Daily Move Goal Reached One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fourty Seven Times

Byrichard

In three days I will have closed the activity on an Apple Watch 1750 times. I have a love hate relationship with the device. That Love/hate relationship started when I broke the screen on my Series three watch when climbing but continued on when I got into the habit of allowing the move goal to be raised every single week. In the end I was walking four hours per day, every day, during lockdown, to fill the rings. I eventually got fatigued.

Plenty of Miscounts

Although I say that I have almost reached the daily activity goal 1750 times this is rubbish. I have reached it far more than this. There are plenty of cases where I was wearing an apple watch, a garmin or a suunto and Apple either counted all three and then counted none, or it didn’t count anything at all.

Addiction, Rather than Health

It might sound impressive to wear the Apple Watch and fill those rings 1750 times but to me it is a sign of Apple’s desire to turn me into a quantified self addict. Does reaching a calorie goal count for anything?

According to Suunto, Garmin, Xiaomi and even Apple daily walks don’t count towards Vo2 max, so the Apple Watch is pushing me to reach 10,000 steps per day, and pushing me to burn a certain number of calories per day, but in reality a three or four kilometre run would count for more.

Higher Returns

My fitness shoots up when I walk and cycle, but it stagnates, or even declines as I walk daily.

I want my daily walks, runs and my regular bike rides, via ferrata and more to be enjoyed in the moment, without it being about a badge. Garmin and Apple make it about badges. Sports Tracker, Suunto and others make it about the experiences. I prefer the yearly distance by Strava as a measure of progress.

No Smashed Screen During a Via Ferrata

When I did the via ferrata on Sunday last week I was curious to see whether I would break the screen or not. A few years ago I broke the screen on a series four when indoor climbing. I don’t know whether it’s the rope, or hitting a plank of wood that fractured the screen. Since then my passion for Apple Watches has been muted.

Good Data

Although I love to hate the Apple Watch it does give more data than the Suunto Peak 5 and the Garmin Instinct Solar. It gives me power as watts for running, HRV (heart Recovery Value) and Vo2 max for running and cycling. Without this data I believe I would stop wearing the Apple Watch.

And Finally

Reaching the daily calorie goal for 1750 days means that I have reached that goal for 4.8 years. I have had an Apple watch since around the 11th of July 2018. In three days I could write about what I have learned after reaching the daily activity goal for 1750 days. I think it has no value. It’s a way for them to ensure loyalty to what I see as a mediocre device.

Castamatic and Boosts

Castamatic and Boosts

Byrichard

Recently I have been Lunix Unplugged and Self-Hosted. It’s by listening to self-hosted that I decided to experiment and learn about Linux by experimenting with Pis and projects created for Pi such as PhotoPrismPi, Pi-Hole and Nextcloud, to mention just a few.

These podcasts kept mentioning boosts, sats, value for value and compatible apps such as Castamatic, among others. I haven’t played with the others but I have played with Castamatic. It behaves like other podcasts and you can choose between using the iTunes podcast list or the Podcast Index podcast list. I used the Apple Podcast list, for now.

Castamatic uses a system called “listener engagement” to determine which podcasts are eligible for boosts. Listener engagement is calculated based on a number of factors, including the number of times a podcast is played, the number of times it is downloaded, and the number of times it is shared.

Quantifying Attention

With conventional podcasts apps you download podcasts but there is no way of seeing whether a podcast was listened to, shared and more. With Castamatic, among other apps listening time and shares are quantified by the app, which benefits both the podcast producers, and listeners. It benefits podcast listeners because podcasts they enjoy listening to become more visible but it also helps podcast makers because they can quantify engagement more easily, than without the app.

You can go further, if you use Value for Value but I haven’t touched this. It’s tied in to bitcoins and satochis and I don’t want to touch them. If they had another way of tracking listening time and payment then I would consider it.

Just Another App

If I oversimplify things then this is yet another podcast app that gives you the choice to add podcasts from the Apple Directory or the Podcast Index. It works with Apple Watches and Car Play as I saw this morning. If you just want to change podcast app then this one is worth playing with. If you export your library from the Apple Podcast App then you can add it to this podcast

My Issue

Recently I have come across two problems with podcasts. They’re too long. I want half an hour to an hour, not one and a half or more hours. The second issue is that they often have bad adverts. I find that I can listen to plenty of Late Night Linux Family podcasts consecutively because the ads are at the right point in the show not to be a nuissance. I hate podcasts that start with an advert.

Jupiter Broadcasting

With Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts the idea is that they are listener funded, so the more listeners contribute the more resilient the podcasts become. You can contribute by Sats, by boosts via specific apps, but also by monthly memberships. I’m contributing by listening via Castamatic, and mentioning the concept, rather than financially.

The concept is interesting. At the moment you can pay for Spotify, Audible or YouTube Premium to access certain podcasts. This is similar but at an independent level. You’re helping podcasts directly, rather than monoliths.

And Finally

For years I used Pocket Casts for podcasts but eventually stopped when they encouraged paying for the app, but also because when the app was updated it required us to log back in. I slid over to the Apple Podcast App and used that for a while and now that I heard of Castamatic I decided to try it, because of the new concept. An app that quantifies listener engagement is useful.

If the more I listen to a podcast, the better it does, then I’m happy. I don’t like writing reviews or giving stars. Id rather actual attention be counted, and that’s what the app does. That attention could become a few satochies per minute. Of course there is the membership option, seperate from the App. I am still new to these podcasts so time will decide

A Podcast App

This is yet another podcast and so far I haven’t noticed any specific flaws with the app.

Cough Radar

Cough Radar

Byrichard

This morning, for the first time in months I used Sleepcycle manually to mark the start and end of my sleep and I noticed that they added the Cough Radar. This is a quick and easy way of seeing whether there is a lot of coughin in the region where you live, or not.

I find this to be interesting. Governments are no longer tracking COVID and other diseases so we’re flying blind. With an app like SleepCycle current beta testing coughing nearby we have an interesting incite into how clean the air is, or how sick people are.

That’s because coughing could be provoked by air pollution. If there is a forest fire, or heavy smog then people will struggle to breath and air pollution will affect whether they’re coughing, or not.

If the air is clean then people could be coughing due to colds, the flu and other diseases. It’s a good way of establishing whether a region is healthy or not. It’s also interesting to see that the tracking of coughing has now been extrapolated and illustrated with heat maps. I won’t share the heatmap I see, for privacy reasons.

The makers of SleepCycle wrote about the feature here. By aggregating this data over weeks, months, and years policy makers can look at this data and decide whether to encourage mask wearing, air filtration and more. It could be used to track seasonal and regional changes.

There are four classifications. Normal, Elevated, High, and No Data. I am not clear whether this feature is available via Test Flight or the Premium version of Sleep Cycle for me. I used to be on the Testflight version.

And Finally

This is a sleep tracking app so it tracks coughing within peoples homes, not out in the street or in offices, unless someone is tracking their office siestas. It represents active users of the app rather than the situation more globally. It reflects the health of sleep cycle users.

Playing with the Xiaomi Band 7

Playing with the Xiaomi Band 7

Byrichard

I have had the Xiaomi Band 7 for a while but I didn’t wear it properly until the start of the new year. As a silly concept I thought that I would try to wear it for the entire year and so far I have kept to that resolution. Sometimes it’s worth trying the cheapest device that you can find to see how it differs from the flagships by Suunto, Garmin and Apple.

PAI

The first thing that I enjoy is that it has the PAI indicator. The Personal Activity Index. The idea is that you should reach 100 points per week. If you go for a run you can get 45 points within an hour or so. If you walk for one and a half hours you may get 18 points or more. It’s just to indicate whether you have exercised enough, without putting pressure on high energy sports like cycling, running and others.

Training Load

It also gives you an indication of training load. The four categories are low, optimal, high, and very high. Despite just walking for the last seven days the indicator is at a high value for me, with a training load of 193 over the last seven days.

Sleep Tracking

Recently I have found sleep trackers less reliable than I used to. The main reason is that I let various watches and fitness trackers guess when I am sleeping, rather than telling me. If I get up in the night then it discards the first stage of sleep and just tracks from the moment I went back to sleep. I used to track sleep nightly, but with time I lost interest. When you have tracked at least a thousand nights the results are less captivating. I also started to worry about how quickly it was affecting mobile phone battery longevity.

Seven Day Battery

Whilst on the topic of longevity, one of the key advantages of the Activity Band 7 is that the battery lasts for seven days or more, between charges. You place it on your wrist and forget it for seven days. Apple Watches prove to be especially frustrating because you have to charge them every 18 hours and the charge time can be from two and a half to three and a half hours long. It tends to need to charge just as I want to walk, rather than at a reasonable time. With the Band 7 this isn’t an issue.

And Finally

I like the simplicity of the device. Tracking walks, runs and more is easy. It uses the phone for GPS tracking so this enables the device itself just to count steps and measure heart rate. Some people might want more but if you always walk, run, and more, with your phone, then this is a great device. It’s light and small on the wrist. It has a wealth of displays to chose from. I chose a mountain landscape, with the digital time. For 40-50 CHF this could be a good device for children and non geeks, as long as the parents and teachers tolerate children listening whilst fiddling, rather than fighting to stay awake in class.

The Unquantified Self and the Garmin Etrex SE
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The Unquantified Self and the Garmin Etrex SE

Byrichard

Since boyhood I have liked watches. There was a period when I wore none, but eventually I got the habit back and now I regularly wear two watches. I don’t wear two watches because I like to wear two watches. I wear two watches because Apple sends to one database and Garmin sends to another, and there is some functionality that is dedicated to one platform. If you want Apple functionality you have to wear an Apple Watch, and if you want Garmin features you need to wear a Garmin watch.

The Etrex SE Solution

The Garmin Etrex SE is different from the Garmin Etrex 32X because it’s a cheaper, simpler model with a built in ability to communicate with iPhones and other mobile phones. The advantage of this is that you can track your daily walks, cycling, flying and other sports for up to 160 hours non-stop before you need to recharge or swap the batteries.

An AA Advantage

The other advantage of the Garmin Etrex family, but especially the Etrex SE is that it requires two AA batteries that can be swapped within seconds, but last for 150 hours or more.

By accident I left the device on overnight and it tracked for 19 hours and still had plenty of battery remaining for that day’s walk. With this device you can track walks, bike rides, and more for days at a time.

In contrast the Edge Explore can track for three or four hours before needing a recharge if it is in normal mode, but many more hours if it is in battery saver mode.

The Garmin instinct can track for a day or two at a time, before needing to be recharged, but to charge you need an external battery and time. With the Etrex SE you need a few seconds to swap batteries.

Geocaching Built In

If you enjoy geocaching then this is a great device because it pairs with your geocaching account and makes it easy for you to see surrounding objects and their location. It allows you to mark and navigate to geocaches of interest, with ease.

Up To Date Weather

Although it can take a few seconds to load you can also get live weather conditions with the device. This is based on weather service information, not a built in barometer.

GPS Precision

When walking I noticed that GPS – All GNSS accuracy bounced between 3-4 meters. That’s good enough to detect if you’re swapping back and forth from side of the road to the other. I played with that level of accuracy with another GPS.

Wrist Freedom

As the title suggested one of the advantages of the SE is that it’s a small, portable GPS that you turn on, track yourself, and turn off. It automatically transfers the walk, run, bike ride, flight, car drive and other activities to the Explore and the Garmin Connect apps, so you have the convenience of GPS watches, without needing a free wrist to use it.

Sports Aware

With the Garmin Etrex 32 you can easily track an activity but when you get home and sync the device to your computer you need to tell it what sport you were doing. You also need to physically either remove the SD card and sync, or you have to plug the GPS into the computer and sync that way. With the SE you can tell the GPS, either at the start of the activity, or when you save, that you’re walking, hiking, running, skiing, driving, using an ATV, flying and more. You don’t need to connect to Garmin Connect and manually tell it what you were doing.

Instant Charge

I write this more as a joke, than a serious advantage. With this GPS if you notice the battery is low, you don’t need to plug it into a wall, and wait for hours. Simply remove the back, swap the batteries and get on with your adventure.

Garmin Explore

When I looked at a comparison of the 32, the 22 and the SE I noticed one big difference between the three. The SE has no built in maps but it does have Garmin Explore, and Garmin Explore has good maps. This means that although the Etrex SE is limited due to its lack of maps, it does punch way above its weight and price, by pairing with the Explore App. You can draw your route whilst charging your phone, and then it syncs to your devices, for you to navigate with ease.

Limitations

  • It has no memory card slot, so you can’t expand to keep track of more activities or maps.

  • it is quite big and bulky. It does fit into a pocket but like a Cuckoo bird it will kick out its neighbours. You could place it in the side pocket of your hiking bag, or the top pocket, depending on preference.

  • No Maps built in. For navigation and maps you need to use your mobile phone. Location information is shared between the phone and GPS live, so you do have maps, but this requires you to use mobile phone battery life. With the Garmin Etrex 32x and other models you have maps built in.

  • GPS or All GNSS services. With this device you can’t tell it “I want to use Galileo, and no other GNSS. You can only choose between GPS, and “all GNSS” which I think is a limitation. I would like more freedom to choose.

  • Pairing is limited. If you want to track heart rate, temperature, cadence and other data then you can’t. It tracks your location, speed and altitude but not much else.

And Finally

If you want a GPS for navigation then this is not the gps for you, unless you’re navigating to geocache locations. This is one of the cheapest GPS devices you can get. It’s cheaper than a lot of watches, handheld GPS and more. The device itself is limited, in terms of maps, but if you pair it with the Explore app, then it becomes a powerful option, for navigating and more.

I am surprised that the device has so few reviews. I spent less than a minute drawing a walking route with the Explore app and I could sync it to the Garmin Instinct watch and Etrex SE within seconds. It’s smooth, fast, and intuitive.

The Garmin Etrex SE, although, very simple, demonstrates the future of GPS navigation devices, taking full advantage of Android, iOS and excellent battery life.

The Curious Step Miscount Due to Walking Sticks
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The Curious Step Miscount Due to Walking Sticks

Byrichard

Yesterday I walked with hiking sticks and whereas one watch told me that I had 13,000 steps, or so, the other said I had 9000. It is the second time that I notice such a difference in step count. 


Walking stick step count. The count is lower than without walking sticks
Walking stick step count. The count is lower than without walking sticks


The first time I noticed this issue was a few days ago, after a similar walk. I knew that the walk was over 10,000 steps so when I saw the low count I thought something was wrong, but didn’t worry about it. It happened again yesterday. I went for an 11 kilometre walk that should be at least 12,000 or more steps but it was undercounted by at least three thousand steps. The Apple watch had over 13,000 and the Garmin Instinct Solar had 9000. 


The normal walking step count
The normal walking step count


I have a theory about what is causing this issue. When you’re walking normally your arms swing for every single step. When I walk with hiking steps I usually take two to three steps in between stick strikes on the ground. This results in one step being counted for every three or so steps. It seems to happen when I am in the walking, rather than hiking mode. By resting my hand on the sticks for a few steps at a time the watch counts that as a single step. 


It doesn’t stop there. I also noticed that the step per minute count was a fifth of what it usually is. Usually my step count is around 100-120 steps per minute. In this case, just twenty steps per minute. 


The simplest solution is to shorten the walking sticks to match your walking pace. With long sticks you will take four or five steps between lifts of the sticks. With shorter it might be half as frequent.


I can run two more experiments. With the first I can measure whether walking stick length has an effect, and then I can test whether walking in hiking, rather than walking mode changes the result. 


If you’re not a habitual walker like me, and if your step count is important, then walking with sticks may give the illusion that you are lazier than you are. This isn’t an issue, since distance is measured. If you’re trying to beat a walking record then the Apple watch might be a better option, as it seems to count steps more accurately, even with hiking sticks. 

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Life Cycle by Northcube AB

Byrichard

Life Cycle by NorthCube AB is a life tracking application available on iphone. It allows you to keep track of your sports activities, time spent at work, sleeping, shopping, socialising and more. At first it knows nothing about it. It learns of your home location, your work location, where you go climbing and do other activities and then automatically logs the time spent doing various activities.

At the end of the day you can see how much time you spent at work, at home and running errands. If you go for a walk, a bike ride or a run it detects the difference in cadence and will log that sport. I did get false positives when riding the scooter. It logged this as cycling.

It also keeps track of the time you spend in transportation as well as the time you spend commuting to and from work. They are separated so that you can see how much of your day is devoted to commuting as opposed to travelling between locations for other activities.

If you practice sports such as swimming or climbing you can tell it that at this location you practice that sport. From this moment on every time you go to this location it will log it as being for that sport. This is valid for socialising, coffee, the cinema and more.

At the end of the day you can see a summary of how long you spent doing each activity. At the end of the week you can see how much time you spent on each activity. The bigger the donut slice the more time you spent on an activity. Assessing whether you spend too much time commuting, at work or socialising is simpler. As a freelancer working in a number of locations you could mark the locations where you worked and at the end of the week log your hours to double check that they are correct.

This app is simple and intuitive to use. Unlike Foursquare/Swarm and other apps it requires minimal interaction. This app is a natural progression from apps such as Google Latitude.