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Ask Engadget: What apps can help with my New Year's resolutions?
This week's question asks about apps that can help break bad habits and keep New Years resolutions going. Weigh in with your advice in the comments -- and feel free to send your own questions along to ask@engadget.com! What smartphone apps will help me actually stick to my New Year's resolutions?
Dear Veronica: Resolution resolutions
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-330676{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-330676, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-330676{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-330676").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Did you think you could come to Engadget today and not get tech resolutions for the New Year? Think again, my friends! I asked, and you sent in your biggest and most optimistic plans around technology for 2016. Happy New Year!
The Daily Grind: What MMOs will you be playing in 2015?
This is it, folks, the end of 2014. As we count down the final hours and minutes of the year, 2015 looms ahead of us full of possibilities and potential. So we might as well ask, what MMOs will you be playing next year? Maybe you'll continue your journeys in your current favorite games. Maybe you'll be looking at accomplishing goals in other MMOs. Or maybe you'll be anticipating diving into one of the newer titles that are on the way. What do you think you'll be doing come 2015? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: What are your gaming resolutions for 2014?
Finally, 2013 is almost over. It feels like it went on for, like, a dozen months. And that means we all have a chance to look back at the past year, assess what we've done, and ask ourselves how we can make the next year even better. At least in terms of gaming; we can't really help you on the usual string of resolutions meant to make you a better person that wind up discarded by 8:00 p.m. on January 2nd. Maybe you spent most of 2013 hopping through games and want to settle down more firmly this year. Maybe you want 2014 to be the year that you finally give World of Warcraft or EVE Online a decent shot at catching your interest. Heck, maybe your major resolution is figuring out how you're going to balance four or five different games at the same time. So what are your gaming resolutions for 2014? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Road to Mordor: Resolutions, Baggins and Took-style
Mmm... smell that? It's the smell of a fresh new year, that is! Rolled right off the factory floor with no dings, the warranty still intact, and a tank full of gas and dreams. Makes one want to abandon the routine and head out onto the open road, does it not? I'm one of those old fuddy-duddys who actually does New Year's resolutions, whether or not I'm actually capable of keeping them. I think it's important to try to better oneself and keep reaching for higher goals and standards, and if a new year is a convenient excuse to get my butt in gear, then I'm not complaining. So right now I'm staring at a field of endless potential for Lord of the Rings Online in 2012. I've actually been giving it a lot of thought -- what do I want out of this year? As LotRO heads toward its fifth anniversary, is there really anything new left that I haven't experienced? And what the heck am I going to write about for 52 more weeks? Never fear because the more I pondered, the more I realized that there's plenty of content yet to plunder (plus, of course, whatever Turbine has up its sleeves for the year). So for today's column, I sat down and drew up a list of resolutions in two parts: "Bagginsish" resolutions that are all about fluff and creature comforts and "Tookish" resolutions that are more concerned with high adventure.
Apps to kickstart your New Year's resolutions
With the first day of the new year falling on a Sunday, it's a great day to organize whatever resolutions you've made. Here are a few apps to get started with. Get more organized I'm spending my day getting my tasks lined up in 2Do ($6.99), which is one of the most reasonably priced to-do apps; it not only looks nice but packs in a lot of features. We took a look at the app in October and were impressed with the intuitive interface. I keep it synced between my iPad and iPhone using Dropbox. If you're looking to cut down on paperwork and implement a scan-to-cloud solution, you can invest in a Doxie Go for quick and painless scanning to the cloud service of your choice. If you already have a scanner or multi-function printer but you'd like to move to cloud storage of your scans, give the $19.99 ScanDrop for the Mac a try. ScanDrop works with Evernote, Google Docs or OfficeDrop's cloud service, but scanned files can also be saved on Dropbox or whatever other cloud service you utilize. You can check out our review from March into a fuller look at the service. If you want to give it a try without dropping $20, the company offers the free ScanDrop Lite allowing scanning of up to 15 pages. When Evernote is your destination and you'd prefer a DIY solution, you can roll your own watched folder setup for Evernote (a feature the Windows Evernote client ships with, sad to say). Using that script as a Folder Action quickly uploads any scans or other compatible files via the Evernote Mac client. Eating right and losing weight We took a look at LIVESTRONG Calorie Tracker ($2.99) last year, which Steve Sande felt was the best all-around fitness app for keeping track of both food and exercise. For a free app, Lose It! is a perennial favorite and has added a number of features in the past year including barcode scanning. For focusing just on exercise, there's Fitness HD for iPad, which is currently on sale for $.99 and is also recommended by Steve. Runkeeper also went free during the past year and received a major upgrade at the end of October, and it's the app I use to keep track of my exercise. Steve has another new favorite: the Fitbit Ultra Wireless Tracker ($99.95) and the accompanying free Fitbit app. The device, which Steve reviewed here, clips onto clothing to track your activity during a day, and wirelessly logs that information. You can review the activity data at any time with the iPhone app or on the Fitbit website. Create your own Time to get a little meta: if you haven't made your list of things you'd like to change this year, there are apps available for creating and keeping track of your resolutions. Resolutions 2012 (free) allows you to create resolutions from a variety of categories, as well as create your own. You can broadcast your resolutions to the world via Facebook or Twitter and also set reminders to nudge you to actually stick with those resolutions. However, you can't delete the pre-set resolutions, and they're very generic. There are a number of apps in the same vein that let you jot your resolutions down on your iPhone. Normally $3.99, the New Year Motivation 2012 app is marked down to $0.99 for the holidays. This app provides a month's worth of daily motivational reminders, helping you get on the the right track for the 12 months to come.
The Daily Grind: What are your 2012 MMO resolutions?
Here we are at the end of yet another year and our list of promising MMOs just keeps growing. We try to play them all, but it's just impossible to keep up sometimes. After months of trying to juggle as many as we can, we usually enter some sort of plea bargain with ourselves to cut back or concentrate on only one or two at a time. But this never seems to work out. Curse you, BioWare! Ahem. So now we're curious about your own resolutions for the new year. Have you promised yourself (or your family) that you'll cut back on MMOs? Are you looking forward to returning to an old favorite to spite the new shinies? Let us know what your MMO plans are for 2012, and as an extra bonus, let us know if you kept 2011's resolutions! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Resolutions from all across the industry
2009 isn't so far over the horizon that we can't still be looking back and finalizing our resolutions for the new year. In some ways, it's even better to wait this long to make a few resolutions (as the most common one made after New Year's Eve celebrations involves never drinking that much again in one night). Ten Ton Hammer had an interesting take on the practice, though -- they asked a number of developers what their resolutions are for the next 365 days. (Well, okay, slightly less now.) The resolutions range from the personal to the public, the serious to the silly. Champions Online's Bill Roper resolves to play more games, David Allen of Alganon resolves to fix bugs and improve visibility, Fallen Earth's intern Sombat Southivorarat resolves to not accidentally delete the game's Facebook fan page again. It's not going to give huge insights into the upcoming patches for several games, but it's good to remember that there are people behind our favorite games, and interesting to see what their personal goals are -- both in and out of the game. If you're so inclined, take a look, although you might want to look away before you reach CCP Nathan's resolution. Just a friendly tip.
The Daily Grind: What will you change in 2010?
We can't, sadly, warp time to go back a full year. Once we do something, for better or for worse, we're stuck with it. But we can try and learn from things that happened the last time around, and there have certainly been things to learn from 2009, which we touched on yesterday. That's where the whole tradition of resolutions for the new year comes from. And as we all know, the second-best way to force yourself to do something is to make it public. (The first is to have someone following you around with a shotgun.) So, today we ask you just before the clock ticks over: what are you going to do differently in the coming year? Was there a single event that you learned from, or were there multiple events that contributed to you wanting to make a change? It could be anything from trying to avoid getting too invested in the pre-launch hype of a game to just trying not to die quite so often when playing a melee character, but we're sure you have at least one thing you'd like to try differently in the new year. (And if you do find a way to rewind time, please, let us know.)
AAA MMO developers offer up their 2009 resolutions
So far this year we've talked about some resolutions for game developers that touch on World of Warcraft, and some player-offered resolutions for the developers of Warhammer Online. MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John one-upped both by tracking down developers from most of the AAA MMO studios to ask about their upcoming year. She spoke with some big names you've no doubt seen many times on Massively, the likes of Jeffrey Steefel, Josh Drescher, Matt Miller, and Craig Morrison. Their resolutions are great, on a number of levels. Some, such as Morrison's hopes for Age of Conan, are bold proclamations of their future plans. Others, like Miller's proclamation that City of Heroes will continue to be seen as the best super-hero MMO, reflect the ways the industry will be changing this year. Our favorite is probably Noah Ward's lookahead to EVE's 2009, a massive statement of purpose for the coming few months. He concludes, "I predict that in 2009 we will finally see the day where there are more EVE subscribers than Icelandic citizens. There will be more 'pew pew' than ever before." Read through to the article for the full resolution buffet.
Top 5: Resolutions for Nintendo
After being MIA last week, it's nice to be back. I hope you were able to get your fill of inflammatory statements and grammatical errors from another blogger. And most importantly, I'm glad you're back. While I was away with loved ones, I did like many other of my countrymen and did not hold back on food and drink. Though I try to watch what I eat, the lure of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies and egg nog were a siren's song I could not ignore. And when I make my way to the gym tonight for my semi-daily swim, I know that it will be infested with the dreaded "January Joiners." This is a term which refers to the large influx of people attending the gym in the early part of the year in a futile attempt to fulfill their weight-loss resolutions. Although maneuvering around the larger number of bodies is an inconvenience, I have no ill feelings towards this people. In fact, I wish that they'd stay all year. Sadly, I know better: they'll be gone before February. So if you've made resolutions, try your best to stick with them. Whether fitness-related or not, setting goals is a great way to improve our lives. Write notes on a calendar, set Google alerts to remind you of goals, and keep your eye on the prize. While your resolutions will best be decided by yourself, we can all agree on a few for Nintendo. Here's the Top 5 resolutions that the Big N should set for themselves. Unlike the January Joiners, let's hope these goals aren't abandoned by Valentine's Day. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
The Daily Grind: Happy new year!
Another twelve months have gone by, the earth has revolved around the sun once more, and a brand new year stretches out before us. And while the rest of the world may be thinking up new year's resolutions of a more practical nature, this is Massively and you can't expect a conversation with us not to involve MMOs. So what are your MMO resolutions for 2009? Planning on playing less? Playing more? Diversifying your MMO portfolio? Leveling an alt of each class? For our part, we plan on playing as much of as many games as possible -- or to the extent we can get away with telling our significant others, friends, family, and household pets that, though it may look like we're killing giant lizards, we're actually working. Have any resolutions for 2009 you'd like to share?
WRUP: A new year of gaming edition
We've said goodbye to a year with games. We're now heralding in a new year with our own unique gaming resolutions. It's quite the time to be alive, if we may say so. And, as we look forward to a new year of gaming with Nintendo's handheld, we wonder how we'll occupy our first weekend with some quality titles. There really isn't anything new for us this week, so we'll be checking our stack for something to play. How about you, fine reader? Is the wide-eyed optimism we have for the new year a feeling you share? Do you look forward to getting your game on this weekend?
Breakfast Topic: Resolutions
Veronica Belmont recently thought of some New Year's resolutions she felt would be firmly within reach. (If you remember, she was the lovely lady who interviewed Leeroy Jenkins at Blizzcon). Number 2 on her list was to reach level 70 in WoW. Have you made any New Year's resolutions related to WoW? Or are resolutions a "strictly real-life" sort of thing to you?
New Year's resolutions: Mac style
Now that it's 2008, time to write down those New Year's resolutions; and why not use your Mac to make sure you stick to them this year! Here's a list of apps that will help you manage your resolutions, and hopefully keep them too: Anxiety (donationware; get organized with to-do management) Cha-Ching ($40, demo available; personal money manager) Wallet ($14.95, demo available; keep those secrets, well, secret) Writeroom ($24.95, demo available; get more writing done with less distractions) Weight Tracker (freeware; keep track of your weight loss) Pzizz ($29.95, demo available; allows you to get better sleep or "energize" you during the day) Awaken ($12.95, demo available; you'll never be late for work again with this clock) YummySoup! (shareware, $20; store recipes and share them, so you can start eating better) Gyminee (iPhone web app; keep track of exercises, watch exercise videos, and keep up with calories) No Smoking (freeware, Dashboard widget; keep track of how many days you've been without smoking) Be sure to tell us your favorite resolution-keeping Mac apps in the comments. Here's to 2008!
Our New Year's resolutions: Wii edition
Now that the sun has set on 2007, it's time for the Wii Fanboy staff to start laying down some New Year's resolutions, such as resolving not to use tired metaphors about the sun setting on stuff. So, without further ado, here are each of the staff's personal goals for 2008 (Wii-related ones, obviously. It goes without saying that I'd like to try to stop having wine for breakfast, but some things just aren't appropriate topics of conversation here): Alisha: I resolve to populate YouTube with many short films of my forthcoming baby playing Wii. Of course, since he's not even gonna get here until February, you can probably replace "playing" with "lying there looking pissed while Mommy makes him hold a Wii remote." David: I resolve to actually keep my job and not fall into a shame spiral of bad hygiene and lone nights crying alone as I play nothing but Smash Bros. Brawl in February. Hopefully I'll find the courage to not be sucked into that vacuum. Mike: I resolve to not buy ten new games before beating the last one. That either means I'll be spending more time playing games (yikes!), or just buying less of them. The more games I get, the harder it becomes for me to finish any of them, and even a masterpiece like Super Mario Galaxy ends up sitting at a measly 61 star gets, princess saved, and no green overalls. JC: I resolve to make a deal with Mike that could solve both our problems. (Here's how it works: Mike continues to buy too many games, but sends them to me instead. I play them until he is ready to start another one. There are no flaws with this perfect plan.) Candace: I resolve to not laugh at my mom anymore when she plays Wii ... even though she looks really, really ridiculous. Chris: To not excitedly squeal like a schoolgirl the first dozen times I insert No More Heroes into my Wii. This will almost certainly end with abject failure. And to beat my cousin, who is LESS THAN HALF MY FRICKEN' AGE, at Guitar Hero III. The child has the fingers of Hendrix. Eric: In the Year 200ERIC, I will exercise with Wii Fit while wearing a Banana yellow suit and a huge pair of shades, singing out "Too Wii Fit to Quit" like it's going out of style. Was it ever in style? Hey, HAAYYYYYYY! How about you? If you haven't already filled us in on your resolutions for 2008, what are you waiting for?
Our New Year's resolutions: DS edition
Yeah, we know what you're thinking: "Each and every member of the DS Fanboy team is pretty much perfect, so why the heck would such unblemished, shining beacons of humanity require New Year's resolutions?" We thought the exact same thing, before we each took a minute to stare deeply into the recesses of our souls, and realize that even we -- WE! -- could take steps to improve ourselves. And here's how we plan to go about it: Alisha: I promise to try not to go crazy and pee myself every time Square Enix remakes a game they've remade before, but it's going to be very, very difficult, and I will probably fail. Ask me again tomorrow. David: This year, I resolve to beat Contra 4 in front of a live studio audience. I will then reap the benefits and rewards of having a studio full of people not know who I am or what I am doing look at me with faces full of confusion as I rip my shirt off in conquest and scream wildly. JC: I resolve to play one of those RTS or SRPG or TRPG games. I've always believed I wasn't smart enough to play these things, while simultaneously believing that I was smart enough to pursue advanced degrees. Candace: I resolve that I will resist my urge to download the entire catalog of Phoenix Wright songs onto my cell phone. But not really. Chris: To not see in another New Year with gaming's answer to high-class narcotics, Animal Crossing Wild World. Also, to finally wrap up Trauma Center: Under the Knife, by which time I fully expect to boast the dexterity of an actual surgeon. Eric: I resolve to never trust a big butt and a smile. That girl is poison. Poison. So now we've shared, what about you, reader? If you haven't already, tell us about your DS-related resolutions for 2008.
DS Daily: Resolutions
We're going to be sharing our resolutions with you a little bit later on this morning, but for now, we want to hear from you! Anything you're planning on changing or doing differently this year? Companies you'll attempt to avoid? Buying fewer (or more) games? Let us know!
Wii Warm Up: Resolutions
We're going to be sharing our resolutions with you a little bit later on this morning, but for now, we want to hear from you! Anything you're planning on changing or doing differently this year? Companies you'll attempt to avoid? Trying out some new peripherals? Playing more (or less) Wii with friends? Introducing some new people to gaming? Let us know what you have planned for the year!
Share your '08 resolutions with X3F
Well fanboys, it's a new year, and with a new year come new year's resolutions (and game of the year awards). As people begin a brand new year, they attempt to start with a clean slate, get a fresh start. Some people try to quit smoking or find a way to better themselves. Considering our readers are all gamers, we thought maybe some people out there might like to share their gaming resolutions. Don't scoff, as there are plenty of worthy resolutions to be made. For example, resolving to not spend as much money on games, or perhaps resolving to try a new genre. As for us, our new year's resolution is ... 1080p (ba dum bum, ch!). But seriously folks, it probably is time for us to stop buying retro Xbox Live Arcade games in the middle of the night. A note to the wise, they are never as good as you remember them.So, how about you? Got any resolutions to share?
