tech-related stories
What is Jorn's Secret to Beating Back Pain and Dropping Tons of Weight?
That's Fit Club, Diet & Weight Loss, Reviews & Products
That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind. Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!
Name: Jorn
Age: 38
Occupation: "Tech Things"
How often do you exercise? Three to five days a week.
What type of exercise do you do? Resistance work; I hope to get back to TaeKwonDo soon.
What gets you to work out, even when you're feeling lazy? 1. Knowing that I have never, ever, ever said to myself, "Gee, that workout sucked. I shouldn't have exercised today." 2. Back fat. Ewww. 3. Most people peg me for being 10-15 years younger than I am. That didn't happen when I was fat a few years ago.
Jumpstart Your Fitness: With weight-loss friendly technology
Technology is both a curse and a blessing. It has made so many amazing things possible but it is also a big contributer to sedentary lifestyles and the rising obesity epidemic. But technology isn't all bad, and if you use it wisely it can actually help you get moving and make your health and fitness goals easier to achieve. We all love high-tech stuff, why not mix it in with our love of good health?Here are just a few of the weight loss-friendly technologies out there:
New contacts promise bionic eyesight
Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Reviews & Products
Eyesight is one of the most cherished human senses -- it's also one of the hardest to repair. That's why most inventions in the retinal implant field deal with restoring people's ability to see. But what if you could enhance your vision like a robot?That's exactly what has been developed: a contact overlaid with computer circuitry to give people bionic eyesight. This could provide you with a "heads-up" display to be used for piloting or even video games. It is actually powered by radio frequencies, but they've still got to test it out on a real person.
You may be asking yourself if the contact is flexible enough to fit comfortably in an eye. By using a technique that assembles itself with scaled-down components, it's much like normal contacts! This would be the coolest eye accessory to come along ever -- I'm going to be holding out for this to hit the consumer market in the future.
Forbes' eight tech toys for weight loss
When it comes to weight loss, it certainly would be nice to have a quick fix. We can talk to our cars and order a pizza, we have Segways to keep us from having to walk too far ... but how can all this technology help us in our weight loss goals?Forbes came up with eight tech toys to help us shape up and slim down. Not only are they helpful, but they're fun!
- A Sensei for Weight Loss personal digital coach turns your cell phone into your personal nutrition coach.
- Diet.com offers nutrition texting so you can always know how many calories you're taking in, no matter where you are. Well, as long as you have cell reception, that is.
Do gadgets for pain relief even work?
Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Motivation
Have you ever seen one of those Shiatsu massage chair accessories? They fit over certain chair backs and allow you to comfortably sit down while receiving a deep massage. Gadgets like these are growing in popularity, and with steep price stickers, it makes you wonder if they're really effective.A professor at Duke University states that when you sit down on that chair, or stick your feet in a mechanical masseuse, or don the head spa, it will definitely start to make things feel better. However, those people with chronic pain are mostly getting the placebo effect.
There's nothing wrong with that either, of course. As this article asserts, feeling better is all the same! But before you drop all that money on an expensive gadget, check out their list of technological pain relievers to see how a clinical professor of neurology reviewed them. In the long term, the price paid for such gizmo's could definitely be cheaper than paying a professional to give you a massage. But if they go unused, it may be a waste of money.
New body fat machine lets you lay down
The ultimate in lazy health devices: a machine that doesn't even require you to stand or sit up in order to measure your body fat. Tanita Corporation has invented what it's calling "a world first" (I have no idea if that's true) in the form of a machine that can measure a person's body fat from a completely reclined position. It's designed for the morbidly obese and people with disabilities or limitations that make it difficult to reposition -- and in those cases it really is a good thing. Plus for the rest of us it's a nice option to have instead of, say, the water tank method of calculating body fat.Find long lost relatives by tracking their DNA online
Right now you can find almost anybody in the world using the internet, whether it's through paying a high-tech online service or simply "Googling" names and seeing what pops up. But what if, in searching for long lost relatives in particular, there was an enormous online DNA database you could check? Now that would be cool. Creepy, sure. But cool. Well we're one step closer (practically there, actually) to that possibility with Ancestry.com. You can order a DNA kit, swab yourself, and send it in to their system where they'll check you against all the other DNA in their system. If a match is found they'll notify both parties and if everyone agrees, contact information is exchanged.
Interesting idea, and it's all supposedly private and anonymous, but I'm skeptical to say the least.
Via Book of Joe
11 of the coolest helmets EVER
Healthy Products and Reviews, Reviews & Products
The world has come a long way in the area of helmets over the years, both in how important we understand them to be and in our ability to make technologically advanced and more effective kinds. We now specialize helmets for the specific sport or activity, for age, and of course for size. But that's not all! We have helmets out there that are "green" and made of bamboo, helmets that do nothing but give great head massages, and even ones that will electronically monitor and record impacts and potential head injuries during a football game.Very, very cool.
A fitness-minded cellphone that's still totally cute
Healthy Products and Reviews, Reviews & Products
I'm not one to carry a bunch of gadgets with me when I work out -- I feel a little bogged down with just my iPod and cell phone, so forget a pedometer or anything else even though I'm definitely interested in tracking that sort of thing. But now here's the perfect "all-in-one" gadget for somebody like me: a cute phone geared towards the stylish, active, fitness-minded woman! The Samsung SGH-E570.It's got all kinds of fun features but a couple of the funnest things are the built-in mp3 player and pedometer, and some kind of cool motion-sensitive wallpaper. It comes in a variety of colors and although they've designed the phone with women in mind (pink is the most popular) if you buy one in black it can be perfectly masculine too!
Via Book of Joe
"Do it yourself at home!" skin care technology: Worth all the hype?
Reviews & Products, Alternative & Green Health
Inventors and scientists are going crazy anymore inventing new technology for skin care, beauty, and anti-aging. And although devices like lasers are generally used first by doctors and dermatologists in a professional office setting, eventually the technology trickles its way down to us consumers in a "do it yourself in the comfort of your own home" version.But are these at home versions just as safe and effective as the professional ones? The answers to those questions are usually, and of course not. They aren't going to be as effective because they're almost always a toned down and weaker version of what would be used in an office setting -- think OTC versus prescription medication. But the good news is that they are generally safe for that same reason, and if you only have a mild condition that you're trying to treat then a mildly effective product might be just what you need.
Miniature robot can swim through blood vessels
A couple of scientists from Israel have achieved what until now has only been possible in the movies -- a miniature robot capable of traveling through human blood vessels. Measuring only 1 millimeter, it's a small hub with legs designed to grip and crawl through blood vessels without getting swept away. Doctors can control the little robot indefinitely from the outside for different medical procedures, although they have yet to figure out what exactly they'll use them for. As of now, they're thinking small armies of bots sent in to battle internal cancers.Would you be up for it? What if one of the little buggers gets stuck?























