FitBit’s Newest Offering is More Advanced than Ever

Fitbit is perhaps the premier name in the fitness tracker category, and the company’s newest offering is not just more of the same. It has always been a very popular brand, as well as probably the largest of its kind, and it had a hit with the Charge HR. That model came out in 2015, however, so a new release from Fitbit has been a good while coming in a quickly evolving tech market, and the answer was the Fitbit Charge 2. Read more »

Fitness is a goal that many people pursue yearly, and there have been countless books, videos, diets, classes, and theories as to the best ways to lose weight.  Weight loss is a massive business with many different companies and people offering many different solutions. It is no surprise that fitness has been the focus of tech startups, many offering plans and programs first online and now available via smartphone apps of all kinds.  Retrofit is a tech startup for those pursuing weight loss goals with an available app that seeks to combine all the most effective elements of various fitness plans in one place for users to access anytime, wherever they may be.  More than just an app for individual personal enrichment, it includes solutions for employers to curb workplace obesity and includes social aspects as well. Read more »

Fitness apps and devices have become a major category of tech product in the consumer world in recent years.  Everything from iPhone apps that provide special workouts to wristbands that measure your daily fitness statistics have flooded the market.  However, most of these devices specifically aim to help users with weight loss and cardio-based exercise.  Statistics regarding calories and conditioning are easier to track numerically, so this focus is not really a surprise for most.  However, cool person in technology and Skulpt CEO Jose Bohorquez is releasing a product that will help men and women not just interested in losing weight, but also gaining muscle.  Measuring muscle quality and body fat percentage is key for those who are trying to add muscle to an athletic frame rather than just keep excess weight off their bodies.  That’s why Skulpt Aim, Bohorquez’s product, provides users with statistics about their muscle quality specifically rather than focus on calories burned.  Read more »

Most calorie counting technology, whether it’s a smartphone app or a dedicated wearable device, provides people with pure data.  That data usually includes calories burned, steps taken, and numerous other cold hard facts about the user’s daily health statistics.  However, the problem with this system is that most users of these fitness tracking apps and devices do not know exactly what to do about the data they receive.  Without being extremely well educated in the subjects of nutrition and personal fitness, people have no context to what the data they collect actually means for them.   Everyone’s body is different and the same data will mean very different things to people depending on age, weight, gender, athleticism, and various other factors.  Cool product Fjuul is a fitness tracker that tries to solve this problem by taking a different approach.  Rather than provide users with massive amounts of data that they don’t even understand properly most of the time, Fjuul provides people with one easily understandable metric that they can follow: Fjuul points.  Users who want to try Fjuul’s system can download the app on their iPhone or iPod.  If someone has trouble installing the app on his or her device, contacting Apple tech support would be the best course of action. Read more »

Many people believe that exercising should be an open-air activity.  Outdoor fitness has a big following across the world and many people would rather jog or stretch in the sun than pay to run on a treadmill inside a musty gym.  However, people also become more motivated to work out when others around them are also trying to get fit.

Cool person in technology Raj Kapoor wants to combine these two preferences into a new workout experience with his startup Fitmob.  Kapoor’s company connects groups of people with certified trainers for workout performed outside rather than within the confines of a gym.  Each trainer devises unique workouts that users can book through the web.  People meet up through the service and get together for group fitness sessions everywhere from the streets of a city to the open grass areas in a park.  The company offers workout programs designed for cardio, strength, and Yoga, as well as mixed sessions.  Anyone can access the information to join a workout session on Fitmob by visiting Kapoor’s website.  If people have trouble navigating the Fitmob site, they can receive help from a home tech support specialist to identify the problem they are having. Read more »

Video content on the web is in abundance these days thanks to user-generated content on sites like YouTube and DailyMotion.  While there is much high quality entertainment available on these sites, there is still a lack of high quality How-to video on the web.  Even for subjects where there is a significant amount of videos, such as home computer repair, the vast majority of content is low quality with bad sound, bad video and no production value.  There isn’t a convenient and free space for people to access high quality how-to videos made by experts on the Internet.  Cool product Grokker is changing that by building a large video database that exclusively contains expert how-to videos for anyone interested.  Read more »

Motivating yourself to go to the gym when you’re trying to get in shape is difficult enough.  In many ways, it’s even harder to push yourself to go as hard as possible during your workout routine.  How many people do you think have cut exercises out of their routines, or done fewer reps in their sets because it’s more comfortable to do the minimum?  GymFu is a cool product available for smartphones that gets you to work harder when you work out.  GymFu aims to make sure that you push yourself and intensify your workouts to get the absolute most out of them every time.  If you are someone that constantly gets stuck in the same workout routine and benefits little from it, then this cool product might be exactly what you need.  GymFu helps users increase the reps and sets in their workout routines over time.  On the company website, it says that so far, 40% of the app’s users double the reps in their workouts.  Assuming these numbers are accurate, GymFu is clearly working for the people who have downloaded it so far.  The GymFu app is currently only available on Apple devices.  That means you’re going to need iPhone support if you’re unfamiliar with Apple mobile products and have trouble with them. Read more »

Few things are more disappointing than paying an expensive monthly fee for a gym membership and then spending your time waiting in line to use sweat-covered machines and dealing with immense amounts of background noise every time you decide to go.  GymFlow is a cool product available for mobile devices that aims to help people avoid these frustrating circumstances.  GymFlow is an app that users can download to their smartphone and it tracks the traffic levels at nearby gyms.  Users can view traffic updates in real time to see how many people are working out at a given time compared to the gym’s maximum capacity.  Based on this traffic, people can choose what times will be most convenient for them to visit and complete their own exercise routine.  Rather than base their traffic statistics on social media check-ins, the team at GymFlow has opted to work directly with Gym owners to obtain data directly from membership card swipes and scans.  This provides GymFlow users with a far more accurate idea of how crowded a particular gym is since many people don’t track when they go to work out with their social networking accounts.  Many gym-goers don’t even have accounts for social media in the first place!  Read more »

Health and fitness is an area where technology is in a bit of a boom.  Wearable devices like watches and wristbands count the calories people burn and quantify their daily fitness stats.  There are hundreds of apps that help you track people’s eating and exercise habits, and there are even ones in which the sole purpose is to motivate users to exercise more.  Still, there aren’t many apps that help people with the process of exercising itself.  Cool person in technology Arel English founded Vitogo to change that fact.  Vitogo is an iPhone app that acts as a personal trainer for its users.  Vitogo stores exercise related data to help people achieve specific goals with their workout schedules.  Rather than simply provide users with metrics about how many calories they have burned, Vitogo provides actionable workout plans to help users achieve specific workout goals.  English has incorporated enough fitness data into his app that Vitogo provides users with specific long-term plans to achieve their goals.  This cool person in technology has even made it so his app will adjust a user’s workout plan every 4-6 weeks to ensure that the person’s exercise regimen does not plateau.  While fitness apps that merely track calories are akin to non-actionable computer diagnostic tools, Vitogo tries to be the fitness equivalent of a full-service computer tech support program. Read more »