Dan Kantor

Lately I’ve noticed a trend where by each night I open up a few apps and organize the data they collected on me that day. This is not so much the real-time web and not so much Timehop telling me what I did in the past. This is me living my life normally, then making some sense of it when I’ve got the time.

As an example, check these two screenshots out. The first is from Moves. It has my physical location and knows that I stopped somewhere for 3 minutes. I later went back and labeled it ‘Dean & DeLuca’.

The second image is from Mint. It has my purchase history and shows that I made a transaction at ‘Dean & Deluca’ for $4.57. I went in after the fact and categorized it as ‘Coffee Shops’.

Now both these apps learn and adapt so the next time I stop and purchase something at Dean and DeLuca they will both label and organize it correctly. I can then act on this data to know how many times I visit Dean and DeLuca, how many Coffee Shops I visit, how much time I spend at them and how much money I spend on coffee. This data can help me budget both my time and money better. The idea of apps silently collecting data on me in the background, then me post-organizing that data and learning something from it is incredibly exciting.

I know I’m a bit late to this (thanks @toddml @rstaicut) but after seeing Moves announce their API yesterday I took the plunge and installed the app. First impression - it’s pretty awesome.

Moves tracks your movement using your iPhone’s sensors and GPS. I already track my steps with the Fitbit Ultra so the first thing I was interested in was how close Moves came to the number Fitbit tells me. After a day, the numbers are close enough for comfort.

But the real beauty of Moves comes from its GPS data and Foursquare venue tie-in. This goes way beyond what Fitbit provides. Moves knows when you walk but also can determine when you take transportation or run or bike. Looking below, you can see in my Storyline (great name btw) that I walked from Work to the subway, then transferred to another subway, then walked home. Later I left home, took a subway to Riverside Park, then walked home from there. Moves knows when you are at a place for a while, and allows you to label that place with Foursquare venue data (or generic terms like ‘Work’ and ‘Home’). This is pretty mind-blowing and clearly the future of geo-tracking.

So what’s the downside? You guessed it - battery life. Even though Apple and geo developers claim background location apps only effect your battery by 10%, in reality it’s a lot more than that. At this point, I’m not sure if I will use this every day. But one thing is clear to me. This issue will be solved soon enough and after that, I expect the adoption rate on apps like this to explode.

I am the 5%!

exfm:

We’re proud to announce the release of our newly redesigned iPhone app!

Our latest release, 3.0, is packed with tons of new features and upgrades including:

• Smart Shuffle - Learns and adapts to a user’s listening habits.
• Site Follow - We’ve turned every website with music into a smart playlist.
• Listening Now - See what your friends are listening to in real time.
• Improved Genres - Cleaned up and curated, thousands available.
• Fast Search - Autocomplete on songs, people, sites and genres.

The new design is slicker than ever, giving you quick access to your favorite songs, people and sites. We think you’re going to love it so click the button below to experience exfm for iPhone in a whole new way.

Download iPhone App

So proud of the team for this awesome release!