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The Fix: Exploring with tech outdoors

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The Fix: Exploring with tech outdoors

12:21 /


[MUSIC] Hey, everyone. Welcome to CNet's The Fit. The show about DIY tech and how to. I'm Eric Franklin. I'm Donald Bell. And this week, we're getting our fun on. We got some recreational apps, man. Yeah, and if you were gonna take your sports performance to the next level. A coaching app might help you get there. [MUSIC] So I don't get to golf very often but I would to get better. So I was looking for something that would efficient with my time but really effective as far as helping me improve my golf game. Now there are plenty of apps out there, but one I've found that really works for me is called Ubersense. Ubersense is is an app that allows you to record video of your golf swing, and then directly compare that to professionals, or just a community of people that are way better than me. So first off I'm gonna start the app, tap record. All right, now, I've been using this kind of outline of a figure to line up the shot. I'm gonna do a [UNKNOWN] shot. So, this is perfect for me. I can also choose to do a down the line shot. But, face on allows you to analyze the video, move it closer in my opinion. So I get a few more options here. I can start with a ten seconds delay, and when that countdown ends, I get a nice flash that let's you know. Time to swing. Also, I can choose the trim after recording, that allows me to immediately edit the shot right after I'm done. All right, let's get it set up. [MUSIC] Choose the start of my swing. Probably about right here. I choose where to end it, about right there. Then I can choose Trim. There it is. There's my video. Choose Done. And now it's saved. I can compare my swing to a community of swings, and some professionals. But since I have an expert here, now I'm going to film him. Compare my swing directly, and maybe take up a few pointers. So now I've recorded my video, and we recorded your video. We're going to compare the two to see just how bad I am really, and see how good you are. Maybe you can give me some pointers, maybe I can improve. Absolutely. Alright, so I can look at them side by side or one on top of the other. See? Or I can super impose them. But I'm going to do this, this side by side first. So I"m going to go ahead and play it. Here, super slow-mo, look at me. I look like a barbarian trying to chop off someone's head. Look how your body rises up. Yeah, yeah, totally. And then you have to go back down. I have to do so much work. And look at you in comparison. You're so efficient with your swing. It look like your doing, it's like no effort at all. Efficiency is the name of the game. And a good golf swing. Yeah. This is where you'll really see. Oh yeah. How much your body moves, you know? Up. Look, look at my leg. See the rise up? Look at my leg. Oh my God. And the drop down. And look at how awful I- And you see how level everything looks with me. So what you're gonna try to do- Yes. Is keep your chin up a little bit, tilt forward, and then just. Make that great swing. All right. [MUSIC] There you go. HIt play. So, it has me up there and me down here. If you look at the difference on how much less you rose up on the top one. Definitely. So that sensor of your body didn't move up and down anywhere near as much as the one on the bottom. Yeah. When I look at those two, just the idea of having your upper body not lifting up and down so much, I can see a real improvement. And you were able to get the club head back to the ball more easily. And then if I want even more pointers, I can upload my video to the community and get even more feedback. If you want to get better at something, thinking about what you're doing while you're doing it, that can definitely lead to improvement. But having an app that can record you, and you can go back and you can analyze your performance? That can be even better. [MUSIC] Yeah, Ubersense is actually really cool. It doesn't just apply to golf, but you can use it for football, basketball, pretty much any sport you want to get better at. What about low intensity rollerblading? Definitely. Act, actually I don't know. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] sport. [LAUGH] Also big things for Mark from [UNKNOWN] Golf Academy. He was giving lots of great tips and it was actually really fun. Alright. Time for a quick break. And when we come back we hit the back roads. That's right. We're gonna be using an app to help monitor our bike activity and help keep us motivated. [MUSIC] Welcome back. You know I'm pretty competitive. I noticed. Yes right. So I have a question for you. Okay. How much are you benching these days. You're not, that's not competitive. You're just shaming me. [LAUGH] You're shaming me. Just answer my question. Nothing, nothing. Thing. All right, but if you're super competitive. You want to keep up with your stats and your runs and rides and you want to compare them with all your friends and frenemies. Check this out. There's an app, just for that. The more I ride my bike, the more I want to track my progress to see how I'm doing. There's a great way to do that using an app called Strava. Today I have a nice short casual bike ride planned but before I hit the road, I wanna plan my route since I'm not really familiar with this area. To do that, I'll head to Strava's website and use their route builder. Here it's really easy to find and create routes based on what's popular in the area you're exploring. Here I've got the map pulled up and I'll go ahead and find my starting point. Then I'll just keep clicking until I finish building my route. And as I do that, [UNKNOWN] will give me stats about the route that I'm building. So I've got elevation, distance, and the estimated time it'll take for me to complete the route based on previous rides. There's also this really cool feature that lets me minimize the elevation. So if I'm trying to take it easy. I don't want a big challenge. I can just enable this feature and Strava will reroute me so that it's as flat as possible. So the route gives me a grand total of 1.1 miles. And the estimated moving time is about 5 minutes and 33 seconds. At this point I'm gonna save my route. I'll give it a name. Oakland Morning Ride. Save it. And now I can head to Strava on my phone, launch the app, and my route will be there so I can follow it when I'm actually on the road. [MUSIC] So I just finished my beautiful trail ride, and if I hit finish in Strava, I can see exactly how I did. I've got a map showing me exactly where I went, and I have a ton of stats. I went 1.1 miles, it took me six and a half minutes, and I burned 53 calories. Not bad. So even though there a lot of apps that let you track your ride. This is one of the better ones for people who specifically want to get more out of biking. You know the next time someone forces me onto a bike, I might actually try the app. It looks like it might be kind of fun. Good for you. Not for me. [LAUGH] No. More like me. You don't really like exercise, but you love games, so this might interest you. Yeah, we got a fitness app that entertains you while you walk. It seems like all the phones these days have new and improved features that track your every step and all your calories burned. My problem is I need more than numbers and charts to actually motivate me out of my chair. If you need achievements and milestones to help get you motivated, I'm gonna show you two apps that put the fun in front of the fitness. First up, we have an app called The Walk, it's $2.99 and you can find it for both iOS and Android, and it's basically like and audio book thriller where you advance through the story by walking. Each story has its own fictional map, and as you walk you come across little audio clips that advance the story along and keep you entertained as you go. The stories are all very cloak and dagger. You're a spy saving the world from a terrorist plot, and it sucks you in pretty quickly and keeps you going because you want to know what happens next. [MUSIC] Good job there walker. If you don't mind walking together we might be able to pull that same trick at any other track that we come to. I've got the device here. I'll push from the table under your paper. [INAUDIBLE] Good. Find a private place to open it before you arrive. I'm sure you've reached the same as I have. [uuu] onto that trinket in there. Then you're on your own. So underneath it all you're still getting the same benefits of a fitness app. It's tracking your stats. It's giving you goals and achievements. As you progress you're gonna get more goals and more story. And that's gonna get you hooked. We're just hoping we can get you out of here in time. C'mon before they spot you. [mmm]. I like the whole system. And I like that all it asks of you is to walk. No running. No jogging. No shame in walking at a leisurely pace. Now on the downside, the little bits of the [INAUDIBLE] that get doled out can be frustratingly brief. Sometimes I'm tempted to just download a Tom Clancy audio book and cut to the chase. Just keep walking. That looks pretty eerie all by itself. For something a little more intense, there's Zombie's Run. 399 for this one also available for IOS and Android and a lot of people love this app. You wanna move, what's more motivating than a spot of horde zombies chasing you? Now the story here is that you're in the midst of a Zombie apocalypse and you're running to pick up supplies to your town. Again the map is fictional so you could be running around your neighborhood or running around a treadmill. It doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you're moving. The audio story here is just as good as the one on the walk, plus it has zombies. And also this app gives you a Farmville style town that you can upgrade and add onto with the supplies you bring back. But, if you start slacking, your town can get raided by zombies, and then you've let all of your virtual people down. Now the downside of this app is that it can be fairly demanding physically. Best foot forward is probably on, like, a treadmill or some place where you can run like crazy when the zombies attack, and not run through the street like an idiot. [MUSIC] So, we spoke to Mullen, the base you came from. And they're not willing to send down another helo until we know who fired that rocket launcher at you. What I like most about this app, though, is that the gaming element can get addictive [MUSIC] And you want that. Also you can load up music playlists in the app and just have your zombie run goals drop in periodically. I'll be taking you on a quick tour around the perimeter of the base today, and show you the main route into the city. Should be a quick, easy run. Fellas if you're feeling the need to get physically fit but charts and graphs aren't enough to get you going. Try one of these apps. I mean a personal trainer would be great but sometimes it takes a zombie or a secret agent or two to keep things interesting. [music]. I think I finally found my motivation. Yeah you did. Death by zombie attack. That's right cannabalists and humans chasing Donald Bell. If you're running like that they're gonna be like get that guy. Getting up there. [LAUGH] All right, that's it for this week's show. Thanks for watching. If you want to reach out to us on Twitter you can find me. I'm @donald. I'm at nidopal. You can also hit us up on our email, that's thefix@cnet.com Nice. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Right here on The Fix. [MUSIC]
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