Robert Forto

IPod

MapMyDOGWALK

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The team that has brought the popular MapMyFITNESS apps has gone to the dogs. Today they announced a brand new app, MapMyDOGWALK. It is an application for your iPhone that tracks your dog walks and outdoor adventures effortlessly and keeps you motivated to hit the road or the trails everyday.

I have been a daily user of the MapMyRIDE app for over two years. Not only do I use it for it’s intended purpose of tracking my rides on my bike but it is my go-to app to track my training for my dog sledding teams.

I use the app to track speed, distance, and time and can even say that the app has come close to saving my life! Using the GPS feature I can plot my exact location on the trail and use it to find my way home if I get lost in the minus 20 degree temperatures in the wilds of Alaska!

Of course everybody posts everything on Twitter and Facebook these days. With the MapMy series of apps it makes this effortless. Your friends can literally be on the trail, adventures, 5K run, or whatever you indulge in, using the ‘live feed” feature. Heck you can even post pictures too!

I am sure that the new MapMyDOGWALK will be a big hit. Who knows, I might just get my dog an iPhone and let him walk himself…

More information about the MapMyDog app:

Exercise your dog and get healthy at the same time! Log your walks, automatically track your calories, and sync with your free account at www.mapmywalk.com.

MapMyDOGWALK uses the built-in GPS technology of your iPhone to enable you to track your walks and gets you closer to achieving your health and fitness goals. Step out your front door, hit the road or trail, and this app will effortlessly mark out your path along an interactive map and record essential metrics including duration, distance, pace, speed and elevation. Once you finish your walk, save your data and it automatically uploads to MapMyWalk.com where you can view your route, walk data, and a comprehensive workout history.

The new MapMyDOGWALK also gives you the ability to easily share your workout data with friends and family via email and Twitter, listen to your iPod during your walk without leaving the application, and geo-tag photos along your route.
iMapMyWalk boasts all of these great features:

•Real-time tracking that measures and displays time, distance, pace, speed and elevation
•An interactive map that lets you view your current location and exactly where you have traveled along your route
•Synchronization with your online Training Log on MapMyWalk.com
•Manual entry of workout data directly from the app so you can easily record your indoor activities like gym workouts and cardio sessions on the treadmill
•Twitter integration that enables you to tweet your workout data to friends and family
•iPod integration that allows you to select and control your music while the app is running
•A geo-tagging photo capability that automatically uploads any photos you take along your walk to your saved route on MapMyWalk.com
•Voice Feedback detailing distance, pace, and speed. Get your walk data in real-time through your headphones.
• Now with Ant+ support: Monitor your heart rate during workouts and track results over time
• BTLE support on iPhone 4S: Wahoo Bluetooth Low Energy heartrate monitor – no dongle needed!

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30 Days About Me. Day 10: Something that Makes Life Easier

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I am partipating in a blog challenge–

It is 30 Days about Me from a Daily Dose of Toni

So far I am loving it! I connected with a few great bloggers and I have read some interesting posts from them. I have even gotten my wife, Michele to participate. Who would think, even after 10 years you can learn things about a person that they share with the world through their blog.

Today’s topic: Something that makes life easier.

Well, I, like most will probably have to say their iPhone. I don’t know if it makes life easier but it makes it much more connected.

I have been drunk on the Apple juice since as far back as I can remember. I used to have one of those little square suitcase type Mac’s with the black and white screen since the early 1990’s.

Right now I have an iPod, a Touch, 2 iPhones, an iPad, a Mac Mini, and my MacBook Pro.

But this isn’t about them. It’s about the iPhone. I use my iPhone for just about everything. I am a Twit-Facing YouTubing Ustream hosting blogging machine.

I use my iPhone for my business. I accept credit cards from an app called PayAnywhere. I keep my track of my work with my client’s on TimeWerks, I keep my calendar with Google Calendar. I have 11 email accounts, 14 twitter accounts, 6 blogs, Linkedin, Skype for video calls and chat, Google voice, an 800 number platform and a GoGo inflight WiFi service, just to name a few.

Paypal for invoicing to clients and impulse purchases on e-Bay and Amazon. My bank, Chase, even lets you take a picture of a check and it will deposit into my account. That is a great feature since the nearest branch is probably 1100 miles away.

For those that want to stalk me I have 5200 check in’s on Foursquare and can say that I have been to every one. I am a newbie to Gowalla but it is still fun.

I use the top of my 4 gigabyte data plan every month and occasionally use my iPhone as a hotspot for my Macbook when I am on the road. I have hosted my radio program, Dog Works Radio from a busy restaurant with my iPhone on more than one occasion.

I use my iPhone for my Sirius Satellite Radio broadcasts–since it is not available up here in Alaska. Occasionally I will listen to Pandora, iHeart Radio or audio books.

I use MapMyRide everyday for tracking my dog sledding training runs. Last year alone I ran over 1800 miles on the back of my dog sled with my iPhone on and one time it saved my butt when I took a wrong turn on a trail that I have never been on. Getting lost in the middle of Alaska when the temperature is -25 degree is not something you want to do.

On the trails the music is rockin’ with a playlist that includes Metallica, Rob Zombie/White Zombie, Eminem, Godsmack, Herbie Hancock, and Bob Marley. But just so you know an iPhone will not work at -32 degrees. It shuts itself off and will not turn back on until it is warmed up. And the same goes for a 120 degree sauna.

So, Steve, there are limits to your technological wonder…

With that, I guess you can safely say that my iPhone is the one thing that makes my life a little easier and hey guess what?

If I lose my iPhone there is an app for that too.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Apple to the Great White North

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Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

So folks, its official! At 10 am on Saturday the Apple Store is opening at the 5th Avenue Mall in Anchorage.

This is great news for us up here in the Last Frontier. We have not had a place to go for official support for our iPads, MacBooks, iPods and iPhones.

If we wanted service on these products we would have to send off our beloved gadgets to the Lower 48 or take a road trip to Seattle to visit a Genius Bar.

I know first hand about this. Last September I purchased a brand new iPhone 4 from the AT&T store in Wasilla and not 24 hours after I bought it something weird was happening on the screen. It was sort of like a blur in the left hand bottom corner.

The next day I took it back to the AT&T store and they said that could not do anything about it and told me to either; 1. visit the MacHaus or 2. Conatct Apple.

I headed over to the MacHaus. MacHaus is (or was) Alaska’s version of the Apple Store. It was a third party Apple retailer, sort of like those cell phone kiosks you see in the mall. The guy said he couldn’t help me and in fact said that they don’t do any warranty work on Apple products at all.

So I called 1-800-MY-APPLE and the customer service agent was happy to help me IF I just put my new iPhone in a box and send it to them.

No way! I couldn’t be without my iPhone.

Luckily I found out that the problem with my screen was happening to a lot of other iPhones and it was some sort of production glitch in the new verison. The forums said it would go away with use and sure enough it did after just a week or so.

With that being said, as of Saturday, us folks that are drunk on Apple juice have no fear, Steve and the boys will have no problems getting even more of our paychecks.

I just wonder if the grand opening is in concert with the release of the new iPhone 5 and the sending out of our PFD checks in a month or so?

I think it just might be time to take another sip of the juice, don’t you?

 

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Scary’s on the wall

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Alice in Chains' 1996 MTV Unplugged concert wa...
Image via Wikipedia

The other night my wife headed home to Colorado after a quick trip to our home Alaska. It was a bittersweet goodbye. I couldn’t sleep and I was checking out posts on my Facebook wall well after midnight. I saw something that floored me. It was a picture that my aunt Diana sent to me of a tree that we planted in the front yard when I was just a couple years old.

It was at the house where I grew up in Huntington. WV. I left there when I was in second grade and have only been back a couple times since.

The tree was huge. Well over 40 feet tall and full of life.

Talking to my aunt brought a flood of emotions and flashbacks to the life path I have chosen…

The next thought was my rock band.

When I was young and impressionable, I formed a rock band called FROG first, then we grew up a bit and called ourselves Rainmaker.

This was the early 1990’s in Portland, Oregon and the height of the grunge scene. One of my biggest influences was Alice in Chains. I can’t count how many times we covered their songs in the seedy dive bars from Oregon to Florida driving our equipment in U-hauls that we would rent at the local rate of $19.95 and somehow make it to Florida without getting busted for a one way rental.

This music changed my life, (I don’t know if it was for better or worse) and I am thankful for the times I shared with good friends, loyal fans that bought our tapes out of a suitcase, and even a groupie or two.

We played in a festivals and radio station events for small FM stations before iPods and music piracy.

We watched the rock stars die: Frankie Starr of the Four Horsemen, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, and countless others ruin their lives over drugs and alcohol.

Thankfully none of us got wrapped up in the junk.

At some point we all grew up and went our seperate ways. I a lot has changed since I first picked up a guitar as a young teen. Now my daughter is learning how to play…

Sometimes I sit look at the guitar in the corner as it gathers dust and think back to yesteryear and wonder what if I would have stayed on that path of pursuing my music?

I wonder:

Watch where you spit

I’d advise you wait until it’s over

Then you got hit

And you shoulda known better

–Lyrics from We Die Young, Alice in Chains

I’m 40 now and by the law of averages my life is half over. Is it the way I wanted to live? Maybe, Maybe not.

“We can’t change the past only the hold it has on us,” What a great quote.

Until the time comes I will still hold on to my dreams and chase the demons away–whatever they be. But for now It ain’t like that…

So until next time, America, live life to the fullest because Scary’s on the Wall.

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