TomTom Touch Cardio Announced

TomTom Sports today announces the TomTom Touch Cardio. With this launch, TomTom extends its Fitness Tracker range and reinforces its commitment to continue to launch Sports Wearables that inspire people to get going.

“We know that many people don’t necessarily see exercise as an activity as such, but rather as an integrated part of their daily lives. They try to stay fit and healthy by walking, taking the stairs and doing groceries. We are extending our TomTom Touch range with this accessible fitness tracker to help more people understand how fit they are and inspire them to take that first step towards a more active lifestyle,” says Corinne Vigreux, co-founder and Managing Director TomTom Consumer.

The TomTom Touch Cardio monitors your heart rate, tracks your steps, calories burned, sleep and active time. Heart rate monitoring adds to a more accurate calculation of calorie burn, measures the true intensity of your efforts, and provides insight about your fitness level.

The TomTom Touch Cardio boasts a new elegant design for everyday wear. It comes after the successful launch of the TomTom Touch Cardio + Body Composition which was launched in September as the first fitness tracker on the market that combines body composition analysis with steps, sleep and all day heart-rate tracking, right from the wrist. TomTom Touch Cardio will be available in March priced £89.99.

To get the best out of your TomTom Sports fitness tracker, you can use the new TomTom Sports App to find stats such as steps, HR and calories as well as activity trends and comparisons, and rich social sharing functions. For more information go to tomtom.com/sportsapp

The Gear You Want for Ultimate Gaming Comfort

Image credit: Mario

Paying proper attention to videogames is, as it should be, the number one concern of many dedicated gamers in the UK. As every proper player knows, you can spend hours glued to the screen, forsaking human comforts as you battle through the demands of Call of Duty.

But wait! It need not be this way. Oh, we’re not saying you should spend a minute less online, but now, you can do it in comfort and style. Consider these valuable accessories to truly up your game…

A really good chair

As office workers know, sitting in the wrong chair at the wrong height for a long time can affect your health, giving you back ache and a poor posture. But though if you’re sitting at a desk playing from your laptop a good ergonomic office chair is a good option, what you really need is a special gaming chair. The X-Rocker Wireless II Gaming Chair features surround sound, a sub woofer, and wireless capability, for a fantastic multi media experience.  

Something to keep your energy up

Of course, ultimately the best thing for anyone is a healthy home cooked meal, cooked from scratch, but let’s face it: During a tricky moment in Zelda it’s essential that you don’t stir from your chair. You could call for a pizza, but even answering the door takes valuable time. The answer lies in grabbing an energy boosting health drink which can just sit by the console sp you can sip and improve concentration without affecting your score. 

The right outfit

When you’re sitting at home and no-one can see you, it’s fine to just slob out in any old t shirt and trackie bottom, right? Wrong. As motivational coaches up an down the country will tell you, it’s important to dress for success and for these reason we recommend wearing the right clothing for the job. Like this Mario-style t-shirt. It will help you assume the character of your favourite, er character, and once you are in the correct mindset of a plump Italian plumber, success is (almost) absolutely guaranteed.

The best speakers

Sound on games has evolved beyond the loveable bleeps and beeps of the past which could be turned off when they got too annoying with not much effect on play into a fully integrated part of the gaming experience. We love these Harmon Kardon sound sticks because they look totally sci fi and we think that they’re like something Dr Who would have, if Dr Who needed perfect sound to enjoy his MMORPG properly. Aesthetics aside, the speakers perform really well and are easy to install.

Well, that’s our list of favourites. What are your gaming essentials? Do you agree that these are all you need for a good night in or would you add anything?

Revolutionary E-Cigarette Technology

The electronic cigarette market is expanding rapidly with new products and brands launching all of the time. There is one new e-cigarette which looks different and stands out from the crowd.

New premium e-cigarette brand Vype have released a range of realistic disposable electronic devices. Designed to both look and feel like a traditional tobacco cigarette, they are completely different to the first generation of electronic vaping devices, which were large and bulky to carry around. Aimed at current smokers, Vype have produced a lighter and more realistic looking device.    

There are many different types of electronic cigarettes on the market, but research shows that many people when they first start to use electronic devices prefer those which look more like a tobacco cigarette and less obviously like an e-cigarette.

Vype have used the latest technology to provide a lightweight electronic cigarette with a soft tip, making it similar in look and feel to a conventional tobacco cigarette. Vype e-cigarettes are the same size as a king-size tobacco cigarette and contain ECOpure e-liquid, which is manufactured and tested in the UK. It is one of the cleanest and purest e-liquids and gives users a real nicotine hit. There are currently three different flavoured Vype electronic cigarettes, these are menthol, classic regular and classic bold.

Electronic cigarettes are battery powered vaping devices containing a water based e-liquid which is available in varying strengths of nicotine and different flavours. Using the same hand to mouth action as a tobacco cigarette you inhale the e-liquid through the soft-tip filter. When you begin inhaling the e-liquid is heated until it turns into a vapour which can then be inhaled.E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, and are not affected by the UK smoking ban.

With new revolutionary technology, Vype offers a genuine alternative to smoking while looking and feeling like a tobacco cigarette but without the tobacco. Visit http://uk.govype.com/ to find out more.

Electronic Cigarette Technology

Electronic cigarettes have received a large amount of press recently with a number of studies researching the increased use of e-cigarettes in the UK. The BBC published an article at the beginning of the year predicting that e-cigarette use in the UK is set to reach 1 million users this year. But what exactly are electronic cigarettes and what is the technology behind these devices?

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices which heat a water-based nicotine e-liquid until it becomes a vapour that can then be inhaled by users, this is known as vaping. The physical action of vaping is similar to smoking a traditional tobacco cigarette. E-cigarettes contain significantly less of the known harmful chemicals produced when burning tobacco. There are no second hand smoking dangers associated with them as they only release a water mist or vapour.

There are two types of e-cigarette products – disposable throw-away devices and rechargeable battery-operated models. E-cigarettes are made up of three major technical components: the battery, vapour device and refill capsule or e-liquid holder.

The batteries developed and used to power e-cigarettes are usually lithium ion batteries. Intellicig, a leading e-cigarette company based in Manchester are at the forefront of e-cigarette technology. They have designed a 10 second cut-off feature within their products. This additional feature means that if the battery is activated for longer than 10 seconds, the microprocessor will register that and automatically turn off the device to prevent it from overheating. Cleverly, it also allows a few more seconds for the device to fully cool down before it returns to normal standby mode. At one end of the device is a coloured LED light which illuminates when it is in use. The coloured light highlights that the device is an e-cigarette and not a traditional cigarette.

The vapour device is a consumable piece of technology designed for heating the e-liquid solution. An atomiser inside the vapour device heats the e-liquid solution until it becomes a vapour which can then be inhaled by the user. The vapour device is repeatedly heated and cooled during use and it is recommended that you purchase spare vapour device components if you are using a rechargeable model.

The refill capsule holds the e-liquid. In a rechargeable e-cigarette device these capsules can be replaced. E-liquid is available in a range of different nicotine strengths and flavours. The capsule part of the device also acts as the mouthpiece through which to inhale the e-liquid. Refillable models are a cost-effective vaping option. Once a capsule is empty, simply unscrew and discard, before replacing with a new capsule. The disposable refill capsules or cartridges are sometimes referred to as cartomisers and they connect to the battery and vapour device.

The majority of electronic cigarettes are designed and manufactured as three piece models. E-cigarette technology is constantly been improved and developed. It is a fast-paced and continually changing industry with new products and accessories been introduced all the time. It will be interesting to see what the next step is in the e-cig market and what products will be released, with companies investing a huge amount of money into developing new technology to offer users an enhanced vaping experience.

Do Mobile Phones Pose a Health Hazard?

The mobile phone has become one of the biggest necessities that a person could own and the one thing people are still debating about is the issue of what health hazards that your modern day mobile phone could cause to the human body.

Many people are concerned about the low levels of radiofrequency energy that mobile phones emit, and how the radiation could cause cancer or other serious health problems. Many studies have been conducted over the past 15 years by scientists who are looking at the effects on the human body caused from the frequency of the mobile phone, but the studies have failed to prove that any frequency from the handheld device has any impact on the said person's health.

Studies show that almost 80 million mobile phones in the UK are in operation, therefore the threat of causing any damage to your health directly from the mobile is one in which each corporation must consider as part of their business module. With times changing, the modern day mobile phone has a considerable amount of data flowing through it compared to 5 years ago. 

Ed Yong, who is head of the health information at Cancer Research UK, has released information to the global population in which he states that despite the dramatic rise in mobile phone sales since the 1980s, the rate of brain cancer has not increased at the same rate as the production and usage of the handheld device has.

There is not yet enough known information to completely rule out the risk of health implications due to using a mobile phone, but very little research suggests that this could be the case.

What do you think about this controversy? Post your thoughts below.

Researchers devise contact lens with built-in LCD

Another day, another step towards technologically tricked out contact lenses. The latest development comes from researchers at the Centre of Microsystems Technology at Ghent University, who've developed a prototype lens with an embedded, spherical curved LCD that isn't limited to a paltry amount of pixels. As opposed to LED-based solutions which could only muster a few pixels, the newly-developed screen can pack enough to display graphics that cover a contact. In its current form, the display can show simple patterns, and demonstrates the technology with a simple dollar sign. What appears on the lens wouldn't be visible to folks who wear it, however, since eyes can't focus at such a close range. Despite the limitation, researchers are trying to tackle the focusing issue and are assessing the feasibility of a version that would effectively act as a heads-up display. In the future, the tech could be leveraged for medical purposes, such as controlling light transmission to the retina when the iris is damaged, cosmetic uses and -- you guessed it -- HUDs. With the technology's foundation established, it's expected that real-world applications are potentially a few of years away. Hit the jump to catch a video of the tech in action.

[Source: Engadget]

Wahoo Fitness launches a Bluetooth smart scale for $99

With its new Balance Smartphone Scale, Wahoo Fitness clearly has designs on Withings' corner of the fitness gadget market. There's no phone dongles or shoe clips here -- simply step on the scale and your weight will be recorded and synced to the companion iOS app. The Balance can record up to 130 weigh-ins before needing to push the information to your iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, which you can then share with the usual cloud services (should you need further reason to feel ashamed). The scale can manage the profiles of up to 16 different users and keep tabs on everyone's weight and BMI goals. Unlike its competition, there's no WiFi option, which means you can't sync your shame directly to the web. But, having to take the intermediary step of pulling out your phone presumably has helped the company shave the price down to $99. You can pre-order the Balance now for delivery the first week of December.

[Source: Engadget]