Panic Last Night on Way Home!

No, it wasn't a security problem, thank Gd.

With an eye on the road, at the Ofra Junction, I had checked my phone and saw that I needed to update Whatsapp. Considering the rather anorexic memory capabilities of my phone, I generally ignore these "update" requests, except for Whatsapp. So much of my communications with people, family, friends, work, travel/tremps etc are via that amazing and free application.

I never update the apps that Samsung built into the phone, even the ones I use. The reason that I have no memory in it for what I want/need is that the memory is wasted on apps I never use.

So there I was, after 9:30pm, on the corner, with my eyes scanning every vehicle and checking my phone, too. Of course, even though I had deleted a bunch of messages, I was told that there was insufficient memory to update. OK, no choice I had to delete moe apps. All that was left were WalkLogger, our "sick fund" and facebook messenger.

There was no real choice. I had to delete/uninstall something, and the Walklogger was not it. Since I almost never use the sick fund one, that had to go, and since the fb one can get annoying, and it's possible to get messages directly on facebook, that, too had to go.

Yes, you probably guess it. I suddenly realized that I had deleted Whatsapp Messenger instead of the fb one. Since I wouldn't survive without Whatsapp, I quickly sent out a couple of sms's to ask people to re-invite me. And I wondered what would happen to the Whatsapp groups I had started and am sole administrator. Had they just vanished?

If you know me well, you know that patience and waiting aren't my strong points. I went into google and searched for Whatsapp. I found it and managed to re-install it. All this, while waiting for the bus or tremp. As part of the "re-installation," I had a one-time offer to rescue all of my old files and contacts and groups. By then, if I remember correctly, I was already in a ride home, and a section of the route has no internet/wifi etc. I was terrified that I'd lose it all.

Baruch Hashem, I got home safely, quickly and have my Whatsapp back!!

Not All Phone Pedometers Count The Same

Most probably this can be said about pedometers in general. It's up to the user to program in the length of our stride, but recently I've discovered a discrepancy even as to the distance different phones claim people walk.

As you know, if you're a reader of this blog, I have a Galaxy II and use the WalkLogger app. Twice I've been walking with people who have iphones, which has its own pedometer app, and each time we discovered that the iphone credits the walker with lots more steps and distance than mine. A couple of weeks ago I was with my friend for dinner, and afterwards we both checked our phone pedometers and amazingly they both said 4,300. I had taken a couple of nice walks and she had been pretty sedentary that day, which did seem either strange or that we incorrectly perceived our exercise and walking.

We then walked around Cinema City, Jerusalem where the restaurant was. And then we compared numbers again. She had reached an impressive 5,000, while my app only gave me 4,500. We had been together and walked the exact same distance and have the same basic height and stride. I've held my phone while walking to check that it counts my paces correctly, which it does.

Have others noticed such discrepancies?

At least it's good to know that I take many more steps than are registered on the phone.

Lazy SmartPhone Can't do Two Things at Once

Last night when I called a friend for a nice long talk, I figured that it was the perfect time to take a walk around the house and get a nice gold medal from my phone pedometer. But...

I discovered something very annoying last night. WalkLogger, the app on my phone for counting steps doesn't count when talking on the phone. At least it didn't when I had a long talk with a friend simultaneously marching around my house. I must have marched a few thousand steps considering how long the phone conversation and that I didn't stop moving for a second. When I checked the pedometer after "hanging up," I discovered that the numbers hadn't moved at all.No gold medal, but calories were burned!

And please don't tell me to just talk on the Bezeq phone, because on the "land line" I don't have the same unlimited free phone calls abroad I have with Golan.