Best free cross-platform period and ovulation trackers apps

Free cross-platform period and ovulation tracker apps:

My Days for Android and iPhone
Ladytimer for Android, iPhone and Blackberry
Pink Pad for Android, iPhone and Palm
Period Tracker for Android and iPhone

All the period and ovulation tracking apps do the same basic job; you can:

Enter start-end period dates
Set your cycle and period length
Enter intimacy dates
Enter BMT (Body Mass & Temperature) information
Write notes
Backup your information

So what do these apps do in addition to the above?

My Days

You get to

Choose between 7 languages
Add pill dates
Check your BMT chart
Change the theme color
Export your information
Backup your information locally
Add a widget

What you can do with it but not with the other apps:

Add more than one user

Ladytimer

You get to

Choose between 6 languages
Choose between 20 symptoms and 21 moods
Restrict access to the app with a password
Enable period or ovulation notification
Check various statistics and charts
Access a discussion forum
Online backup

What you can do with it but not with the other apps:

Indicate mucus description and pill dates separately

Pink Pad

You get to

Choose between 19 symptoms
Access a discussion forum
Enable period and fertility notifications
Change the theme color
Backup your information online and locally
Add a widget

What you can do with it but not with the other apps:

Track spotting and flow intensity separately
Set your luteal phase length
Add a pregnancy date and start using a sister app: BabyBump
Decide how many cycles to average
Intensity for symptoms

P Tracker

You get to

Choose between 11 languages
Choose between 17 symptoms and 36 moods
Backup your information online
Enable period and fertility notifications
Add a widget
Export your information
Restrict access to the app with a password
Intensity for symptoms
Customer support (reply within 24 hours)

What you can do with it but not with the other apps:

A simple one click to insert start-end period date
Access a period log where you can check your average number of days in a cycle
Enable ovulation notification

My opinion

My Days and Ladytimer are too basic for my taste:

On My Days you can only write notes; there are no symptoms nor moods and you need to upgrade to get access to setting password and enabling notification.
On Ladytimer you can’t add symptoms nor moods and the graphics are not attractive and the colors not interesting.

The best free cross-platform period and ovulation tracker apps are Pink Pad and P Tracker.

Pink Pad is presented like a diary. Neat and graphically pleasant. I love the fact that it uses the averages method. It was actually designed by a woman I also like the fact that it proposes a sister app: BabyBump after a woman gets pregnant instead of having to look for another application: There is a sort of logic continuity between the apps… BUT an upgrade is necessary to get more moods and charts.
P Tracker is a well presented calendar and very easy to use. A P Tracker Companion for Men exists for iPhone only and permits to sync some info that will allow a man know when to understand mood swings and a Deluxe version for Android is on the way. (Deluxe for iPhone is available.) The thing with P Tracker is that it set a 4 period day by default which make you have to adjust any change manually every month and has a fixed 14 days luteal phase… making it good for women with regular periods.

Honestly, I’m using both to see which one will predict things for me better. Which one is your favorite?

Blippar or the new advertising revolution

The advertising world is changing so rapidly that we barely have time to get acquainted with a technology that a new one comes up. After the QR code, meet *drum-roll* Blippar!

What is Blippar?

Blippar is a London based startup that was launched in Summer 2011. It uses the augmented reality technology to give advertising the WOW effect “enabling you to make a social and emotional connection with your customer [...]“

How to use Blippar?

Reasons to use Blippar:

According to Blippar, these are the reasons to use it:

Innovative: Your brand can communicate with customers in a whole new way that makes all your above-the-line ad creative (print, outdoor, in-store or on-packet) come alive. Your customers can experience your product or service in a fun and innovative way via their smartphone screen- and crucially, they actively request and ‘pull’ that content as opposed to it being pushed to wash over them.
Low Cost: Above the line spend is expensive for most brands and consumes a large proportion of the marketing budget. By using the Blippar AR (Augmented Reality) platform, you can significantly improve ROI on existing spend. With a Blippar campaign, you can have more brand interaction at a fraction of the cost of print advertising. And crucially, the platform itself works on a google-style pricing model, where the entry cost to the platform is low and ongoing costs are performance related.
Measurable: With the Blippar AR platform, you can track and measure how your traditional advertising formats are performing – wherever your ‘Blipps’ are located – whether in a press campaign, outdoor campaign, on-pack or in-store. Blippar comes with full AnalyzAR suite which tracks user behaviour, location and interaction patterns in real time.
Location Based Targeting: With Blippar AR platform you can target your users with bespoke AR interactions according to the time of day or the location of the user. You can find out more about your customer’s buying behavior and target them with more contextual content out of your print media and outdoor advertising.

I would you also add:

Visually attractive: Blippar uses the advertisement itself as a trigger to the virtual content.
Allows a various choice of content: Blippar doesn’t just open pages on the internet. Mobile AR is the use of a computer algorithm to recognise an image or object through the camera function on a mobile device and return a response which ‘overlays’ the trigger image. This response could take the form of an interactive 3d graphic layer, a video or an HTML page superimposing content or imagery over the camera’s view of the real world.
Doesn’t require much: All you need to do is download the app, click on it and your done! Find the Blippar “b” logo and your set! From you TV screen, to anything print on paper from a business card to a billboard on the road or even a grocery product.

Overall, I think it has quite an advantage over the QR code because you never know what to expect when you hover your phone over something “blippable”. The only thing is that unlike the QR Code, you can’t create your own content for free.

Blippar can be found on iTunes here. The Android version is still in Beta. So if you have an iPhone you can try it by using the images found here. It’s FUN! Now, the challenge will be spreading awareness about it and encourage people to download the application on their smartphone. With Blippar, advertising just reach a whole new visual level.

Now, I wonder which Lebanese company will be the first to revolutionize the way we go about advertising!

More about Blippar:

Sources:

Blippar

Gelish, a revolution in the nail polishing world?

When I last went to my nail technician, I was ranting about nail polish. It never really lasts, it takes time to dry, it goes off too easily etc.. I was not found of the alternatives either: Fake nails, acrylic etc…

That’s when she introduced me to Gelish, a new nail polish product from Nail Harmony. “This product is a revolution by itself! It lasts 3weeks, helps your nails grow and it makes them harder!”, she said. I was still skeptical. If that thing lasts more than 2 hours on my nails it would be a winner.

The products are expensive; around $30 a bottle. (Besides the color, you need the base, the top coat, the UV machine etc…) The nail technicians are pricing manicures using this product starting $20. (In Lebanon)

I thought since I was traveling in a few days, why not give it a try? The technique was different than a regular nail polish. This one included drying the nails under UV light every time a coat was applied. It took around 30 minutes to do both hands. The nail technician warned me not to try to take it off by myself because I risked ruining my nails. There is also a way to take the product off.

To take them off she will need to rough the nail polish up (to break the top coat) , soak a cotton ball in acetone and wrap it over the polish with a piece of aluminum foil and leave it for 10 minutes. She will then scrape it off gently with a cuticle pusher. (Forcing would damage the nail bed).

This product is not for the girls who like to change color every week but for the ones who don’t have time to get a nail polish every week, prefer to go through that hassle once a month and have trouble keeping their nail polish on for more than few hours/days due to their lifestyle.

I loved the fact that it was already dry on my way out. Now I’m counting the days to see how long it will last!

Girls, have you already tried it? What do you think?

Update:

Gelish gave up after a week! The nail polish did not resist to the high temperatures of India. (We are talking 42C here) I just took it off and the process was quite harsh.

I decided to stick to the normal nail polish!

A two-week date with Nate

For two weeks, I will be putting a Nokia N8 mobile phone (Also commonly called: “Nate”) to the test: Will the device survive me, the very demanding user?

I will be updating this post everyday for two weeks to let you know how things are going with Nate and myself. The opinion expressed is personal and subjective. Please note that I was not paid for this review.

Do not hesitate to give me your own views about the device if you tried or have one as well as help me when I’m stuck with something since each phone has an operating logic of it’s own or even explain the weird things I experience.

05 April 2011: Day 1

I received the Nokia N8 today. Got it ready to be used.

What I liked:

No need to take the battery off and break a nail while trying to insert the SIM card.
I like the conversation log. I find that useful and helpful as well.
During a phone call the sound is amazingly clear.
The keyboard is fast and easy to use.
I consider the weight and size of the phone to be acceptable.
The screen size is just right.
There are 3 home screens.
Phone looks classy and professional.

What I did not like:

It was not easy to open the SIM card slot. (So much for my nail polish )
Slider inside is not “circular”. When I’m on the end of the list, I have to take the ladder back up to reach the first item on the same list.
I couldn’t preview a theme before applying its effects.
I couldn’t move the widgets from one home screen to another, I have to delete them and add them back again on the home screen I want.
I couldn’t disconnect easily from the GPRS connection.
I couldn’t delete an access point.
I couldn’t prioritize my access points the way I wanted them.
Screen flips vertically sometimes although I’m holding the phone horizontally.
After I installed Nimbuzz, the screen froze and the system restarted by itself.
As I was trying to check in on Foursquare, the system froze and I had to restart the phone

06 April 2011

I started to get used to the phone. I tried to make a few photos with the “Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/28 12 MP AF” Ccamera, calls and play around with it.

What I liked:

The camera produces really nice pictures.
It’s really easy to share/send the pictures.
There is a luminous signal for notifications that I failed to check on time.
Long battery life.

What I did not like:

It’s really complicated to text with one hand.
For a right handed person holding the device with the right hand, the natural movement to flip the phone horizontally is toward the left. For the left handed, it’s the opposite. BUT in this case, the screen won’t flip! Were the “lefties” forgotten?
To call a person existing on my contact list, I need to press more buttons on the Nokia N8 than on the E72 (the model I’ve been using before this review.)
Humm… What’s up with Foursquare? Doesn’t want to work!
No flashlight. (Which I use a LOT)

07 April 2011

Today, I went out and about. I used the phone to make and answer some phone calls. I noticed a that some people around also have the same model which started a conversation about the features of the phone. One lady mentioned that she found it hard to use at first and keeps on discovering “new tricks” every day.

08 April 2011 to 15 April 2011

Usage picked up. So far so good. I am using the phone and the camera regularly. No new notes to add to the previous ones.

Conclusion:

I can say that the past 2 weeks were interesting. I was discovering a new phone. I think that Nate could be improved at bit which would be for its advantage of course. Now the ultimate questions: