Running shoes are the most subjective item to review, since everything from shoe type to foot size to personal preference become factors in judging the shoe. Having said that, I feel pretty comfortable saying the Brooks Pureflow 5 are probably the best running shoe I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in the last several years. Read on to learn why!
Have you heard of Theranos? The name might seem vaguely familiar because they are a wildly successful start-up that’s raised over 9 billion dollars! They claim they have a faster, more efficient way to test blood using a drop instead of the traditional blood drawn from the vein. Unfortunately, it looks like the enthusiasm over their idea may be misplaced.
Sleep and I have a sometimes erratic relationship. Some nights I deal with insomnia, and I might sleep 4 or 5 hours at best; other nights I’ll need to catch up on sleep so badly that I’ll pass out for 12 or more hours. Ideally, I should get 8 hours sleep per night. Obviously, what I’ve been doing isn’t ideal.
There’s an old adage that says if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. If I followed it, this would be a very, very short review. It’s not that the Adidas Fit Smart is BAD, per se…it’s just that the handful of useful features don’t outweigh the major flaws.
Is the phrase “I’m sorry, what did you say?” a common part of your day? It is for me. My hearing is…questionable, or, as my wife put it, “It’s not normal to be 34 and need the closed captioning.” The good folks at Etymotic have clearly experienced this too, and that’s where the Bean Quiet Sound Amplifier can shine.
Do I really need an app-enabled water bottle? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since Judie and I each received a Thermos Connected Hydration Bottle with Smart Lid at CES. This looks like a regular water bottle, but it’s Bluetooth-enabled and monitors your water intake over the course of a day. Is this something worth purchasing? You decide.
It’s no longer enough to just tie on your sneakers and head out for a run. Now you need your watch, footpod, headphones, heart rate monitor, and smartphone. We’re about a week away from SPIbelt including a battery in their products just to keep everything charged. Kuai has a much simpler solution: Kuai Multisport Biometric Headphones. That’s a very long and fancy name for a very simple concept. Kuai took headphones, added sensors for heart rate and cadence, threw in 8Gbof memory for music and coaching downloads, and even added connectivity for Bluetooth and ANT+, so you can easily connect…
It’s official, we’re living in the future. Not only is virtual reality quickly becoming everyday reality, but now you can wear a heads-up display while you’re riding a bike, literally seeing your ride statistics floating in front of you like a biking terminator. That’s the future that Solos Smart Eyewear is promising!
Casio is diving wrist first into the Android Wear world with their newest release, the WSD-F10 Outdoor Watch. It combines Casio’s trademark rugged designs with the power of Android Wear, perfect for those times when you need to check Facebook while at Basecamp for Mount Everest. All joking aside, Casio has thrown a lot of extra features into the WSD-10 to make it stand out in the smartwatch world. It has GPS, is water resistant to 40 meters, offers dust and shock proofing, and has a number of Casio-specific apps for outdoor activities. They also offer a time-only display to…
Polar has been expanding their fitness portfolio beyond just heart rate monitoring, with a slew of activity trackers and GPS watches. Now they’re making the whole ecosystem even more holistic by adding weight management with the new Polar Balance scale! The Polar Balance scale is a wifi connected scale that hooks into the Polar Flow app. At only $99 it falls on the cheaper end of the connected scale options, but obviously it works best if you already have an investment in Polar via their activity tracking devices. Also, it can accommodate up to 10 profiles, so your entire rugby…
Misfit’s devices have all had a very recognizable style, in that they are small round disks of various materials, ranging from cheaper plastics to metals to even Swarovski crystals. They are shaking things up with their new Misfit Ray, a more bracelet-style tube that tracks activity, sleep, and handles basic notifications, just like its siblings!
Everyone knew CES 2016 was going to be focused on wearable technology, but I doubt anyone could have imagined something like DigitSoles. They make smartphone controlled shoes and insoles that track your steps, adjust the fit, and even warm your feet!
Seems as if Withings is wasting NO time getting out ahead of the competition for CES week as they’ve already released ANOTHER product that will for sure make you keep certain resolutions you made in 2015 stick in the New Year. Today the company announced the Withings Go, which is an automatic activity and sleep tracker. At a modest price of $69, the Withings Go is easily one of the more versatile activity trackers out there on the market today. With it’s always-on E Ink multiscreen display and the ability to automatically track steps, distance, running, swimming on TOP of…
Fitbit is putting their mark on 2016 early, with a new device called the Fitbit Blaze. It’s a smartwatch with a full color touchscreen, but no GPS, and it will sit between the Charge HR and the Surge price-wise, at $199.95. The Blaze will be able to receive basic smartphone notifications, tracks your steps, various workouts, and heart rate, but it does not have standalone GPS; instead it uses what Fitbit calls “connected GPS”, which is just a smokescreen way to say the Blaze uses the GPS from your smartphone for outdoor distance tracking. There’s DNA from the Fitbit Flex…
Under Armour has been slowly building a fitness empire. They absorbed the MapMyRun suite of apps, Endomondo, and MyFitnessPal, but software was only phase one. Now they’ve made the leap from software to hardware, debuting a fitness tracker, heart rate monitor, connected scale and more, all bundled and sold as “Under Armour Healthbox“, and designed through a partnership with HTC. The UA Band looks suspiciously similar to the HTC Grip tracker that was announced but never released, but with a slightly different feature set. There’s no GPS on board, but it tracks steps, sleep, prompts you to move, picks up…
Today, the leader in connected health products Withings announced they’ve extended their reach on the health market by unveiling their Withings Thermo.
There are plenty of heart rate monitors out there on the market that are pretty half-baked when it comes to actual functionality, and only a true handful of them are highly accurate on a consistent basis. That’s what Mio Global is attempting to change with their revolutionary new fitness metric system!
The hardest part of having a toddler is the “I do it myself!” phase. Independence is a huge development step, but inevitably your child needs more parental involvement than they believe they do. Toothbrushing is a big part of this push/pull battle, but Grush has an idea to use connected gaming to make toothbrushing fun and easy for everyone! Grush is designed to appeal to both parents and kids. It uses a Bluetooth connected toothbrush and a companion app with games-kids succeed in the games by brushing properly and for the full amount of time. Parents can use the app…
I have what I somewhat affectionately call a persnickety knee. It has earned the right to be picky after a torn ACL in 2008 and a torn meniscus in 2014. So while I was excited to test out the Enerskin Compression Sleeves, I knew they had to pass an often grumpy and slightly arthritic critic!
Do you have a filtered water pitcher or system in your house? Most people keep some sort of filtered water around, either because they like the taste or they distrust their tap water. Whatever the reason, have you ever considered HOW filtered your water is? ZeroWater has, and they claim to offer the most filtered water possible!
Are you still using a manual toothbrush? I did for years until I found out that I was over-brushing to the point that I needed a gum transplant on the left side of my mouth. Gross, right? I’d brushed my gums so hard that they had prematurely receded! How did I correct my bad habit? By using an electric toothbrush.