I walk. A lot. And while I can make some reasonable guesstimates in terms of miles covered sometimes, other times I just walk and walk (nature or urban landscapes) and I’d like some idea of distance traveled.
So what would be a good pedometer app for me to use? I have a Samsung Galaxy, if that makes any difference.
I am interested in this topic too. I can’t wear those kinds of plastic bands, they make my wrist sweat and then break out in a rash.
I wear my phone nearly all the time on a clip on my waist, so I’m wondering if the phone has any ability to be aware of the movement of walking, in order to act as a pedometer?
Otherwise, this Omron is one of the better standalone pedometers around, I think.
I stopped using it when they started making you register.
Also, the OP indicated that (s)he isn’t always walking in places that mapmyrun would cover (i.e. in nature), or hasn’t paid strict attention to the exact route walked so as to reproduce it later.
I got a Fitbit One for Christmas. I like it because it also counts stairs climbed. Fitbit has a really nice website for tracking your activity and also your eating patterns. It also can sync automatically with websites like Spark People or Lose It. I wasn’t expecting this but it works great. It syncs wirelessly whenever you’re near the bluetooth dongle (which is a littlebitty thing that plugs into a USB slot. Or you can sync off the app on a smartphone, but I haven’t tried that.)
Also, it’s rechargable. I had an Omran pedometer at one point. It was nice but it worked off a watch battery that was always running out. Eventually, I forgot to buy a new battery and stopped using it. The rechargeable part was important to me.
Anyway, I’m really happy with it. It’s definitely worth a look.
It isn’t a “pedometer” per se – it doesn’t count footfalls. Is that specifically what you want? Some devices do have the little accelerometer built in, that ticks up every time it feels the jar of a heelstrike.
MyTracks gives me a pretty little picture of where I’ve been, with various overlays, and shows a side-view of elevation gain and loss. You can export the data in various formats, including a raw-data dump to Excel.
Thanks to everyone for the responses, though most concentrated on the “pedometer” while ignoring the “app” part (in short, I’m not buying extra gear, accessories, or
paraphernalia to wear).
I actually did get MapMyWalk (more my speed) because while I do do nature hikes, I do lots of urban walking, too, so figure I would try it on both to see how it handles each environment.
I did find an app that does some basic mapping (it identifies what city you’re in) but does do actual footfall counts. I was walking while watching it and each step increased the tally by one. Though it’s not perfect, it does give you a basic idea of how many steps you take whenever you’re carrying your phone, and as long as you have your phone on, it’s always counting and gives you a summary of the day’s activities each night.
I was coming in to suggest Moves. I’ve been using it for a few months now, and love it. Tracks walking and running, saves data every day, and allows you to enter in locations like home, work, etc. Great app.