into folders and launch the app you’re looking for quickly.
If you don’t own an Android device, the App Player allows you to try out all the features available before you buy a new phone or tablet.

Whilst the software is one of the first on the market to allow you to run Android apps on your Windows or Mac, it doesn’t replace an Android device. There are a few bugs in the software, most notably one that recognised upward scrolls of the mouse as a tap, which will hopefully be improved over time.

Download BlueStacks App Player for Windows | Download BlueStacks App Player for Mac

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Weeks before the official launch of iPhone 5, I was telling to myself: “AT&T is going to make me wait the entire 3-4 week delivery time”.

And that’s because back in the day, I stood in line and bought an AT&T locked, iPhone 3G. I had a very serious love-hate relationship with the device. It dropped nearly every call I was on at least once. Finally in October of 2007,  I remember being on the phone with a writing partner trying to discuss a couple stories we were writing. In a 20 minute time span, my iPhone dropped the call 11 times. I was sitting at my desk and had a 3-bar signal.  My writing partner was on a land line.

I had to ask myself – as a veteran product reviewer – would I put up with that kind of behavior from any other device?  The answer was a clear and unequivocated no.  I put the word out that I was selling the device.  It sold in less than 10 minutes.

We left AT&T; and I got into Android devices at that point, and were happy for a while.  The iPhone experience is so compelling, however,  that I eventually ended up buying an unlocked iPhone 4S and put it on the T-Mobile network and have lived there for the past year or so.  The device and the smartphone experience it brings is just that good.

My wife is due for a phone upgrade on T-Mo; and my daughter and I have unlocked iPhones. I did the math and decided that I could literally cut my cell bill in half by moving back to AT&T. I priced my unlocked iPhones for resale by Gazelle and found out I could part with both unlocked devices for the cost of 2 AT&T locked iPhone 5′s, so effectively, I get three brand new iPhones for the price of one.

I ordered them on 22-Sep-12, the day AFTER they were released in the US.  I was quoted a delivery time of 3-4 weeks.  And yes, I had to wait a lot.

Based on what I’ve heard about FoxConn quality issues, strikes and the complexity of the device to manufacture, I can only conclude that the rumors we’ve heard are true.  I was told by the salesman at my local AT&T store that other, single orders of 16GB iPhones placed AFTER mine have beaten their delivery estimates and have been activated. But not mine.

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