Feeling zippy

I've been working on getting back to my usual weight range and generally improving my level of fitness. Whereas my attempt to gain weight a couple of years ago entailed eating like a horse and playing couch potato, dropping the weight gained is taking a little more concentrated effort, particularly as my usually fast metabolism needs to be kicked back into action.

To help me along, I've been using one of the Fitbit products, the Zip. This wee device, which you attach to your clothing, preferably close to the skin, monitors your steps/movement to assess your level of activity and therefore give you an up-to-date picture of the calories you're burning.

Fitbit® Official Site: Flex, One and Zip Wireless Activity and Sleep Trackers

Whilst there are more sophisticated Fitbit and similar monitoring tools, I have found the Zip, in conjunction with the Fitbit application to be useful; and more than just a fancy pedometer. The data logged by the Zip is assessed by the companion application for 'active minutes'. The more active you are, the more it adjusts the calorie intake you need to make it through your day and still meet your weight loss, gain or maintenance goals.

I had already been warned by one of my friends about the impact of more active days when your calorie intake is low. As a school teacher, days at school are far more active than weekends and holidays and by sticking to the lower calorie threshold set by her diet, she ended up fainting a couple of times at work. She subsequently adjusted her intake to compensate and has continued to make excellent progress towards her health goals.

Where a device like the Zip is useful is actually reducing the guesswork about how much additional energy you need on those busy days, as well as when you should do an extra ten minutes on the exercycle for having had a more sedentary day playing computer games.

My use of the Fitbit app and the Zip has matured to include the use of the compatible MyFitnessPal app. This isn't a review of either application (a job for another day), but more a comment on how these automated logging tools can help you monitor and reach your goals.

Having found the value in this small piece of tech, I'm keen to upgrade to a device that tracks a little more. There are fitness monitors capable of tracking heart-rate and sleep, for example. Sleep being an important health factor for me, such a device would be useful for management of my physical and mental health.

Fitbit Zip is available at a wide variety of retailers for $99.95 NZD. Both the Fitbit (iOS, Android, Windows desktop, website) and MyFitnessPal (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, website) apps are free and can be used without a tracking device.

Miracast demonstration: HTC One and Netgear Push2TV

I've previously written about the use of Apple's Airplay Mirroring to display some iOS and Mac devices on a television. In that article I mentioned a standard called Miracast that would achieve the same result for non-Apple devices. Unlike Airplay, which uses an existing wifi network in order for the two devices to see each other, Miracast establishes a Wi-Fi Direct connection (a little bit like Bluetooth) to connect the devices.

This means that, unlike the Apple proprietary standard, you won't come unstuck if the the wifi network you're connected to enforces AP isolation or some other restrictive network settings. However, it does mean that both sending and receiving devices will have to be Wi-Fi Alliance certified as compliant with the standard... And frustratingly, when I first got the Netgear Push2TV device, I had absolutely no device in my kit capable of sending. Even my Nexus 7 was first generation (2012 edition). The Push2TV sat unused for several months until I finally got an HTC One, which is compatible.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast


Now that I have hands on compatible source device - and time to play - I have been able to try Miracast and have been quite pleased with the result. Certainly it gives options out there that don't require you to have Apple gear. As with all relatively new standards, maturity will fix the low number of devices that can use it.

Instead of writing this one up, I've uploaded a demo onto YouTube. Enjoy.



 

Go slow

I spent some time over the weekend trying out the slo-mo function on the iPhone 5S and the results were pretty good. I really do love the quality of the 5S camera. I also enjoy the in-video photo function which allows me to capture still images whilst taking video, a feature I like on the HTC One but which, till now, has been absent on my other phones.

To access slo-mo, slide the camera mode further left than video mode. The resulting video will have a couple of seconds of normal speed at the beginning and end of the video but the 120fps video in the middle is crisp in quality and smooth in movement.

I wanted to capture some bee activity at one of our hives for another blog I maintain and the result, as you can see, was excellent.

If you haven't already played with this function, give it a go.

Get docked

Before you read further, remember that if you're at all worried about ruining your $1200 phone or tablet, then don't try this at home. You've been warned!

Many of my friends have chosen to upgrade to the iPhone 5S given desirable features such as fingerprint unlocking. Unfortunately they're facing, as those of us who already migrated to iPhone 5, iPad Mini and iPad 4G have done, that a raft of accessories they have from the 32 pin days are obsolete. At $45NZD for the basic adapter, that's quite an expensive workaround and some have chosen to simply purchase another dock or speaker.

The general rule of thumb I have is Apple to generic aok, generic to Apple ok sometimes, generic to generic charging only or stay clear altogether. I've tested using an iPhone 5S and 4 adapters - three of which are generic, unbranded items bought from your typical 123 Dollar shop or DX.com. I used charging cables, a Sanyo radio alarm clock and Philips speaker dock as part of the testing.

What I discovered is:

• Using an Apple adapter will work with any 32 pin cable, dock or speaker, including the use of the dock to play sound.
• Using a generic adapter with an Apple cable will generally work for charging purposes (although one of them was specific in terms of which way the lightning attachment was inserted into the phone).
• Using a generic adapter with a generic cable or dock will usually allow charging (albeit, one of the adapters failed to charge altogether) but you won't get playback through the speaker and likely not synchronisation with your iTunes or ability access photos through Windows explorer.

In all cases where you use a generic adapter, expect to get a pop-up alert on your phone or tablet warning you that "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone".

I'm personally comfortable using generic adapters at around $10NZD for the charging only stands but given I have a few speakers around the house with the 32 pin attachment, we've paid for a certified Apple adapter in order to use them as they were intended. Of course, a few of those speakers are actually Bluetooth so unless I need to charge, it's actually no problem to listen to music.

Get into the habit

We're midway through January and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of us haven't struggled with those New Year resolutions. I'm not so much into resolutions, but I need to ensure I have good habits in place either to support some longer-term goals or simply maintain a healthy lifestyle.

One of my favourite range of apps are the Weple ones produced by Bumblebee for iOS. And for the last couple of months I've been using Weple Habit. Habit is one of the more recent additions by Bumblebee and it's a very simple app. You create tasks, assign a date range, pick the days of the week they occur, choose an icon and colour for each. Once they're in you simply click the corresponding dot each day to denote tasks which you have completed.

There are far more complex and fully featured apps that do similar things out there and, even by Gadget Girl's normal app selection criteria, this is nowhere near the best - no device sync, no multiplatform options - but so far it's the best for me. The reason? It's so simple: I go in around bedtime everyday tap, tap, tap and done. As with all Bumblebee's products it's pretty; and if you have to look at something everyday that's actually an important facet of the user experience.

Given I've used it successfully everyday for 48 days now, I think it's been worth the $0.99USD price tag.