Run for your life, the apps are here…

There are two kinds of people in this world who exercise – the app-ers and the hapless…

It's early morning, relatively speaking. You're ready in your all-new Nike Flyknit Racer. The iPod gets into your pocket. Your Timex Ironman’s next, followed by your Polk Audio UltraFit sports headphones (with tangle-free planar cables and moisture shields), and the Tune Belt Sport Armband for your brand new iPhone (protective cover, waterproof design, unique ear bud cord organizer – the works). You strap your app-heavy mobile onto this. What you can't wear, clip on or shove into your pocket goes into your backpack. Ready? It's time to pump up the volume with a remixed theme of Eye of the Tiger or Ek Tha Tiger and hit the road - it's time to run.

Since when did an exercise as simple as running get so complicated? Forget power jogging and power sprinting, one didn’t even have Power shoes to wear for a morning run, a decade ago. How did all this change?

As always, blame it all on the t-word. In recent times, technology, through apps, has stood us in good stead through all those hours of sweat and dirt, being our willing partner in grime. In fact, most apps have been named appropriately to emphasize this affiliation, like FertilityFriend, BP Buddy, WeightDate, SportyPal - and of course, an App Mate to handle all these apps.

Apps like calorie counter, session counter and km counter help keep track of various unpleasant facts while you run. Just as there are many ‘counter’ apps for running, there are also several apps to counter running – these help you dismiss suggestions from fitness freaks who unnecessarily force you into physical activities. So when they talk about the benefits of walking, your app can tell them how running is more effective, and if someone recommends running, you could pitch for trekking. Likewise, trekking can be countered by cycling, cycling by swimming, which in turn can be proved inferior to walking – and you realize that it’s a great way to have everyone go around in circles. It can get pretty exhausting, but then, it certainly beats getting tired by exercising.

But there are apps for fatigue too. So, when you feel that compelling urge to put your head down and rest for a while, there's the useful Lap Counter from iTunes to help you count those laps that could make vantage resting points. Just make sure you don't try this in your neighbourhood park or in places where you can be identified.

There are other apps that have resulted from a moment of inspiration - like iStepLog, created by a software engineer who went on an early morning walk after a particularly rainy night and accidentally stumbled on a tree that lay across the road. To cater to the Indian market, related apps have been launched, like iStepPuddle, iStepPoop and iStepDitch, to help you watch where you are stepping.

But it is important that you don’t take these apps too literally - not all apps deliver what they promise. There could be times when the deluge of apps could leave you all muddled up, but an app like Better Brain really doesn't get you that for 150 bucks - it merely tries to exercise your existing brain with some activities.

There are a host of apps for yoga too. But the challenge is to hold your smartphone in one hand, balance the other on the ground and with one leg in the air, try to wrap the other around your waist. It's called the ek app pada bakasana, or the one legged crane holding android device pose.

Tomorrow never lies...

Why has man been so keen to find out what the future holds for him? An analysis...

There are some things in life so predictable that one doesn’t need to be clairvoyant to make a prophecy. For instance, Facebook will have its billionth user soon. (Ignore the bit about 83 million fake users.) Or, Apple’s next product – named iPin – will mark the end of banks. But man’s undying curiosity about tomorrow has always resulted in prophets and profits.

It all began when early man tried to use animals to see the future. From the dove that helped Noah during the great deluge to the pigeon that helped Salman Khan in Maine Pyaar Kiya, there have been enough precedents of oracular animals. Paul the Octopus had set the stage, and soon the rest - Citta the Elephant, Funtik the Pig, Lazdeika the Crab, Leon the Porcupine, Maggie the Monkey, Mani the Parakeet, Pino the Chimpanzee, Rocky the Raccoon, Traudl the Goat, Xaver the Bulldog and Yvonne the Cow - followed. 12 animals, each of them making their own predictions – and that was how the world got its first zodiac.

The future continued to hustle us. The zodiac man had used a dozen animals, but the Mayans would go one up. They created 13 mysterious skulls made of piezoelectric quartz crystal, which is a good conductor of energy. Each skull was a storehouse of information about everything in the universe, including our future. Legend has it that when it’s time for the end of the world, the 13 skulls, when brought together, will help save mankind.

Quartz crystal, the fundamental element in today’s computers. Skulls that could hold and transmit energy. Their coming together to form a network. Piezoelectric quartz, a key component of modern transmission devices like the radar. The larger picture slowly emerged. So that was why the Mayans didn’t have the time to extend their calendar beyond 2012 – they had been busy creating the world’s first Wide Area Network. Was it possible that they had already predicted their end and had tried to communicate it through their indigenous computer network and radar devices? Was that what Indiana Jones had tried to find out before Harrison Ford was retired for the next instalment in the series?

There are other links between modern technology and ancient forecasting techniques. One of the oldest known Indian forecasting techniques is the nadi astrology. Nadi in Tamil means ‘to search for’ – it was this concept that led to the creation of the search engine. Since ancient India had perfected the art of counting up to 1 followed by 153 zeroes, taking a cue from this, two young men, Sergey Brin and Larry Page began a search for a financial windfall of 1 followed by a 100 zeroes – and googol, or Google came into being.

While stargazing indicated the future, the stars themselves were found gazing into tea cups. Kate Moss was believed to be into tea reading until her publicist clarified that people were mistaken. Being a leading fashion model, she rarely ate or drank anything and was often found staring into her tea cup. 

A different kind of reading – of Nostradamus’ almanacs - would reveal that the end of the world was scheduled only for 3797. Besides, like the Y2k issue, the Y10k problem had already been identified. So life couldn’t end in 2012 – there were bigger problems to be faced.

But the condition of the internet, its trillions of websites, the rapidly exhausting Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses and the new social networking sites were clearly predicted by Sir Walter Scott in 1808 when he said, "O what a tangled web we weave..."