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| Wed Jul 18, 2001 - 10:49 AM EDT - By Scott Hanselman | |
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My wife and I walk for 2 miles every night after dinner. Or at
least I thought we did, until I got the Step Keeper Pedometer Module and
found out we were walking 2.45 miles! The Step Keeper is a very
clever idea for a Springboard module, and it's especially nice because
it works when it's outside of the Visor! The Step Keeper is a
pendulum pedometer that measures the number of step you take.
What's interesting is that counting steps is ALL the hardware of the
module does, but the software that interprets the historical data
of your steps gives the module it's cool factor. You can calculate
calories burned, steps taken, miles walked and view graphs of each of 7
or 30 days. Up to 90 days of records can be stored and analyzed.
Step Keeper even says that I am 10.9% "obese," which is lovely to know.
Since when is 175 pounds on a 5'11" frame obese? Anyway...
Hardware
The
Step Keeper is housed inside a translucent gray rounded Springboard
casing. As an aside, I really like this particular style of
casing. It does stick out the back of the Visor about 3 mm, but it's
very light and rounded and doesn't seem bulky in any way. It
includes a nice faux-leather case with Velcro flap and a plastic clip to
clip on your belt while walking. The whole assembly weighs almost
nothing, so you don't notice it while walking. It works best on
your belt than it does in your pocket, due to the internal pendulum's
action.
As you walk, the pendulum clicks up and down softly, counting steps.
The Step Keeper's rechargeable battery holds the internal memory of the
module for about 2 days, but when you insert the Step Keeper into your
Visor the battery sips power and recharges. The battery looks like a
small flat watch battery, and Hagiwara says it will last for at least
10,000 recharges. Even though the memory of the module is only
about 2 days at a time, that's not the limitation you'd think because
that memory only holds the current number of steps. Your Visor's
memory holds the historical records; records are added each time you
insert the module and the records are downloaded.
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