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Barry’s latest fitness app supports on-camera workouts
Barry's new fitness app comes with on-demand and live workouts, as well as a camera feature that allows your instructor to see how you're doing.
Runtastic shares workout data with Jawbone's Up app
If you fancy Jawbone's line of activity trackers and track your afternoon jog with Runtastic, you can now keep all of your stats in one place. Data gathered by Runtastic during your workout can be sent to Jawbone's Up app where you can store info on nutrition, sleep, goals and more. Of course, Runtastic has its own wearables, including the new Moment analog watch. What's more, Jawbone's Up app no longer requires one of the company's trackers to tally your daily details, just like Runtastic's software, so there's a few gadget/app combos that'll work just fine with both Runtastic and Jawbone's gear. To take advantage of the partnership, you'll need Runtastic 6.3. Once you connect it with the Up app, all of your info will sync automatically.
Spotify automatically selects tunes to match the pace of your run
The addition of video and podcasts is great, but Spotify is looking to enhance workouts, too. Selecting the perfect tracks to match your run will be quite easy, now that the app now measures your pace and picks tunes in a matter of seconds. What's more, the Spotify Running feature will play nice with fitness apps like Nike+ and RunKeeper later this year, so you can keep tabs on progress while easily soundtracking that 5K. If you prefer to peruse options the old fashioned way, there's a collection of curated playlists built for a range of speeds. The streaming service already teamed up with Adidas to bring a similar feature to the shoe maker's Go app, so it makes sense that the tool would eventually end up in the primary streaming software, too. Spotify Running is part of a massive update that's available in the US, UK, Germany and Sweden starting today.
This jump rope has brains and a built-in HUD
Do you remember the last time you jumped rope? If you're a fitness junkie, gym regular or kid on the playground, you may still be swinging this classic exercise gear around. For most people, though, this simple, yet effective exercise routine has fallen by the wayside. Some of the team at Tangram's New Jersey office, however, have been jumping rope on the regular and decided to use their UX and design skills to add some technological flourishes to the old-school form factor. They took their "Smart Rope" concept to Kickstarter recently, exceeding their fundraising goal by a wide margin. The product has now moved into active development and is slated to begin shipping pre-orders by September. I had a chance to test Tangram's first prototype to get a feel for how this focused fitness device would play out in the real world.
Sound Off! What fitness apps keep you healthy?
Now that Apple has resolved issues with Healthkit, a ton of new apps are starting to support it. Fitness tracking and health monitoring are becoming huge features that device makers want to take advantage of, and even Google is getting into the game with its own initiative called Google Fit. Are you using a combination of swanky hardware and smooth looking apps to stay in shape? Head over to the Engadget forums and share your favorite health tracking apps.
Hexoskin's new wearable is a smart shirt for exercise buffs
The wearable craze isn't only about fashionable watches and savvy glasses. After all, remember how tech giant Intel's vision for the space included a shirt? Hexoskin, a Canada-based startup, has similar beliefs, and that's why it recently introduced its biometric smart tee -- Ralph Lauren's doing it too. The newly developed shirt, aimed at people who are fond of exercising regularly, is equipped with sensors capable of tracking over 42,000 data points every minute. Naturally, given that Hexoskin designed its product with athletes in mind, the shirt's bread and butter is to gather stats during physical training sessions, although it can also track daily activities such as sleep. Unfortunately, Hexoskin's wearable is only available in the US at the moment, where the starting kit sells for a cool $399.
Nike+ Running update for iOS introduces Nike+Challenges
Nike today rolled out an interesting update to its Nike+ Running app for iOS. The app update introduces social challenges into the mix, enabling runners to invite friends to run and compete in an old-fashioned race. Dubbed Nike+ Challenges, the feature also lets runners communicate with each other mid-race via group chats. This is a great way for racing runners to talk a little trash or deliver words of encouragement and inspiration. Naturally, the feature monitors everyone's progress and encourages friendly competition through leaderboards and medals. Users can put together one-off races or see who can hit 100 miles the quickest. The full changelog reads: •Ready to take on your friends? With Nike+ Challenges, you'll compete with your friends and motivate each other to go farther and faster than ever before. Track your progress, top the leaderboard, and snag a medal. Every run counts. • Choose a distance and invite your Nike+ friends. • Keep track of who's in the lead and stay motivated through group chats. • Finish a Challenge before your friends and take home a medal. We'll leave the bragging rights to you. Unfortunately, not everyone was born with the "running" gene, and sometimes those of us who lack the motivation to lace up and hit the pavement just need a little bit of encouragement or the prospect of a friendly challenge to get some exercise in. The updated Nike+ Running app seems to do just that.
Polar and Nike announce WearLink+ heart rate monitor for Nike+
Well, it's not June 1st, but Nike+ users now finally have a heart rate monitor to help kick their training up a notch in the form of the just-announced Polar WearLink+. That is naturally compatible with all Nike+ gear, and it will let you see your BPM at a glance on your Nike+ SportBand, or hear spoken feedback of your BPM while you run on your iPod nano. The heart rate monitor will even work with Polar's own range of training computers and Polar-compatible fitness equipment at the same time, and it has a soft textile chest strap that promises to "seamlessly adapt" to your body shape (it's also thankfully machine-washable). Look for the strap to be available in the US this month for $69.95, with a release in Canada and Europe set to follow in July. Full press release is after the break.
Philips Activa fitness MP3 player reminds you to move
It's the new year, so what better way for a company to prey upon your insecurities than by offering devices that accessorizes your ambition to really meet your fitness goals this time around. Philips knows this, so it'll be expanding its DirectLife wearable activity monitor to Germany this month and then to the UK a few months later while launching its new Activa personal audio player here at CES. Activa brings along a little trick called TempoMusic; a feature that analyzes your music library to later match songs to your aerobic intensity. That means that Activa can help keep you motivated by shouting out feedback on your progress in addition to words of encouragement while automatically selecting the appropriate music to match the pace of your workout or give you a boost when needed. Later, while cooling down with some cold suds and a delicious slice of warm tobacco pie you can check your progress and caloric burn rate via the bundled PC software. Activa will be available worldwide sometime in April for about $130, suggested.
Man's Wii Fit experiment comes to an end, 15 pounds shed
As you may recall, Mickey DeLorenzo rose to some degree of internet stardom a little over a year ago by dropping a whopping nine pounds using Wii Sports as his sole exercise routine and, after packing on a few pounds, he decided to give it another go using Nintendo's latest weight-shedding wonder: Wii Fit. Unlike a certain other would-be success story, DeLorenzo actually managed to complete his experiment, and the results are fairly impressive. After 45 days, he managed to shed a full 15 pounds, or about 2.56 pounds a week, and he dropped his body fat % from 20.8% to 18.4%. Of course, DeLorenzo admits that doing anything involving movement an extra 60 minutes a day will result in some weight loss, but he seems pretty sold on the benefits of Wii Fit, saying that it made it "especially easy" to work the training into his daily life.
Atari takes on Wii Fit with floor mat-based Family Trainer game
It looks like Atari is taking a few cues from Nintendo's past in order to take on the hot-selling Wii Fit, with the company's new Family Trainer game employing a Power Pad-style (or DDR-style for you young 'uns) mat controller to give you a workout. That'll apparently let you run and jump your way through more than a dozen mini-games designed to get your heart rate going, including log jumping, rope skipping and water rafting, each of which also make use of the Wiimote for some upper-body action. No word on a price just yet, but it'll apparently be landing in Europe first this September before it (presumably) makes its way over here.[Via TG Daily]
