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apps, self-improvement, Habitica
App Review: @Habitica – Improve your Life with this #RPG
 App Review: @Habitica – Improve your Life with this #RPG 175 175 admin
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Whether it be by writing to-do lists or by keeping a calendar, we all try to find effective ways of staying on track with our schedule and daily habits. However, this is easier said than done, and it can be easy to slack off and let things slide. Fortunately, Habitica offers a solution to help us improve our lives and keep us on track.

Essentially, Habitica is a role-playing game that takes a new approach to keeping yourself and your friends accountable. It “gamifies” tasks such as exercise and personal to-do’s. After completing these tasks, you receive experience points and gold that you can use to level up or buy items to customize your avatar. To keep the user accountable, if you start to slip up in real life and forget to do some tasks, your character will begin to regress in the game as well.

Another unique aspect of Habitica is the way it promotes accountability across users. Additional features of the game such as “boss fights” and challenges are available when you play with friends, and promote social accountability as well as competition between peers. It is worth mentioning that these features of Habitica are only available when interacting with others, so blowing through the game by yourself is not the ideal experience.

Habitica, app, RPG, application, self-improvement

For all those who are fans of RPG’s or video games, this game is must-try. Habitica also offers an accompanying “app”, which helps players stay on track of updating their avatar. Here is their website if you would like to learn more!

sleep, app, white noise, iphone, healthy living, health, meditation, sleep, alarm clock
Go to Sleep Easier and Wake Up More Energized with This App
 Go to Sleep Easier and Wake Up More Energized with This App 960 640 Emilie
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If you’re anything like me, it’s not always easy to have a deep, restful sleep. So this past week I decided to try out the Alarm Clock Sleep Sounds App. The app claims to use brainwaves and aural entrainment to improve your sleep experience. For nighttime sleep, the app drifts you more easily to a resting state, allowing you to fall asleep more quickly and deeply. For the morning, the app aims to rise you gently, while keeping you energized. I have to admit, although I was originally skeptical, I ended up being quite impressed by the large number of features and personalization settings that the app allows for.

Pros

White Noise Soundscapes. If you’ve ever used a free white noise machine app, you know that you have pretty limited options and a lot of the soundscapes do not sound particularly real. The Alarm Clock Sleep Sounds App offers a huge variety of white noise sounds to choose from. Free sound choices include rain, birds, camp fire, thunderstorm, waves, and more. You design your sleep program to be different than your wake program, which means that you can choose to fall asleep to a completely different sound than the one you will wake up to. Additionally, you can actually combine as many of these soundscapes as you would like. So if you want to listen to the rain with birds, that’s a choice you can absolutely make. The sounds are also as natural sounding as one could hope for with a free app.

Customizable Programs. There are three different types of programs you can create: waking, sleeping, and meditation. Every program has a variety of components that you can customize. You can choose your soundscape(s), the type of wave (monoaural or isochronic without headphones), the balance between waves and soundscape, the duration of the program, and the type of program. For instance, for your morning program you may choose a progressive wake-up, or an “energized mind” wake-up program. You can then save each program (as many as you’d like!) for later use. Name each custom program, so that you can choose each night and morning how you want to sleep and rise, depending on your mood.

It actually works. It’s hard to explain what the “brain wave entrainment” sounds and feels like. It is almost like a soft light hum that radiates from your phone. Although many may not believe an iPhone app can meet these “aural entrainment” claims, it genuinely does feel like waves are being produced by your phone. Regardless of the reason why it works, this light hum combined with the quiet white noise soundscapes proved to wake me gently and smoothly. It’s a far nicer way to wake up than a shrieking alarm clock, and my body never sleeps through it.

Cons

Freemium Model. The app is not entirely free, and much of the app’s capabilities have to be unlocked for a price. Because of this, there are only two program types you can use for waking up, and only one for falling asleep. Additionally, there is only one free meditation option- which focuses on rest and relaxation. There are a large number of soundscapes available for free, but far more available if you are paying for an additional upgrade. However, the app does have a large number of options and customization for a free app.

Free Meditation Could be Improved. The meditation portion of the app is a really cool additional feature, and I do feel like the waves that the app emits during meditation. That being said, the free meditation options leave something to be desired. The guided meditation is short and the voice used is not optimal. However, you can choose for it to be guided or unguided, which is definitely a positive. And, if you choose unguided, you can set the meditation to last as long as you like, so you don’t have to worry about time getting away from you. The other major downside to the meditation portion is that the soundscapes are better suited for falling asleep or waking up than they are for meditation sessions. However, you can easily choose to only turn on the aural wave function and not the soundscapes.

android, explore, app, himalayas, mt. everest, verne, map, google maps
Explore the Himalayas with this New Android App
 Explore the Himalayas with this New Android App 1024 576 Emilie
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You may have heard about a new Android app by Google called Verne: The Himalayas. The app is using Google’s 3D technology in a new and inspiring way. They used their 3D imagery of the Himalayas to create an interactive 3D map which allows people to explore the Himalayas from their own home.

In order to make this interactive map more fun, they turned it into an app. Within the app, you get to control a 500 foot tall Yeti named Verne. Verne is friends with a yak, and you can use him to run, fly jetpacks, and hang-glide. Although you can do these fun activities with Verne, the app isn’t designed to be a game: instead, it’s created to be an interactive, educational, and exploratory experience. The app will even teach you some new facts about the Himalayas!

Google also has 3D imaging of other impressive and well known locales- like the Grand Canyon. So this may be the beginning of a new kind of exploration: one that allows people to see places they cannot actually travel to. However, the Himalayas is the perfect choice for launching this new idea, since few people will be able to travel to the mountain range in their lifetime. Furthermore, 3D imaging allows us to explore the range in ways that even visitors cannot easily do (like bounding up Mt. Everest in seconds).

Check out Google’s video about Verne: The Himalayas below-

Although not the same as actually traveling somewhere, this app may be the next best thing! Each bump and ridge that Verne explores is actually an accurate representation of the Himalayas. Go check out this new app and learn more about this vast and beautiful world!

Main article photo courtesy of Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.withgoogle.verne
Moves, iphone, fitness, app, exercise, healthy, lifestyle
Fitness App “Moves”: App Review
 Fitness App “Moves”: App Review 484 1024 Emilie
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Most of us are always looking for ways to be more active. New fitness gadgets and watches, like Fitbit, give us quantifiable fitness measures that motivate us to get moving. But not all of us want to spend lots of money on a Fitbit! So what about free fitness app options? This past week I checked out the fitness app Moves, which is designed to track your daily activity. Take a look at Moves in the AppStore here.

Overview

Moves is basically a glorified pedometer. It tracks a steps, mileage, length of time exercising, and even calories burned. It aims to track 3 types of exercise: walking, running, and cycling. The cool thing about Moves is that it shows your exercise in an easy-to-read, timeline format. The timeline shows your general location, and the time periods during which you were exercising.

Pros

Moves is aesthetically pleasing and incredible easy to read. The app shows three main circles: the green one showing your “Walking” information, the blue one showing your “Cycling” information, and the purple one showing your “Running” information. The default of each circle shows the number of steps you have taken (except for the “Cycling” circle, where the default is mileage). However, by simply tapping on each circle, you can see mileage or length of time you performed the activity. You can also see calories burned if you turn on the calorie setting.

The app appears to be fairly accurate with distance and step count. I compared it with my iPhone Health app, and sometimes the Moves step count was slightly greater, and other times it was slightly lower. Each day, the two apps always had a similar step count. Additionally, if you keep your Moves app open it will show your step count increasing in front of your eyes. I did this for awhile while I was walking, and the step count seemed very accurate. The first 20 steps or so may not be incredibly accurate (which is common with pedometer-style apps), but once you have taken about 20 consecutive steps you will see high accuracy.

Unlike some step counting apps, Moves does a good job of not counting transportation as exercise. Instead, your timeline will show your starting location, then “Transport,” followed by your destination location. It also does a great job of tracking your location and routes. This is cool because you can go back and see the path that you took while exercising. This gives you a much better sense of where you exercised, when you exercised, and how long you exercised: making you much more aware of when you are being active and when you are being stagnant.

The app is so simple. It doesn’t have any crazy functions, and instead sticks to the basics. It doesn’t try to do too much, and thus it does its simple functions well. It is easy to find information, and even your exercise routes are simply color coded and easy to read.

Cons

Because one of the app’s main functions is tracking your step count, it’s perplexing that there is no step count total. The app shows number of steps taken while walking, as well as the number of steps taken while running, but does not add them together (at least anywhere I could find). This seems like an obvious flaw since many people most likely use the app to set step count goals for themselves. Thus, if you are using Moves to track your step count, you will have to manually add your running and walking steps.

It does not differ greatly from the iPhone health app, already built into your phone. The primary difference is that your Health app will show a total step count, whereas Moves shows the breakdown of your exercise activity. Both show your activity over previous days (although the Moves app shows a more detailed analysis and is easier to read). However, even on the Health app you can see a timeline of your exercise. For instance: 93 steps at 4:03 PM, 136 steps at 4:21 PM. Overall it is simply less comprehensive, and more difficult to read and make sense of.

Sometimes the app inaccurately represents your activity. Although the step count appears quite accurate, the app does not always understand what activity you are engaging in. For instance, at one point I was walking and Moves thought I was actually cycling. At another time I was kayaking (which Moves is not supposed to track). Most of the kayaking it denoted as “Transport” (aka driving-type activities), but the last five minutes of my kayaking Moves believed that I was walking (despite the fact Moves showed my exercise route to be in the water)!

There are a few other drawbacks of the app that make it less appealing to use. First of all, it rapidly kills battery life. You can turn on a battery saving mode on the app, but it will decrease the step count accuracy. Overall, the app was designed with the idea that users will charge their phone every night. Although the designers are aware of the battery-draining problem, they believe your phone should still make it through the day without dying. The other main problem is that you must have your phone on you at all times. That means that if you are getting breakfast ready, or generally moving around your house or office, you will only see the step count increase when your phone is with you. For me, this can be annoying because I rarely carry my phone with me except for when I absolutely have to.

Would I Recommend it?

Despite some obvious drawbacks, I think Moves succeeds at accomplishing its two primary purposes: 1) making you more aware of your typical activity habits, and 2) giving you easy to read information to set goals for yourself. For those without a FitBit, its a great way to be aware of your exercise and get more active!

hyphen, get hyphen, hyphen app, social media, team building, hyphen, team building, app, entrepreneur
How @HyphenApp is #Teambuilding
 How @HyphenApp is #Teambuilding 443 114 BRendine
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I was recently reading Entrepreneur Magazine and they had a list of their best/favorite apps. That is when I came across Hyphen. Hyphen is Team Building. A question that comes up a lot is what is the difference between formal team building, such as an event with United EVENTures, and the daily opportunities that present themselves where corporations can build a team in the moment. Hyphen allows for the on the fly team building, giving people input throughout the day and giving an avenue to be heard and praised. hyphen, get hyphen, hyphen app, social media, team building
Let’s face it, people talk and with the prevalence of social media in their lives, everyone has this sense of talking freely. This could be a good thing if your employees are praising the company or even saying how great of a boss you are; but if it’s cancerous talk, then by the time it reaches management level, it’s too late and the damage could be done.
From another perspective, people love feedback. It has been said that more than 30% of millennials are leaving their first career within the first 3 years, which is costing companies, on average, about $15,000 (some as high as $30,000 in time invested, training, finding a replacement, etc.). One of the main reasons cited is that they are not receiving enough positive feedback.
This is where Hyphen steps in: “At Hyphen, we understand enterprise customer needs, we have experience creating products that fill those needs, and we deliver value on an ongoing basis. We know that to retain good employees, companies need to make their employees feel valued, respected, and most of all, listened to. Executives and HR leaders with better information, more opinions, and regular feedback are better decision makers. Likewise, companies with more engaged, motivated and innovative employees are better companies. What gets said and what’s left unsaid can make all the difference at your company.”

Another great feature is the ability to send out polls, as it states on their website:

  •  Intuitive: Get started with our Library of pre-validated questions and our fool-proof customization tools
  •  Relevant to the business, not just HR: Poll any level of the organization, from the entire company to employee subgroups
  • Anytime: Pulse polls at the frequency you need – one-time, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, etc
  • Real-time Insights: See outcomes in real time and identify priority issues to make decisions ASA

Take a look at this video:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8YfmBKfW0Q]

Do yourself a favor and click the logo at the top of the page, check out their website, and leave some comments below on the value you believe Hyphen will add to your company!