• Home Automation,  iPhone,  Wearable Technology

    A Thermometer For The iPhone

    The practical uses of Wearables and Home Automation never cease to amaze me. I recently added a Kinsa thermometer to my collection of useful toys. This little device uses the 1/8th inch jack like the original Jawbone did. It works like a regular thermometer, but displays temperature on an app that runs on the iPhone. It’s simple to setup and once setup, works the same as any other thermometer. Due to the power of the Internets, you can then select symptoms and check for common ailments that match. You can also look at your history, tracking the rise and fall of your temperature. Overall, a cool little device and a…

  • Wearable Technology

    Fitbit FitForGood Charity Campaign

    Fitbit is giving away a million bucks to worthy causes. To quote them about this: From November 9-20, the charity that collects the most steps claims the grand prize of $500,000. Second place gets $350,000 and third takes home $150,000. So everybody wins, but only one charity wins the biggest piece of the pie. Overall, it’s great, and for those who are badge crazy, it’s a good way to do a tad bit of good while earning more badges. Badges earned using the FitForGood campaign include the following: DoGooder: Join the FitForGood challenge at fitforgood.fitbit.com FitForGood: Join the FitForGood challenge and get 25,000 steps afterwards Helping Hero: Join the FitForGood challenge and get…

  • Wearable Technology

    Use The Fitbit App With Your iPhone Instead Of A Fitbit

    Recently, I had my third Fitbit in a year break. I decided to pick up a Jawbone UP3 instead. But I got to missing my Fitbit friends and some of the other features that are great on the Fitbit. So I looked into using the Fitbit app without a Fitbit device. And I was in luck; I found that the Fitbit app has a feature called MobileTrack. MobileTrack allows you to use your iPhone as a Fitbit, in a way. To setup MobileTrack, install the Fitbit app from the App Store and login with your FitBit account. From the Fitbit app, tap on the “Account” icon in the icon bar. You’d normally add your Fitbit…

  • Wearable Technology

    Set The Alarm On A Jawbone UP

    Setting the alarm on a Jawbone UP3 isn’t the most obvious of tasks. To set it up, open the UP app on your phone. From the main screen, tap on the icon in the upper right corner, that looks like your UP. This brings up a slider and you’ll see a few options. One of which is the Smart Alarm. Tap on Smart Alarm to bring up the screen to configure the alarm. At the Smart Alarm screen, tap on the time and set it as desired. You can also use the plus sign option (+) to add additional alarms. Once set, click the checkmark option. Then, wakeup refreshed in the…

  • Apple Watch,  Wearable Technology

    Apple Watch and Achievements

    As with many a wearable that tracks movement, running and the such, the Apple Watch comes with… Badges. Wait, no, they’re called Trophies. No, crap, sorry, they’re called Achievements. You could just call them gamification incentives. Either way, they’re nice, they’re modern, and to me they’re a little bit more meaningful than some of the others that I’ve seen out there. As with the Fitbit, there aren’t a ton of Achievements to be had (for example, as compared to the Fuelband, which has dozens and dozens of them). There is a unique twist with the Apple Watch Achievements in that many are deferred until you’ve used the device for a few days, a few workouts or…

  • iPhone,  Wearable Technology

    Sync A FitBit With Apple’s Health App

    By default, the Fitbit tech stack doesn’t sync with the Health App on an iPhone and iPad. But never fear, as with basically everything else on this planet, there’s an app for that! From the iOS App Store, search for Sync Solver. Using this app, you can then link your Fitbit account to your Apple Health app.   Once linked, you can use the Sync Now button to do an immediate data sync or you can do an automatic sync at midnight every night. And presto, you then see your Fitbit data in the Health app. Happy waiting for the Apple Watch to come out!

  • Wearable Technology

    Integrate Nike Running App With Apple’s Health App

    The new Health app from Apple provides a conduit to run all of your health data through on an iOS device in order to then provide you with a single pane of glass to see all of your health related data. This can include diet, workouts, weight, blood pressure, etc, provided that the vendors of such devices or apps you may use support those features. The Nike Running app (not yet for the Fuelband) is one such app. And if you track runs with Nike Running then you’ll want to setup the integration asap, as the Health app only looks at runs that are configured after you setup the integration. To…

  • Wearable Technology

    FitBit, FuelBand & Running Apps For Good Causes

    I’m a big fan of the various trackers out there. I’m also a fan of making the world a better place. I’m also a sysadmin so intrinsically lazy. I haven’t yet figured out how to bot my way to a studleyrific body yet, but I have figured out a few things that allow me to donate to charities without actually doing anything I wasn’t already doing anyway using my FitBit and my FuelBand (yes, I’m still wearing both — I’m like Brett Favre making up my mind here). So here are a few sites I’ve been tinkering with: EveryMove: This app is trying to do too much. But it also…