There are many reasons a user may implement a Pedometer. Perhaps your doctor has suggested you walk at least 10,000 steps in a day or maybe you want to track how many estimated calories you have burned based on the number of steps you take in a day. With this Pedometer application not only can you check out the number of steps you take, you can actually set your personal weight to gain a better understanding of how many calories you have burned, while also recording the amount of time you spend walking, jogging or running and the distance based on the number of steps you've taken that you've probably traveled.
Keep reading to learn more about this free Pedometer, including a few screenshots from the program.
Before I started using the application I entered the settings screen. This is a very intuitive screen that just asks you to enter in some basic information which includes your weight and the size of your stride measured in feet. The stride length will be used to determine the number of miles you have walked, jogged or run at any given time. I could also set my distance type (Miles, Kilometers) and even the "Orientation" which I placed at Horizontal.
Once the settings were sent I clicked on the close settings option and then got ready to use the application. Using Pedometer is simple, the mainscreen will show blank stats and then at the bottom of the screen it features a large finger friendly green "Start" button. Simply clicking on that option will begin your step counting.
Users can also pause the application at any point, which pauses all of the stats, when ready to resume you simply click on the resume option which is in the place of the Start button at that time:
Overall the application was very simple to use, however there are some considerations that all users must take into effect.
First, the program is typically off in its numbers by 10%, the reason being that the accelerometer on the Palm Pre and most devices pull at 4hz (4 pieces of raw data a second), with that being said you'll want to add 10% more steps, calories and distance numbers to your output when you're done using the program. I don't consider this an application issue as much as an accelerometer issue.
Also, the developer has mentioned that the program utilizes the "Screen On" function which can kill your battery very quickly. If you don't want a huge battery drain I would suggest only leaving the program on when you're actually walking around, going for a jog or run, etc. It would have been appreciated if it could run as a background card, but regardless it's still ultimately effective when running as you travel.
I gave the Pedometer application a 4/5 starts. It's unfortunate that the Accelerometer leaves about 10% of a users activities out of the equation, however this could easily be solved by giving users the option to auto-add 10% to their overall numbers, given the developers acknowledgement of the issue that option should be added to future releases.
Furthermore, the screen on option without background card support is a little bit discerning, but I understand the issues that cause these issues with the Palm programming environment so I can forgive that flaw.
However, overall this is a great application that makes it simple to track your steps throughout the day. As a final tip the developer suggests dropping your phone in a case on your belt for the best possible accuracy available, upon testing the program in my pocket and in a case, I have to agree with their assement in that respect.
Pedometer is a free homebrew application available easily if you download and install PreWare and I highly recommend that any readers who are looking for a phsyical activity tracker give this application a try, it will make tracking your daily steps easier than you may have imagined.