Not only did I

get it all out to the Dumpster and Rosie recycling containers, I hit my daily activity level goal, for the fourth day this week (Sunday was the game, Monday was spent away from work and the trip from the parking lot to the medical centre) according to my phone. I went to plug it in for the night, and realised that the step count was 4,995. I was five steps short of my 5,000 step goal. So I unplugged it and walked down the hall with it a couple of times. Now it says 5,024. I can tick it off my Habitica dailies list. Is it scary that I do what my phone suggests? Or that I sign into my laptop with my face? I'm not sure the marriage of human and technology is always for the best. I'm not a Luddite--I'm actually an avid adopter of technology, but I use it knowing I have no privacy, and I'm not entirely sure I'd set up a Smart Home, if I had a house, because frankly, having my very home hacked scares me a bit. I don't think I'm paranoid to think of that scenario at all, you know.

If Samsung wants to sell me another phone

they will have to reinstate expandable memory as a part of their handset. It looks like they might just do that:

Android Circuit: Samsung Galaxy S7 U-Turn, Apple Suffocates Android, Galaxy Note 5 Defeated

Samsung Revives Memory Card Support

One of the big omissions in Samsung’s high-end devices in 2015 has been the loss of expandable memory. The removal of microSD card support saw a huge backlash from fans of the Galaxy devices – especially Galaxy Note users. Reports from HDBlog.it suggest that those complaints have been heard and microSD is on the way back in 2016. Forbes’ Jay McGregor:

Samsung of late has more a pragmatism to it. It’s willing to shun convention in order to secure sales, which it showed by bringing forward the release of the Note 5 and the (rumoured) early release of the S7. It’s likely that Samsung has had serious discussions about a possible return of the microSD slot in its flagship line. Even the notorious leakster, Evan Blass, predicted back in August that the Korean company could make an about-face for a future Samsung flagship.

I also thought this was a fun quote about Apple vs. Samsung:

Unlike the early days of the smartphone era, the current crop of smartphones have a relatively fixed hardware platform. Your flagship devices are going to offer a broadly similar feature set, from camera output and screen displays, to chipset benchmarks and battery performance. There will naturally be areas where phone ‘A’ is slightly better than phone ‘B’ but for everyday use the sweet spot of current smartphone technology covers the vast majority of manufacturers’ main devices.

The catch is not in building a cutting-edge smartphone, it’s making a cutting-edge smartphone that people believe is a cutting-edge smartphone that they want to buy. This is Apple’s core strength. Samsung can parade the technology for the Galaxy range, but the knee-jerk reaction is that it has all been seen before in the iPhone… even if the technology itself debuted in a Samsung handset.

UPDATE, 12/5/15: According to new rumours, the microSD capability of an S7 may be in doubt.

Have a smartphone? Need to remember when to take your meds?

Check out www.needymeds.org. It links to coupons for various pharmaceuticals, as well as the assistance programmes for each drug, but it also has a free application for iOS and Android that will remind you when to take each medication if needed, among other things. You can keep a medication list, list of prescribers, pharmacy info, etc., for free. You can buy the full app for other functions, too, but the reminder works on the free one. I'm a little bad about taking my Lantus, and my insurance company was suggesting I take a look at the website to save money on my prescriptions, and I stumbled upon the application. It's working pretty well for me.

Of concern

Heart Gadgets Test Privacy-Law Limits

The small box inside Amanda Hubbard's chest beams all kinds of data about her faulty heart to the company that makes her defibrillator implant.

Ms. Hubbard herself, however, can't easily get that information unless she requests summaries from her doctor—whom she rarely sees since losing her insurance. In short, the data gathered by the Medtronic Inc. implant isn't readily accessible to the person whose heartbeat it tracks.

"This is my health information," said Ms. Hubbard, 36 years old. "They are collecting it from my chest."

The U.S. has strict privacy laws guaranteeing people access to traditional health files. But implants and other new technologies—including smartphone apps and over-the-counter monitors—are testing the very definition of medical records.

The article also discusses issues with health-data-collecting applications for smartphones.

A little bit of iPhone fun

Thanks to David Reid for sharing:



Oh, and just in case you didn't get the Samsung Galaxy S III ad before the video, it's actually quite entertaining in and of itself:



What can I say, I don't have a Samsung GS III, but I am an Android kind of girl when it comes to operating system.

Okay, I'm home from the game, had a good time, and I've had the weekly debriefing with the game master. It's time to go to bed. Good night.

Interesting

Majority of Americans Now Own Smartphones, Survey Says

A study by Nielsen on Monday showed that 50.4 percent of all mobile subscribers owned a smartphone, as of March - the first time that smartphones outsold feature phones since Nielsen began tracking both several years ago. Moreover, the number of users with an Android phone continues to increase, reaching nearly half of all smartphone owners.

Smartphones, almost by definition, include the ability to access the combined knowledge of the Internet, either through a browser or the thousands of apps available via online app stores. Not surprisingly, Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that consumers tapped into the mobile computing and sharing power those smartphones offer.

I'm surprisingly bouncy

On three hours' of sleep. At about four it occurred to me that although gadgets have a certain adrenaline spike for me, the fact that I sat at the computer and phone and consumed almost an entire 2 litre of Diet Coke after 7 pm after having precious little caffeine the last few nights probably explained my sleeplessness best.

So I woke up this morning to what will probably become a daily ritual. First it's wake up to an alarm (in this case, a rooster's call--it seemed the most likely to wake me up--I like the chance for multiple alarms [I have one set to remember my Lantus at night and to change jobs at the time clock mid-shift]). Then I check the weather outside and do a quick scan of the news to make sure that civilisation hasn't gone belly up. Then it's a shower, dressing, and the regular stuff.

My blood sugar is not surprisingly high this morning, what with pizza last night, lack of sleep, and late Lantus (at 4 am). But I checked it and put in in to an application that will track blood sugar, meds, etc., and it lets you write in pretty detailed notes. It's like having a PDA again, but on a phone. :)

I have a shopping list for Walgreens ready on my phone, superior to anything on the Kindle, and less bulky.

I promise this blog will not be about how my mind was quickly subsumed by technology. Really. But it's new and fun. :)

Okay, I need to pick up some meds. I've been out of my oral meds for a couple of days and need to get back in the swing of things. Have a great day.