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About matthewdlyons
website my name is not matt
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matthewdlyons
On The Verge since Nov 01, 2011
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Recommended RTRivera's comment in WordPress founder says more users are abandoning Tumblr because of Yahoo deal
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Looks like I need to put that three-hour “conference call” on my calendar tomorrow.
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I don’t get criminals who take pictures of themselves with loot. That’s just dumb. Add to that, fools running around buying stuff with their stolen cash. Wasn’t in the Italian Job where there was a strict rule, or admonishment, about not buying anything with the loot because it would draw attention to those who perpetrated the crime?
So often, life is not only stranger, but more idiotic than fiction.
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Sidebar. Why is the hand in the close up almost 10x darker than Richard Pryor’s hand in the full-frame shot? Weird.
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Oh great! Just when all of my friends left Blackberry for Android or an iPhone. Wait…is this 2009?
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Though not really a New Year’s resolution, I started working on my health and fitness since the beginning of the year. I tried working with a trainer on FitOrbit for a while. After a month, I found that the experience really didn’t meld well with my style. I took a lot of things that I learned from FitOrbit and went back to the gym. I have taken off 60 pounds since January 7, and I am still going.
I use the MyFitnessPal app daily. That account is synced to my FitBit account, because I have a FitBit Aria wireless scale, which uploads my weight and BMI directly into my account. All of that data between FitBit carries over to my account with MyFitnessPal. Conversely, all of the food and exercise that I enter into MyFitnessPal shows up in FitBit. To make it all work, I only rely on FitBit for weight, BMI. Everything else is handled by MyFitnessPal. It takes someone dedicated to entering food and exercise regularly to make apps like FitBit or MyFitness Pal really work for you. I am, admittedly, a bit obsessive, so it’s not a problem. My wife, on the other hand, doesn’t want a device where she has to do a lot of manual input. Thus, the Jawbone UP wouldn’t work because of the manual sync requirement. She might like the Flex, but, unless she wants the sleep data, she already has a pretty advanced pedometer.
A couple of co-workers have the Jawbone UP. After doing a little reading I decided to pre-order the Flex back in March. It arrived on Wednesday. After a few days with the Flex, I am trying to decide whether to send it back. It’s not that the device is doing less than what was advertised. I guess that having it on my wrist and looking at the data collected feels more like a novelty than something actually useful in my pursuit of fitness and nutrition goals.
The only real additive feature of the Flex is the steps. I workout twice a day (Monday-Thursday) and once on Friday and Saturday. I was looking to capture the steps I talk all day — hoping that it would motivate me to walk more during the day, and take public transportation to work instead of driving. I have fiddled with the calibration on the FitBit dashboard, but still can’t seem to get an accurate
reading of my actual steps. For instance, this morning (it’s almost 10 am), my dashboard shows that I’ve walked about 800 steps, but I have only been milling around the house. There’s no way I’ve walked 800 steps. It’s clear to me that the Flex is less accurate than the FitBit one, solely because it resides on my wrist. I wear the Flex on my non-dominant hand, if that matters to you.I was also looking forward to the sleep data collected by the Flex. Again, after a few days, I find myself a bit let down, or even incredulous at the data presented. I am at a loss to figure out how the Flex (or the Jawbone UP) knows when I am awake throughout the night. I can see the differentiation between restless and deep sleep (presumably because I am still), but how in the world does the band know that I am awake? I am calling BS on that stat. FitBit’s presentation of the sleep data is a bit crude. I like Jawbone’s interface
much better. I don’t mind granular data. In fact, granular is desired. I find it a bit too convenient (read inaccurate) that I had intervals of restless sleep — all 11 minutes in length. That, or I am an amazingly consistent with my restlessness.One note about the physical band. I don’t care fot it that much. Even though it’s on my non-dominant hand, it kind of gets in the way — particularly when I’m typing. The metal snap that connects the two ends of the band is right in the middle of the underside of your wrist (read: right where your wrist contacts a surface). Other than a wedding ring, I’m not much for jewelry. I used to be a big watch guy, but now I don’t wear one. Perhaps because I don’t wear a watch or any other type of bracelet, the Flex is noticeable; and not in a good way. It is definitely a challenge to snap on. However, barring deep water diving, you only have to take it off once a week for to charge. If you are used to wearing watches or something on your write, you’ll probably be ok. If not, you may find the Flex uncomfortable.
In the end, I can see how a number of people view the Flex, UP, or FuelBand, as mere novelties. There’s some truth in that. However, as David touched on in his piece, the bands can serve as a visual reminder or motivator. For some people that’s needed. I am pretty self-motivated, but I love data. However, I must admit that I am rather let down with the Flex, so far and it just might be headed back to FitBit. I’ll give it another week.
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Recommended chuey101's comment in Nokia Lumia 928 for Verizon announced, available May 16th for $99.99
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Amazon is pretty well-known for its storage capability, but I can’t help but wonder if this is a breadcrumb that leads to an Amazon phone.
I use Google+ (only) to save photos and videos from my phone. The cost of Google storage is much less than rates offered by Dropbox and other services. My family, and my wife’s business, are pretty much invested in Google Apps, so we use Drive a lot. There are times, though, that Dropbox is a better alternative for sharing certain files.
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Recommended agraceffa's comment in Amazon launches cloud photo storage app for iPhone and iPad
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Great layout! This is a nice addition to, or component of, The Verge. Kudos!
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To follow, briefly, on my previous comment…I wish the article touched on some of the challenges for African Americans, and possibly other communities in the States, that were disconnected from their original homelands. I suspect that Native Americans, Latinos, and people from many Caribbean countries, may run into the same issue when trying to develop an ancestral portrait via a mainstream genealogy service such as Ancestry.
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Very interesting article. Technology, in this case, can help us discover, and possibly reconnect; where as so often the opposite is the result of being “connected” online.
I did a good amount of work on Ancestry.com, in concert with talking to my parents and every relative that I could track down. One the struggles that many Blacks/African Americans run into a a roadblock in tracing ancestry once you get back to the 1860s…if you’re that luck. My wife’s friend owns African Ancestry, which has compiled a pretty significant database of DNA from Sub-Saharan Africa. My wife had her DNA sample, and learned that her ancestry, on her mother’s side, was from a specific region on Nigeria. It was pretty interesting. Here’s her reveal.
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This movie has been on my “Movies I Want to See” list for a while. Can’t wait.
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Recommended AngryRussian's comment in Meet Tom Wheeler, the man who could control your digital life
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That was kind of a bazaar statement by Craig Aaron that Wheeler does not appear to be a strong leader … because he was the head of two trade associations. While trade associations are typically dominated by the large, dues-cap-paying member companies, the CEO of trade associations are not paper tigers. I was a lobbyist for a trade association in DC, and the President/CEO was far from a shrinking violet. I worked with teams from many other trade associations (with comment/connected interests) and the heads of those groups were often larger-than-life individuals.
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Recommended Ghost650's comment in I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet
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Recommended mldi's comment in I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet
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Congrats!
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And this is precisely why BlackBerry has fallen so far behind. Perhaps Heins should have clarified that tablets are not a winner for BlackBerry. To suggest that tablets will fall off in five years is a pretty clear window into how RIM must have looked at the threat to its business by iPhones and Android. Technology is moving so fast, it’s really hard to predict what will be in or out five years from now. But to wave off tablets?
Thorsten…
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Recommended JeremyBlake's comment in BlackBerry's Thorsten Heins thinks tablets will be dead in five years
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I am happy to correcting you, because it may just be that the ignorance is not reading what’s written, or trying to draw inferences that aren’t there.
I clearly said that I was talking about the look, and lack of polish (subjective opinion that is not based on ignorance) of TouchWiz, as compared to Sense. I’m not talking about the functionality, necessarily. I just find TouchWiz icons and the look of some of the features to be dated. Samsung did freshen up the UI, a bit, but those updates appear to be wholesale rips of other UIs.
You’re right about Samsung demonstrating a particularly philosophy when it comes to materials. As I said in my original comment, it appears to me that Samsung is betting that the “average consumer” is not as caught up in metal vs. cheap plastic as are Verge staff and folks who spend time in the comment section of tech articles/reviews. My only point is that I wish Samsung invested a little more in the grade of plastic used on the Galaxy.
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I think David provided a thorough review.
My wife has a GS3. I had a Droid DNA before I switched and got an iPhone 5. My biggest beef, like David’s is Samsung’s insistence on using slippery, low-grade-feeling, plastic on the body, and the company’s obsession with trying to pack every conceivable feature into the phone. Even if you’re not a purist (stock Android), TouchWiz still looks and feels cheap to me.Say what you will about Sense, at least HTC has put some effort into polishing the UI. TouchWiz looks like an Atari in a XBox/PlayStation world. HTC and Nokia have figured out how to make plastic … excuse me, polycarbonate…look and feel nice.
Perhaps I should give the side-eye to consumers for looking past all the design and materials compromises. It appears that Samsung made a bet that people would buy the Galaxy devices no matter how shiggity the materials are. From the looks of it, Samsung made a good bet.
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Agreed. eBay is making a big push. I just received this email a few minutes ago.
