Setting Weight Goals With Noom Weight Loss [Android]

If you’re an Android user, Noom is the perfect app than can help you shed those extra pounds. This free app provides Android users with a holistic weight loss toolkit which they can use to determine their goals and track their progress with regards to their aim. Apart from the goal setting and progress tracking function, Noom can also help users track their intake of food and keep a count if their calories, and also keep a log of whatever little exercise they are getting even from their daily routine activities so that they can make their lifestyle a healthier one.

Tracking Your Runs With Endomondo Sports Tracker[Android]

This free app is available to all Android, iPhone and BlackBerry users who are fond of jogging, running, cycling or any workout that gets them on the run. Endomondo Sports Tracker makes use of GPS to track the user’s route and shows it on Google Maps, all while keeping a tab on his lap time and maintaining a workout history which can be easily browsed through. Of course some people use iPhone monitoring software to get the GPS tracking done, but this is a better way of getting the job done. It also adds an element of fun to your workout routine s you are cheered on by your friends and receive notifications every time you complete a mile.

Gaming and losing weight with Eat This, Not That! – The Game[iPhone]

This free iPhone game can be the most effective guide to healthy eating as it educates you regarding the nutritional value of different foods in the most enjoyable way possible. Much like “The Price is Right” for food which allows you to spend wisely on food, this app helps you in deciding your meals wisely in terms of calories. Increase your knowledge as you choose between two similar products to guess which one is lesser fattening and more nutritious.

Nike Training Club [iPhone]

This free iPhone app is nothing but good news for those users who want to avoid the high cost and awkwardness that accompanies the perk of having a personal trainer to help them work out. The Nike Training Club brings a variety of workouts from the professionals at Nike as well as professional athletes and celebrity trainers and allows users to choose from the most basic to the most complex routines to help tone up their body. The best part is that these routines are designed specifically for women and keep their exercise needs in mind.

Yoga on the phone with Pret-a-Yoga Lite [iPhone]

Available to iPhone users for free, this fantastic app is great help for yoga beginners who want to avoid bending and sweating in a gym environment as well as a good reference source even for the advanced yogis as they try to maintain their yoga routine while on the go. Pret-a-Yoga Lite can serve as your own personal yoga instructor as it guides you through every minute detail from breathing to postures while allowing you to refer to images and audio instructions.

Author Bio: James Clark has been in the business of providing quality information on spy software for cell phones for a while now. He’s an expert at all things spyware, but his main forte is iPhone spyware which has captured the interest of many.

A Visual QR Code is More Than a Blocky Image

There are many types of QR codes available that offer different functionality and design. One of the newest forms that these barcodes have taken is the visual QR code. These codes are still very new to the scene, so you’re not likely to have seen them plastered all over. They are, however, much more visually dynamic than traditional 2D QR codes. In some aspects, a visual QR code can barely be considered a traditional QR code. If not for the blocky pattern that QR codes have become well known for, this would certainly be the case.
Visualead is one of the pioneers of the visual QR code. The company specializes in creating visually stunning codes that incorporate various artistic elements, such as logos. One of the most striking aspects of the codes designed by Visualead is the fact that the logos and artistic elements incorporated into their QR codes do not ruin the functionality of the codes themselves. Each visual QR code made by the company is fully functional and can be scanned with any QR code scanning application.

Visual QR Codes Defy Convention

The concept of a visual QR code is very simple in that you are introducing a design to a 2D barcode that does not negatively affect the functionality of the code in any way. While the idea is simple, putting it into practice is much more difficult. A visual QR code is very different from a typical QR code logo. A QR code logo incorporates a small logo into the traditional design of a QR code. The logo often needs to be significantly smaller than the code in order to not interfere with the code’s functionality. There are no such size limits to the artistic elements associated with a visual QR code, however, making these barcodes significantly more dynamic.
The blocky patterns of a typical QR code are not simply a design faux pas. These patterns are responsible for the information associated with the code. When a QR code scanner identifies a code, it deciphers the information that is represented by the code’s pattern. The four squares at the corners of every QR code design are used to accurately position the information, making it easier for a scanner to register a code. A visual QR code uses a different design scheme for its patterns, turning the common block seen with most QR codes into smaller squares with soften edges. These squares alternate in color depending upon the image they are set against in order to ensure their visibility to a QR code scanner.

A New Generation of QR Codes is Dawning

QR codes have received criticism in the past because of their somewhat visually unappealing design. While this had not stop many advertisers from using the codes, some consumers have been uninterested in the codes because of the way they look. This has also led some businesses to avoid the codes so as not to use something that consumers are not comfortable with. Some believe that QR codes are only a step away from extinction because old style codes do not support any kind of visual flare, leaving people to stare at the same black and white blocky patterns all the time.
Visual QR codes, on the other hand, solve this problem. These codes can provide businesses with a new way to engage mobile consumers. The codes are visually appealing, so there is no concern regarding consumers turning away because they don’t think a code is pretty enough. Moreover, the code actually work. When a visual QR code is scanned, it provides people with the information and content they have come to expect from any other kind of QR code. Furthermore, advertisers using a visual QR code will not have to worry about how well the code meshes with their marketing materials. This could be especially useful in print campaigns found in magazines.

Visualead Taking the Reins of Innovation

Visual QR codes are still in a state of infancy, but they have already managed to receive a great deal of acclaim. They are often considered the next generation of QR codes, and for good reason, due to the fact that they offer an entirely new experience for those using them.
Here is a demo video on how to create a visual QR code through Visualead:

Visualead is not alone in the field of visual QR codes, of course. Microsoft has launched its own version of the QR code that it calls the Microsoft Tag. These Tags feature colorful patterns that contain information in much the same way QR codes do. Tags can be scanned with a smart phone or other mobile device to gain access to digital content and data. The Tags have become somewhat popular because of their visually appealing nature and their functionality.
Here’s an example of a Microsoft tag campaign:

Apart from Microsoft and Visualead, Paperlinks designs creative QR codes that it calls Designer Codes. These codes feature a wide variety of artistic elements without sacrificing anything in the way of functionality. Visual QR codes have also been used in the recovery effort following the 2011 Fukushima Disaster in Japan. SET, a creative agency based in Japan, developed an artistic QR code that aimed to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross.
Visualead is one of the few organizations that offers a visual QR code generator for free. The company boasts of more than 67,000 visual QR code designs created, accounting for over 59,000 scans. The Visualead codes have been used by several large companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and Coca-Cola, in the past, all the great success. You can certainly expect to see more visual QR codes pop up as advertisers begin to see the merit of these innovative and effective QR codes.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Visualead

Remembering the little things are difficult, but incredibly useful.

Instead of telling you about the features of Google Keep (Which you can watch from the video below), let me tell you how it’s made my life so much simpler by using it every day for several months.

I’ve been using it for quite a long time: since it was codenamed ‘Memento’, and I’m still a daily user even now, when it’s the current Google Keep state, so everything I mention below is what I actually do, not what think the app could be used to do.

So here’s what I’ve been using it for:

1. Record down ideas throughout the day

When do you get your best ideas? It’s not usually ‘brainstrom sessions’, but it’s typically in places where you’re free of distractions, like in the shower, toilet, right before bed etc.

Those are also the times where ideas get lost. Recording down ideas as an when it happens is the best way to make sure you follow up on them. Because Google Keep can be integrated into my phone lockscreen, it just takes me no longer than a swipe and a button press to record an idea.

Having such a low barrier to entry also results in two things. You tend to capture ideas regardless of how strongly you feel about them at that point in time. You don’t limit yourself to capturing the ‘best’ ideas, you just capture ideas, and move on.

It can be pictures, sounds, text, a page in a book, anything.

There is currently no way to sort them, tag them, etc. but you can search, which is what you need 99% of the time, so speeding up the capturing of ideas is a worthy trade off, because things are so much faster. It’s absolutely frictionless.

2. Find Receipts and warranties when you need them

Sorting through mountains of receipts, adds a ton of stress when something breaks down. To solve this, just snap a pic with Google Keep, and label it “blender warranty” (if you bought a blender of course). Then just proceed to move on with life, and when you need it, just search ONCE and find the receipt.

3. Keeping a spare copy of transit maps

I don’t normally take the subway, but when I do, I’d like to use Google Keep to snap a map on my phone just in case I’m in a corner where I can’t see the printed map on the train. Again, this is something I want to find easily, and can pull up in seconds.

4. Making an on-the-fly-to-do-list

For very short term to do’s like making a list of things to buy once you arrived at the store, is something you can easily do, and Google Keep comes complete with checkboxes for easy task management. Dead on easy.

5. Never forget crucial parts of a manual

Manuals, especially for electronics (camera folks – I’m looking at you) tend to be a very extreme dump of information which makes no sense to most people (including me). Most of them are however, smart enough to include a ‘Quick Start’ section which you should read first. If you’re a first time user of the device, it also happens to be most read and used section.

The issue is that in most cases, you’re out and about and you don’t bring that unreasonably large manual with you. Just use Google Keep to keep photos of the parts of the manuals you actually want to read.

These are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, because I’m sure you’d have much more uses for it in your own life situations.

Try Google Keep, and leave a comment below about what you’re going to use it for!

Most places are OK with tips, in some countries (Like Malaysia), service charge is put in place in most places like restaurants, so a tip isn’t encouraged. In some countries, hotels even make special effort to put up a signboard telling tourists not to encourage a tipping culture.

If you’re travelling, and don’t want to offend anyone, just go to How-Much-Should-I-Tip and select your country of choice, and all your questions will be answered. (It also has a funnier – but more foul-languaged sister site which I won’t link to but the link is easily visible from the site above :))

You want to know how to treat waiters, porters, taxi drivers, and get some local tipping tips, this is the one-stop-shop for getting your head around service situations which differ from country to country. So check up those rates, and never feel embarrassed again.

incognito

So if you want to take the easy way out (which is what all the tips on the blog are about), follow these steps:

1. Use Chrome (Why wouldn’t you?)
2. Do this

This will add a seperate user profile where all you need to do is click on the top left and select your profile. This will open a new window which has your new profile.

chrome profile

Why would you want to do this???

If you’re either:

1. Too lazy efficient to key in your password ALL OVER AGAIN every time you get onto Incognito mode
2. Not wanting to bother logging out, and let your family members use the computer
3. Wanting a separate set of browser bookmarks & passwords to make life easier

Just go with this solution. It carries across everything, from your passwords to your history to you bookmarks etc.
So yes, life really can be that easy.

Thanks to Anil for this cool tip :)

My three favorite things about this app are:

1. You can view highlights from many sites at once

Link up all your feeds from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and just pick some of your favorite topics (eg. New York Times for news) once, and Frequency sorts out everything for you ongoing.  This essentially lets you browse channels you care about very, very quickly and watch the videos which appeal to you the most no matter where it comes from. 

2. You’re watching a video stream not a video

One key difference between online video and TV, is that online video is much more interactive.   You watch a video, decide what’s the next video, and keep going on. Frequency is a much more laid back approach where playlists get created dynamically, and one video goes on to the next – without interaction – Just like TV.  Strangely this only works on the iPad version.  PC version, you still have to click on each video to play it.  I guess they figure people are more laid back when using a tablet. 

3. Highlights are YOUR highlights

Frequency has a section called ‘Your Highlights"’.  This is where the most popular content from your feeds be it Facebook, news, and other networks get aggregated and you can watch it all in a continuous stream.  If you want to go deeper into certain topics, you could also create your own stream and add the relevant channels to it.  In my case, I have one channel just for funny videos.

All in all…

While you’re waiting for YouTube to release an official iPad app, this is the way to go. No video app on the iPad gives you as much fun,and it runs really well on the website alone :)

Too busy to go to the gym? Can’t spare more than 5 minutes? Don’t have gear or know what exercise to do next? These are all commonly used reasons excuses which I have struggled with when I try to work out. 

Sworkit is a free tool which customizes your home workout based on

1. Which parts of your body you want to exercise
2. How much time you have

I’ve been using it for a several weeks now, using it to get my fitness back up to speed, and I’ve been very happy with the results thus far.  Especially for someone like me, recovering from a medical incident, picking short and targeted workouts have really helped to build everything up (strength, stamina, etc.) in a gradual, but yet systematic fashion. 

It’s great and you’ll even probably learn a few new exercises because it has a good variety of routines, and everything comes with video demos for all the exercises just in case the instructions aren’t clear enough.

They’ve got all their bases covered terms of accessibility.  You can run Sworkit on both desktop and mobile browsers, or if you prefer mobile apps, there are both iOS and Android versions available as well, all free (with paid functions having slightly more features).  Friedbeef’s tech gives this app a two thumbs up!

Image Credit : AGBeat

Back in 2006 I wrote about how I got my Outlook Inbox to ZERO emails, and how it changed my life. Today I don’t use Microsoft Outlook but I have successfully fully adapted the “Getting-Things-Done” (GTD) principles to Gmail, and if you’re interested in dealing with email overload in Gmail, read on :)

The solution is ActiveInbox, and I’ll get to what this Gmail plug-in has allowed me to do:

• I have ZERO emails in my inbox even though I receive upwards of 200 emails a day on average – which means everything is sorted out in a coherent manner.
• I choose to only see the emails I’m supposed to act on today (This is only true with the paid version)- which means I weed out everything that need to be done later and focus on important tasks due right away.  Nothing gets missed or accidently forgotten – ever.
• I never lose track of emails where I am awaiting a reply – which means less stress when trying to follow up.

So here’s how a normal workflow runs for me once you install the ‘Active Inbox plug-in’:

1. Check email only once per hour or so, nothing more.  Processing your emails in bulk is much less distracting.
2. Open the unread email. 
3. Archive everything that does not need a reply or action after you read it.
4. If it’s a 2 minute reply, just hit reply and archive the email. 
5. Click the ‘Waiting On’ button if you’re expecting a reply (Set the deadline date if you’re on a paid version so you can follow up easily).
6. If it’s something that can wait till later, click the ‘Action’ button to ensure you act on it before you archive (Again, set a deadline date if you’re on the paid version – this will allow you to later filter out only the tasks due today, tomorrow etc.).
7. Once your inbox is empty, just do/follow up everything which is due today, or re-assign it to a later date. 
8. Say goodbye to email overload.

Easy right? 

Here’s a 4 minute video which should give you a lowdown on the look and feel of the whole thing.

Video Bonus:

If you’ve got an hour to spare, this is Merlin Mann talking to Googlers in Mountainview back in 2007 about the concept of ‘Inbox Zero’

This is undoubtedly my favorite Gmail extension of ALL time.  It works for both Gmail in Chrome and Firefox (Sorry Internet Explorer users).  The free version is pretty good, but if you use Gmail a lot- especially for work, upgrading to the plus version is a must have.  At $24.95 a year, it is worth every penny, and remains one the very few web services which I have actually paid for. 

This is probably the longest hiatus I’ve ever taken from blogging since I started, but I’m really glad to be back – and the regular posts will resume shortly.

Long story short, I collapsed doing a half-marathon on June 24th 2012, and have been recovering ever since. For reasons which are still sketchy, my heart stopped and at one point, I was literally dead for more than 10 minutes. I really have to thank God (and everyone that was praying – including my whole church) that no permanent damage occurred especially to the brain, and I’m on the road to a full recovery (even back at work now).

I just want to say BIG THANK YOU to every one of you for your prayers, visits, gifts, wishes, notes, Facebook, email and Twitter messages (I read them all), and encouragement throughout this whole ordeal. It really meant a lot to me and my family during this tough time, and it helped me recover much faster.

Finally, also big thanks especially to YOU, as reader of my blog. It’s because of people like you who visit my site, that I’ve been able to meet so many new wonderful friends, both online and in real life. Because you read my work, it gives me the drive and passion to keep going on, no matter how busy I have always been, and you’ve changed and shaped my life for the better.

Anyhow, sticking to what I set out to do with this blog in 2005 – I’m truly honored that so many of you have read, and continue to read – and I hope to continue to be helping people “solve everyday problems with simple technology” for a very, very long time :)

When a visitor lands on your website, you have only a couple of seconds to make a lasting impression. (A positive lasting impression, I might add.) The easiest way to turn a reader away from your website is to have an annoying color palette with disjointed colors that don’t complement each other. A bad color scheme does two disservices to your blog: makes it look ugly and makes it harder for readers to concentrate. Essentially, without a solid color scheme, your blog takes a hit in terms of aesthetics and functionality. These seven different online tools and communities will help you easily find a color palette than you can draw from for years! You generally have six colors in a palette – you can use these to design email submission forms, header tags, links, logos, and more! Finding a color palette for your website is a must.

Tools For Finding Great Palettes Created By Others
1. Colour Lovers Design Community For Finding Pre-Created Color Palettes

The easiest way to get your website set up with a professional color scheme, in my opinion, is to use one that somebody else has made. The chances that another website is using the same scheme is low, and it wouldn’t be a problem even if they were. Colors on different WordPress themes make the sites look completely different all the time! For example, while you might be using the provided blue for links, the other site may be using it for titles and header tags. Note when you’re picking color palettes and designing your website that you should have two types of text on your site: clickable and un-clickable. All clickable text should be one color, and all un-clickable text should be another color. This makes it much easier for readers to navigate your site. Colour Lovers lets you choose from thousands of palettes, and you can sort the creations by certain colors! For example, if you know that you want purple to be the primary color of your site, typing in purple will bring up tons of relevant palettes! You can even search by a specific HEX #, but this will probably not give you a terribly huge pool of results to pick from.

2. Kuler Offers Color Palettes As Well As A Creation Tool

I decided to put Kuler under the category for find pre-made color palettes, since I really like their selection more than I like their creation tool. Like Colour Lovers, you can search designs by using a keyword or hex #, and there are plenty of palettes to browse through! You should easily be able to find one that fits the tone of your website perfectly. It’s very similar to Colour Lovers, but using Kuler in conjunction with the prior tool will give you a larger selection of palettes to choose from, ensuring that you end up with a quality set of six colors. The tool on Kuler allows you to choose a base color and then to move the other colors around this base. I would rather use some of the tools I talk about later which let you automatically generate colors, so I would pay more attention to the pre-created palettes on Kuler.

3. ColorBlender For Viewing Many Color Palettes At Once

Color Blender is another awesome source for web design color palettes. Unlike Kuler and ColourLovers, http://www.colorblender.com/ lays out their palettes in a way that allows you to see many of schemes at the same time. This gives you a better idea of how your palette would compare to other sites in terms of brightness and intensity. Picking colors while isolated from other examples is a recipe for design disaster, and ColorBlender prevents that from ever happening with its unique design. Furthermore, you can search ColorBlender by Hex # and RGB scale, but not by color. (Example: you can’t just type in orange and get results.) ColorBlender is an awesome site, and second only to Colour Lovers, in my opinion.

4. InspiredMag’s List of 50+ Sites With Great Color Schemes

If you’re looking for some “real world” examples of color schemes, then look no further! There are more than 50 sites on this list by InspiredMag, and all of them have great color designs. Reading this post is a great way to find color schemes that work for your niche, and for comparing your created color to a similar shade. (If you’re trying to create a certain color, opening this page in a new tab and then comparing to a certain site would probably help a lot!) Visit this post by InspiredMag and get your creativity flowing!

Tools For Creating Your Own Color Palettes
5. 5K Lets You Choose Base Colors With An RGB Slider

ColorMatch 5K is one of the best ways to create your own custom color palettes. Often when designers just try to handpick colors and put them together into a scheme, things don’t turn out as planned. With ColorMatch 5K, you are presented with an RGB slider that lets you choose a base color. Like the aforementioned tool in Kuler, you can create five other colors to go with this color. Why is it better than the Kuler tool? It’s much easier to use. Instead of picking the five other colors and running the risk of messing up a set of complementary colors, ColorMatch 5K automatically chooses the complimentary colors for you, and it’s pretty good at doing so. I only played with it for a couple of minutes, and I devised a few awesome color palettes. (Just so you know, the color palette that I use on my personal website about geek culture was one that I obtained from Colour Lovers.)

6. ColorCombos Color Palette Tool Creates Sample Designs

Seeing a color palette in the typical form – six colors lined up next to each other – is nice, but it’s not as good as what ColorCombos can do. Here’s how I would suggest using ColorCombos: use a tool such as ColorMatch 5K to create your color palette, and then check how it looks by using ColorCombos. This site allows you to view a color palette as something other than a list of colors – it will use your colors to add color to an image. They allow you to choose from a cupcake, paintbrush, paint can, pencil, and more! This is a great way to see what your colors will look like on your site, and not just how they go together. ColorCombos also has color palettes that you can browse as well as a color creating tool, so this is the real deal.

7. Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer is the best color palette creator on the internet. (Says me, but I’ve seen a lot of color palette creators.) You get to choose a base color yes, and from there on out things work much like the ColorMatch 5K, with one exception – you get the ease of creation plus the customization! You can choose from mono, complement, triad, tetrad, analogic, and accented analogic for creating your palette! You should try out the tool in order to see what each of these do, since they are difficult to explain. This is a wonderful tool for creating amazing color schemes in just minutes!

This post was guest written by the talented Jack Kieffer who also runs a blog called ‘Autism Plugged in‘ which reviews apps that deal with Autism. Thanks for submitting a post to help Friedbeef’s Tech to keep on going :)

]]>