Talking Tech for July 2 2013

The Reebok ZR10 treadmill

Every now and again I get asked about exercise equipment. Well this time, I'm taking my own advice and went out last week end and purchased the Reebok ZR10 Treadmill.

It has lot's of physically accessible buttons, a screen of course, a 3.5mm cable to plug my iPhone in to, and it folds up.

I'm not actually getting it until August, but I have my favourite exercise iOS app lined up for it, Zombies, Run!: here is the description and link.

Zombies: Run!

Welcome to Season 2 of Zombies, Run!

You tie your shoes, put on your headphones, take your first steps outside. You’ve barely covered 100 yards when you hear them. They must be close. You can hear every guttural breath, every rattling groan - they’re everywhere. Zombies. There’s only one thing you can do: Run!

Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive running game and audio adventure, co-created with award-winning novelist Naomi Alderman. We deliver the story straight to your headphones through orders and voice recordings - and when you get back home, you use the supplies you’ve collected while running to build and grow your base.

BBC NEWS - “The only way to save yourself is to run for real.”
WIRED - “In the style of Runkeeper, with an exciting undead twist.”
LIFEHACKER - “A really cool way to get outside and exercise.”
CNN - “Turns exercise into a game - a terrifying, terrifying game.”
NPR - "It gets you moving!"
TIME.COM - "Takes all the fun of a zombie game and funnels it into a fitness app."

WHAT PLAYERS SAY:
“Evaded all zombie mobs :-) One of my best sprints ever; this app works!”
“This game will make you sweat. Perfect junction between game design and run tracker.”
“Just tried @zombiesrungame and for the first time in my life I feel truly alive.”

WALK, JOG, OR RUN ANYWHERE
Zombies, Run! works anywhere and at any speed. You can jog in a park, run along a beach, or walk along a trail. It even works on treadmills!

YOU ARE RUNNER 5
Hundreds of lives are counting on you. You've got to rebuild your base from a few shivering survivors into a fortified beacon of civilization by collecting critical supplies and avoiding roving zombie hordes. Can you save them and learn the truth about the zombie apocalypse?

A WORLD OF STORIES
You become the hero in an epic story of humanity’s struggle for survival where your running *really* matters - and there’s a deeper mystery to be uncovered as well... This app includes all 26 missions from Season 1 as well as the first 7 missions from Season 2; and there'll be a further 60+ Season 2 missions released weekly and available for purchase!

YOUR OWN MIX
Choose your own custom playlists before you start running: the story unfolds in between your tracks through a series of dynamic radio messages and voice recordings.

INTERVAL TRAINING - WITH ZOMBIES
With our optional ‘Zombie Chases’ mode, you’ll need to increase your speed and work up a sweat if you hear zombies on your tail. That’s right - we’ve made interval training *fun*!

VIEW YOUR RUNS ONLINE WITH ZOMBIELINK
Register with our free ZombieLink service to view and share your runs online, complete with maps, full run history, and the ability to ‘play back’ zombie chases so you can see how much faster you ran when the living dead were right behind you! Plus you can sync your runs with Runkeeper and export them as GPX files.

KEEP THE SURVIVORS ALIVE
You automatically collect items like medicine, batteries, and ammo while running - but when you're back home, who needs them more: the soldiers or the doctors? Which buildings need extra defenses? It’s up to you - and the bigger your base, the more missions you can play.

NOTES
- Requires iOS 6 or above. Works on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod Touch 4th gen and 5th gen.
- Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
- Accelerometer mode can dramatically decrease battery life.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/zombies-run!/id503519713?mt=8

I'll let you know how it all goes when it arrives. Should be fun, and tiring (smile).

Solo-DX releases more audio description tracks

Found on Twitter today, that Solo-DX has released audio described tracks for the first 8 episodes of series 1: Start Trek: The Next Generation. Looking forward to rediscovering these episodes with audio description.

http://www.solo-dx.com/buy/index.html

MBraille - Braille keyboard for iOS (free version and paid $30)

Description and link of the new MBraille iOS Braille keyboard app.

MBraille brings you a mobile braille keyboard.

With the free features you can type, edit and send tweets using contracted or uncontracted English braille.*

With the pro version you can also use braille to

- send text messages
- send email
- do facebook status updates
- add calendar entries
- fire away internet search engine queries
- the text typed is automatically put to clipboard when you switch apps.

An experienced blind MBraille user can easily surpass the sighted typists using the build in virtual keyboard.

*uncontracted Braille is supported for Danish, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/mbraille/id639199558?mt=8

On the quest for a RSS reader for my iOS, OS X, and Android devices

With Google officially closing down Google Reader as of July 1, I'm now on a official quest to find an RSS reader that I can sync between all my different devices.

I've come across so far: Feed Wrangler: for which I used ReadKit on the Mac and the Feed Wrangler iOS app: seems pretty good so far.

Using my Mac like my iPhone: turning on/off wifi and Bluetooth

When I fly, I have to put all of my iOS devices in airplane mode, now I can do the same with my Macbook pro. With Airplane Setting, I can use it from the Extra's menu on my Mac to quickly toggle both wifi and Bluetooth off at the same time: no more fiddling with separate menus: very very nice. Not to mention, it also saves on battery power when you don't need wifi or Bluetooth.

Airplane Setting

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/airplane-setting/id470661452?mt=12

The first PDF reader for visually impaired people

I'm not exactly sure if its the first actual PDF reader for vision impaired folks, and I think its only for low vision, not people who are blind: at least it does not work with VoiceOver on the Mac. I've put the link here in case anyone wants to try it out. Works on both Mac and Windows.

http://www.szb.ch/en/press/press-releases/the-first-pdf-reader-for-visually-impaired-people.html?goback=.gde_4083270_member_253097144&utm_content=buffer1da6d&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

iSee - David Woodbridge Technology Blog

Monday 1 July 2013