Having just noticed that the new gmail application for S60 is out I have noticed some interesting new features, the most interesting of which for some of you may be the accounts tab so that you may use more than one gmail account at once. Other features include Chats, outbox, mobile drafts, Chat, contacts and more.
One of the more interesting options now is that you can search through your e-mails straight from the application on the phone rather than using the website. As a result it’s far easier to find that particular e-mail with flight information or the route you were planning on taking.
You can now record your own Wazedriving directions. Instead of using pre-determined voices you can record a number of pre-determined phrases and use them for when you are driving. Recording and using your recording is easy.
Setting it up
In the settings menu go to voice directions, click on record new voice, name the voice and then you can record Start of Drive messages, Distances, Instructions, Reports and Other. Each instruction can be up to 6 seconds in duration. Simply click the red record button, record the phrase and then listen to it. Once you have recorded the first clip you can save the new voice.
Multiple languages
It is possible to record multiple languages. Simply go to settings, general and language. Select the language you want to record in and then repeat the setting it up instructions. The phrases will be provided in the language of your choice. As I speak English and French I can record instructions in both languages.
Friends and family
If you don’t like your own voice you can get friends and family to record their voices. You could use one voice for driving to work, another for driving with friends and a third one to keep children entertained in the back. You can also share these recordings publicly for other people to use. If you’re a Vlogger or podcaster this is one way to grow your audience.
Long trips and frequent GPS use
When you go on long trips and use the GPS frequently the default voices can be tedious. The ability to record the voice of your choice is a nice addition. For three or more hours you can hear the voice of a friend or family member. It can become a source of entertainment. I often drive with the GPS silenced to avoid pestering passengers. With the correct voice, you could leave vocal directions on.
Some watches can do a lot and others can do a little The Origin watch, model number GW-B5600 can charge itself with daylight and mark GPS coordinates within seconds, and that’s about it. I tested it while driving from Switzerland to Spain.
There are a few motorway stops that I was curious about so as I drove I could short press the bottom right button and it took the date, time, and GPS coordinates at that point so that I could review points on the map later on. A watch this as this is highly specialised and fits a narrow niche. Casio says “This is a good watch for pilots to mark which city they were in but I think differently.
This is a good watch for people to mark where they took a picture, or to mark a waypoint during a walk or some other event. Once you press the button the watch and phone do the rest. You can then provide the location with a memorable name.
Casio watches come with a battery life of between 2-10 years and the solar watch advertises that it has a battery life of 22 months so this could be shorter than many.
More info: The G-Heritage Story — Evolution Of The Casio G-Shock Origin
The watch gives home town time, world time, alarms, stopwatch and countdown timer. It has good backlight illumination and provides us with quick GPS location marking. It is limited in what it can do but that is the case with most low end Casio watches. Each one fills a different niche.
Solar Charging
Battery information and charge information is not that useful. We don’t know whether it is charging fast or slow, and what the battery charge percentage is. What I do know is that after walking with the watch exposed to the sun on a bag strap it indicates that it is either almost full or full, quickly.
Watches that don’t need to be charged every day, or every week are nice, because you can forget about them for months at a time. I think that this is the type of watch that I would strap to a bag. When I want to store location data I can just press the button and continue walking.
Use Case
If you know where you’re walking, or you’re exploring without the need for a GPS this is a cheaper alternative to a GPS like the Garmin Etrex 32x. When you get to a point of interest or a location that you want to add to a map you can get the coordinates, for later use. This is lighter, and less hassle.
Walking and taking steps could be seen as boring. It’s something we do every day, without thinking about it. At conferences we can easily take 20,000 steps a day, when we’re standing for the entire day, with barely any opportunities, or need to sit, except when eating or getting from A to B. The Steps App is a way of seeing step counts in a variety of ways.
With the insights tab you have information about your best week, month and year. It shows you theoretical distance, time spent stepping, theoretical energy burn, and floors climbed, with compatible devices. On my best week I climbed 253 floors, walked 118 km over 24hrs 39 mins and burned 6243 kcals. My best step day was on the 23rd of August 2018. I took 40,142 steps. That was a theoretical 31.3km over 6hrs 45 and 188 floors.
During my best month I walked half a million steps. 453.7km over 90hrs20, climbing 655 floors. This was my walking habit during the pandemic and the reason for such a lot of time walking wasn’t because I was doing anything interesting. It’s because we were in self-isolation and I was using the Apple Watch calories burned per day to indicate how much exercise I should do. The result is a month where I walked for three hours a day for an entire month. One could argue that this isn’t such a good memory.
It’s more fun to look at the pages above. I have walked a million steps 16 times, five million, three times. I have walked at least 5000 steps 1292 times and 10,000 steps 743 times so far. This is fun because it shows how consistent my walking habit is, and how regularly I reach each goal/landmark.
And Finally
They allow you to see your longest steps, calories, distance, duration, floors and superstreak. These are both excellent and crap. Step streaks are good when you’re walking but doing no other sports. If you cycle, climb or do other sports there is a good chance that you will your streak., That’s why the steps streak is just 34 days but the distance streak is 252 days and the duration streak is 918 days, and floors is 390. If you limit yourself to steps then you can only take steps, and nothing else.
From friendships and the people we meet so our knowledge of authors increases. It is through English literature classes that I learned to appreciate Milan Kundera. I read all his books over a period of years. Following a conversation with an Albanian friend I heard of Ismail Kadare. He originally wrote in Albanian and French, living in Paris for many years.
The two books I have read so far are Spiritus and Les Tambours de L’automne. Both of these books are interesting in their own right. Spiritus is interesting because it’s taking a look at the effect that being a listening spy can have on how you feel others perceive you. It’s an eye opening book into the world of spying that is not often discussed in books. Les Tambours de L’Automne is based on a key moment in Albanian history several centuries ago. It’s only near the end that you understand the title.
Now I’ve started to read L’Hiver de la Grande Solitude and so far I’m enjoying it. It was completed in the mid 1970’s and within the thirst few pages I found what I love. There is a description of a photographer and film developer who is about to retire. He was developing photographs of a personality and as he did so he noticed something different. Upon closer inspection he realised that the expression he read on the photographed person’s phase was one of concern.
Ismail Kadare reads better in French and finding his works can be a challenge so whenever I drop into a bookshop I look to see what they have available hoping to find one or two of his books. It’s a shame that his writings are not easier to find.
Recently I have read three out of four DI Barton books and I enjoy them. One of the things that I enjoyed about these books is that I’m interested in both sides of the story, rather than reading about character A but being frustrated when reading about character B. With these books I like both.
The first book is about a seasonal killer, and it moves on from there. I could give more information but I don’t want to spoil the books for you. These books are available via Audible’s Premium plus package, for the first three books, and you need to spend one credit per book for the last three books.
I don’t like writing book reviews. I think that the speed with which I read books tells you whether these books are good or not. I read the first three within two or three weeks and I enjoyed them all, hence the purchase of the fourth. The books are presented from the DI’s perspective and the serial killer’s point of view in turn. As you read you learn more, until the final dénouement.
We should spend more time listening to audiobooks and discussing them. It is easy to find articles and news about films and more, but less so about audible.com among other projects. We could see every book as a series, especially since they last about seven hours. I like reading books with my eyes but I also enjoy listening, whilst walking, driving etc.
Long drives are one of the most enjoyable moments for listening to audiobooks. As you read them you imagine the stories you’re reading, but you also associate one book with a bit of motorway, or a season. I used to enjoy listening to podcasts but I think that with their minutes of adverts per episode they have become too much like the television shows and radio programs we got into the habit of avoiding.
With audiobooks there are no adverts, just stories that help you stay focused on long drives, especially if you’re driving alone. Don’t be tricked. Most of my reading is done either while cooking or while walking. With books a solitary walk becomes an excuse to “read”, uninterrupted, for a period of time.
I just ran a test and skype with my mobile phone works fine. It means that when in range of open wifi hotspots without restrictions I can take advantage of free phone calls.
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