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The Scout concept was first shown off late last year, the handiwork of a team at the NASA Ames labs. Held to the forehead, it beams information – including heart rate, skin/core body temperature, oxymetry, respiratory rate, blood pressure, ECG, and emotional stress – over to an app on your phone.

That data, Scanado suggests, could be interesting to a wide range of people. By preempting health issues, it could mean avoiding periods of sickness (and cutting down on medical insurance bills) by treating conditions early; meanwhile, athletes could use Scout to monitor the effectiveness of their fitness regime.

Meanwhile, life-loggers who might be drawn to wearables like Fitbit Flex or Jawbone UP are also a target group for the firm. They’re expected to find the wealth of data – and historical tracking – to be particularly interesting.

As for hardware, full details aren’t specified yet, but there’s Bluetooth 4.0 and apps for Android and iOS. It recharges via microUSB, and Scanadu claims that it’ll last for around a week, if used “a few times a day.”

Of course, any medical-grade device hoping to reach the market in the US needs to get FDA approval, and that’s the stage Scanadu is up to. The company has kicked off an Indigogo campaign to raise $100,000, but also needs early-adopters who will agree to share their data so that it can be used in clinical studies to demonstrate effectiveness.

If it raises its goal amount – and that looks likely, given at time of writing it’s already over $40,000 in – the first units are expected to ship out to backers in March next year. Those in early can get one for $149; when it launches, it’s expected to retail at $199.

Update: As expected, the Scout has already passed its funding goal, with 31 days left to run. More than 50-percent of the $149 units have been taken at time of writing.

I have a couple gadgets inside of me. One was forced on me; the other I chose. I made the choice in much the same way you’d choose a computer. I tried to future-proof myself. I chose an option that I could upgrade later. In the end, I made a decision that was not entirely rational, but rather based on passion and branding and aesthetics over performance. Like I said, just like a computer.

I’ll start with my leg, because it’s easier for me to talk about. I broke my ankle a few years ago. I was walking the dog on a very, very cold night in Newton, Mass, and the sidewalk all around the block was a track of ice fit for a speed skater. I took a bad step and slipped off the curb, and my tibia rotated wrong and crashed into my fibula, snapping it in multiple spots. I fell to the ground immediately, and that’s when I learned a couple things about myself.

First, I learned that I do indeed have a high tolerance for pain, something I’d always suspected but never bothered to prove. When the paramedics arrived to put me on a stretcher, they asked me to rate my pain on a scale of one to ten. I gave it a six. The worst pain I’ve ever felt, by the way, is a cracked tooth, which is about an 8, and it’s a great story, but for another time.

The second thing I learned about myself is that my body is capable of destroying itself with hardly any intervention from my mind. When they lifted me into the ambulance, with my foot askance and twisted, I asked if there was any possibility I could have dislocated it, instead of a break.

The paramedic told me: “well, anything you can locate you can dislocate.” But it was obviously broken.

I had titanium installed. The x-ray is awesome. I have an erector set in my leg, with screws holding me together. There’s no chance it can break again, I’m part fighter jet down there. I couldn’t walk for four months, and I was in pain and using a cane for another 2 months. I had an awesome rolling aid instead of crutches called a Roll-A-Bout. I highly recommend it if you break your ankle. I was faster on that rollabout than I ever was on both feet. When I needed a cane, I bought a high-tech, carbon fiber walking stick with spring loaded shocks and other features only useful for orienteering and nature photography. It made the suffering more palatable.

Now my only limitation is that I can’t stand on my tiptoe on that leg. When I tell people this they look at me like I’m telling them the old joke about the guy who breaks his hands and says to the doctor: “Doc, will I be able to play the piano when I’m healed?” The doctor says “Sure,” to which the patient replies “That’s great, because I could never play before.”

See, I’m a big guy. When people are meeting me for the first time, I’ll sometimes tell them to look for the biggest guy in the room, and that’s probably me. For the six months I was recovering from my broken ankle, nobody explicitly said it, but I know that my size must have been the reason such a shallow fall caused such a horrible injury. I’m not a 6’2″ basketball player jumping eight feet in the air to block a shot. I’m a six foot schlub who slipped off a sidewalk walking a 40 pound dog.

This brings me to the other gadget inside me. I have a device implanted in me called a lap-band. It’s like an inflatable donut . . . mmm, donuts . . . wrapped around my stomach. It makes my stomach smaller, and divides it into a small portion up top and the rest down below. This is supposed to be a weight loss surgery. You fill the donut with saline and it expands, contracting your stomach. Then, you eat less.

If you don’t eat less, you throw up. That’s actually a feature of the lap-band. It’s supposed to make you throw up. Also, because of where it’s located, higher up than your normal stomach, a full stomach actually feels more like choking on something at the bottom of your throat.

Is it any wonder this device doesn’t work? It sounds like high-tech torture. In fact, the lap-band has a shockingly low success rate. 70% of people who get a lap-band fail to lose weight. Your body adjusts to it. Your body naturally learns how to make you more comfortable, and you resume your old, horrible habits again. When I got the band installed, I lost a bunch of weight, then it came back.

I had other options for surgery, but they all involved heavy cutting and removing massive parts of me that would never grow back. The lap-band is reversible. In fact, I’m having it removed soon. I’ve already had it replaced once with a newer, better model. Now I’m having it taken out altogether. Time to try something different.

When you make the decision to have this band removed, the doctors will exclaim that the lap-band has failed. The euphemism of this choice is not lost on me. Let’s be honest, the band didn’t fail. My body didn’t fail. They did exactly what they were supposed to. They succeeded. I failed the band. The psychology of my thinking and habits overcame my physiology. I am weak. I take the blame. I have failed myself.

Perhaps this is why I’m sensitive to the power that psychology has over our choices, especially when it comes to technology. Technology buying should be a completely rational decision. I need this, therefore I buy it. I do not need to do that, so I will not buy something that does that.

We look down on people who make decisions they cannot rationally explain. We justify our purchases after the fact with rational arguments. I bought this phone because I have large hands. I needed a 60-inch television because I could not read the text on screen. I bought this watch because it is high quality and it will last longer.

We look down on the passionate, the irrational. We look down on people like me whose psychology has failed them. You bought a device you cannot understand, and you are a failure for not learning how to use it. You bought something because your friends all had one, and it made you feel good when you bought it, but you are missing out on all the capabilities of this other thing, the thing I carry with me every day.

I failed my band. The problems I have, which I pretend to understand, and for which I am regularly judged by people who also believe they understand, defeated me. I let them win. I am weak. I am passionate and I give in to irrational urges and desire. I have failed.

One day we’re going to see the utter stupidity in this form of judgment. One day we will understand the true power our subconscious minds hold over us. We will stop blaming people, and hating people, for making decisions based on emotion and passion. We won’t blame them when they fail the gadget, when we realize they may never have had the power to succeed.

Gianna Chien, who is a high school freshmen in Stockton, California discovered that if you lay the iPad face down on your chest while you’re laying down to take a quick snooze, the magnets in the Smart Cover can get close enough to the heart to cause implanted defibrillators to malfunction and shut off without warning.

However, defibrillators are designed to be turned off by magnets in the first place as a safety precaution, with the assumption that there’s no reason to have magnets close to your chest except to purposely turn off the defibrillator, but it’s easy when you’re laying down to simply rest an iPad on your chest while you take a nap.

Based on a past teardown of the iPad Smart Cover, there’s a total of 21 magnets, with four used to hold the Smart Cover to the iPad, eleven holding the Smart Cover in its triangular stand position, and a single magnet which flicks the iPad 2 in and out of standby mode. According to Chien’s experiment, around 30% of the 26 patients she tried it on had their defibrillators messed with. As for Apple addressing this issue, we could very well be hearing from them, but for the time being, let your grandparents know about this issue if they have a newer iPad with a Smart Cover.

[Source: Bloomberg]

In fact, the Flex comes in at £79.99 (in the US, it’s $99.99) complete with two sizes of wristband and a wireless dongle for your computer. Alternatively it will sync via Bluetooth 4.0 with your iOS or Android device, though you’ll currently need either a Samsung Galaxy S III or a Galaxy Note II if you’re a Google OS user.

That’s down to different implementations of Bluetooth 4.0 on Android devices, which means most of the current line-up of phones simply won’t work with the Flex. Fitbit tells us that should change in the near future, however, and at least with the USB adapter you can get your exercise data off the band whenever you’re near a computer.

We also had some issues with sleep tracking mode, with side-by-side comparisons between the Flex and the UP suggesting the Fitbit version was seriously underestimating the length of time we were asleep. Still, it’s more comfortable than the Jawbone model. Presales kick off today at Fitbit’s site and Amazon, with retail store availability from May 27.

Both the iOS app and Android app also have some new features coming their way. The Android app now includes easier methods to enter in non-GPS activities manually, such as running on a treadmill or cycling on the stationary bike. The Android version also received a new widget that you can add to your home screen, letting you start and stop activities.

As for the iPhone app of RunKeeper, more users in more countries now have access to the fitness app, thanks to additions of several new languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Japanese. The app’s developers note that they’re continuously adding new languages, so we can expect more to come in the future.

Other than that, the updated app comes with the usual big fixes and performance enhancements. As for the Pebble watch, we reviewed the wrist device back in February, and it’s been going out to Kickstarter backers these last few months. While the watch is somewhat cheaply made in a way, third-party support is growing, making it even more tempting to take advantage of the new device.

Hardware and Design

Like both UP and Fuelband, Flex is intended to be strapped to your wrist. Unlike its counterparts, however, the logging dongle itself is actually separate from the band: a narrow, tapering lozenge of mostly white plastic, it slots into the rubberized strap leaving nothing but a row of five LEDs visible along the upper edge.

The strap itself is stretchy but Fitbit will still offer two sizes depending on how big your wrists are. By making the two parts separate, it means you can change strap color depending on your mood or outfit, if you so prefer, though it does introduce a little extra bulk. Nonetheless, the shape of the band is less annoying than that of Jawbone’s UP: the springy arms of UP get all too easily caught on clothes, for instance, and while the band looks good, it can be frustrating to wear.

In fact, out of the three, Flex is the most comfortable and the most discrete. It’s water-resistant, too – as is UP – which means you can wear it in the shower or the pool, and the row of LEDs is a convenient, but low-power, way to keep an eye on your progress toward your daily goal. Each lit LED shows 20-percent progress; you tap the band with your finger twice to wake the LED display.

Bluetooth 4.0, however, is the key to the full data Fitbit is collecting. The latest iteration of the short-range wireless standard, it promises significantly lower power consumption than before, meaning devices like Flex can remain connected without sucking through their battery in a matter of hours. If the LED indicators aren’t giving you enough feedback, you can open up the Fitbit app on your phone or computer and see all the data there. Fitbit includes a Wireless Sync Dongle – basically a low-profile USB Bluetooth 4.0 adapter – for you to hook up your PC or Mac.

Fitness Tracking

Flex’s criteria for activity tracking are pretty much in line with what UP and Fuelband record: steps taken, distance traveled, active minutes, and calories burned. Inside the Flex dongle are a battery of sensors and gyroscopes to figure out when you’re moving, along with what sort of movement you’re making.

It’s worth making sure you’ve got the Flex strapped tightly to your wrist first, however, as we found a little extra play in the band was enough to throw off the accuracy of the tracking. After a day with it more loose around our wrist, we found we’d apparently done significantly more activity – at least, according to the Fitbit logs; the outlier day is outlined in the graph below – than had actually taken place.

There’s also food recording, though as with other platforms it’s a largely manual process. Fitbit claims to have more than 50,000 foods in its database, or you can add your own custom meals complete with nutritional information. The end result – if you’ve also set a weight goal – is a daily estimate of how many calories you’re allowed in order to stay on track, as well as an estimated date for when you should reach that goal, assuming you don’t cheat.

However, just as we’ve found with other fitness trackers, actually taking the time to punch in your diet can be frustrating, especially if you’re not eating the sort of easily-quantified foods Fitbit has in its database. If you’re making your own meals from scratch – sensible, if you’re trying to lose weight, since you know what’s actually going into them – then every mealtime will be a patience-trying session of calculations and figure-input.

Even when you’ve done all that, Fitbit’s recommendations are limited to suggesting you cut your calorific intake, rather than anything more comprehensive like a custom diet plan with attention to the various food groups. Until we can wave our smartphone camera at a plate and have it automatically assess that exact meal, we’re not confident food tracking will catch on in any great numbers.

Sleep Tracking

Like UP, the Flex band promises to watch you while you’re sleeping and tell you the next morning exactly how well your night went. Repeatedly tapping the band for 1-2 seconds kicks it into sleep tracking mode – two of the LEDs light and then slowly fade to show it’s set correctly – at which point it monitors how long you sleep and how much you moved around.

Unfortunately, sleep tracking is where we encountered the most issues with Flex. The band would consistently under-track our total sleep, on some nights recording as little as two hours of rest (and nine or more waking periods) whereas in fact we’d been sleeping for considerably longer. Where UP differentiates between light and deep sleep, Flex only sees resting in black and white, and while you can go back into the app and retroactively add sleep details (useful if you forget to turn sleep mode in in the first place) the general inaccuracies don’t exactly encourage you to use it.

We ran a direct comparison between Flex and UP, wearing them both overnight. As you can see from the results above (Fitbit on left, Jawbone on right), the Flex counted considerably less sleep than the UP: an incorrect 26 minutes, compared to the more accurate 5hrs 12m on the UP.

Mobile Apps

Real-time updating is the big advantage Flex has over its wearable rivals, and you’re most likely to access those from a smartphone display. Fitbit does support desktop sync, but to really get the benefit of knowing exactly where you’re up to with your goal, the mobile apps edge ahead.

Fitbit has apps for both iOS and Android, though if you’re a user of Google’s platform you’ll need to have one of a fairly limited number of phones in order to actually use it. While the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, 5th-gen iPod touch, iPad 3, and iPad Mini all support the Flex sync app, currently only the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II work with the Android app. We tried it with the Galaxy S 4, for instance, and the option to synchronize simply wasn’t present; Fitbit tells us that’s down to the different Bluetooth 4.0 implementations between Android manufacturers.

Assuming you have a compatible device, you see a timeline of your weight, sleep, and activity, as well as details from any friends who also use Fitbit and who have shared their progress with you. A public record is published online, though you can choose to pare back any of the specific activities, goals, and other information if you don’t want them to be generally visible. Each of the progress made toward your step, distance, and calorie goals is shown on a progress bar; it’s worth remembering, though, that Flex is only really tracking steps, and then calculating the probable distance and calories from that.

The app is also where you set silent alarms, with up to eight supported at any one time. Rather than a blaring notification from your phone on the nightstand, the Flex band vibrates and flashes its lights to tell you to get up. There’s support for one-off alarms and for repeating ones, such as on weekdays at a certain time, but still letting you sleep in at the weekend.

Unlike with UP, you don’t get the sleep-related alarm option (which promises to wake you when you’re in the phase of sleep most conducive to feeling bright), though it’s worth noting we had mixed results with that anyway. However, whereas UP must be plugged into your phone to set its alarms (or, indeed, sync its data) Flex can be controlled remotely over Bluetooth, a less fiddly affair that meant we made greater use of the alarm functionality.

Price and Battery

Fitbit may be trailing UP and Fuelband to the market, but it arrives with a price advantage. The Flex is $99.95, $30 less than the Jawbone version, and 50-percent less than Nike’s premium-priced Fuelband. That’s despite it using low-power Bluetooth; the Fuelband has Bluetooth too, but it sucks down battery life unlike the Flex.

In fact, Fitbit’s battery estimates of 5-7 days turned out to be reasonably accurate in our experience, with the Flex lasting 5-6 days of average use. Fitbit supplies a special charging cable to refuel the Flex, though it quickly proved a frustration. The dongle is held in place against the charging contacts by a clip, but we found it was insufficient to actually keep the Flex in place. The only way to actually get it to charge consistently was to wedge a piece of paper or something similar in the gap too, pressing the Flex against the pins.

Wrap-Up

In some ways, the Fitbit Flex is the best mainstream health tracker out there. It’s the most comfortable, has the best balance of wireless connectivity and battery life, and – for daily fitness recording, anyway – does exactly what you want to to, assuming you’re wearing it properly. The addition of Bluetooth 4.0 addresses one of our biggest complaints about the Jawbone UP: that there was basically no feedback about our performance during the day, until we plugged the band into our phone.

Nonetheless, the Flex isn’t perfect. Like all of these trackers, it calculates much of its data – calories, distance traveled – from a few fundamental factors, which means they’re not infallible. More disappointing is the poor sleep tracking functionality, which pales in comparison (and accuracy) with other models.

If you’re keen to measure your sleep routine, we’d still recommend the UP. However, for everything else, the Flex has the advantage. It’s more comfortable and easier to use than the UP, and considerably cheaper and with better Bluetooth implementation than the Fuelband. If you’re looking to get into wearables, that makes it a great place to start.

“The population moves in around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, but where it came from remains a mystery” director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, Alan Cooper, said of the findings, published in Nature Communications this week. “We can’t see anything like it in the areas surrounding Europe.”

The study used extracted mitochondrial DNA from 39 skeletons that had been found in central Germany and Italy, ranging from as young as 2,500 years old, to as old as 7,500 years. From those samples, comparisons with the “haplogroup H” mutations found in up to 45-percent of modern Europeans were made.

Previous theory had led to expectations that the mutations would be widely carried. However, in actual fact there was evidence of multiple waves of different groups, shaking up a period that had hitherto been presumed to be stable. Genetic markers from earlier remains did not match up with counterparts in modern groups.

“We don’t know what happened or why, and [the mid-Neolithic] has not been previously identified as [a time] of major change,” Cooper said of the surprise findings. However, other researchers – not connected with this study – have pointed out that there are many archeological changes approximately 4,000 years ago.

That includes less evidence of the sort of long structures the older settlers preferred, and changes in the tools they used.

“What is intriguing is that the genetic markers of this first pan-European culture,” Cooper said, “which was clearly very successful, were then suddenly replaced around 4,500 years ago, and we don’t know why.” One possibility is climate change, though Princeton University archeologist Peter Bugucki argues it’s unlikely to be the sole cause.

“It looks like the whole system of agricultural settlement that got established with the [original settlers] ran its course through the fifth millennium and something caused people to change” he told National Geographic. After that point, further genetic diversity was introduced as “a series of incoming and expanding cultures from Iberia and Eastern Europe” arrived, Dr Wolfgang Haak, co-author of the study, said, “through the Late Neolithic [period].”

[via National Geographic; via BBC]

The Kickstarter campaign is launching a bit later than expected, but nonetheless, it’s now up and running, and HAPILABS is attempting to raise $100,000 in a matter of a month and a half, which shouldn’t be too difficult if enough weight-watchers want to take the initiative to actively control how fast they’re eating.

You can pre-order a HAPIfork now for as low as $89, but the price will jump to the regular $99 after 2,500 people have taken advantage of the early-bird special. The fork is expected to ship in September of this year, but you can pay $300 to get a fork early and participate in the company’s beta program, which will allow you to get your hands on a fork in July.

Essentially, the HAPIfork vibrates if it detects that you’re eating too fast, and the computer chips inside of the fork track various things such as the number of “fork servings” taken per minute and per meal, as well as the specific duration of each “fork serving” interval. It’ll also track your overall meal duration and the exact time at which you start and end your meal, which you can take a glance at with the web-based dashboard after uploading the data using the included USB cable.

So far, the microscopic sponges have been tested only in mice. The researchers say that the tiny sponge works well when injected into healthy mice that were then infected with a toxin from the strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to multiple antibiotics. The researchers say that mice that had been injected with the microscopic sponges survived lethal doses of the toxin 89% of the time.

The researchers say that when the sponges were injected after the infection was introduced only about 44% of the mice survived. Researchers have been focusing on tiny sponges of this sort, approximately the size of a virus, as a way to deliver specialized drugs for treatment of certain types of cancer. The researchers are also considering the development of pore-forming toxins that could destroy cells by poking holes in them.

The sponges are hidden from the body by enveloping them in red blood cell membranes. By hiding the sponges inside of a red blood cell membrane, the sponges are able to appear to be regular red blood cells acting as decoys to attract the toxin. The sponges are processed by the liver without causing any damage to the organ.

[via LA Times]

One of the methods scientists and researchers are investigating is the ability to grow living organs in a laboratory setting. Scientists in the United States have announced they have been able to successfully grow a rat kidney in the laboratory. The kidney was then transplanted into the rat where it began producing urine.

However, the lab grown kidney is reportedly less effective than a natural kidney. Growing a kidney in the lab is a huge deal because kidneys are the most in-demand organs for transplant and transplant lists for kidneys are some of the longest. The goal of the researchers involved in the project is to be able to take an old kidney and strip it of all the old cells leaving a honeycomb-like scaffolding. The kidney can then be rebuilt with cells taken from the patient.

The major benefit of growing kidney in this manner would be that the cells belong to the patient making rejection less likely. Having cells from the patient will also mean that recipients wouldn’t require immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the donated organ. Researchers involved in the project face significant challenges in applying this technique to growing human kidneys. The scientists say that the sheer size of the human kidney will be a challenge on its own. The larger an organ, the more difficult it is to get the cells into the correct location according to the researchers.

[via BBC]

A new USB air purifier has turned up from Sharp called the Sharp IG-DK1A Humidified Plasmacluster Ion Generator. That is a long name for device that has a pretty simple function, this device is designed to humidify the air you breathe and create lots of ions. Negatively charged ions are used by a lot of air purifying devices to attract dirt particles and other tiny particles floating in the air.

Once those particles of dirt, pollen, and dander are attracted to these negative ions they clump together and then fall to the ground. The particles might not be physically filtered from the air you breathe, but my removing them from floating around in the air you’re much less likely to breathe them in. One of the biggest upsides to this sort of air purifying technology is that there are no filters to be replaced.

This particular air purifier is able to create quite a few negatively charged ions to the tune of 25,000 ions/cm3. The air purifier measures 124 mm x 182 mm x 166 mm and weighs 820 g. The device also has a small 300 mL water reservoir that consumes water at 30 mL an hour. That small reservoir is used to humidify the air. The internal fan of this device can also be powered using a normal AC adapter if you don’t want to plug in near your computer. The air purifier sells for $220.

[via EverythingUSB]

An organization called Digital Detox has started what they call Camp Grounded, and they’ll be holding summer camp sessions to help technology addicts unplug from the internet and step away from blue-hued screens to experience the world in a more natural way. The camp plans to do this by involving participants in nostalgic activities that we all remember doing as children.

For $300 for a month-long retreat, you can “trade your computer, cell phone, Instagrams, clocks, schedules and work-jargon for an off-the-grid weekend of pure unadulterated fun.” The organization adds that “friendships at camp are based on real-life connections, and the most important status we’ll update is our happiness.”

Digital Detox has three summer camps planned for this year in the US, with international summer camps launching in Cambodia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica next month. The Cambodia retreat, for instance, will involve a group of 12 guests who will gather on a deserted island for six days of various activities, such as yoga, meditation, and writing workshops.

[via The Guardian]

Image via Flickr

The new scale promises to be a one-stop health tracking scale with the ability to measure heart rate and air quality along with traditional measurements of user weight and body composition. The scale supports up to eight different users. The device is able to provide information on the users weight, fat mass percentage, and heart rate.

Withings says that the resting heart rate is a good indicator of overall physical health of the user. The product is able to recognize each of the eight different users and uploads information directly to the users dashboard on their smartphone for tracking. Other features of the scale include an air quality monitor that can keep an eye on environmental statistics such as temperature and carbon dioxide monitoring.

Withings says that carbon dioxide monitoring is important because high levels can produce adverse health effects such as poor sleep quality, headaches, dizziness, difficulty breathing, and more. The scale interfaces with an app that is available for the Android and iOS platforms. The app will show the user their body mass index, fat mass, and heart rate and the data can be shared with health professionals or tracked by the user meet their goals. The Smart Body Analyzer scale will be available starting March 20 for $149.95.

[via Withings]

An article title “Convert Anything to Calories,” which was published recently in PHP Science World, calculated the number of calories burned when clicking a mouse, and it’s said that the number is 1.42 calories burned per mouse click. The authors ended up calculating the “total volume of the muscles used to bend the index finger,” which is “10.8 cubic centimeters with a total weight of 11.7 grams.”

The authors note, however, that the calories burned per mouse click may vary, since the calculation used “assumes the muscle contracted completely, so the actual amount of calories used is a little less.” Either way, you can easily burn off that Burger King Whopper with just 450,000 mouse clicks, or a Big Mac with only 387,000 mouse clicks, since a calorie is more commonly referred to as a kilocalorie, or 1,000 calories.

The average male should burn around 2,000 calories per day, with the average female burning approximately 1,700 calories per day. Obviously with a strict exercise regiment, you would be able to burn even more, and while getting exercise purely through mouse clicks probably isn’t ideal, at least you know that you’re burning calories while making your way through your Facebook News Feed.

[via RocketNews24]

The air purifier is able to clean the air around your desk of dirt and odors. The purifier has a two-speeds and stacked filter elements to clean the air as the air is pulled through the purifier. The filter set up has six layers total and is capable of trapping particles in the air as small as 0.3 µm.

That is an impressively small particle size and the device could go a long way towards improving the air quality in your office or cubicle. The purifier also features an integrated ionizer to help capture dirt and other allergens. Another feature inside the device designed specifically for killing bacteria and germs is an integrated ultraviolet light.

Hospitals all around the world use ultraviolet light to kill airborne bacteria and germs so as strange as using UV light sounds, it is a proven method. The USB purifier sells for $65, so the device isn’t exactly cheap. You could probably go down to your local Walmart for Target store and pick up a plug-in air purifier that would do much better job, and do it quicker.

[via EverythingUSB]

Four scientists and representatives of research institutions have confirmed they have already been involved in planning the Brain Activity Map project, though the US government would not comment on the speculation. However, it’s expected to be managed by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, insiders claim, with involvement from DARPA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institues of Health.

The new project was, in fact, teased during Obama’s State of the Union address last week, where the president pointed out that brain research should be among the top ideas the government must invest in. Apparently pre-empting concerns about the costs the Brain Activity Map project might involve, Obama highlighted that each dollar invested into human genome mapping “returned $140 to our economy.”

As for private sector involvement, although neuroscientists and nanoscientists are expected to do the heavy lifting, there are some familiar names believed to already be adding their input. Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm are all said to have had representatives at a mid-January planning meeting, the subject of which was developing computers that could collect, store, and manipulate the sort and scale of data the Brain Activity Map project would involve.

Such technology did, in fact, exist, was the conclusion, though the technology to actually gather the data still needs work. Current methods of tracking brain activity are either inaccurate or demand invasive application of probes. One possible alternative is using tiny, molecule-scale machines that would individually monitor brain cells, though it’s unclear how close to such systems we are in practice.

[Image credit: Kelly Stoltz]

FDA approval for the system marks a new point in the field of vision research promising to help restore sight to some people who are blind. The artificial retina is a sheet of electrodes that is implanted into the person’s eye. The patient is also fitted with glasses that feature an integrated camera and a portable video processor.

The entire system is known as Argus II and allows visual signals to bypass the damage portion of the retina in be transferred directly to the brain. The artificial retina doesn’t allow the blind to see in the conventional sense that most of us are used to. It does give those fitted with the system the ability to identify outlines and boundaries of objects. It is said to be particularly effective when there is high contrast between light and dark areas.

The Argus II is made by a company called Second Site Medical Products and is specifically designed to treat people with severe retinitis pigmentosa. People with this condition have deteriorated photoreceptor cells in the eye that are meant to take in light. About 100,000 Americans are believed to suffer from this medical condition and somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 are expected to qualify for the Argus II system. To qualify people have to be over 25 and had previously useful vision. The system will cost about $150,000 not counting surgery and training and it remains unclear if insurance companies will cover the system.

[via NYT]

The idea of the product is that you can keep your iPhone secure inside a pocket or bag with no risk to the phone in the event of the crash or drop and still have access to needed information. The RFLKT has buttons on the side allowing the user to control the app, change data screens, start and stop the timer, and control other app functionality including the ability to play music. The little bike computer is only 2 ounces and measures 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.5-inches.

A replaceable coin cell battery powers the bike computer so you don’t have to take it off your bike and remember to recharge before each ride. The computer connects to the iPhone using Bluetooth 4.0. Since bike computers are likely be subject to bad weather and accidents, the RFLKT is IPX7 certified for all types of weather and terrain. The device is compatible with the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S.

The bike computer is compatible with multiple applications, including the new Wahoo fitness version 3.0 app for cycling. It will also work with other cycling apps that will be coming soon including Cyclemeter and Strava. The RFLKT bike computer is available now for $129.99.

[via Wahoo Fitness]

To get wireless syncing up and running, all you need to do is tick the “Background Sync” option in Settings. From there, you’ll no longer need your computer to sync, which is something that many developers are moving towards as we slowly transition to being a post-PC world. The improved Bluetooth support is also said to cut down on battery life a bit, something that is certainly always welcome.

Aside from the wireless syncing, the update also comes with push notifications, as well as a new distance meter on the dashboard. You now also have the ability to create and edit silent alarms. It seems like the update is a good one for Fitbit users, but again, you’ll have to have a Galaxy S III or Note II in order to update.

As for other Android device owners, we’re not sure when Fitbit will begin to support more devices with this new update, but they say that further compatibility will be “available shortly.” In the meantime, Start saying goodbye to the old ways of syncing, because soon you won’t need your computer for it any longer.

[via Android Community]

The new interface is very similar to the iOS version, and it’s ultimately much simpler and more inviting than the previous look, which should make the app easier to use for users who are new to RunKeeper. The dev team even used Google’s official design guidelines for Android, so the app has a more-unified look that makes it fit in with the Android OS.

As for the new features, the updated app includes “in-activity splits,”
 which shows your average pace per mile throughout your workout, as well as “more robust” audio cues that improve the real-time coaching abilities in the app. There are also workout reminders, which allow you to schedule workouts to make sure you stick with your routine.

Other than that, there’s a new “Me” tab, which is a central place where you can view your progress and see how far along you are with your goals. You can also set up personal records and keep track of your improvement over time. RunKeeper is a free download, and the latest update is available now in the Google Play store.

The iOS app update is live right this minute for those of you working with a Jawbone UP and an iPhone. This update is free, of course, and includes the two bullet-points we’re having a chat about here, starting with Multiple Sleep Alarms. Where before this week your alarm system was a bit more limited, you’re now able to set up multiple Smart Sleep alarms with 10, 20, and 30 minute custom wakeup windows.

With Facebook Open Graph integration you’ll be able to share your UP events and accomplishments with all of your best Jawbone buddies. Sharing via Facebook includes data from your workout plan and action, sleep schedule, food, drink, and everything in-between. Perhaps most important of all in this situation is the fact that your sharing will be selective – only the items you want to share will be shared, this as Jawbone notes avoiding “clogging up your Timeline” as it were.

The images above and below show how your newly Facebook-friendly Jawbone UP device and iOS app will be working with you through the future. The integration you’re seeing here is all up to you, you choose how much or how little you share or if you share anything at all, and of course you can take the device off your wrist at any time – be free! And make sure you don’t sleep through that Jawbone alarm – consider wrapping it around your ear, perhaps (at your own risk!)

This bracelet offers more functionality than some of the products on the market with the ability to track specific exercises, reps, sets, heart rate, calories burned, and more. The bracelet also has gesture recognition technology that allows it to detect what exercise you’re performing and how your body is responding. The bracelet knows if you are using an elliptical machine, running, swimming, or doing squats.

The device can identify and track over 100 different activities and correlate activities with information about your body such as heart rate and oxygen saturation in the blood. The bracelet is constructed of plastic elastomers and stainless steel. The electronics are waterproof and accessories are available to customize the color.

The bracelet communicates with a smartphone via Bluetooth. The sensor can also be worn on your shoe if you don’t like things on your wrists. The bracelet is micro-adjustable allowing for a comfortable fit no matter what size your wrist is. The Amiigo is on Indiegogo right now and a pledge of $99 will get you one of the devices when they ship this June. The project was seeking $90,000 and has raised $196,443 with 35 days to go.

[via Indiegogo]

According to the researchers, the treated condoms were able to defeat all HIV and herpes in lab experiments. According to researchers, when their silver nanoparticle condoms contacted HIV, the infectiousness of the virus was completely inactivated. Silver has been used as a disinfectant for many years. We’ve seen silver nanoparticles used in things in the technology world as well, such as keyboards with antibacterial properties.

The scientists say that when silver is turned into tiny nanoparticles that it becomes more effective at fighting bacteria and viruses. The small size of the tiny particles of silver allows them to be applied to a polyurethane condom without changing the condom size or shape. The scientists do admit to not completely understanding exactly how the silver nanoparticles are able to neutralize HIV and other viruses.

The scientists believe that it’s possible the silver ions released are able to attach to the virus and prevent the virus from binding to cell receptors in the host body. The scientists also believe that an alternate method of activity could be that the silver nanoparticles change a key protein on the surface of the virus to stop it from sticking the host cells. The scientists also report that silver nanoparticles don’t cause inflammation associated with other antiviral or antimicrobial substances condoms have been coated with in the past, such as nonoxynol-9. The next stage in research will be animal testing, so commercial availability is still a long way off.

[via National Post]

According to the researchers, a quadruple helix is also present in some cells and is believed to relate to cancer in some ways. According to the researchers, controlling these quadruple helix structures could provide new ways to fight cancer. The scientists believe the quadruple helix may form when the cell has a certain genotype or operates in a certain dysfunctional state.

Scientists have been able to produce quadruple helix material in test tubes for years. The material produced is called the G-quadruplex. The G refers to guanine, which is one of the base pairs that hold DNA together. The new research performed at the University is believed to be the first to firmly pinpoint quadruple helix in human cells.

The team of scientists were able to produce specific antibody proteins designed to track down and find to regions of human DNA rich in the quadruplex structure. The antibodies were tagged with a florescence marker so the emergence of the structures in the cell could be tracked and imaged. The researchers were able to determine that most frequent occurrence of the quadruple helix DNA arose during the “S-phase” when a cell copies DNA prior to dividing. The G-quadruplex could be implemented in the development of some cancers according to the researchers and they believe that it could be possible to make synthetic molecules that contain the structure and block the runaway cell proliferation that cause tumors.

“The existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain dysfunctional state,” said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge’s department of chemistry.

“We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction,” he told BBC News.

[via BBC]

A new portable EKG system that interfaces with Android tablets and smartphones has debuted called CardioCard Mobile. The system uses Bluetooth to connect to Android smartphones and tablets or computers. The system is designed to save EKG readings as PDF files allowing them to be e-mailed anywhere right from the Android device or a computer. That feature makes it easy for users to keep doctors informed about their health.

The device performs 12 lead simultaneous interpretive acquisition and has a sampling rate of 250 to 1000 Hz. The device supports ECG interpretation classes including MLS, blocks, enlargements, axis, and afib. The system also allows users to save EKG readings directly to their device.

The EKG system promises hospital level accuracy and quality and promises to be easy-to-use. The system isn’t cheap at $1895. However, if you have to go into the hospital for frequent EKGs it may pay for itself in a few saved trips. I can see these things in use with home health care providers.

[via MedicalDeviceDepot]

Withings is the maker of the interesting Internet connected scale for adults that will share your weight with social networking sites if you want it to. The company has just launched a new Internet connected scale and the United States specifically made for children. The scale is called the Withings Smart Kid Scale and the company says that it can help parents keep kids interested in maintaining a healthy weight from a young age.

The scale has integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allowing it to connect with your smart phone and an app called the Withings Baby Companion application. The app allows parents to track the history of the child’s weight readings allowing them to share readings with doctors and family. The child’s scale has a weight range of zero through 55 pounds.

The scale accuracy is within 10 g. The scale also features a large graphical display with 120 x 58 pixel resolution and power comes from for AAA batteries. The scale is designed to be used for children from infancy up to eight years old. The scale also allows parents to track height in addition to weight and the scale ships with a folding, interlocking baby basket for infants. The scale is available now for $179.95.

[via Withings]

The addition of restaurant inspection scores is actually a part of a government-backed effort to increase transparency for customers, as well as boost promotion for local businesses. Yelp has created a new open data standard called the “Local Inspector Value-entry Specification” or, simply, LIVES.

The LIVES standard was a collaboration between Yelp and the technology departments of the cities of San Francisco and New York, and it was created thanks to the guidance and encouragement from the White House administration. LIVES enables restaurants to display their hygiene inspection score as a business attribute on Yelp, and users will be able to view the inspection history of a local establishment before eating there.

Yelp is currently rolling out the new feature as we speak to restaurants all around San Francisco and New York. The website plans to expand the feature to other major cities in the future if the new standard is well received. Hopefully, this new feature will have a positive impact on the society, and it will no doubt help undecided foodies decide on where to eat on Saturday nights.

A new high-tech monitoring system aimed at filling some of these loopholes in current monitoring systems for offenders called R.A.D.A.R. has been announced. The device has dual independent biometric technologies used to identify the user and confirm that the person who is supposed to be using the device is actually performing the test. The device also compiles reports that are mobile device friendly and work with the iPad and smartphones on the market.

The system sets a standard allowing for immediate reporting about all use, notification of test subjects, and immediate automated test results. The manufacturer of this device says that some systems can take up to 24 hours to get results. The system meets all DOT alcohol testing accuracy standards and uses military grade 256-bit encryption for privacy.

The machine has multiple testing capabilities including scheduled, random, and self-initiated depending on requirements for individuals. The system also provides GPS location fix for every test that regardless of positive or negative results. The battery in the device is good for 96 hours of use per charge.

The app allows Beltone hearing aid users to use their iPhone as remote control to discreetly adjust their hearing aid. The app is available at no cost on the App Store right now. Beltone says that it developed the remote control application after requests from hearing aid users wanting an easy-to-use way to adjust the volume on their hearing aids without people knowing what they’re doing.

The app uses Beltone’s 2.4 GHz wireless streaming technology. The app pairs with the company’s hearing aids using the new Direct Phone Link 2 technology. The app allows me hearing aid user to adjust volume in one ear or both ears. The app also allows the wearer to change listening programs to match the environment.

Beltone hearing aids also have built-in support for mobile phone conversations. Using the app the hearing aid wearer can also mute the background noise during their phone calls. The smartphone app sounds like an interesting way to control the hearing aid for users who are concerned about privacy.

It’s certainly small. While Fitbit has been focusing on Flex as used with a wristband, the dongle itself can be removed and used with another type of clip; when out, it’s a small, sturdy lozenge of plastic. On the outer edge there’s a discrete row of LEDs which show your progress toward your daily goal in 20-percent increments; it’s a nice balance between the fuller (but battery-consuming) display of the Fuelband, and the UP which gives no feedback whatsoever until you plug it into your phone.

The strap itself fixes on snugly, and Fitbit will supply two sizes to suit different wrists; it’ll also be available in a range of colors, depending on whether you want a more discrete black, or prefer something eye-catching like bright red.

Fitbit Flex hands-on:

It’s the app and the Bluetooth that really make Flex special, however. The low-power Bluetooth – when used with the right phone – sends over performance data in real-time to your device, allowing you to monitor how you’re going through the day. It also records sleep patterns, showing different light or deep phases, and telling you if you’ve had a rough night.

All in all, we’re left with warm, fuzzy feelings about the Flex, and even though Fitbit is later to the market with it than Nike or Jawbone, the company appears to have learned from its forebears with elements like the battery-sipping LEDs and the water-resistance. It’s up for preorder now, priced at $99.99, and will ship in the spring.

We’ll start right off with the Smart Body Analyzer, a new scale that measures your weight, body fat, and heart rate. These statistics are then stored in the Analyzer’s companion iOS or Android app using the scale’s built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth modules. This means that you can use the app to share your progress with your doctor, or with the social media world if you’re feeling a little brave.

What’s interesting about this scale is that it’s meant to be put in your bedroom, instead of the bathroom. The reason for this is because the scale also monitors the air quality of the room, measuring temperature and CO2 levels. By measuring the air quality, you could potentially get a better night’s sleep, which in turn leads to better health. Position Control will help you make sure you’re using the scale properly, while the app is compatible with a number of third-party health tracking services, which means you can have all of your statistics in one place.

Then we have the Smart Activity Tracker, which will keep track of your “number of steps taken, strides run, distances covered, calories burned, and quality of sleep,” in addition to providing pulse tracking. Of course, this also syncs with Withings’ Health Monitor app, which can then alert you if you’ve spent too long a time being inactive and can even differentiate between moderate activity and vigorous activity.

The Smart Body Analyzer will be available in Q1 2013 and will sport a price tag of $149. No specific release date for that one yet, and unfortunately we aren’t sure when the Smart Activity Tracker will be launching and how much it will cost. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more from CES 2013!

Those lights show 20-percent increments of the daily goal, which is set by the individual wearer. However, the low-power Bluetooth 4.0 is used to ping more complex data over to Fitbit’s Flex app, with various graphs and graphics to show how close you are to your targets for steps, calorie burn, and other factors, as well as how long you’ve been sleeping, how many times you woke up, and how efficient your sleep was.

The Flex can also wake the wearer up with a silent alarm, using its sleep tracking abilities to automatically figure out what the best time to vibrate is, based on how fresh you’ll be feeling at any point. The new Flex app – which also works with the Fitbit One and Zip, and is available for Android for the first time – has social integration too, with activity badges, and support for challenges between friends and family.

There’s also support for a food log, allowing the wearer’s diet to be recorded each day, and compared with activity and overall health. However, Flex can also integrate with third-party apps, such as Endomondo, LoseIt, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Sparkpeople.

Fitbit Flex is up for preorder now, priced at $99.95, and is expected to ship in the spring of this year. The Android Flex app will arrive by the end of February.

Temperature, heat flux, galvanic skin response, and a 3-axis accelerometer are all squeezed inside a compact dongle that can be worn on an arm strap or elsewhere on the body. Each sensor tracks data at 5,000 records per minute, and the CORE 2 can be paired with an optional heart-rate monitor strap.

All of the data collected will be sent to the BodyMedia mobile app, using low-power Bluetooth 4.0 (on devices that support it) to keep the information up to date minute-to-minute. That’s in contrast to rival systems like Jawbone’s UP, which only synchronize when you plug them in.

Those stats will also be uploaded to the web-based Activity Manager, complete with a FIT coach which can make suggestions for exercise, diet, and other elements. That guidance will be given as easy-to-understand instructions – such as “Hop on the treadmill and walk for about 1 hour at a speed of 4 mph and you can hit your calorie burn goal today” – to reduce confusion.

What you see in our photos now, however, is going to get even smaller by the time the CORE 2 goes on sale. BodyMedia tells us that the fitness device will end up being the size of a quarter, once the company’s engineers have had their way. There’ll be interchangeable fascias, too, when the CORE 2 hits shelves in August 2013; pricing tbc.

Indeed, the user interface is a lot cleaner this time around. The team behind the app ended up cleaning up a lot of the code by scrapping the bold colors and text for a cleaner design that’s easier to read and navigate. They also wanted to design the app to showcase more of your personal fitness story, and they hope that the new look motivates its users even more.

One of the main selling points of RunKeeper is that the app makes it easy to set a goal and track your progress towards that goal, while also interacting and competing with friends right from the app. They’ve made it even easier by adding a few more features to the app, such as in-app photo features that allow you to take pictures before, during, and after workouts and share those with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

You now also enable live activity tracking, which allows friends and family to follow your progress in real-time and cheer you on as they do so. The company has more plans in the future for the app, including an update for the Android version of RunKeeper, but the company says they’ll have more features to come in 2013.

RunKeeper is a free download, and the update is available now in the iTunes App Store.

The researchers believe that fighting may have helped shaped the evolution of the human hand. The scientists say that during the study they asked if you could strike harder with a fist than an open palm. During the study, they discovered that fist strikes had no additional force when compared to palm strikes. However, the surface that strikes the target with a fist blow is smaller, creating more stress on the target.

With increased force over a smaller area, more localized tissue damages is caused. Those were rather ancillary findings from this study with the main intent being to determine whether the proportions of the human hand allow buttressing or support. The team says that during the investigation they discovered that a clenched fist did indeed provide protective buttressing of the delicate bones of the hand.

According to the team, creating a fist increases the stiffness of the second meta-carpo-phalangeal (MCP) joint, which are the knuckles visible when you make a clenched fist, by a factor of four. Clenching the fists also doubles the ability of the proximal phalanges to transmit punching power. The scientists believe the human hand evolved from the need to both provide manual dexterity and the ability to be used as a club for striking an enemy.

[via BBC]

Although details on the new sensor line-up are scant, there’s still plenty of points on the body which could be tracked for health reasons and more. “They’re going to be products that help you with other aspects of your movement for health,” CEO Monisha Perkash said of the developments, “but also performance and avoiding injuries.”

For the moment, though, the LUMO team is focused on meeting existing orders of the original strap. Shipments to Kickstarter backers began last month, while new orders are promising a 1-2 day shipping time. The strap is priced at $149, and comes with a companion smartphone and tablet app which tracks your movement. A vibration sensor in the LUMOback itself warns you of poor posture if you’re not watching your phone.

Wearables and body tracking have become big business, with a number of high-profile brands entering the field. Nike has recently “gamified” its Fuelband system to encourage wearers of the tracking bracelet to compete with friends, while Jawbone’s UP made a return to the market after a disastrous first-attempt in 2011.

[via GigaOm]

The pulse oximeter is able to determine, without having to draw blood, exactly how much oxygen is dissolved in the blood. A company called Massimo has announced a new gadget for people who need to keep track of their blood oxygen levels that works in conjunction with the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch called the iSpo2. It requires a 30-pin connector.

That last caveat means that this device will not work with the iPhone 5 natively. It’s unclear whether the accessory will work using the Apple adapter for 30-pin to the new port. The hardware accessory plugs into the Apple gadget and works in conjunction with an app that is available as a free download.

The hardware accessory has a sensor that you slip over your finger and results from the reading are displayed on the iPhone screen. In addition to showing the oxygen saturation, the device will also show the heart rate. The device is available right now on Amazon.com for $249. The app can also export readings to a text file for use in other programs and to share with doctors. The hardware accessory gets its power from the iPhone and needs no external power source.

Cardiorespiratory health can be particularly important to monitor for people who have breathing problems or other conditions that cause low oxygen levels in the blood. The Tinke uses optical sensing technologies to capture blood volume changes in the fingertip and turn that into a number that tells how much oxygen is in your blood. The technology sounds similar to something that has been used in hospitals for decades called a pulseoximeter.

The device sends the information it collects to an app running on the iPhone that stores the details and allows you to compare the data easily over days and weeks. The numbers are placed into what the company calls a Vita Index, which is a personalized cardiorespiratory score created by combining data from your heart rate, blood oxygen level, and respiratory rate.

The app also offers a Zen Index that is achieved using heart rate variability as a basis and personalized scores for stress levels from analyzing the rhythm of your heart rate. The system has a social component that allows you to share results on Facebook and compare scores with other users. The app is available for free on the App Store. The Tinke accessory is available in gray, blue, pink, or white for $119.

The Basis watch also does far more than most health and fitness gadgets. It has an accelerometer to track movement, but it also has an optical blood-flow monitor for heart-rate tracking, a perspiration sensor to measure sweat, and skin and ambient temperature sensors. These different sensors help the Basis watch do things that other activity trackers can’t.

After it monitors and records activity, the watch takes the data and presents it to you in a useful way, allowing you to keep track of your health and fitness trends over time. The company introduced a web service to go along with the watch that lays out the data into a readable format. Users can also choose different habits related to their physical activity and sleep that they want to try and accomplish.

An interesting feature about the device is that it doesn’t track calories or anything to do with your diet. Furthermore, the device is launching with the internal Bluetooth radio turned off, but eventually Basis will enable Bluetooth syncing in the future. The watch costs $199, and it’s available now on their website.

Hardware

Jawbone’s minimal outward changes mean you might not realize you have a new UP at first glance, most of the differences between the first- and second-generation models being behind the scenes. It’s still a twist of rubbery plastic that stretches out to wrap around your wrist – your non-dominant hand is recommended, for best accuracy – only now Jawbone says it has refined both the water-resistance and the resilience to flexing, both key flaws in the original.

The circuit board running down the middle is designed to be twisted, but it turned out owners did a whole lot more twisting (and in unexpected ways) than Jawbone had initially predicted. As for water, the “wear it anywhere” message of the original UP meant that owners took it into the shower or while doing the washing up, and the seals proved to be susceptible to soaps and other factors that the original water-resistance standards – and thus Jawbone’s testing – simply didn’t envisage.

The few external changes you only really notice after a period of wearing the new UP. The material is slightly difference, and we found it rubbed against our skin in a little less of an aggravating way than before, while the cap – that pulls off to reveal a 3.5mm headphone plug – clips on more securely. That means it takes a little extra force to remove when you actually want to sync with your phone, but it also reduces the number of lost caps that frustrated original owners.

Inside, it’s the same combination of sensors (and glaring omissions) as before, though worked in different ways thanks to the circuit board redesign. The primary magic happens in the interplay between the motion sensor and the algorithms Jawbone uses to interpret them: figuring out whether you’re walking, jogging, or running, and then calculating distance, calories burned, how long you were active, and other results.

Our lingering frustration is around the way in which the UP synchronizes. Despite being best known for its Bluetooth devices, Jawbone persists with a more low-tech system for the UP: a headphone jack. Unlike Nike’s Fuelband, to get your data off the UP you have to remove it, pull off the cap, and plug it into the headphone jack on your iPhone or iPad; there’s no way to do it wirelessly.

Jawbone says that’s a compromise based on battery life: by eschewing wireless radios, the UP is rated for as much as ten days use between charges. That’s in contrast to the Fuelband’s “up to four days” estimate, though our own testing suggested that NIke’s predictions were over-ambitious and assumed minimal use of the display and the Bluetooth connectivity. Still, it’s worth remembering that it’s not just synchronizing exercise data that requires the UP be plugged in: if you want to change the alarm time (which vibrates to wake you) you’ll need to plug in too.

Software

The UP wristband itself isn’t the only thing to get a significant reworking since the first-gen model: Jawbone has also spruced up its companion app. The new software works with the original UP (though not the original UP on the iPhone 5) or the new model, though you’ll need an iOS device, since Jawbone says the Android version is still a work-in-progress.

In comparison to the bare-bones original app, the new software is far more comprehensive in the data it collects and how it utilizes that data. There’s a new system for logging your diet, and more social features that allow you to compare and share your activity to other members of your “Team.” Meanwhile, if you sync data from the old band to the new app, it will apply its new analysis to the old data.

The app does a good job in balancing what information it shows you – and there’s a lot to choose from – without being too overwhelming. The basics are activity through the day, shown on a bar chart, with a count of steps and distance traveled, how many calories you’ve burned (broken down into active and resting burn), your longest period of activity and idle time, and your total activity as well as how close you came to your “Move goal” that day. On the flip side, there are stats for sleep (the UP is meant to be worn day and night) with total time sleeping broken down into deep and light phases, how long it took you to drop off, how many times you woke up and for how long, and how close you came to your “Sleep goal” that night.

Both elements have a few extras to round out their usability. On the active side, there’s a Stopwatch Mode which allows you to manually mark the beginning and end of periods of exercise, with that section later being flagged up for specific analysis in the app. An Idle Alert buzzes the UP band after a preset period of inactivity, useful if you’re a desk-worker. Smart Alarm uses sleep tracking to figure out the best point to wake you in the morning, gaging sleep schedules rather than sticking to a single point in time as per traditional alarms, while Power Nap does something similar but for a much shorter burst of resting (Jawbone says it’s in the region of 26.5 minutes, but will vary).

The original app allowed for basic diet logging, but it was a chore to enter meals. Jawbone has addressed that with a new nutrition database that works with a barcode scanner, meaning you can simply zap the ‘code on what you’re eating to automatically log it. There’s manual search in case you don’t have a barcode to scan, or you can get particularly detailed and file each ingredient. Integration with the camera supports attaching snapshots of your meals to each entry.

Performance

The original UP was comfortable to wear, and the new model is no different: although you notice the rubberized band initially, after a few days it becomes commonplace on your wrist. It’s flexible enough to not get in the way while sleeping, but sufficiently springy to hold on and not slip around as you move. We saw battery life in the region of 6-8 days. We also feel it’s important to note that one person who tried the UP on complained of a mild rash after a period of wearing it; Jawbone says the band is made of medical-grade, hypoallergenic TPU rubber, and only one person who tried it encountered a problem.

Compared to a Nike+ Fuelband, the UP appeared to be more sensitive to movement: we logged more steps with the Jawbone than we did with Nike’s tracker. There’s more immediacy to the Fuelband, thanks to its integrated display and wireless connection with the companion app; with the UP we found ourselves synching 2-3 times a day and reviewing our activity, whereas with the Fuelband we checked progress more frequently, often in the midst of activity.

Like most if not all of the trackers on the market, the UP struggles to capture non-step based activity. However, using the manual logging system – double-tapping and holding the button built into the end of the band until a light flashes – you can flag up those periods where you’re doing other forms of exercise. The same button puts the UP into Sleep mode, which you need to do if you want the Jawbone app to work out the length and quality of your sleep.

Unfortunately, on more than one occasion we forgot to press the button, and the UP assumed we were having a long day with little activity. The band will automatically switch from Sleep to Active mode, depending on your movement, which also means you can see interruptions in the sleep-mode logging if, say, you’re a parent with a young child who gets you up a few times during the night. We’d like to see a user-configurable sleep schedule system, where we could log a “usual range” of sleeping times just in case we forgot to manually trigger the correct mode.

When in the correct mode, the UP produces stats that are easy to understand and makes suggestions on how to improve. It can prompt you to get more sleep if you’ve been short-changing your duvet time, or remind you of recommended salt and fat allowances if you’ve been indulging. Keeping a food diary is straightforward thanks to the new system, though not essential for health tracking overall.

We had mixed results with Power Nap and the Smart Alarm, primarily because the vibration alert sometimes proved too subtle to wake us. After a couple of mornings to habituate to it, we found could sleep straight through. Others who tried the system didn’t encounter the same problem, however, so some sort of adjustable intensity would be a useful addition.

It’s the social features that might be the best new addition to UP, however. You can now set up groups of people – Jawbone calls them “Teams” – who can see your fitness scores, and with whom you can either compete or encourage. There’s the option to limit certain UP status updates selectively, too, so if you’ve had a lazy day or a particularly indulgent meal, you don’t have to confess to it.

The Competition

The marketplace for fitness monitoring technology has grown dramatically in the time between this second UP attempt and the first model. Nike’s Fuelband has the edge in connectivity but lacks the breadth of data logging: it’s great for general fitness, but misses out on the sleep tracking and the food database. Fitbit’s range of trackers are more discrete and can hook up to the company’s WiFi-enabled scales for more personal data, but there’s something about having a device wrapped around your wrist to simply make you more aware of how active you are. Still, Fitbit has added Bluetooth for easier synchronization.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of apps for smartphones that promise to track your activity. Endomondo and Runtastic keep a log of movement, for a matter of dollars on your phone rather than the $129.99 of the Jawbone UP; other apps can keep a food log. Even Google Now, in its latest iteration, quietly adds up your steps and gives you a running total of distance traveled each month.

Wrap-Up

The shine quickly rubbed off the original UP, but all signs point to Jawbone having learned its lesson. The new hardware feels sturdier than before, and the more stringent tolerances mean we now have no qualms about wearing UP in the shower or pool. Meanwhile, the software has improved considerably and the UP app is now something you would readily open up even when you’re not synchronizing the band, for its mixture of diet logging and health tips.

As with any of these activity trackers, wearing them consistently is the key to their usefulness. All too often we’d pick up our Fuelband only to discover it was flat; the longer battery life of the UP meant that was far less common an experience. Being able to annotate your activity and your meals also encourages you to think about what you’re doing and what you’re consuming: it makes healthier living something you’re more consciously aware of.

We’d like to see more flexibility in the settings options and a little more intelligence in how the Sleep mode is handled, and the $130 price tag means you have to be taking health seriously in order to consider the UP worthwhile. Nonetheless, even if you’re only really approaching UP from the stance of a competitive game player, the social elements help maintain your interest. In the end, it’s a solid mixture of life-logging tools and a good example of how wearables can cross over from the stuff of science-fiction to everyday life, but approachable enough for the mass market.