People with amblyopia (“lazy eye”) will soon get treatment from the first therapeutic video game called Dig Rush from Ubisoft and Amblyotech Inc. Amblyopia (“lazy eye”) affects approximately 3% or the U.S. population (about 9 million people). It’s condition where a person sees out of one eye instead of two.
My wife, Sarah, recently decided to get a fitness tracker. She’s been going to the gym more, and heading out walking, and wanted a way to view her activity on a daily basis. I showed her various fitness tracker options, ranging from Misfit to Jawbone to Fitbit, and she specifically chose a Fitbit Flex, almost purely on the Fitbit name.
Stress is a big part of everyone’s life, whether you’ll admit to it or not. Emvio wants to help you keep track of your stress and help you control your stress. Emvio is a watch that measures your heart rate variability, blood pressure, pulse, and rate of physical activity. You can make a pledge today at their Kickstarter campaign.
While it has been more than a week since I wore three layers over my face, I am still layered up against mornings in the teens with wind chills close to 0ºF. At the same time, I am seeing big clearance sales popping up on winter running gear, so I thought it would be fun to look at my gear!
April 10th, 2015 marks the 3rd annual National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD), and the countdown begins now!
Late last year, Apple gave Fitbit the boot from Apple retail stores. There was a lot of speculation as to why Fitbit was kicked out, but most people assumed it was due to Fitbit pulling out of Apple’s Healthkit initiative. Competitors (and Healthkit partners) like Jawbone, Mio and Nike remained in the stores. Until this week, when everyone was booted!
Many expected this already, but Apple plans to do away with some of their competitors by removing them from some of their brick and mortar Apple Stores. On Apple 24th, Apple will be releasing the Apple Watch, and one of the highlighting features will be its fitness tracking capabilities.
I tested the fitness tracker waters with the Pivotal Living 1 and stuck with it despite the bugs. Unfortunately, I forgot it wasn’t waterproof, and a dip in the pool brought on the death of the PL1. It’s time to replace it, and I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Fitbit Charge HR, Withings Activité Pop, or Garmin Vivosmart.
We were in Costco a few weeks ago, and the quinoa they were carrying was a different brand than we’ve bought in the past. We set out to find out if the new quinoa was safe for our son’s allergies, and we learned two things: Amazon and Costco are very nice, and no one can track down “Nature’s Intent, LLC“.
We’ve talked about safety and gear when running outside before (Mike has done a great job of covering the important points), but it’s important to remember safety doesn’t get checked at the gym door. If you’re doing anything, from treadmill running to weightlifting, make sure you know how to be safe. I learned that the scary way this weekend!
HTC is busy at MWC this year; first they announced the One M9, and now they have a companion fitness product, the HTC RE Grip. It’s a fitness tracker with GPS, and it syncs with Under Armour (which means it will work with My Fitness Pal as well as the MapMyFitness products).
The approaching “March Madness” college basketball playoffs can often ignite our “hoop dream” passion(s). All the new sensor gear, flashy apparel, and web statistics often overshadows the basic skill that World record-holder Ted St. Martin covers in a classic book – shooting the basketball ranging from the free throw to a slam dunk.
Siri (or Cortana, or Ok Google) often get dismissed as gimmicks, or something you use for driving or otherwise using your phone hands free. My wife Sarah, however, can attest to a situation where Siri was an absolute hero for our family — Sarah used Siri to call Poison Control during an emergency!
WARNING: The products discussed may contain or use nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical; in many cities and a few states, you must be 21 to purchase vaping products and/or products containing nicotine. Please familiarize yourself with and obey the law in your location. In my 20s, I was the girl who’d have a drink in one hand and a clove cigarette in the other when out on Saturday nights. I was, as I referred to myself at the time, a “social smoker”.
If there were a pill that, when digested, would instantly turn obnoxious body emissions into sweet-smelling chocolate – you’d probably want to take it wouldn’t you? Or at least feed it to the family dog or maybe slip it into a relative’s mashed potatoes during Thanksgiving dinner.
There’s been a huge debate lately about wearable devices like Fitbit, Jawbone UP, smartwatches, etc. First, wareable.com pointed out most buyers of fitness trackers are ALREADY fit (and well-off), and then a study came out indicating wearables were no more accurate than the pedometer in your existing smartphone. So who’s using them and are they helping anyone?
Everyone of elementary school age knows smoking is bad for you, so the shock-tactic anti-smoking ads often only serve to scare little kids. More effective is thinking of what you might miss, and what you could be doing instead with better health and more money. That is the goal of Nobituary, which creates a celebratory look at your non-smoking future.
Even before Apple announced their Apple Watch, much of the tech world was looking to wearables to be the next big thing. Everyone is looking to established technology companies, but there’s someone coming in from outside the tech world positioning themselves to dominate, especially with their latest acquisitions: Under Armour.
A few weeks ago I reviewed the Pivotal Living fitness tracker, and I concluded the following: “Pivotal Living is a company to watch, and I think if the bugs and kinks get ironed out, the Pivotal Life 1 is a very cool product.” I wanted to give them a few months, but here’s the truth: Don’t buy it. just don’t.
I am trying to get into better shape. After a minor knee surgery, my running routine fell completely apart. A good chunk of my injury was caused by muscle imbalances, so I set out to get into better shape with a strength training routine. I settled on the Stronglifts 5×5 workout; the Android app has been invaluable to my progress!
I have mentioned this before, but my son is severely allergic to sesame seeds. We found this out the hard way, after one small bite of hummus landed us in the ER. Unfortunately, companies do not have to label if sesame is an ingredient or cross contaminant in the US, so it’s time to petition the FDA to change that and add sesame to allergy labels!