Health and Fitness App after OS upgrade

Nokia Icon's OS  was recently upgraded to version 8.1 from 8.0. This resulted in the Health and Fitness app having all its features enabled. With OS 8.0 Machine Data was not supported.

The Health and Fitness app requires a minimum charge of around 40% to produce correct  readings from its GPS. Here are some comparisons of the app before and after OS upgrade. All screen shots are for the same track but on different dates.

With 8.0. Notice no step information. Also notice GPS is smoother and measures lower values.

 

Windows 8.1 was rolled out sometime today or yesterday. Higher reading for slightly lower duration. Charge on battery before starting 38%

One more measurement this time at 97% charge at start.

 

 

Finally Verizon upgraded the Nokia Icon OS

In the last couple of days Nokia has upgraded the Nokia ICON OS from Windows Phone 8.0 to Windows Phone 8.1. They took a very long time to do this. Anyway it is better late than never.
Now the Health and Fitness app can record your footsteps as Machine Data has appeared in your Settings list.

Read more about Sensor core here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26558729/why-do-i-get-this-sensornatavailable-error-what-is-wrong/28547660?iemail=1&noredirect=1#28547660

I was using the Windows Phone 8.1 developers preview and this also got upgraded.
The apps created using Windows Phone 8.1 Developer's preview cannot be opened in Windows Phone 8.1

I also notice differences in the way the apps react to OS. At least in the case of Health and fitness apps I notice two things (I will confirm in a future post with proof).

1. The GPS tracing via map in the app appears to have more resolution.
2.  More imporatantly the distances measured are quite different for the two OS Versions.

The OS 8.1 versions seems to measure a greater value for the measured distance than that measured on a OS 8.0 phone for the same track.

I invite anyone who reads this to comment.

Nokia Icon and Motion Data

In order to run the Bing / MSN Health and Fitness app you need the following:
GPS
Accelerometer

Icon seems to have the GPS and if one believes the specifications released by Microsoft (see next link) it should have the accelerometer as well. In fact ICON is supposed to have the following sensors:
Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, SensorCore.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phone/lumia-icon/specifications/

Although it has the required hardware, only the feature dependent on GPS works and the one related to accelerometer does not. You get an error that SenseNotPresent, etc.

Here is a response from Microsoft Windows Site when I used my authentication (linked to my Nokia Icon Phone) to find out if I could download Motion Data needed for step counting in the app .

This gives me the feeling that unless, Lumia Cyan or Lumia Denim is applied the Phone cannot use the Bing/MSN Health and Fitnes app.

The GPS based tracking works well. Here is my 2.4 mile route that I do most days of the week.

 

Toyota drives to the Microsoft Clouds

This has to happen someday and so it has happened. Toyota Motor Corporation and Microsoft Corp have announced the formation of a partnership to build a global, next gen telematics platform using the Windows Azure. Telematics is a mash up of Telecoms and IT with GPS support. SQL Azure would surely play a part as it supports geographical and geometry data types. Great opportunity exists to bring together all stake holders (vendors, parts manufacturers, dealerships, and most of all buyers) in one place and have a great party . The other Microsoft products will all also get to play their part. Voice recognition; embedded software; conferencing; Active Sync; power management; etc to name only a few.
This partnership will surely enhance Microsoft's Windows Azure  stature as a growing enterprise ready product. In recent times Toyota has been directing its effort to look beyond just the developed markets. Surely there are yonder greener valleys. Read related stories here and here.

What are those guys in Bangalore and Beijing upto?

With globalization time is not the only constraint and we need to contend with space (location, fortunatlely on earth). Storing Spatial information has become very important to know what those guys are doing in Bangalore or Beijing.

SQL Server 2008 can handle this very well. If you believe the earth is flat you can use the 'Geometric' data, on the other hand if you believe the earth is not flat but round (or oval) you cannot just use coordinates but you use longitudes and latitudes, in other words the geographic representation. SQL Server 2008 handles both of them well.

This time around Microsoft is doing it properly, I mean, adhering to well known standards. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Simple Features for SQL Specification version 1.1.0 in the case of Geometric data and uses well known GPS latitude and longitude coordinates for geographic representation.

I will be back next time with more on this.