FIO Is A Simple, Attractive Time Zone Tracker

One of the things I love about working with people all around the world is that I feel like an international woman of mystery. Unfortunately, by “mystery” I mean time zones and my propensity for mixing them up, especially since I live in a country that does not participate in daylight saving time.

Missing phone appointments or calling people obscenely early in the morning is embarrassing, so I was happy to install FIO (an acronym for Figure It Out). The free Chrome extension lets you pick a 12-hour or 24-hour clock and up to five locations, including your own. It then arranges the time zones in order and assigns each of them a color that shifts throughout the day. Bright orange means afternoon, while indigo blue signifies the middle of the night.

But wait, you might be thinking, why not just use the iOS world clock (which includes a map on iPad) or one of the many similar websites out there?

The answer (at least for me) is simple. There are days when I talk to people in at least five time zones and if I have to stare at yet another row of clock faces or world map, I will go crazy. The impact on my sanity is incremental, but very real, and I thank FIO for saving a little piece of my brain. FIO’s colors and format can also help cut through the mire of jet lag if you frequently travel. I plan to use it alongside World Time Buddy, an easy-to-read time zone converter.

FIO’s developers plan to add features like winter and summer clocks, as well as clocks based on major time zones, like Greenwich Mean Time, and make the site fully responsive so it can be used on mobile devices, too.

iOS App Driving Curve Is A Fitness Tracker For Your Car

iOS app Driving Curve is an easy way to track your driving performance without having to fiddle with additional devices.

Some high-profile driving apps, like Automatic, a Y Combinator alum and Techstars-backed Dash, offer their own hardware to connect with smartphones. Other use a Bluetooth-enabled on-board devices (OBD), which plugs into an adapter under the steering wheel.

Driving Curve, on the other hand, is meant as simple alternative for people who are curious about their driving performance, but don’t want to deal with an OBD or a more complicated set of features just yet.

“All you need is a smartphone, which dramatically lowers the entry barrier and grows our user base quickly,” says Tim Huang, who founded the app along with Duoyuan Chen. “We focus on quantified human behavior rather than machine behavior.”

To use the app, you simply press its start button just before you start driving. It tracks your speed based on data from GPS satellites and the iPhone’s motion sensors.

When you arrive at your destination, stop the app and it automatically analyzes and records information about your acceleration, braking speed, fuel usage, and route distance.

Driving Curve is currently part of the TMI incubator program in Taipei, Taiwan. Other notable startups there include interactive toy company Roam and Wander, which recently joined 500 Startups, and Codementor, a Techstars Seattle pick.

Driving Curve’s founders are still working on a monetization model, but they say that the popularity of smartphones will allow them to collect data that can be useful for a wide range of companies.

There are other driving apps out there that don’t use an OBD, like MotorMate by Confused.com and Aviva Drive, are both meant to help drivers get discounts on their car insurance.

While Driving Curve could potentially be used by insurers, taxi companies, and delivery services to make sure their drivers are following traffic laws, the app is mainly meant as a self-diagnostic tool with a gaming element.

You can collect points and badges for safe driving and compare your performance with other users. If you drive poorly, the app will dish out insults, like telling you that you drive like a bank robber, before giving you tips on how to improve your performance.

Since I live in a city and don’t own a car, I tested Driving Curve while taking cabs in Taipei and Seoul and found that it captures speed and distance traveled accurately. One of my rides got a “speed ninja” warning, even though the driver wasn’t going particularly fast. He did have to stop frequently because of rush hour traffic, however, which can wear out brakes.

The disadvantage of Driving Curve is that you have to be connected to the Internet for its GPS check-ins. On the other hand, it is fun and easy to use and I can see the appeal for people who don’t want to fiddle with another device in addition to their smartphone. It’s also great for backseat drivers (like me) who take taxis or ride-sharing services frequently and want to make sure that their drivers are not only driving safely, but also taking the most efficient routes.