• The problem appeared since the April 5th iOS update.
• Just replaced the HR monitor’s CR2032 battery a week ago. The documentation said batteries should last a year but I figured the device & factory installed battery could have sat for a while. It is a new battery so that shouldn’t be the problem.
• The Wahoo app maintained connection to the Blue HR monitor for a whole activity.
• The Blue HR monitor was unpaired in Runkeeper and then paired again. That didn’t help.
• The next day Runkeeper connected fine with the HR monitor at first but lost connection before the first update interval.
• Instead of restarting Runkeeper, the Wahoo app was started with Runkeeper in the background. The Wahoo app connected ok. At the next update interval Runkeeper called out the heart rate along with the other data.
• So having the Wahoo app running along with Runkeeper works around the problem. This is good because Runkeeper shows heart rate overlaid with speed, altitude and GPS position on the map display. Seeing all this data together is more meaningful.

UPDATE:  Runkeeper is aware and a fix is on the way as soon as Apple approves the update…thanks, Bob!

A couple other heart rate monitors were considered also. Many health monitoring devices require an Ant+ dongle for wireless connectivity. My iPhone 5 has the new Lightning connector and the Ant+ dongles are for the older, 30 pin connectors. I wanted to avoid too many adapters & connectors. That’s just more stuff to loose or fail.

• Polar H7 Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Sensor
• Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor

After reading some of the customer reviews I almost scratched the Wahoo HR Strap. The problems didn’t sound like they were problems with the product though.

Amazon customer reviews of the Wahoo Blue HR Strap

• One of the problems was pairing the strap to the smart phone. The Wahoo Blue HR Strap is pretty simple. There is a strap and the device has a CR2032 watch battery. There are no on/off buttons or display. Documentation was sparse. It is easy to see why many reviewers thought the product was DOA. A big problem was confusion over Bluetooth Smart devices and what that meant. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 work with Bluetooth 4 or Bluetooth Smart devices while the iPhone 4, 3 do not. The third gen iPad supports Bluetooth 4/Smart but older ones and most tablets do not. Many Android phones do not support Bluetooth 4/Smart. It isn’t hard to understand the confusion. Wahoo Fitness should have done a better job to make it clear that the Blue HR Strap requires a Bluetooth Smart compatible phone or tablet.
• Another issue that appeared a few times is the HR Strap loosing connection. Wahoo Fitness does state in their instructions that the contacts in the strap should be moistened. The Heart Rate Strap did not show up for pairing in the RunKeeper App until the contacts were moistened pretty well. Once they were moistened it worked fine for the hour or so of exercise.

Wahho Fitness Blue HR Strap product page

Blue HR Strap Instructions

Compatible Apps

• Open Notes.
• Create a new text note or use a separate, empty line.
• Enter the email addresses that you want in the distribution list, separating each address with a comma but no spaces.
• Select and copy the line with email addresses.
• Open Contacts.
• Create a new contact.
• Enter the distribution list name in the Company.
• Select the Email field and Paste the email addresses.
• Save the email distribution list to your contacts. The distribution list will be available for sending email.

There are a couple apps in the App Store for handling email groups. The apps are awkward for replying or forwarding messages though.  Apple restrictions on what third-party apps to do with contacts and email is restricted.

There are a few browser extensions that are important to me and surfing the web without them sucks.

• LastPass - LastPass is a password manager that makes web browsing easier and more secure.
• Xmarks Bookmark Sync – Backup and sync your bookmarks, passwords and open tabs across computers and different browsers.
• Rapportive – Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.
• Adblock Plus – Enjoy surfing the web without obtrusive ads cluttering your screen!
• Flashblock for Chrome - Flashblock is an extension for the Google Chrome that blocks all Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.

Googling for help had lots of tips but they didn’t work for me.

• Tried disabling the extension and then re-enabling from the Chrome Extensions page (Tools > Extensions).  That didn’t work.  Tried disabling all extensions and re-enabling one at a time didn’t work either.
• Tried restarting Chrome and Windows in various combinations.
• Tried clearing browser data (Tools > Clear browser date… or Ctrl-Shift-Del).

Uninstalling and re-installing Google Chrome fixed the broken extensions problem.

• Before uninstalling Chrome I made a backup list of extensions by selecting them all on the Extensions page and pasting the list to a text file.
• I thought about deleting the hidden Chrome profile data but held off.  That proved unnecessary anyway.
• When Chrome started after the re-install all the extensions were still there and worked!

YMMV!

Some research revealed tips to deal with power problems. Some Google-Fu and Apple’s Discussion forums had the answers.

1. Lower the brightness – the new Retina display uses lots of power.

   • Open the Settings app and tap “Brightness & Wallpaper.
   • Adjust the Brightness slider to about 50% – 60%.

2. Disable WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G/4G when not needed – these radios use a lot of power also.

   • Open the Settings app. WiFi is on the left.
   • Bluetooth and 3G/4G is under General.

3. Close background Apps

   • Bring up the multitask manager with a double-tap on the home button.
   • Click and hold an unused App until it starts shaking.
   • Then tap the X to close. Repeat if necessary.

4. Completely discharge battery once a month

   • Use the iPad until it shuts down on its own.
   • Ignore the low power warnings.
   • Keep using the tablet until it powers down on its own.
   • Then plug it in and allow the iPad to completely charge to 100% before using.

5. Reset the iPad by holding the power button until the iPad restarts

   • Hold the button for 5 to 15 seconds.
   • Ignore the red swipe to power down.
   • The iPad will restart.
   • This resets some settings that get stuck.

Bonus tip: the iPad charges faster when powered down.

• Hold the power button until the red swipe appears.
• Swipe to power down.
• Now the iPad will charge faster.

I’m happy to say the iPad’s battery life is back to normal. Not so happy that a trip to the Apple Store wasn’t necessary though.

The busy trap | Hacker News http://bit.ly/N2pkid

When I read that I couldn’t stop laughing.  Don’t know how many times I’ve seen that since I started working.

Googling for help didn’t turn up anything that worked for the moment.  The tutorials were still geared to the older bit.ly site.  The bit.ly URL shortener had become a real pain on the iPad.

I did find a fix at bit.ly’s Tools page.

1. I dragged the ‘+bitmark’  button to my PC browser’s button bar.
2. Clicking it brings up the new bit.ly dialog for URL shortening.  It’s no longer a sidebar.
3.  I copied the JavaScript code from the new +bitmark button and transferred via SimpleNote and copied it to the iPad/Safari’s toolbar.

Here are some easier steps to get the “+bitmark” button on your iPad and iPhone:

1. Copy the javascript below
2. On your iPad or iPhone add a new bookmark (this page works)
3. Go to Bookmarks and tap [Edit]
4. Tap the new bookmark you just created
5. Rename it to “+bitmark”
6. Paste the javascript in the URL field
7. Tap [Done]

===> Copy the JavaScript code below the line <===

javascript:(function()%20%7B%20var%20s%20=%20document.createElement(%22script%22);%20s.setAttribute(%22id%22,%20%22bitmark_js%22);%20s.setAttribute(%22type%22,%20%22text/javascript%22);%20s.setAttribute(%22src%22,%20%22//bitly.com/a/bitmarklet.js%22);%20(top.document.body%20%7C%7C%20top.document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0]).appendChild(s);%20%7D)();

Something happened to Dylan’s Google account, and it’s been disabled. He doesn’t know what happened to the account, and no one at Google with the power to help him is interested in acknowledging the problem or letting him back in to the cloud-based services where all of his correspondence and much of the digital trail from the last few years of his life is stored.

Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User’s Digital Life, Shrugs – The Consumerist.

Gmail Backup is a free utility that backs up the email in a Gmail or Google Apps for domains account.  It will backup all emails as individual files in the backup folder.  Gmail Backup preserves Gmail Labels as well.

• Download the utility here – http://www.gmail-backup.com/download and install.
• Activate the IMAP access to your Gmail mailbox
  • Open GMail settings
  • Under the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab enable IMAP.
  • Save changes
• Start Gmail Backup and fill in the fields.

The first backup will take a while depending on how much is in the Gmail account.  You can save time later by updating the ‘Since Date’ field to the last time you backed up.

The developers of the Gmail Backup are:

• Jan Švec
• Filip Jurčíček

For more reasons to back up visit their site: http://www.gmail-backup.com/reasons

You can use Google Maps to scout out locations for deer and hunting.

There’s a tool to capture GPS coordinates from Google Maps from Deerhub.com.  Watch the video to see how it works.  It helps to watch the video full screen to see better how it works.  Then go to Deerhub.com and get the bookmarklet.

A study done by the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. illustrates the effect of deer over population on forests. The study blocked a forest plot from deer access. Over twenty years they observed the trees and other vegetation that returned to the enclosed forest. The conservationists noticed greater diversity of plants and trees in the area blocked from deer.

A hundred years ago deer were rare in Maryland and Virginia where the study takes place. In the early 1900′s the state game departments regulated hunting and in some cases brought deer in from other states. The conservationists were successful and deer continue to flourish.

A hundred years ago there were more hunters harvesting deer for food. Today owners and property managers block more deer habitat from hunters. With no predators deer population can grow out of control with devastating effect on forest vegetation. Parks and public lands can organize hunting to manage deer population. Private property and farmland is more difficult to manage.

Deerhub.com is web-based software designed to help hunt clubs and land owners manage hunting on private property.

Deer Overpopulation Yields Disastrous Results For Forests – News – WAMU 88.5 FM – American University Radio.