Personal Technology: App SmartBy Kit Eaton
If you are headed out for a walk or jog, consider adding an app for your trip. Several smartphone apps can add a helpful boost of motivation, or just some fun information, to a workout or leisurely walk.
Music can be a great help to runners, but sometimes putting together a playlist can be a chore. So leave the song selection up to RockMyRun. This free iOS and Android app streams music while you run, serving mixes of tracks from its archive, with a fun twist: You can choose how many beats per minute the music should have, and the app will match the songs to the pace. If you are out for a fast run, you may choose a speedy setting of 150 to 160 beats per minute. For a slower jog, try 120 beats per minute, and so on.
You can also choose the music genre, mix the lengths of songs, decide whether explicit lyrics are allowed, and even search for a particular track or artist you like.
The app then selects the mix, which can last up to two hours. You can skip a song you don’t like, but that requires fishing out the phone to tap the screen.
RockMyRun works really well. It sometimes serves up music I haven’t heard before, which stops me from getting bored when exercising. But its interface can be a little confusing. For the best experience, it’s worth remembering to download mixes over Wi-Fi before leaving home — streaming music over a mobile data network can quickly eat up your monthly allowance.
To get a wider range of mixes, or mixes longer than 45 minutes, you have to register the app and upgrade to a monthly, quarterly or yearly premium package; the yearly package costs $3 a month.
For an alternative, the free iOS and Android app PaceDJ does a tempo-matching trick similar to RockMyRun’s, but it uses your music archive. This means you hear music you are more inclined to like. PaceDJ works by scanning your archive and logging the beats per minute of each track. You then choose a beats per minute rate you like and it starts playing.
If you’re not sure about your pace, the app can measure walking or jogging speed using your phone’s motion sensors. And if you upgrade to the full version for $3, the app can deliver a staged workout that starts at a slower pace, picks up, then slows down again. This beats per minute shifting feature is not available on the Android version, however.
There is a lot to like about this app, including its clear, good-looking interface and great in-app instructions. It can, however, take a long time to scan a large music archive. I also wish the music controls were bigger, so they would be easier to use while running, walking or cycling.
While music apps can help you run or walk, texting apps can be a hindrance. Texting while walking often puts pedestrians in danger as they focus on their phones instead of looking where they are going. For those who want to do it, there are apps like Type and Walk and Walk n Text. These apps use the phone’s camera to display the view in front of you as you type. The idea is that the image will help you avoid making a wrong step.
Type and Walk, free on iOS, in addition to showing the area in front of the phone, shows useful information like a word count and lets you snap a photo to include in your message. You can also share a text via Twitter, if you’d like. Walk n Text, a $2 Android equivalent (on sale recently for $1), has a few extra features, including one that makes the keyboard transparent for extra visibility.
These apps will not stop you from hurting yourself, though. You must remain aware of your environment while you type. And don’t even think about using these apps while driving.
Finally, if you are out on a long walk or run, check out Map My Walk, a favorite of mine. This free iOS and Android app tracks your routes by using GPS and shows them on a map. While you are walking or running it will also deliver audible updates on your pace using a synthesized voice, so you can learn how swiftly you are moving without having to reach for the phone. It runs in the background, so you could even use it with one of the music apps above. But be aware: The app’s complex interface does take a while to master, and GPS apps like Map My Walk tend to burn through battery life.
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