Friday TechTips

Tip for August 28, 2009: DailyBurn

Let’s face it, most of us cycle in and out of eating better and exercising. Today’s tip provides a tool that will help you in both areas. After creating a free account with DailyBurn you can start tracking your weekly exercise routines and each exercise you perform. There’s a vast database of available exercises to choose from, and if you do one that isn’t included you can manually add it. DailyBurn’s other main feature allows you to track everything you eat each day. There’s an even larger database of available food items to choose from when adding your entries. You’ll really start to see the benefit of DailyBurn over time as it will provide visual tools such as graphs and charts to help you track your progress. You can also track your weight and BMI. Other fun features include the ability to set goals both in terms of exercise and nutrition. There are also ‘challenges’ created by others uses to help motive you further such as ‘Lose 5 Pounds,’ ‘Burn 5000 Calories,’ and many others. I’m using DailyBurn myself in my newly adopted motto ‘get fit this fall!’ As an added bonus, there’s also an iPhone and iPod Touch app to help you track yourself on the go.

DailyBurn

Tip for March 20, 2009: State of Data = Mobile

Earlier this week comScore, a data measuring and marketing company located in Reston, VA, released a report which further documents the continuing explosion of data access via mobile devices. From January 2008 – January 2009, mobile data usage more than doubled as did the frequency of using mobile devices to access content. As of January 2009 there were 63 million users (I’m assuming in the United States as it’s not clear in the report) accessing mobile data at least once per month, up 71% from January 2008. Here are some key findings from the report:

• Social networking, (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are driving daily usage of mobile access.
• Phones such as the iPhone, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare, and Blackberries are the preferred weapons of choice for mobile data consumers (70%).
• Maps are the most frequently downloaded tools for smartphones, while news drove SMS data for less sophisticated devices.
• Half of 18 – 34 year old males were likely to be mobile data consumers while 40% of females 18 – 24 years old accessed mobile data at least once per month.

Many of us here at UR frequently witness this behavior due to the number of students we interact with. It’s obvious that more capable devices lend themselves to mobile data access as it often seems that they’re internet devices first, and phones second. However there are numerous examples of using SMS to accomplish some of the same things smartphones do with full-featured applications. For starters just take a look at what Google offers via SMS. I think we all know that mobile data is the future and will probably surpass the computer (desktop/laptop) as the normal means of access for certain types of data, especially as all phones evolve into “smartphones.”

If you’re interested in learning more, please read the full update from comScore.

Bonus Tip!

Do you wish you could have a “re-do” for your senior yearbook photo? Want to relive those groovy 70s? Then sign-up for the relaunch of  Yearbook Yourself. See how you might have looked in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s! They will be re-opening the site this summer, so if you missed it last year be sure to get your name on the mailing list!

Yearbook Yourself!