BeatBurn by Lolo Review

So since I run on a treadmill I have a hard time staying motivated to run for much longer than 15-20 minutes, which is about 1 mile for me.

My husband was browsing apps today and found this amusing one, though it doesn't really work for a treadmill as you have to be able to change speed on the fly since you're running from zombies.

So I started looking for apps that were geared toward use with/on a treadmill and I found this one. BeatBurn by Lolo. As someone who is new to the whole 'working out' thing, this app is very interesting.

Firstly, it's a really nice, clean interface. Full props for intuitiveness and simplicity. Second it has a lot of possible choices. You start with 'Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced,' then select how long you want the workout to be, if you prefer walking/walk-jog/run for your pace and finally if you prefer going faster or more incline for challenges.

The next thing you do is import music from your phone/ipod to the app where it scans the tracks and pulls down the BPM from the internet.

The app then selects a song from your music library that roughly matches the pace you should be moving at, so that your feet are hitting the treadmill to the beat. To further this, the app is capable of slightly altering the speed of your music. So it picks one that is close and then speeds the song up or down as needed. It's really interesting to hear a song you know really well slower than usual.

I've seen in some reviews that people were complaining that it wasn't altering the speed of their music. I suspect these reviewers either a) weren't paying close enough attention or b) aren't musicians to notice the often subtle changes as the app does pick songs that are very close so that you don't get a deepening or chipmunk effect.

And then during the workout. This is where I've found this gem of an app to really shine. It calculates a new routine for you every day based on the initial information you gave it. With my settings I get both some speed and incline based intervals. The app both shows and tells (via headphones) when to change the settings on the treadmill and what to change them too. I've had 5 minute intervals at a medium effort level and 15 second intervals of "holy shit." The need to be thinking and changing the treadmill manually, combined with the music, helps me keep from getting completely and utterly bored that I usually do when on a treadmill. As a result, (this is day 4, I think?), I've actually walk/jogged for my full half-hour been dripping sweat and averaging 1.5 miles. Prior to this I was doing about 1 mile, and not pushing myself at all.

To top all that off, you can change the intensity of the workout on the fly in app. It'll adjust from wherever you are in the workout on to give you a breather or to make it more intense. It really gives a sense of having a trainer and freedom to do what feels best at the same time.

This is the first app I've bought in ages, if not ever that I felt the $4 price tag wasn't exorbitant. It's not an applet or mini-program like so many apps are. It is a full, comprehensive workout companion.


(you know, I never thought I'd be reviewing work out stuff and liking it.

Fitbit Charge HR Review

So Husband and I have been trying to get into shape, that dream of all New Years resolutions.

To that end I've been trying to discipline myself to calorie track and use the Fitbit Force I got for Christmas. Well. Husband and I finally started actually doing the "working out" part of that about two weeks ago, and I discovered the fundamental flaw of the Force. It doesn't pick up steps or distance traveled on a treadmill.

But I liked how accurate it was picking up my approximately 2 mile walking commute, so I decided to try the Charge HR. So.
Things I like:

• To the best of my ability to tell, accurate for heart rate and distance
• Picks up/tracks distance and steps, even on a treadmill
• Don't have to put it into "sleep mode" to track sleep
• Reasonably comfortable
• Watch strap where the tab to hold down the end has a plug to go through the last hole and hold the strap still. Why have watches not done this before?!

Things I don't like:

• Silicone band
• It's textured on the outer surface, so it picks up *more* dog fur and dust than should be possible. I got the black one, and have a white dog. You do the math.
• You do need to move it around periodically as the heart rate monitor is designed to press slightly into your skin. I have ridiculously formable skin, so it leaves an indentation on my skin. However, that's probably just me.
• The "face" that actually sits on top of your arm (not wrist) is actually a little bit wider than my arm. So even with a "small" I have about a fingers worth of empty air on both sides.

So to sum up. It's comfortable, the Fitbit app works smoothly, I've had no problems with getting the devices to sync, and it's a fairly slick bit of tech. But those of us who are smaller than the "average" small adult are still getting left out of the wearable tech market in the sense of having things sized correctly.

Lovely gap between my wrist and the band. The green light is the heart tracker LED.

 

All The Fur!!!!

I wear it third from the end on small

Size reference. Yes that is an U.S. quarter. Yes it is nearly the size of my wrist.

Book Review -- The Black Gryphon

The Black Gryphon was the first book by Mercedes Lackey I read. I love the image of multiple species, even genetically created ones like the Gryphons being able to work together. In this first book of the trilogy you have Humans, Gryphons, and the shy Hertasi are caught in a war as the Warlord Ma'ar seeks to expand his territory.

Urtho, the Mage of Silence, was the banner our good guys rallied around. He's also the one who created the gryphons. The titular character, Skandranon (Skan) Rashkae, is a highly intelligent gryphon who has his feathers dyed black so that he cannot easily be seen against the night sky. He also has more than a little bit of an addiction to adrenaline, and is mildly convinced he's invincible. This results in two main things: 1) He ends up being an idiot and 2) he is Urtho's best operative. 

The other main character is a Kaled'a'in Kestra'chern, who goes by the name Amberdrake. As this trilogy is a prequel, the Kaled'a'in are the ancestors of the Shin'a'in and the Talye'edras who feature predominately in later (and earlier) books. A Kestra'chern is a cross between a therapist, masseuse and priest. Their primary job is to see to the mental health of their charges. Probably obviously, Amberdrake is Skan's. 

If you are looking for a book with some damn fine character growth, then I have no trouble recommending this one. The only character who doesn't grow and learn is Ma'ar. He is the Magnificent Bastard who through his charisma, no one (read Uther) really noticed he was slaughtering their next door-neighboring countries until it's already Too Late. 

Like many of Lackey's earlier books, there is an impressive level of character development and believable change throughout the story. She is a master of bringing racism, homophobia, and general differences between people to  the fore, and then showing the characters that aren't nearly so different as they think.

Zhaneel and Winterheart undergo the most obvious changes and growth, but to say more than that would be to give away some of my favorite portions of the book. 

Overall, The Black Gryphon is one of the best fantasy books in my personal library. 

When I was at Dragon*Con this year, I got to meet Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon after one of their panels. Larry and my dad hit it off majorly talking about classic cars, and my dad's new Fiat 500 Abarth and out of it, I got this print of Skandranon himself. It was the highlight of my time at Dragon*Con.  

On the off-chance either Larry or Misty stumble across this blog, thank you. That was my first con, and my interactions with the two of you were absolutely fantastic. 

Book Review--Sabriel

This is a new post series I am going to be starting now that we are settled in our third new city and state of this year.

For my first book, I am going to do one that I consider an old friend. Sabriel by Garth Nix contains one of the most novel magic systems I've ever come across. Add that to one of the first independent female leads that I can recall reading, and it becomes pretty clear why it's one of my favorites.

Sabriel is the daughter of the Abhorsen, of whom her father is the last of a clan of magic users who specialize in necromancy to the purpose of laying Dead back to rest.

There are two basic divisions to the magic system: Free Magic and the Charter. At the simplest, the Charter is a language used to mold and control Free Magic into "safe" or useful spells. Further their is a division of Life and Death, with each being an actual place. Once someone or something dies, its spirit passes into Death, and from there through nine Gates. Each makes it more difficult to return to Life as you pass it, and once you pass the Ninth, that is referred to as the "final Death." As Death is such a major focus, it should come as no surprise that Necromancers are a not-uncommon type of mage. All Necromancers in this world are recognizable by the bell bandoliers  they wear, containing seven bells. Mages who specialize in the Charter are known as "Charter Mages" and those who use pure Free Magic are "Free Magic Sorcerers."

The bells:

• Ranna, t he first, the smallest bell. Ranna the sleepbringer, the sweet, low sound that brings silence in its wake.

• Mosrael, the second, a harsh, rowdy bell, the waker. The bell whose sound is a seesaw, throwing the ringer further into Death, as it brings the listener into Life.

• Kibeth, the walker, a bell of several sounds, a difficult and contrary bell. It can give freedom of movement to one of the Dead, or walk them through the next gate.

• Dyrim,  a musical bell, of clear and pretty tone. Dyrim can return the voice that the Dead have so often lost, but Dyrim can also still a tongue that moves too freely.

• Belgaer, another tricksome bell that seeks to ring of its own accord. The thinking bell, the bell most necromancers scorn to use. It can restore independent thought, memory and all the patterns of a living person, or slipping in a careless hand, erase them.

• Saraneth,  the deepest, lowest bell. The sound of strength, the binder, the bell that shackles the Dead to the wielder's will

• Astarael, the Sorrowful. The banisher, the final bell. Properly rung, it casts everyone who hears it far into Death. Everyone, including the ringer.

The plot is a fairly straightforward, though as an inverted Damsel in Distress to Badass in Distress, as it is actually Sabriel's Father who is in need of rescue. (Links go through to TVTropes. You have been warned.) This drives home the fact that the Abhorsens, while tending to be awesome, are also fallible humans.

I quoted the information about the bells from the Old Kingdom. This is a site operated by Nix himself that has much more information as well as excerpts from the novels.

Happy Reading!

Pokemon X & Y First Impressions

So my wonderful husband read my mind this morning and went to the local big box shop to pick us both up a copy of Pokemon X and Y. He is  playing version Y while I am playing X.

This is a first impressions from my first 2 hours of fiddling with the game.

I love the mini games, Pokemon Amie and SuperTrainer. These are available from the start and really bring the interaction of the Pokemon and Trainer to life. Pokemon Amie further has 3 more mini games in it that are basic puzzles to let you 'befriend' your Pokemon more.

The mix of new and old Pokemon so far has been perfect. Enough old faces to trigger Red and Blue nostalgia while having enough new that you are always wondering what will pop out of the tall grass next.

The 3D models and form of the game, as far as the standard graphics go, are nice. It feels like the series has finally matured into current generation gameplay.

I am disappointed that some of the "general" trainers you battle are still in 2-D drawings, which is only stark in contrast to the fact that your character is fully animated.

This is the most fun I've had playing a Pokemon game in several years.

Once I've gotten further in the game, I will post a more comprehensive review.

iOS 7 Review

So, I waited a little over a week to write this, because I wanted to have enough time to truly play with iOS7 and get used to it.

My review comes with one primary caveat: I do not own an iPhone. I use a 5th generation iPod Touch. This means my review will focus heavily on the new Music app and how the new system handles launching and using other apps.

Pros:

• I am loving the "swipe up" to access wifi, bluetooth, and brightness. The quick launch of the apps located there is also nice, but I don't find the ones chosen to be particularly useful.
• I like *some* of the new aesthetics. The "flatness" has taken some getting used too, but I do like how they have overall simplified the icons for their flagship apps. 
• "Swipe down" for search is also nice.
• I love the new method for closing apps in the multitask window by swiping upward, it's much simpler.
• I'm sure parents will like the new lock down options for adding and deleting apps. It is actually possible to remove access to the App Store now.
• New Safari. The new tab layout is much easier on the eyes and finger, and in my opinion, loads sites faster.

Cons:

• I hate the new Music app. In their effort to make "iTunes Radio" a hit and the default, it is now what launches when you try to access your music library. They have also made it considerably more difficult to access your music and your playlists.
• Playlists have been redone in such a way that it is difficult and confusing to add or delete songs from existing playlists. I spent around an hour trying to figure out how to do this, and gave up and made a new playlist from scratch.
• The app-launch animations imitate what Android already does with the zoom-out opening window, however, while the animation takes about the same amount of time on my Galaxy Note II and my iTouch, the iTouch's animation makes it *feel* like the application is launching much slower.
• I can't even notice the much-touted "parallax" effect unless I'm looking for it really closely. I don't get the sense of depth that was such a big deal. That said, I can easily believe the reports of users experiencing motion sickness from it. If you are sensitive to motion, the fact that it is hard to notice could conceivably make the sensation worse.
• You can't downgrade back to iOS 6. Which means that if you don't like having your eyes seared, or have motion sickness, or notice it draining your battery more, you can't go back.
• My battery lasts about 8 hours of semi-constant use on minimum brightness. Any brightness high enough to see in a well lit room drops that to about 6. On iOS6 I could trust my iTouch to last 24-36 hours of my normal usage (including standby.)

Things I don't use: I don't use Siri, or the camera (I still own a real camera, kthx), I don't have the ability to call out. I don't use the calendar, although my mother has said there are significant improvements in that feature. 

So basically, iOS7 has some nice new features. It also has some really annoying problems, like draining battery.  I will not be putting it on my now-ancient iPad2. I've seen rumors that it will slow it down, and the battery life is plenty strained by iOS6 without adding all the new background stuff iOS7 has in it.