You probably made a lot of New Years resolutions to get off your butt and work out. You probably said you were gonna work out five times a day. Maybe more. Maybe you said you’re going to do one of those cool juice diet cleanses with a side of anorexia.
For those of us who made all these exercise goals, but are still binging on cheeseburgers, there’s an amazing — if not extreme — FitBit hack that can help. With just a FitBit activity tracker and a Belkin WeMo internet-controlled power outlet, you can set your daily activity goal, and if you don’t reach it, the system cuts power to everything plugged into your Belkin Wemo to give you some extra motivation to go jogging.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
We’re running a little behind, so playing catch up today by posting our first and second day picks along with our choice for December 3rd.
Our Day 1 choice? FitBit, an awesome iOS accessory that can help you get healthier and more fit in no time.
The Wahoo Blue HR ($79) heart rate strap performs a neat trick: by pairing with your iPhone (4S or 5 only) via Bluetooth, it allows you to transform your favorite iOS device into any of the amazing heart rate monitors available on the App Store today. Even better, it works with all the best cycling and running apps too, so now you can monitor your heart and calories on your rides or runs.
It’s Labor Day in the U.S.A. which means you’re probably all hanging out by the pool, barbecuing, drinking, and doing stupid stuff as a way to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers in the past. It doesn’t really make sense, but who cares.
When you get back to work tomorrow though, break time is over. To help you get back into the swing off things, we’ve rounded up the 10 best productivity apps for iOS.
Every morning, I scrape myself off of the bottom of my hangover’s hobnailed boot and try to make it down to the gym. About two-out-of-five times, I’ll oogily succeed and manage to douse myself in the pool until I’ve either done fifty laps or turned the water fifty proof, whichever comes first.
If only there was a way to be better motivated, I’ll often think to myself. Which is why I’m intrigued by a partnership between GymPack and RunKeeper, that will not only award me real money when I successfully drag my carcass to the gym, and actually penalize me money when I don’t.
You can now brag about your latest FuelBand scores on Path.
There’s no point in exercising if you can’t tell your friends all about it afterwards, right? Well, if you’re a Nike+ FuelBand user, you now have yet another outlet through which to broadcast your latest jog. Version 1.2 of Nike+ FuelBand for iPhone introduces Path integration, background syncing, offline browsing, and more.
I want to lose weight. Really. I mean, I just gained 30lbs over the last 18months thanks to the magical folks at Chipotle and it’s time for a change. Problem is, every time I invite my friends to come jogging with me plans fall through and then I have another excuse to inhale half of a blueberry cheesecake.
Admittedly, I’ve sunk pretty low, but I’m not sure if I’ve reached the point where I need a robot to whip me into shape. Maybe I do though, and the guys behind the Joggobot have created one of the oddest contraptions to help nerds lose weight by chasing them around with a deranged robot quadrocopter.
This is it, people — this is the year your New Year’s resolution to get fit really takes hold. This year, you’re going to stick it, and we’re going to show you how.
Jawbone has pulled its newly-released UP health band and offered a “no questions asked” guarantee that customers can get a full refund and keep the product.
In an official statement Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman says “We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone’s expectations – including our own – so we’re taking action.”
Jawbone has released the UP wristband and iOS app to help you keep track of your physical activity, sleep patterns, and exercise schedule. The wristband serves as a lightweight monitor that’s to be worn at all times, while the iPhone app is used to offload data and show recorded activity along with other details, such as running routes and sleep pattern graphs.
Priced at $99, the UP aims to revolutionize healthy living in the digital age. The Jawbone UP iPhone app is available for free in the App Store.