Worry Beads vs Pacely Step

Greek komboloi have been rolled between finger and thumb for centuries — not to count anything, just to have something to do with your hands while your head sorts itself out. Worry Beads is that, on the phone you are already holding. A loop of beads hangs on the screen. You push it with your thumb. It has weight: flick it and it keeps going, tilt the phone and the whole string swings from its top point, shake it and the beads scatter. Every bead that passes gives one small tap of haptic feedback. There is no score you can lose, no timer running out, nothing to fail. THREAD A WORRY Type the thing that is sitting on your chest, pick how heavy it is, and it goes onto the string. Now the scrolling has somewhere to go: light worries come apart after about two minutes of beads, crushing ones take twelve. Get there in one sitting or over three days — the string remembers. When it finally lets go, the bead scatters and the worry moves to a private journal so you can see, weeks later, what you were carrying in March. The text of a worry never leaves your device. It is not in iCloud, not in a backup, not on any server. There is no server. ON YOUR WRIST The Apple Watch app turns the Digital Crown into the loop. Hardware detents mean one physical click per bead — a real mechanical click, which is something a glass screen cannot do. Sessions sync back to the phone on their own. MAKE IT YOURS 19, 33, 59, 99 or 108 beads. Wood, glass, metal, stone, crystal, jade, obsidian, bone. Hearts, skulls, stars, snowflakes. Snowfall, lanterns, a starfield, or a photograph of an ocean behind it all. Left-handed and right-handed layouts, because the loop should be under the thumb you actually use. TWO WAYS TO SCROLL Flow — fast, with momentum and friction, for when your hands need something to do. Zen — one bead at a time, with an optional breathing guide, for when you are trying to slow down. STATISTICS, SOME OF THEM SERIOUS Beads, loops, sessions, distance, day streaks. Also: how far your beads have travelled in kilometres, what fraction of the way around the Earth that is, how many worries you have let go, and how long you carried the one that lasted longest. Ten achievements and Game Center leaderboards, if you like a number to beat. HEALTH Releasing a worry can be logged as Mindful Minutes in the Health app. Optional, off until you turn it on, and nothing else is ever written. QUIET BY DESIGN No account. No sign-up. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Works on a plane. Free to use, with optional bead packs if you want more materials to play with.

Every step becomes a journey. Your daily walking distance carries you around Tokyo's Yamanote Loop, one stop at a time, and every flight of stairs adds up to a real landmark. A calm, beautifully simple pedometer and step counter. ■ What Pacely Step does - Steps, distance, calories and stairs — tracked automatically Reads your iPhone's Motion & Fitness data to log daily steps, walking distance, pace, and floors climbed. - Journey: walk your way along real routes Your walking distance moves you around the Yamanote Loop (about 34.5 km). "1.3 km to the next stop" and "4 stops reached today" give every walk somewhere to go. - Climb to world landmarks Your height climbed is measured in Eiffel Towers, Mt. Fuji, the Empire State Building and more. "1.5× Eiffel Tower this month" turns the stairs into a small adventure. - Calorie estimates that reflect how you walk Estimates use your walking speed and stair activity with MET-based calculations. - A calendar that keeps your progress Goal days are marked in vermillion. See your streak, best steps day, best height day and monthly progress at a glance. ■ Who it's for - Anyone who found step counts alone weren't enough to keep walking - Daily walkers and commuters who want a reason to go one stop further - People who prefer a quiet, minimal design over busy fitness apps - Anyone tired of subscriptions and looking for a one-time purchase - Anyone who wants a reason to take the stairs ■ Privacy - No account required - Your step records stay on your iPhone and are never sent anywhere - No access to HealthKit or your location - No advertising identifier (IDFA), no third-party ads or tracking - To show our other apps, the app may fetch public App Store information (app names and icons) Distances, calories and heights are estimates based on your iPhone's measurements.