You can now export your data easily.

Login to TallyZoo, in your profile you will see a big button that says Download Data.  It will create a csv file.

- Enjoy

The Quantified Self, a site dedicated to self-monitoring methods for self-knowledge, has posted an in-depth review of TallyZoo.  Author Chris Finlay, spent two weeks with our app and site and came away with some fascinating insights about himself.  Read the TallyZoo Review here.

Big Thanks: The Quantified Self is a great resource, with up to date info about the rapidly changing world of personal informatics.  It was started by Kevin Kelly (who helped launch/ edit Wired magazine) as well as  Gary Wolf (currently a contributing editor and writer at Wired).  We are honored to be featured on their site.

TallyZoo.com gets Google Maps integration.  Enjoy.  (For now, this functionality is only on the website. )

We just released the Free version of our TallyZoo app. Try it out, let us know what you think.  For those of you wondering which version is right for you, Premium or Free, this table should help out.

Get TallyZoo Premium – only $1.99

Get TallyZoo Free

Watch this short video. It’s fantastic.

Dan Meyer’s 2009 Annual Report from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

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We released some new features today.

Embeddable Charts
The graphs that you create on TallyZoo can be viewed on your blog, website, etc. (Pretty much anywhere on the interwebs.*) It is super easy. Just click on embed link, copy the few lines of code, and paste it. Here are some examples:

Mouse over them to see the data

Share
Easily email, or publish a link back to your charts using Share.

Dashboard Improvements
The dashboard gets, some nice improvements to improve usability. You can now edit the settings for a graph from the dashboard. From the drop-down on each chart you can embed, share, edit.

* Embeddable charts make use of javascript. Most places you would want to embed a chart support external javascript.

TallyZoo is hosted with RackSpace on their cloudsite platform.  We host with RackSpace because they are, you know, awesome.  So naturally we were pretty excited when they decided to feature us on their blog.  Check out the article.

http://www.rackspacecloud.com/blog/2010/01/22/track-all-the-data-in-your-life-with-tallyzoo/

Thanks RackSpace!

Sadly, this is not going to be a post about tying different items to dogs.  (At TallyZoo we do respect our fury friends.)  It will be a post about pedometers, where to get em, some links to good reviews, and how to setup TallyZoo to get the most out of your pedometer.

Pedometers – summed-up real quick

There has been plenty of research showing the benefits of measuring your progress and the use of pedometers.  But to sum it all up, pedometers are an inexpensive way to stay motivated, loose weight, and stay fit.  So, here’s is the deal: get yourself a pedometer.  (Told you it would be quick)

What to spend, where to get em

You don’t have to spend a lot of money for a pedometer (you can if you want to, though).  For most people the simple, cheap ones work just fine.  Put it on your belt or in your pocket or purse and get going.  But if you want to get crazy with the research, here are some options.

• An easy article about the benefits of wearing a pedometer
• Here is an About.com post that has tons of options.
• And finally, the pedometer of pedometers.  The one you will proudly sport to that next board meeting.  The Pokemon Pedometer.  Three words: Totally Awesome.  (Pokemon for all of you people who are not parents of young children, or a young child yourself, is a cartoon which causes either seizures, or the overwhelming desire to smash your new TV.)

Using TallyZoo to get the most of your pedometer

Hopefully you have decided to go with a good, simple, inexpensive pedometer (which is really all you need).  Here is how you setup TallyZoo.  Simple, quick and easy.

Step 1 – Track your steps

To get started with TallyZoo, just setup one activity called Steps.  At the end of your day, when you get home from walking, just enter your steps.  That’s it.  TallyZoo will graph it automatically.

If you use the TallyZoo website, this is totally free.  If you buy the TallyZoo iphone app it will cost ya $1.99.

At this point you are basically done. Walk, track your steps, see your progress.

If you want to track some more stuff with TallyZoo keep reading.

Step 2 – Track some other stuff

You may want to create another activity, such as weight.  Now you will have two activities in TallyZoo, you will be able to track both your weight loss and the steps you take.  Note: you can track anything with TallyZoo just check out our community to see what people are tracking.  (Bird watching, Frisbee golf, coffee, water, snorkeling, books read, etc….)

Finally, what’s this about tying stuff to dogs?

I was trying to think of a title for this blog when I read a review of the Pokemon Pedometer.  There were a number of clever comments about how to get around doing actual exercise such as taping the pedometer to the washing machine or tying it to the dog.  I just imagined how many steps a pedometer would count with a little hyper dog vs for the lazy Labrador.  That’s it.

Walk well.

Button Behavior

One of the features that makes the TallyZoo iphone app so easy to use  is the ability to change how the buttons behave when tapped.  The buttons have two behaviors.

• Tap
• Tap-and-Hold

Tap

A single tap will make a count.  Hey, no surprises there, right.

Getting more out of the app, you can setup how much you count with a single click.  This is called the default increment.   Let’s say you are using TallyZoo as a running tracker (or in my case a jogging tracker, or sometimes walking tracker).  I run a couple of different loops, but my main running workout is a three mile loop.)  Here is how I set up this button to record three miles with 1-click.

Setting the Default Increment for 1-click Counting

Tap-and-Hold

Ok, so the button is setup.  When I get back from my workout I tap the button once and record a 3-mile run.  On the weekends I will usually go for a 5 mile run.  When I get back from my workout I tap-and-hold the Jogging button to bring up the detail screen.  Change the Amount, add a Note, or easily change the Created Date.

Workout Tracking is Easy with TallyZoo

TallyZoo App Settings — Making it Even Faster

Depending on how you are using TallyZoo, you may want to change the behaviors of the buttons in the Phone Settings.  Exit TallyZoo and go into the main iPhone Settings (you know, the one with the gears).  At the bottom of that page are the TallyZoo app settings.

• If you are using Tap-and-Hold a lot  you will probably want to  reduce the Button Hold Delay.   Now, when you do a tap-and-hold the form will pop faster.

• If every count is different then you can switch the Button Behavior.  This will make a single-tap bring up the count form, and a tap-and-hold will do a count.  Basically, it switches the behaviors.

Ok, that’s enough for now.  Time for a run.

One of the great things about TallyZoo is seeing how people are using it.  One of our clearly emerging trends: bird watchers.  Bird watchers (also called birders) want easy, 1-click counting to track their passion.  The simple, flexible interface of our iPhone app turns out makes it the nearly perfect app for bird watching.

“Used iPhone app recently on Audubon Christmas Bird Count, and it worked wonderfully. For a long time, birders have needed a way to keep a tally of species and individuals in the field without doing a lot of writing (dare I say, scribbling?). Now, if there was only a way to group activities (as in custom checklists) and to clear/reset activity totals in a batch, as well as to increment by voice command, this app would be perfect!”

So I decided to become a birder for a day.  This morning, before my way to work (in Los Angeles) I set a goal for myself and decided which birds I wanted to try and see on my commute.  Using the magic of the internet I created this bird watching list:

Perigrine Falcon, Albatross, Budgies, Emperor Penguin, Pileated Woodpecker, Scrub Jay, White-tailed Kite, Lories and Lorikeets, and a Blue-Footed Booby.

And this is how I setup and counted them using the TallyZoo iPhone app.

Bird watching and bird tracking with TallyZoo

The results speak for themselves: it is hard to find birds in LA.

1-Click Counting

With TallyZoo 1-click counting, I was easily able to count the one Scrub Jay I saw, sync to TallyZoo.com, and share my graph with my new birding friends.  Now, had my experiment been a little more realistic (or I traveled all over the world looking for these birds) my TallyZoo graph might have look like this: Bird Tracking Graph

Combination Graph - Using TallyZoo for Bird Tracking

Turns out that TallyZoo is the best app for birders and keeping a birding diary

Last Note for you non-birders

The Blue Footed Booby is a real bird, and not something the internet made up.  They do a dance which is, as far as I can tell, exactly how most of us here at TallyZoo dance.

* Stay tuned for app and web site updates, like Geo-tagging and mapping.