Step Counter for mobile usage

[NikNak]

Can anyone please recommend a 'step counter' to use on my mobile (an iPhone 5c) WITHOUT it draining the battery like a hole in the side of the Titanic..?

I downloaded and tried 'Pacer'..... it was brilliant, did all i wanted.... counted my steps when we went for a walk, recorded how far we'd walked etc. But boy oh boy did it drain my battery or what..?!?! :shock:

I read all (well ok, not all, but a lot) of the reviews, and it came out top or very near the top, claiming it used very little battery life even in 'background mode'...... pfffff.... dunno how they got that, cos i've switched EVERYTHING off that i dont need or want my phone to do, and when i look in the settings menu its at the top of battery usage by a L O N G mile..!!

I've now deleted the app and battery life is back to 'normal' (normal for me is a charge every other day maybe.... certainly not every 15hrs :shock: )


Nick

 

[novocaine]

the accelerometer in your phone takes a surprising amount of power to run, so no matter which app you use you will always run your battery down pretty quickly. best bet is to get something like a fitbit (or a fake one as I did), which links to your phone via bluetooth, you can use it all day then link it to your phone once or twice a day to track your progress. it will also make you look like you've joined the revolution, all the women will want you, all the men will want to be like you, you will be beating them off with a stick*.

something like this is a cheap option. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-4-0 ... 2tcX1kgTZQ

* citation needed.

 

[NikNak]

Brilliant.....!!!! why didnt i think of that..?!?!

Now.... where to buy a stick from..? :-k

 

[novocaine]

we've got you covered.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-GPS-LBS-P ... SwLs5XKdgQ
lol

 

[John Brown]

My Samsung counts my steps all the time, and doesn't seem to impact battery life noticeably. I can see no reason why the accelerometer should take a lot of power. My wife has a little stand-alone step counter that works for over a year on a coin cell(and no, it isn't a pendulum type device). In fact, if you think about it, the FitBit has an accelerometer as well.

Are you saying that the device used in iPhones is especially power-hungry?

 

[Aggrajag]

My Android phone and watch both count steps all the time without using any noticeable power. Are you sure your counter app wasn't activating the GPS to make the counter more accurate by also using travelled distance? (Note - I'm NOT getting into an iPhone/Android argument! I'm just stating my devices as a weighted fact.)

 

[DiscoStu]

I used "Moves" on my iPhone as it links to my health care scheme and I get rewards for doing a certain number of steps. I too found it used a lot of battery but that was because it was using GPS constantly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Homers double]

Have you got the Health app on your iphone, my iphone came with it already on from new. I use it regularly to see what I've done.
It has no effect on battery life as I believe it's a apple thing that was designed as part of the phone set up.
As you can see in the screen shot yesterday I did 23,917 steps, that did include me mowing the lawn when I got home.

 

[NikNak]

Hey Homers Double..... yes i've got that, never bothered to use it.... until now

Tried 'switching it on'.... but nothing seems to happen tho is there something i'm missing somewhere..?