Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy." More by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal
Running and mobile apps seem to go hand in hand—after all, runners often have their phones with them, whether for safety, for music, or because they've paired their favorite fit tech device to their smartphone. So, naturally, there are plenty of apps out there to help train for a marathon, whether they’re training programs, running/fitness trackers, or even calorie counters. Here are a few apps to get you started—the rest of those 26.2 miles are, unfortunately, up to you.
Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy." More by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal
Omron’s HJA-312 isn’t a pedometer or a heart rate monitor or anything like most of Omron's standard fare—it’s a smart activity tracker. This little plastic device doesn’t stop at just counting steps—it also tracks workouts, distance (including pace), and calories burned. So it’s a great companion for anyone who does a lot of distance-related activities.
Fitness level:
Like most activity trackers, the HJA-312 isn’t designed with a specific fitness level in mind. This activity tracker can be used by casual users looking to track calories burned (even at rest), or by athletes looking to track their workouts.
Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy." More by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal
Your smartphone may not be the first place you go to when looking for advice on your yoga practice—after all, the latter is about being in touch with your body and mind, while the other is about being in touch with … everyone and everything else. But sometimes your smartphone can be a great yoga companion—for example, when you’re trying to master a particularly difficult pose without the help of your teacher.
Yoga apps number in the thousands, and they’re not all just repeats of the same poses and basic workouts. While some apps certainly are full-featured yoga guidebooks, others focus on particular types of yoga, such as the art of yogic breathing, or airplane yoga (apparently, that’s a thing). We’ve rounded up ten yoga apps to help you in your practice—whether you’re a beginner looking to learn the basics or an advanced user looking to tackle highly challenging poses.
Sara is a writer and word worker who makes her home among the tech nerds of San Francisco. She's an Internet addict with robot envy and a sucker for gizmos and gadgets that make life more fun. More by Sara Whitney Wood
In our always-on, always-connected world, who wouldn't benefit from reducing stress? Sometimes all we need is a reminder to take a deep breath. HeartMath's Inner Balance Trainer aims to help you do just that by acting as a digital breathing coach. HeartMath says that the Inner Balance Trainer is intended to not only reduce stress levels (and their effects), but also can help monitor mood changes and teach users to "focus on appreciation." Which all sounds great to me—if a digital device is really capable of doing all that.
Wearing the Inner Balance sensor
The science behind the Inner Balance Trainer is based on HeartMath's proprietary and award-winning emWave® Technology, developed to encourage awareness of your heart rhythm pattern. HeartMath believes that learning how to alter your heart rhythm pattern, primarily through deep breathing, can improve feelings of wellness and promote personal growth.
Amber covers lifestyle and mobile tech, including fit tech, mHealth, travel, home automation and more. In her non-tech time she takes too many pictures of her cats, watches zombie movies, crochets, and plans out her next tattoos. More by Amber Bouman
With fitness technology devices becoming a rapidly exploding category, companies are competing for consumer attention in an increasingly saturated market. More than 300 million body sensors are expected to be in use by 2016, and each fitness tech company is eager to win over consumer attention and loyalty to their products.
Fitbug's logo, taken from their website this morning
Fitbug, a company that has been producing what they term “health coaching devices” since 2005, filed a lawsuit on Friday against competitor Fitbit alleging that the company has engaged in trademark infringement as well as unfair competition and business practices. Fitbug has asked the U.S. District Court in Northern California to order Fitbit to permanently cease the use of the Fitbit mark, and prohibit the company from engaging in conduct that would continue to cause confusion between the two brands and services.
