Tag: app

Fitbit Charge HR

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, Food, Gadgets, Health2 Comments

Fitbit Charge HRIt finally happened. I was finally able to buy a Fitbit Charge HR. I bought the extra large because I didn’t trust that the large one would fit my fat wrist lol. I also didn’t trust that the band on the large would keep it on. I prefer a regular watch band.

I wanted to buy something like this a couple of years ago, but these are so expensive, and I just didn’t have the money. I bought The Spark from SparkPeople, which is a great product, but it’s glitchy. When I am riding my bike, it logs it as “General exercise” which means if I really burn like say 300 calories, it logs it as 94 or something. I don’t like that. I also didn’t like that it didn’t work with the bluetooth to connect to my phone, and this does.

When I lost 70lbs a couple of years ago, I used the Noom app, and to tell the truth I’ve been using it ever since, I just haven’t lost any weight because once my motivation goes away, I don’t lose weight, so whatever I am using doesn’t do any good. I have a new gadget, and I have some motivation to lose weight again, so I really hope I get my moneys worth with this new watch lol.

Of course I won’t be able to put it to good use for another month. My gym membership is frozen until April 15th, so on that date I will ride my new Schwinn Meridian 3-wheel tricycle to Planet Fitness. The physical therapist said I can use the exercise bike and the elliptical machine and to do some of the exercises I did at Physical Therapy. Until then, I will use the Fitbit watch and the Fitbit app to track my sleep and my steps and log my food. I’ve already walked 3,070 steps since I got it this morning. It wants me to walk 10,000 steps per day, and I’ve already walked a quarter of that so far. The day isn’t over.

I was going to wait until next month to buy it, but I was just dying to have it now. I’m impatient lol.

PlayStation Vue

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

PlayStation-Vue

I am very interested in a new feature that PlayStation has to offer called PlayStation Vue. It’s a new live streaming service on your PlayStation device that allows you to watch TV at a cheaper rate than cable.

This is what we have at our house. We have a bundle with Bright House with TV, Internet and Phone. I know that our cable internet is around $15 a month and our phone isn’t too much more expensive than that. Including the cable box in the living room which is $8 a month and the DVR cable box in my bedroom which is also $8 a month, our cable comes to $130 a month.  That’s a bit much for cable, but that’s how it is. They charge more for HDTV and we had to have certain packages because we have HDTV’s in both rooms.

With PlayStation Vue, I would have to use my PlayStation 4 to watch TV, which isn’t a bad thing because I use my PS4 all day long anyway with game play and watching Netflix and Hulu Plus, so to have another service keeping my PS4 running is convenient considering I have to grab the TV remote control to change from HDMI 1 for the PS4 to HDMI 2 for the cable. I wouldn’t have to go through that if I had PlayStation Vue.

They have a DVR function so that you can record ALL of your shows with NO conflicts, and you don’t have to worry about it recording on your PlayStation, it stays in the cloud for up to 28 days. As it is right now, if I want to record something, fine, I get to watch it when I want to, but my partner doesn’t have that option since he has a regular cable box. If he wants to record something, he has to watch it in my room.

My concern with switching from cable to PlayStation Vue is that we have 2 TV’s, and only 1 PS4. PlayStation has another device called PlayStation TV which allows you to play PlayStation Vita games with a PS3 controller, but PlayStation Vue is not available for that. If my partner wants to watch TV, he would have to use his iPad since there is an iPad app, but he wouldn’t be able to watch it on his TV. He has a Google Chromecast, but I’m not sure if that works with his iPad since we haven’t hooked it up yet. And even if it does work, will it work with PlayStation Vue? Also, would he be able to use his iPad while PlayStation Vue is streaming on his TV? Questions! Concerns!

If we were to switch from cable to PlayStation Vue, we would be saving $60 a month, that is if I chose the Elite package, which I would considering Logo isn’t available on the other 2 packages. They mention at E3 that you would be able to choose which channels you want, so if that is true then I would consider their less expensive Access or Core packages. Money is always tight, and I hate spending so much money on cable that I very rarely even watch. I don’t NOT watch TV, in fact, I have a huge list of shows that I watch, but I don’t watch TV all day long. It also concerns me that they don’t have every channel that is available, like for example where is ABC? And how will I watch Salem without WGN? What about The CW? Most of my shows are on The CW.

This new service is only available in certain zip codes anyway, and we are not in any of those zip codes since we are in Bakersfield, CA, but I’m sure the day will come when we will be able to use this service. I’m sure by then those channels MAY become available, but who knows for sure.

I told my partner about this new service and he just looked at me, like don’t even think about it lol. We were going to go cable free several years ago when we bought 2 Roku boxes, but realized there was no live TV, so if he wanted to watch his live news shows, he would be out of luck. They also didn’t have every episode of his news channel, they only had clips. He doesn’t want clips, he wants to watch entire episodes, and preferably live. Well, with PlayStation Vue he can see live TV, but he just doesn’t want to take the leap because it is too complicated, and he prefers things that are easy. And again, he doesn’t have a PlayStation, nor does he want to have to stream live TV from his iPad to the Google Chromecast, if that would even work. If it doesn’t work, then he doesn’t want to have to watch TV from his iPad and not be able to do anything else with it. It’s just too much of a hassle for him, and I understand. But perhaps if they made it available on PlayStation TV, and gave him a remote control instead of a PS3 controller, then he may consider it, but until then, he just wants to keep things simple.

So, I’m excited about it, but him not so much. But I think this is something that would be easier for someone who lives alone with 1 TV anyway. Unless every TV in the house has a PlayStation, this isn’t going to work for couples or a family unless they can make this service available on the PlayStation TV, which if you think about it is probably the best device for PlayStation Vue. I don’t know, tell me what you think in the comments.

Terraria mobile issues resolved

On By Michel McDonaldIn App, Games, Google, How toLeave a comment

Screenshot_2015-05-04-23-30-38

I’m doing a little happy dance right now because I was finally… sorry, that was weak. I was FINALLY able to get Terraria to play on my refurbished Samsung Galaxy S3, and I will tell you how I did it.

The Issue was that when it installed the game, it only installed the obb file in the Android/obb folder. It didn’t install any of the actual game files in the Android/data folder. Every time I tried to load the game, it would give me this message (below). Try as I might I could not figure it out. I didn’t realize the data folder was lacking files. The OBB data file is fine, it installed all 52mb of that, it’s just that it didn’t install the rest of the data.

Screenshot_2015-05-02-19-33-57

The Fix. My phone came preinstalled with a file viewer called My Files, but that isn’t enough. I have an app from Cheetah Mobile called File Manager and that did the job. So what I did was I zipped the data files from my Nook and uploaded the zip file to my OneDrive so that I could download it on my phone. I downloaded it and then went into the File Manager and located the zip file in my downloads folder. I copied the zip file and pasted it in the Android/Data folder, but it kept saying 0kb. So it was showing a file name, but it wouldn’t allow actual data to be inserted in that folder. I then figured out (after days mind you) that in the File Manager there is a option in the settings for Root Settings (Advanced Users). Root Explorer and Change System Folders. Check both of those.

Screenshot_2015-05-04-23-27-29

Once those two options were checked, I copied the zip file again and it actually unzipped all of the files, but for some odd reason all of the files were 0kb. So then I decided to paste the zip file in the SD Card Android/Data folder and it pasted with all 52mb in tact. I then unzipped it and it actually unzipped. I find that to be amazing because before it wouldn’t unzip onto the SD card. So once I had all the files in the SD card, I went into the folder with the files and I tapped (and held) on one file to select it, then I clicked that little icon at the top with 4 squares and it selected the entire directory, then I clicked copy at the bottom of the screen and went in the Device to the Android/Data/com.and.games505.TerrariaPaid folder and hit paste and all of the files actually pasted with actual file sizes too.

To prove it worked, the Terraria image at the top is the actual screen shot from my phone. I cannot believe I finally got it to work. Now, I’m worried about if/when there is an update in the Google Play store and it installs all the files again, but this time it deletes all the files, or it makes them all 0kb lol. If that happens, I still have it on my Nook, so I’ll just be able to copy it over.

I really hope this has helped someone out there who has been just as frustrated as I have been. If you have a second Android device that it actually works on, you will be fine.

Post to Google+ from Facebook Mobile

On By Michel McDonaldIn How toLeave a comment

google plus

Google+ has been available for quite some time now and I finally figured out how to share to it from Facebook. I have searched high and low for apps or websites that allow you to post to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all in one app or website. I finally found it from within the Facebook mobile app itself. Although, it’s not an automatic sharing option, but it will allow you to share pictures easily.

This is a picture of my dog Flower. I wanted to share it on Google+ so all I did was click the 3 little dots and click Share, then a little window pops up and I click Google+ and viola, it allows me to share it. You can also email it, tweet it, share it on Facebook, put the image in your Google Drive… however you want to share it.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-12Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-24 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-03-15

The same works for websites, all you do is click the 3 dots at the top right of the Google Chrome browser, assuming that is the browser you have installed, then click Share and choose Google+.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-43-01 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-37-56

These screenshots were taken on my Nook HD+, but this option is also available on my Android phone as well. If you are using a computer, this isn’t going to help you very much, but if you are using an Android based tablet or phone, this works for you. I don’t know if this works with the iPhone because I don’t have an iPhone, so if it does work for you then let me know in the comments.

I can’t see how this will work with plain old status updates. The share button for status updates will only allow you to share it in your Facebook timeline or page. For that you will just have to select your text (tap and hold until the text is selected, then drag the bars to select all the text you want), copy it and then go to Google+ to create a post and paste the text.

Perhaps the day will come when your Facebook status updates will automatically get posted to Google+ just as they get tweeted automatically, but until then, this is your best option that I can think of that won’t cost you any money.

I hope this helps.