Gummy Bears - a quick history

My German wife has always insisted that the only REAL gummy bears are those from Haribo, and it seems she may be right.

They were invented by Hans Riegel, a German sweet manufacturer in 1922, only 2 years after he founded Haribo! (HAns RIegel from BOnn - get it?)

They were originally known as Dancing Bears, were a little taller and thinner than the bears we know today, but were an instant hit with the local kids, eventually re-launched as Gold Bears in 1967.

Strangely, despite their massive European success, the Gummies waited till 1982 to travel over to the USA, but are now well known to kids (and us Qualcomm employees) all over the country

There are several competitors (most notably Trolli - another German confectioner making Gummy Worms) as well as kits to make your own at home. But it seems like Gummies have become their own legend!

For more on Gummy Bear history see:

• http://mentalfloss.com/article/22997/brief-history-gummy-bears
• http://www.haribo.com/enUS/company/history.html

WirelessWalking at MWC13

Ahead of our time? Maybe. Part of a growing trend, certainly!

One member of Team GummyBear attended the epic trade show: Barcelona Mobile World Congress. It is huge - 72,000 delegates. 8 enormous halls. Lots of walking around!

Qualcomm had one of the more impressive stands there. The part I particularly liked was looking at many of our smaller projects, and meeting the people behind them. One of the stands was looking at our various mobile health initiatives, including the launch of the Wireless Walking Challenge - challenging delegates to track their steps around the Congress, and compete for who walked the most!

Bonus. Two competitions in one! And more Qualcomm colleagues joining in the fitness campaing!

The super cool bit: Using some Qualcomm APIs they have set up a cool online system that collects steps from all sorts of different gadgets and apps. FitBit. Runkeeper., Noom, MapMyFitness.

The less cool bit: My Nike Fuelband isn't supported yet. (It will as soon as Nike opens their API, due later this year)

I spent one day tracking my steps with RunKeeper, which was a disaster. (I love runkeeper, and log all my runs with it. But it relies on GPS on my phone, which was useless inside the conference halls) . I then had the loan of a FitBit which went really well, and had me up in the top 5 of the leaderboard for a few days!

The setup - simple. Comparison with Nike Fuelband - too early to say, but it does seem a lot more generous on counting steps. I was getting 5% more steps on the FitBit. But either way - more walking :-)

Go Gummies!

Damn you error 802

My Fuelband has been letting me down the past few days.

First it started giving me slightly questionable scores. The band seemed to be adding 2 days together into a mega score, even though when I sync'ed the data that got saved looked right

Then it started to complain about "MEM FULL", advising me to sync. I was syncing (both wirelessly, and with a wire), but that didn't seem to stop the complaint.

Then it started to complain. Bluetooth seemed to hang, and do nothing, but when connecting up with a cable it told me I had a Hardware Error 802.

And finally, it started creating "black spots". It does still sync, but sometimes loses earlier days in the process. I spent a few epic days cross country skiing in Norway, and although the fuel point registered in my fuelband, nothing was recorded.

Gah!!!

Nike have offered to look at it, possibly repair it, or if not replace it. However it means shipping it to Holland, meaning I will be without my new Fuelband friend for potentially several weeks, which kinda defeats the purpose a bit!

gggrrrrr.

Beaten by a (cartoon) girl ?

Week 3, and the results are in. Last week, Team Gummy Bear won a prize for "most improved", but this week we have all been overtaken by Team Peppermint Patty, who won both for the most steps, AND the most Nike Fuel

I dont really know all the USA sweet brands, but as far as I know, Peppermint Patty the the little, friendly green girl from Charlie Brown

So - looks like we were beaten by a small cartoon girl in healthy looking sandals

That probably just about sums up our sporting prowess!

I guess I'm grateful it wasn't Linus and his blanket!

Gummies going (London) global!

Last week I was interviewed by a london-based internet radio station. They interview personalities doing unusual things across the capital, and picked on me because they were worried we are all becoming techno-robots, and wanted some views on that.

I dont advise looking at the entire thing (it was 1hr long), but I managed to steer the conversation onto our competition and even got the fuel-band onto youtube!

See below, lifted from "minute 42"! 

We may not be winning with the most steps, but we sure are global!

More information about the interview and a (very rough) transcript on my blog, fyi

House chores to the rescue!

Last week I started a class at UCSD, so I had to cut my Zumba hours in half... however, I discovered that the band is pretty good in tracking the energy I spend while mopping, cooking and doing laundry.  I had gotten into the habit of taking my band off when doing those things, to avoid getting it wet. While the inside of the band gets a bit of condensation as a result, it hasn't had any problems.

So for those of you hard-pressed for time, make sure you are wearing your band while cleaning. Especially if listening to something like this:  http://youtu.be/QTAtHwtAxCQ

:-) 

Gummy bears on the march

The working week is just about done, but the cold weather (and a few early starts) are making it hard work to keep my numbers up this week.

Weirdly, the Fuelband has got me wearing gloves. If you hide your hands from the cold in a pocket, you earn fewer fuel points per step. And swinging those hands in below-freezing UK weather is a daft idea without gloves. So now I find myself wearing gloves more often!

Here are some marching gummy bears to enthuse us all to take a few more steps each day . . .