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Tag Archives: applications

EcoSpeed App Can Save You Up To 30% In Fuel

By David Ponce on 01/31/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Here’s the thing about driving and consumption and pollution: a lot has to do with how you drive. It’s all that stopping and going, and how you step on the pedal; whether you smash it or tickle it. But it’s possible to change all that and the EcoSpeed application teaches you how. It does two things. First, it can give you a route to your destination that may not be the shortest distance, but that has the lowest likelihood of stops. It avoids traffic lights and traffic, and calculates things in such a way that even with the additional mileage, you end up spending less gas and don’t necessarily take much longer to get to where you’re going.

The second part addresses your habits. Since your phone has an accelerometer, it can tell how you’re driving and scream at you to ease up on the pedal mashing. With all this coaching, EcoSpeed claims you can shave up to 30% in your fuel consumption, and consequently on your polluting.

The app should be free and available in March for Android and iOS devices.

[ EcoSpeed Demo ] VIA [ Wired Gadgets ]

Find My Car Smart App For The Truly Forgetful

By David Ponce on 12/20/11 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

There are a ton of apps that help you find your car once you’ve forgotten where you parked it. They all suffer from a fatal flaw: you have to tell them where you’ve parked as you leave your car. Let’s be honest here: after a while, you’ll also start forgetting to do this. So that’s why the Find My Car Smart app one-ups them all. Using Bluetooth 4.0, the application works with a paired-up USB adapter that shuts off as you turn your car’s ignition off. The program on your iPhone 4S notices this and makes a quick note of your GPS coordinates. If you later can’t recall your spot, launch the app and find out. Yes, you do need an iPhone 4S as that’s the only iDevice that uses Bluetooth 4.0, now known as Bluetooth Smart.

The app and related USB dongle and car charger are on the one place where people with good ideas can connect directly with the marketplace: Kickstarter. However, the funding goals have been more than reached and you can get yourself the entire kit for as little as $30. Shipping in January 2012.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Engadget ]

Drunk In London Much? This App Will Wake You When You Reach Your Bus Stop

By David Ponce on 11/02/11 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Getting around in London on public transport just got a little easier. The BusChecker app not only gives you countdowns until your next bus arrives at any of the 20,000 London bus stops, but it packs a neat feature that any drunk/sleepy person could use. See, with iOS 5s region monitoring feature, you can simply get on the bus, tell the application where you’re going and doze off. An alarm will ring as you reach your station. Whether you’ll be awoken from your slumber is another matter altogether.

Aside from that, you can keep track of your bus on a map. BusChecker is around $3.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Wired's Gadget Lab ]

New App Turns Smartphone Into Sophisticated Medical Monitor

By David Ponce on 10/19/11 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

It’s pretty amazing the amount of data that can be extracted using nothing more than the camera on your smartphone. While there already are a number of applications that are able to give you your heart rate by doing nothing more than resting a finger lightly on the camera, a new application under development could also measure heart rhythm, respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation. A team led by Ki Chon, professor and head of biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have engineered algorithms that “analyze video clips recorded while the patient’s fingertip is pressed against the lens of the phone’s camera. As the camera’s light penetrates the skin, it reflects off of pulsing blood in the finger; the application is able to correlate subtle shifts in the color of the reflected light with changes in the patient’s vital signs. ”

Of course this wouldn’t be news if they hadn’t checked to see if the results gathered from the application correlate with those taken with traditional instruments: they do. Professor Chong believes it will also be possible to detect atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia. And while the tests were conducted with a Motorola Droid phone, Chong hopes to have his application ported to several makes of smart devices. While not available yet, it is in the final stages of development.

“Imagine a technician in a nursing home who is able to go into a patient’s room, place the patient’s finger on the camera of a tablet, and in that one step capture all their vital signs,” Chon said. “We believe there are many applications for this technology, to help patients monitor themselves, and to help clinicians care for their patients.”

[ WPI Press Release ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

OhGizmo! Lightning Review: GPush – Push Notification For Gmail That Works When it Wants To

By David Ponce on 08/18/09 • Leave a comment!

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By David Ponce

This application has been a long time coming, but for $0.99 cents, Gmail users can now have push notifications. So instead of setting your phone to check every X minutes to see if you have a new email, you will be notified as soon as you get it. It’s supposed to save battery life, not to mention keep you connected at all times, like the good Internet addict that you are.

I’ve downloaded the app, and have been playing with it for the last little bit. For my impressions, keep reading.

… Continue Reading

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