3 must-have mobile apps (and gadgets) for fall 2015 – CIO

CIO.com’s resident tech reviewer James A. Martin shares a set of unique mobile apps and their associated devices, all of which he reviewed during the past few months and continues to use every day.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.cio.com

So here you have it, CIO’s 3 most important apps. The first one is an ODB-II data port device, that plugs into your car and scores your driving out of 100. Tells you where you have been driving, how much that lead foot is costing you in fuel, monitors things like harsh braking and even tells you where your car has been parked. Lots of organizations from Vodafone to Fleet Management companies to Insurance companies looking for low risk clients have been talking about low cost solutions that can go into any car manufactured after 1996, but they are typically a lot more expensive than the US$100 price tag on this one. I’d be tempted if it wasn’t MPG. We don’t use gallons here, although if we did we might be more aware of the premium we pay for fuel in New Zealand. The price of a barrel of oil may have dropped in by $40 but the price of petrol has only dropped by about 15 cents a liter on last year.

The sleep quality solution is a cool idea if it works well. Better than wearing a watch to bed and probably just as reliable. At $150 though, I can buy a watch that will do the same at sites like Deal Xtreme for $50. There are two questions for me on sleep monitoring, which is coming to a watch near you and will be normal one day are:

1. How much sleep do you actually need. Recent studies say for adults it might be less than you think. Here’s an interesting article on how much sleep 21 of the world’s famous people get. http://bit.ly/1RKvuTK

2. What are you going to do with the information. To me a good solution for sleep management shouldn’t just measure your sleep. but if it personally monitors your sleep, wouldn’t it be good if it could also come up with a plan to help you get a better quality sleep and monitor that. What we appear to have with so many of these products is some metrics, no information and no gamification to incentivize you to develop better habits or seek help from a professional.

OK, kind of appropriate isn’t it. Journalist spends so much time studying sleep monitoring devices that he needs a Starbucks app. Enough said:)

See on Scoop.it – Location Is Everywhere