It’s August, and you’re either on vacation, or leaving soon. The problem? You just tried to fit into last year’s swimsuit and – worse – you did it in front of the mirror. While it might be a little too late to lose that belly before you hit the beach this summer, take steps now and you’ll be a slimline hottie in time for Christmas and New Year, ready to undo all that good work in a week or two.
To help you, here’s our list of the best fitness gadgets around.
Sick of plugging and unplugging cables from your MacBook Pro every time you get back to your desk? Hate wasting one of the two USB ports just to keep your iPhone connected? And finally: don’t want to spring for a $1,000 Thunderbolt Display?
Then the KwikDock might be right up your alley: It’s a simple (and cheapish) pass-through dock with some handy extras.
This is the Pear, and it might just be one of the most useful iPhone accessories yet devised. It’s a little, puck-like Bluetooth receiver that is designed to slot into any speaker dock and free your iOS device from its needy clutches.
Apple is generally known not just for the minimal design of its products, but also for the minimal design of its packaging. But when it comes to the new MagSafe to MagSafe 2 adapter, the box is not only huge in comparison to its payload, it also consists of a frankly ridiculous number of individual parts. And Paul Kafasis, boss of Rogue Amoeba software, has the photos to prove it.
If you live in a place that needs air-con, then you probably already have it. You can move along now. But if you are shopping for a new AC unit, or you happened to buy one made by Kühl, then why not consider this new dongle that will let you control the unit from the cool comfort of your own iPhone?
CloudPic is a great new Kickstarter project which connects your DSLR to your iPhone using Bluetooth 4. By plugging a dongle into the side of the camera, a fast connection is formed and you can beam photos to the iPhone, and from there have them upload automatically to the cloud service of your choice.
I’m not a big fan of music processing. As a child of the 1980s, I spent more time tweaking graphic equalizers than I did listening to actual music. And now, I figure if my iPad can’t manage to make an over-compressed MP3 sound good, then not much will help.
But those who prefer their music to be all big bass and punchy highs might find the SRS iWOW-U to be a compelling purchase. The dongle dangles between your iDevice’s jack socket and your headphones, and “will make you say ‘WOW’ within 10 seconds of turning it on,” according to the blurb. Then again, that same blurb also claims that the iWOW-U offers “an amazing HD-quality listening experience,” so take from that what you will.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We figured health and fitness was going to have a large footprint at CES this year, and so far we haven’t been disappointed. Case in point, the Zensorium Tinke dongle: it measures heart rate, respiratory rate and the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream — all just by pressing your thumb on it.