Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are ready for an awesome 2012!

Since this is the time of year for resolutions, I thought I’d do something a bit different and review an app that can help you if weight loss is one of your goals.

I’ve been using Lose It! off and on for over a year, but I just started over, with a new profile, just before the holidays, and I wanted to talk about the app and some of the mistakes I made in the past. No reason for you to make my mistakes!

First the app. It’s very simple to use. As you’ll see from the following screen shot, the basic idea is to record all your food and exercise for each day.

I’m doing well so far.

You set a weight goal and a weight loss goal per week, and the app automatically calculates how many calories you can eat each day. Exercise adds to each day’s allotment, which obviously will increase how quickly you lose.

2.7 pounds in 2 weeks! It really works.

Entering your food and exercise is really easy.

Note the “Scan barcode” feature. I love that one. It makes adding new foods very fast.

You can also select entire previous meals (like if you usually eat the same thing for breakfast each day).

The food database is excellent, even for restaurants. Even if your favorite restaurant isn’t there, you can almost always find something comparable.

There are even social media-like elements. You can “friend” people to keep you motivated and on track. And if you like badges, there are lots, like the Regular Badge (which I just got) for recording every day for 2 weeks. I’m aiming for the Die Hard badge (recording every day for 52 weeks)!

Don’t Make My Mistakes

What did I do wrong the first time around?

1. Setting too big a goal

I set my goal as the final weight I wanted. It was going to take me too long to get there, and I got frustrated and stopped recording. This time I set an intermediate goal, so it won’t take so long to feel like I’m doing something.

2. Allowing “free” days

Sometimes I would just not record for a day, usually on a special day, like a holiday or anniversary. Of course, those are great days to record because those are also the days you’re likely to slip. For me, free days turned into free weeks or months, which defeated the whole purpose.

3. Getting too hung up on accuracy

The other reason I would give myself “free” days was when I ate something and didn’t know the calorie count. Now I just make my best guess and record anyway. I know my records aren’t completely accurate, but I think that consistency is more important. When I am recording, I make choices. And eat fewer Reeses minis (my favorite candy).

So what do you think? Like the app and the idea? Sign up for a free Lose It! account at http://www.loseit.com/ and invite me to be your friend. We can keep each other on track!

This is mostly on-topic because it’s affecting mobile apps.

There are a couple of patent trolls out there trying to make money off licensing fees for apps in the Apple store.

Kooltool, an India-based company, is just the latest. There have been numerous articles about Lodsys and their letters to Apple developers.

This is ridiculous and only the latest in a series of frivolous lawsuits by patent trolls. A good friend of mine works for a company that has been almost driven out of business by a patent troll. They actually won a lawsuit (in the East Texas district where it’s almost impossible to win), but the troll keeps on coming, kind of like a particularly pernicious zombie.

In many European countries, the loser pays all legal costs, and I think it’s past time for the U.S. to follow their example, at least in patent suits.

Will that limit access to the little guy? Maybe. Right now, the winners in patent lawsuits are the attorneys. Both sides have to cover their own legal costs, and the process becomes a game of financial chicken. Who runs out of money first? In some cases, the trolls’ attorneys work for the troll or work on commission, while the defending company has to pony up for their own legal team. That’s been the case for the company my friend works for.

If the loser had to pay all fees, fewer trolls would sue, and there would be less financial incentive to bring patent suits. I have to think that would lower the costs. Also, with the threat of paying all costs hanging like a sword of Damocles, settlements might be more reasonable.

I do feel for the little guy who has been jilted from licensing fees he truly deserves. But from what I’m seeing in the news, those cases are in the minority. Let’s clean up the big mess and then go back to make it fair for the little guys, who right now are the companies being sued, not the ones bringing the suits.

Remember, the patent system was supposed to encourage innovation. With app developers pulling out or not developing because of the fear of lawsuits, right now I think the system is stifling innovation.

Feel strongly about this issue? Join me in writing your elected officials.

As someone who sometimes blogs about the iPhone, I figured I couldn’t let Tuesday’s announcement go without some response.

Personally, I’m not switching. I’m happy with AT&T. When I’ve needed service, I’ve gotten it with no problems. I don’t drop calls. I’m not a heavy user of cell data downloads, so lag isn’t an issue for me. Most of the time I want to download stuff, I use a WiFi connection.

But I am very happy that Verizon is getting the phone. I still think the iPhone is, overall, the best smart phone. ‘droid phones are getting there, but my “must have” time management app, Pocket Informant, is still unavailable on ‘droid. I have a couple of clients who have ‘droid phones, and the apps for their phones don’t seem as intuitive as the same apps on the iPhone. But maybe that’s just me.

I’m happy because I can encourage my Verizon clients to get iPhones. I’d like T-Mobile and Sprint to get them too for the same reason.

I think competition is good, and AT&T will have to be sharp to keep customers. That’s good for me as a customer.

I saw an article about carriers considering family data plans. This is very exciting. My husband would like an iPhone, but he doesn’t want to pay for a separate data plan, and I don’t blame him. He’s not looking to be a data hog either. We could very happily share. Shared data plans is a logical next step, and I have to think that Verizon getting the iPhone will make this happen faster.

So, I think it’s a good thing, even though I’m not switching carriers. But now I have options, so stay sharp AT&T. I’m more loyal to my iPhone than I am to you.

Last week, Opera Mini for iPhone was finally approved by the App Store. It was a long-awaited app, and many had been concerned it wouldn’t be approved by Apple.

The response to the new browser was so overwhelming that it was downloaded over one million times on its first day of release. Clearly there was significant pent-up need and a general dissatisfaction with Safari, the native iPhone browser.

I was one of those one million folks who downloaded, and I wanted to write up a quick review of the app after using it for a little less than a week.

In a word. Wow!

It is an improvement in almost every way over Safari. Its biggest selling point is speed. I was never particularly unhappy with Safari’s speed. I would even sometimes wait patiently for a web page to download over Edge. I took it as the price of mobile browsing.

I’m delighted to say that patience is not a price we have to pay any longer. Last Wednesday, when the app was released, I had a meeting with a client who also has a iPhone. At the end of our session, we did a speed test.

Full disclosure. The test was not completely fair. One of us was running an iPhone 3GS and the other was running a 3G. The 3GS is a slightly faster phone, even over Edge, which was the network setting we used. Figured the best test was to use the slowest of all the options. It also minimized the 3GS’ slight advantage.

We both opened our browsers and did a Google search on my website. Once we both had it in our search screens, we started the clock and tapped the links.

The results? 12 seconds to completely load the page in Opera Mini. 35 seconds in Safari!

Remember the 3G vs. 3GS difference? The phone running Safari was the 3GS, the slightly faster machine.

So yeah, Opera Mini is fast.

But is speed really everything? What about other features? Opera Mini wins hands down on those as well.

When you load the program, you get a very nice splash screen grid with slots for quick bookmarks. Some are pre-loaded (weather, etc), but you can customize. Saves tapping for the bookmark menu for the sites you use the most.

Opera Mini prompts to remember user names and passwords. Safari does not. Even when there is a box “Remember me,” and I click it, Safari never remembers. Obviously, I don’t use this for really sensitive stuff like financial information. But if someone steals my phone and can hack my Google Reader account, I’m not going to lose too much sleep.

The only drawback I’ve seen so far is that I don’t like the way Google Reader looks in Opera. I like the look a screen layout better in Safari. Not sure why it’s different, but it is.

And of course there’s no way to set Opera Mini as the default browser, so you’re stuck with Safari if you click on email links or links from your Twitter or Facebook client.

But I can live with those. Opera Mini is now on my first screen. Safari has to live with being on the second one, and it may eventually move farther back.

Not exactly the post I was planning for today, but what I wrote last week is kind of unavailable at the moment. It seems to be my month for technical problems. A week and a half ago, my laptop crashed. And over the weekend, my iPhone mostly crashed. I say mostly because all the native apps are working. Nothing installed is working, including WordPress Mobile, where Monday and Tuesday’s blog posts are. Lesson if you use WordPress. Upload blog drafts as soon as you write them. If I’d done that, I’d be fine today. As it is, I have two posts in the can as soon as I get the phone fixed. Not a completely bad thing.

Well, I’ll be off later to the Apple Store for my tech support appointment. Let’s hope the Apple folks can get me up and running soon. Hardware crashes happen. Let’s see if Apple’s tech support is as good as their product.

Oh, yeah. And my recent experience with my laptop taught me the value of regular backups. iPhone is completely backed up. After a restore, I should be as good as new.