| Cult of Mac

Achievements Unlocked: Pedometer++ now gives awards

By

pedometer 3 achievements
Health, energy, and a long life are no longer the sole rewards for taking a walk.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Pedometer++, from developer Underscore David Smith, is everyone’s favorite step-counting iPhone app. It’s simple, it is accurate, and it just works. Now, in version 3.0, the four-year old app gets a neat new Today widget, and — brace yourself — Achievements.

How to activate the iPhone’s hidden pedometer

By

Pedometer calculator hero
Like a calculator or a vampire, the iPhone’s pedometer loooooves to count.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Your iPhone isn’t slacking off when it sits in your pocket. No, it’s industriously counting your every step, ready to tell you the total so you can celebrate by buying cake if you hit your daily goal. The good news is that the iPhone pedometer comes built-in, and requires no third-party apps to do its stuff. The even better news is that there’s a free app — Pedometer++ — that makes it even better.

The Tao WellShell Measures Your Isometric Fitness Strength, With Your iPhone’s Help [Kickstarter]

By

tao-wellshell-1
The sleek lines of the just-redesigned Tao WellShell.

The Tao WellShell is probably unlike any iOS-connected fitness device you’ve ever encountered. It doesn’t simply track steps, or heart rate, or weight, or any of the other standard metrics tracked in dozens of other connected fitness devices. Instead, this little guy actually acts as the fitness device itself, rather than simply a tracker (though it does indeed also track heart rate, steps and sleep patterns).

Apple Develops Smart Pedometer Tech That Could Feature In iWatch [Patent]

By

iwatch_perspective-jpg

There have been many wearables and quantified-health applications over the past few years, but most have steered clear of proclaiming themselves medical devices. Some of the rumors about the iWatch (such as the fact that it will be able to listen to the sound blood makes as it flows through arteries, and use this to predict heart attacks) may sound a bit too good to be true. But the number of biosensor and biomedical engineers Apple has snapped up recently makes us think the iWatch could be a device that crosses over firmly into the "medical monitoring" category.

According to one recent report, a reason for the long delay before launch is that Apple is awaiting certification from the Food and Drug Administration to get the iWatch approved as medical equipment. Given Apple's recent announcement of the Health app for iOS 8 to collect and show data on calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels and more, plus the conspicuous absence of a health-tracking fitness band in Apple's last iPhone 5s ad, the idea that the iWatch will be geared toward health seems as close to a foregone conclusion as you get for a device that hasn't even been officially announced yet.


Apple dropped another heavy hint about its interest in the iWatch on Thursday, as it published a patent application relating to a smart watch-mounted pedometer.

The Wrist Pedometer Step Detection patent application is another example of Apple’s interest in health-tracking technology for future devices. The application describes a method for optimally detecting steps, which uses advanced algorithms to filter out much of the “noise” that might lead lead to it missing or inaccurately recording steps.

Striiv: The World’s First Smart Pedometer [Deals]

By

redesign_striiv_mainframe2

If you made a New Year’s Resolution to get in shape, it’s never too late to start, and this Cult of Mac Deals promotion offers a device that will definitely help ease you into a consistent exercise routine.

With a hi-res, color touchscreen and built-in apps, the Striiv Smart Pedometer is way more than a step counter. Striiv features a proprietary “activity motivation system”, designed by leading experts in game design and behavior change with one goal in mind: to get you to walk a lot more. And now you can get Striiv for the lowest price ever offered: just $59.99 courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals!