Free-for-all
Boy, do I have an app. My daughter started us on it, and after seeing how it worked for both her and my husband, I decided to give it a try. It's called MyFitnessPal, and it's helped us do something none of us have really been able to manage on our own: lose weight.
It's no miracle app. It's a calorie counter, really, when you get right down to it. But it's so easy. That's what makes it great. If I remember the numbers correctly, it has over 3 MILLION foods in its database. You can scan them in by barcode, you can look up restaurant food, you can create your own foods - all kinds of ways to track the data. Like any food diary, its success completely depends on how diligent you are in tracking every bite you eat. But doing it on your smartphone makes it so convenient that it takes little effort, and I'm convinced that's why it works. Mine is generally close at hand, so every time food goes in my mouth, out comes the phone and in goes the entry. I'm getting a lot bettet at estimating what my intake is, and I think that's key to long term success, along with being far more conscious about what I'm eating. I'm missing cheese... I still eat some, but nearly as much as I'd like!
The app asks you for your starting weight, your goal, and how fast you want to to get there. Then it sets a daily calorie limit. When you enter your foods, it keeps a running tally of how many you have left. You add in exercise and it takes those extra calories earned into account.
I do have some quibbles about the exercise portion. I think some of them are really too, too generous in how many calories they say you've burned. So I adjust my minutes to get to a more realistic total. I must not be too far off, as I'm losing at the rate I set. I didn't have a lot to lose - just 10 pounds - but I've been unsuccessful in previous attempts over the years. I'm seeing numbers on the scale now I never thought I'd see again! And my husband weighs less than he has in more years than I'm going to mention here.
I've started a few more people on this app, and they seem to like it, too.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
23 Mobile Things: Thing 22
Discovering Apps
I tried out Droid of the Day. There's some fun stuff out there, no doubt about it. I even found some I thought I'd like. But I'm married to a tech guy. So maybe I'm a bit more cautious than most about downloading stuff when I don't know anything about it. How do I know there's not a Trojan horse hiding somewhere in that free app? I don't think it's possible that whoever puts out DOTD can dig deeply enough into the code for any given app to make sure there's no malware lurking. I'm also pretty protective of my privacy, and don't feel like letting any little app know all the things they seem to want to know.
So I looked at these for a few days, but decided to uninstall it. I'll take my app downloading a bit more slowly, and only download those I'm at least somewhat sure won't come back to haunt me.
I tried out Droid of the Day. There's some fun stuff out there, no doubt about it. I even found some I thought I'd like. But I'm married to a tech guy. So maybe I'm a bit more cautious than most about downloading stuff when I don't know anything about it. How do I know there's not a Trojan horse hiding somewhere in that free app? I don't think it's possible that whoever puts out DOTD can dig deeply enough into the code for any given app to make sure there's no malware lurking. I'm also pretty protective of my privacy, and don't feel like letting any little app know all the things they seem to want to know.
So I looked at these for a few days, but decided to uninstall it. I'll take my app downloading a bit more slowly, and only download those I'm at least somewhat sure won't come back to haunt me.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
23 Mobile Things: Thing 6
Creating and Editing Documents
I really wanted to try SignNow. While not a frequent occurence, every once in a while it would be most useful to have access to an electronic signature. But then I started to wonder about just how secure my signature would be. I'm pretty protective of my information, and decided I didn't want to take the risk of putting my signature in an app I doubted I'd use a lot. And while you can uninstall the app, I can't imagine that SignNow doesn't, somewhere in the depths of their data, keep a copy of it for a long time indeed.
I'm not quite sure of the audience for QuickOffice, the app I ended up trying. While I really like the ability to access documents in my GoogleDrive account, they're already accessible through (what a shock!) the GoogleDrive app. No need to duplicate that.
To my mind and fingers, creating files in QuickOffice is 1) too difficult on such a small screen and 2) too limited in the options available.
Too difficult - this would probably work far better on a tablet than a phone (can you tell I'm not a member of the generation that pretty much grew up texting?). But unless the tablet didn't have the software (and those I've seen pretty much do), why work with this version instead of the full one?
Too limited - yes, you can put together a passable document or presentation using this. And it would do in a pinch. But they're pale imitations of the full versions. Word only has about 6 fonts, and I couldn't figure out how to highlight words to change the font, or bold it or whatever. Again, probably far easier on a tablet. PowerPoint doesn't have any animations or transitions - at least that I saw. It had only one theme, too, without any color or graphics at all. That made the little presentation I made very, very bland.
So maybe in a pinch - but I think I'll stick to my laptop or work computer for ease of creation and available options.
I really wanted to try SignNow. While not a frequent occurence, every once in a while it would be most useful to have access to an electronic signature. But then I started to wonder about just how secure my signature would be. I'm pretty protective of my information, and decided I didn't want to take the risk of putting my signature in an app I doubted I'd use a lot. And while you can uninstall the app, I can't imagine that SignNow doesn't, somewhere in the depths of their data, keep a copy of it for a long time indeed.
I'm not quite sure of the audience for QuickOffice, the app I ended up trying. While I really like the ability to access documents in my GoogleDrive account, they're already accessible through (what a shock!) the GoogleDrive app. No need to duplicate that.
To my mind and fingers, creating files in QuickOffice is 1) too difficult on such a small screen and 2) too limited in the options available.
Too difficult - this would probably work far better on a tablet than a phone (can you tell I'm not a member of the generation that pretty much grew up texting?). But unless the tablet didn't have the software (and those I've seen pretty much do), why work with this version instead of the full one?
Too limited - yes, you can put together a passable document or presentation using this. And it would do in a pinch. But they're pale imitations of the full versions. Word only has about 6 fonts, and I couldn't figure out how to highlight words to change the font, or bold it or whatever. Again, probably far easier on a tablet. PowerPoint doesn't have any animations or transitions - at least that I saw. It had only one theme, too, without any color or graphics at all. That made the little presentation I made very, very bland.
So maybe in a pinch - but I think I'll stick to my laptop or work computer for ease of creation and available options.
23 Mobile Things: Thing 20
Games
I tried out Take Ten!, as it looked to be more of a logic kind of puzzle than one that relied on speed or excellent hand/eye coordination. While I love games, I'm not into video gaming, in large part because I find the rushing necessary to complete a task in a given time most stressful. I thought having to pair up numbers to clear the screen would be fun.
Not so much.
For one thing, there's a time limit. For another, from what I saw in the few games I played, there's often no way to win. The game presents you with several lines of numbers. The object is to clear the screen, either by pairing identical numbers, or adding two numbers together to get to 10. Those numbers must be next to each other, either horizontally or vertically, or only separated by blank spaces. If you get stuck, the game will give you a clue - if there's one to be had. If not, your options are to quit, add more rows, or shuffle the existing numbers. I tried adding more lines, but not the shuffle. I didn't come close to winning. When I stopped, I realized my shoulders had risen to ear level in the 5 or 10 minutes I'd been playing! I've left it on my phone for now, but rather doubt I'll be doing much with it.
I see so many people on Facebook who spend all kinds of time playing Candy Crush or some such game. Frankly, it gets annoying, to see all the posts asking for one thing or another, or proclaiming the level reached.
Perhaps I'll look for some other game - maybe crossword puzzles, where I can take my time...
I tried out Take Ten!, as it looked to be more of a logic kind of puzzle than one that relied on speed or excellent hand/eye coordination. While I love games, I'm not into video gaming, in large part because I find the rushing necessary to complete a task in a given time most stressful. I thought having to pair up numbers to clear the screen would be fun.
Not so much.
For one thing, there's a time limit. For another, from what I saw in the few games I played, there's often no way to win. The game presents you with several lines of numbers. The object is to clear the screen, either by pairing identical numbers, or adding two numbers together to get to 10. Those numbers must be next to each other, either horizontally or vertically, or only separated by blank spaces. If you get stuck, the game will give you a clue - if there's one to be had. If not, your options are to quit, add more rows, or shuffle the existing numbers. I tried adding more lines, but not the shuffle. I didn't come close to winning. When I stopped, I realized my shoulders had risen to ear level in the 5 or 10 minutes I'd been playing! I've left it on my phone for now, but rather doubt I'll be doing much with it.
I see so many people on Facebook who spend all kinds of time playing Candy Crush or some such game. Frankly, it gets annoying, to see all the posts asking for one thing or another, or proclaiming the level reached.
Perhaps I'll look for some other game - maybe crossword puzzles, where I can take my time...
23 Mobile Things: Thing 15
Infographics
I was kind of stuck on this one. I have an Android phone. Three of the four listed apps work with Apple products or tablets only. The fourth, Infographics Hub, isn't compatible with my device!
So I just ended up going to the website and looking around. It can be kind of fun, but it shares the pitfall of all things Internet: Anyone can post to it. And "anyone" isn't always right - either through ignorance or to push a particular point of view. And "anyone" is sometimes clueless about sentence structure and/or grammar.
A prime example:
I was kind of stuck on this one. I have an Android phone. Three of the four listed apps work with Apple products or tablets only. The fourth, Infographics Hub, isn't compatible with my device!
So I just ended up going to the website and looking around. It can be kind of fun, but it shares the pitfall of all things Internet: Anyone can post to it. And "anyone" isn't always right - either through ignorance or to push a particular point of view. And "anyone" is sometimes clueless about sentence structure and/or grammar.
A prime example:
Hoaxes that fooled the world
Internet is probably the biggest venue when it comes to staging a
hoax. The fact is hoaxes have been around before even the dawn of cyberspace,
before the Internet when elaborate scams and deceptions were not known. But we
still fall for them at one time or another. Despite it lacks the one thing
called the truth, they still manage to be the biggest trolls in human history.
The following infographic breaks down some of history’s best known
hoaxes.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm immediately skeptical of anything this poorly written. Maybe that's not fair, but that's the way it is. I'm not quite sure what's meant by "the biggest trolls in human history." This one, though, at least listed sources! I saw a few for wedding to-do lists, and they seemed to be created by businesses connected with weddings. That's fine - that's a way to get customers. But I wonder how many viewers of the infographic look to see just who created it, and how that might slant the information presented.
Using this app regularly would mean having your b.s. radar going at full capacity, and making sure you checked facts somewhere else if it were something you might want to actually rely on.
23 Mobile Things: Thing 18
Education
For this thing, I chose the Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus because I love words and learning their meanings and origins. I find it deplorable how so many people in the US have about three adjectives to their name: cool, awesome and sucks. Our language has such richness, and I try to do what I can to support that.
The app was OK. I found the idea of connecting a word to synonyms, etc. intriguing, as I sometimes struggle to come up with more than one way of saying something to avoid the sin of monotony in writing. I did not see any words listed with synonyms, and at least a few of them could have. For example, I looked at picture. One of the listed meaning described motion pictures. Well, shouldn't movie be listed as a synonym in that instance? Or film, flick, something? I didn't see any etymology in the definitions, either, and that's very often important in learning a word. It's frequently what I'm looking for!
I must confess I had to go look up definitions for holonym, meronym, hypernym and hyponym! (There's a hint for the creators - I doubt everyone downloading this app knows them.) I think I'd have a hard time keeping all the "h" words straight... Once I did that, the app made a whole lot more sense. But it just seems to lack something. For example, the definition of "picumnus" is that it's a genus of Picidae. OK... I know genus means we're talking biology, but what's Picidae? That word isn't a link, so I had to look it up separately. Turns out it's a kind of woodpecker. That would have been really good to know, without having to take the extra step.
I think this app has a lot of potential, but leaves something to be desired at this time.
For this thing, I chose the Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus because I love words and learning their meanings and origins. I find it deplorable how so many people in the US have about three adjectives to their name: cool, awesome and sucks. Our language has such richness, and I try to do what I can to support that.
The app was OK. I found the idea of connecting a word to synonyms, etc. intriguing, as I sometimes struggle to come up with more than one way of saying something to avoid the sin of monotony in writing. I did not see any words listed with synonyms, and at least a few of them could have. For example, I looked at picture. One of the listed meaning described motion pictures. Well, shouldn't movie be listed as a synonym in that instance? Or film, flick, something? I didn't see any etymology in the definitions, either, and that's very often important in learning a word. It's frequently what I'm looking for!
I must confess I had to go look up definitions for holonym, meronym, hypernym and hyponym! (There's a hint for the creators - I doubt everyone downloading this app knows them.) I think I'd have a hard time keeping all the "h" words straight... Once I did that, the app made a whole lot more sense. But it just seems to lack something. For example, the definition of "picumnus" is that it's a genus of Picidae. OK... I know genus means we're talking biology, but what's Picidae? That word isn't a link, so I had to look it up separately. Turns out it's a kind of woodpecker. That would have been really good to know, without having to take the extra step.
I think this app has a lot of potential, but leaves something to be desired at this time.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
23 Mobile Things: Thing 19
Hobbies
I was prepared to love MyGarden. I do a ton of gardening, and have several different kinds of gardens: Veggie, a big bed of mostly perennials, some annual beds and a large native garden. Some of it's sun, some of it's shade - it's all over the place and takes up a pretty large amount of my time during the growing season.
But I didn't love MyGarden. I didn't even like MyGarden. The plant information is so incredibly limited. It gives no climate information beyond "needs protection." Well, what on earth does that mean? There are plants that are perennials in the southern US that are annuals here in Minnesota. I noticed a number of the gardeners are in the UK. Well, there's not much that's a perennial there that's also one here! We hardly have daffodils blooming in February. I remember visiting southern England one year and staying at a lovely home with beautiful, expansive gardens. In talking to the owner, she said she never watered anything but the pots, feeling that if the plants couldn't survive without water, there wasn't much point in having them. She had had a grand total of 12 FROSTS the previous winter - not freezes, but frosts. That soft, mild climate is a far cry from here, where the frost went several feet into the ground and we had 50+ nights below zero (F, not C!) this past year, and we'll likely have long stretches in the 90s this summer - if it ever gets here...
I also didn't care for the way it described plants. All hostas were lumped together, with heights ranging from (I think) 20-70 cm. Well, I have hostas, and the range in size is huge! Some get barely 5 inches high, while others are over 2 feet - and I know of cultivars that get 6 feet across. Some will take sun, some won't, there's a lot of color variation... You get the idea. A good app would differentiate cultivars.
I had this app on my phone for about 15 minutes. I wish it were better. Maybe I'll look for another one...
I was prepared to love MyGarden. I do a ton of gardening, and have several different kinds of gardens: Veggie, a big bed of mostly perennials, some annual beds and a large native garden. Some of it's sun, some of it's shade - it's all over the place and takes up a pretty large amount of my time during the growing season.
But I didn't love MyGarden. I didn't even like MyGarden. The plant information is so incredibly limited. It gives no climate information beyond "needs protection." Well, what on earth does that mean? There are plants that are perennials in the southern US that are annuals here in Minnesota. I noticed a number of the gardeners are in the UK. Well, there's not much that's a perennial there that's also one here! We hardly have daffodils blooming in February. I remember visiting southern England one year and staying at a lovely home with beautiful, expansive gardens. In talking to the owner, she said she never watered anything but the pots, feeling that if the plants couldn't survive without water, there wasn't much point in having them. She had had a grand total of 12 FROSTS the previous winter - not freezes, but frosts. That soft, mild climate is a far cry from here, where the frost went several feet into the ground and we had 50+ nights below zero (F, not C!) this past year, and we'll likely have long stretches in the 90s this summer - if it ever gets here...
I also didn't care for the way it described plants. All hostas were lumped together, with heights ranging from (I think) 20-70 cm. Well, I have hostas, and the range in size is huge! Some get barely 5 inches high, while others are over 2 feet - and I know of cultivars that get 6 feet across. Some will take sun, some won't, there's a lot of color variation... You get the idea. A good app would differentiate cultivars.
I had this app on my phone for about 15 minutes. I wish it were better. Maybe I'll look for another one...
Thursday, May 8, 2014
23 Mobile Things: Thing 13
Presentations
I chose to try out Deck. I can't say I was all that impressed. It was reasonably easy to use, but it's so incredibly limited. As an example, there are only 3 free formats. That's not many. I designed a four slide show about different kinds of lava - because I had pictures of several kinds already on my phone, making the selection process simple. It was easy enough to create the slide, but I noticed I often had to tap several times to get the text box for the slide to open. It should go with one. I'm not sure what it's called, but the programming that controls text entry needs a lot of work. It doesn't capitalize first letters in sentences. It doesn't work with the feature on my device that lets me run my finger over consecutive letters to create words (I can't remember what that's called, but I use it constantly), so it doesn't make suggestions as you go along, either.
The actual slide show was cute. I liked the way fingers moved the sticky notes around, and then the pictures enlarged when you clicked on the next arrow. But it certainly lacks the versatility of PowerPoint. You can't choose transistions or animations, you can't change fonts - you're just stuck with what they come up with for formats. And it's just so much easier to work on a larger screen! It might be better on a tablet than a smartphone.
I'm going to do a program in June with teens using something called Instafeed. It's based off Instagram. Users tag photos with a custom hashtag, and Instafeed instantly (go figure...) puts them all in a slideshow. There's a bit of customization available, but for a teen photo scavenger hunt, the big thing is just for teens to be able to see all the pictures taken. I'm sure they can view the presentation on their phones, too.
I chose to try out Deck. I can't say I was all that impressed. It was reasonably easy to use, but it's so incredibly limited. As an example, there are only 3 free formats. That's not many. I designed a four slide show about different kinds of lava - because I had pictures of several kinds already on my phone, making the selection process simple. It was easy enough to create the slide, but I noticed I often had to tap several times to get the text box for the slide to open. It should go with one. I'm not sure what it's called, but the programming that controls text entry needs a lot of work. It doesn't capitalize first letters in sentences. It doesn't work with the feature on my device that lets me run my finger over consecutive letters to create words (I can't remember what that's called, but I use it constantly), so it doesn't make suggestions as you go along, either.
The actual slide show was cute. I liked the way fingers moved the sticky notes around, and then the pictures enlarged when you clicked on the next arrow. But it certainly lacks the versatility of PowerPoint. You can't choose transistions or animations, you can't change fonts - you're just stuck with what they come up with for formats. And it's just so much easier to work on a larger screen! It might be better on a tablet than a smartphone.
I'm going to do a program in June with teens using something called Instafeed. It's based off Instagram. Users tag photos with a custom hashtag, and Instafeed instantly (go figure...) puts them all in a slideshow. There's a bit of customization available, but for a teen photo scavenger hunt, the big thing is just for teens to be able to see all the pictures taken. I'm sure they can view the presentation on their phones, too.
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