Mobile Phone | Evolving Consumer

Smart Car’s Two-Wheel Companion

The makers of those little electric cars, Smart Cars, that fit in even the smallest parking space and go for miles on an electric charge are ready to introduce an even smaller mode of smart transportation. The Smart ebike has a four-level electric boost that charges as you brake. The ebike’s design is a solid frame with clean lines. The aluminum frame and all the bike’s components weigh in around 22 kilograms, making it a lightweight contender among electric bikes. Smart’s parent company Daimler went so far as to construct the frame so it suspends the rear wheel by large, sturdy aluminum profiles to eliminate struts that are typical for a similar bike. It also conceals the Bowden wires and cables so they don’t impede on the streamlined design.

Design elements lend way to technology on this ebike. The two-wheeler uses a belt drive instead of a chain, which minimizes maintenance and makes for a quieter ride. The belt drive demands a particular shape of the rear triangle. On this bike the geometry allows for a rear extension of one side of the triangle, which allows for the belt, a continuous loop, to be installed. Traditional frames require a cut somewhere in the rear triangle to outfit the bike.

Continue reading Smart Car’s Two-Wheel Companion

Trident Case Summons the Kraken to Protect Your Gadgets

At the gym, on nature trails, and on the beach, we constantly see people spending more time with their iPhones than on the activities they were supposed to be there for. If you’re someone who can’t part with an iPad wherever you are, may we suggest that you at least cover it in something that’s durable to prevent it from damage? (Because ma’am, you’re sitting awfully close to that body of ocean water that’s splashing all around you.)

The folks at Trident Case recently announced its new Kraken series of cases that are like protective body suits for your gizmos. Designed for the iPad and iPhone 4 (coming soon for HTC’s Droid Incredible and Samsung’s Galaxy S and Vibrant devices), the Kraken cases offer shock protection with its impact resistant polycarbonate exterior and silicone sleeve and extra padded corners; an ergonomic design allowing you a better a grip when holding it; a screen protector that’s anti-glare, anti-dust, anti-scratch, and UV protectant (plus a dust filter covers up the speakers, too, without blocking out sound); and nine colors.

The Kraken iPad case sells for $45 while the iPhone version sells for $35. Cases for iPads and iPhones aren’t cheap, but at least the Kraken cases offer extra protection at competitive prices. Unfortunately you won’t get to show off your iPad or iPhone’s sleek design, cause these things will bulk up your device.

And yes, in case you were wondering, the Kraken is named after the mythological Norse sea monster because they “are built to be a powerful force that provides protection against elements and catastrophes that could potentially destroy mobile devices,” according to Trident Case. Wait, wasn’t the Kraken the one doing the destroying? And why in “Clash of the Titans” did the Greek gods summon something from a different mythology?

Check out Trident Case’s YouTube videos that demonstrate the Kraken’s durability.

Ubrain on the Brain and On Your Phone

Music can get you motivated, and it seems a few companies have music on the brain. Earlier this week we noted that Philips had introduced new technology into its line of Activa MP3 players that would respond to your level activity, and now there is an app that will send binaural beats to help enhance your focus, as well as your energy level. Digital Reality seems to have it on the brain too with Ubrain, the first digital tonic experience, which provides these binaural beats along with your favorite music tracks. The company has released an app for the iPhone and iPad, and will soon have versions for the Android, Samsung Bada, PC and iPod Touch.

The technology essentially allows users to select how they feel, and then determines the appropriate mood you’d like to have. This is accomplished through integrating preset music tone with your own music library. So whether you need to chill out or pick up the pace the Ubrain can do the thinking for you. Continue reading Ubrain on the Brain and On Your Phone

Hit the Trails with Trimble apps on V Cast

Trimble-topo — A topographic map of the Mount Evans trail in Colorado.

Whether you’re working out; hiking or seeking geocached treasures, you may be bringing three or more devices on your jaunt. A phone to stay connected and be able to call for help if necessary; a GPS device to guide you on your walks or track progress for workouts; and possibly an MP3 player to keep you entertained on the long run.

Verizon added three services from GPS-enabled outdoors activity provider Trimble: AllSport GPS; Trimble Outdoors; and Geocache Navigator through its V Cast subscription service. AllSport is an app that tracks workouts such as walks, runs and bike rides with maps. The app records more than 20 stats including distance, time, speed, and calories burned. The program lets you track goals as you progress through the season. Continue reading Hit the Trails with Trimble apps on V Cast

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved Partners with Men’s and Women’s Health

You say to yourself you’re going to do those targeted workouts you see in the pages of Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazines… until you turn the page. With Your Shape: Fitness Evolved you’ll choose the workouts from the game, or opt for Men’s Health‘s “The Sleeve-Busting Arms Workout” and “The Ultimate Men’s Health Fat Loss Workout.”

Knowing that men and women workout differently, the game offers a fully different routine for the fairer sex. Women’s Health will provide workouts such as “The Perfect Legs and Butt Workout,” “The Toned Arms and Shoulders Workout,” and “The Skinny Jeans Workout.”

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved publisher Ubisoft has partnered with Rodale to provide these targeted, magazine-prepared workouts on its upcoming title. Expect Your Shape to provide dynamic, interactive, customizable and convenient at-home workouts. The team that brings you workouts in the magazines creates these workouts. Continue reading Your Shape: Fitness Evolved Partners with Men’s and Women’s Health

Intelitrainer Adapts Your Workout for You

Workout programs for the iPhone are plenty. The problem, however, may be that they are either repetitive or possibly somewhat random. Intelitrainer, a new app developed by celebrity trainer Michael George, gives you a varied workout based on feedback from previous workouts. The program has roughly 400 exercises with video demonstrations including unique, custom exercises created by Michael George.

A variety of workout goals including reduce body fat; tone and sculpt; cardio health; and build muscle are addressed from beginner to advanced levels. Intelitrainer then keeps a workout log to track workout history and weight. It can be used in a gym, or with equipment at home.

There’s so many workout programs in the iPhone App store. It’s hard to decide which one to commit to. Intelitrainer is $4.99 and compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It requires a WiFi, Edge or 3G network connection to check in from time to time. The ability to adapt custom workouts is a benefit. However it determines the workout based on your ability by feedback you provide during and after your session. If you skip an exercise, then it may determine that was more than you were able to handle. If you hit the “I did it” button, it may move on to the next incremental exercise or increase the number or reps next time. Intelitrainer requires a degree of fine-tuning that you may find tedius after a few reps.

Official Intelitrainer website

Intelli-Diet Stresses Portion Control Over Calorie Count

Diet is more than just about calories. Plus counting calories can be tedious. So why do so many diet programs make you tabulate your intake? An iPhone and iPod Touch app called intelli-Diet sets up personalized healthy eating plans and focuses on portions and foods. It’s not a spreadsheet disguised as a diet plan. Intelli-Diet founder Brian Atz says, “It thinks, you eat.”

The intelli-Diet features include:

Sets up a daily personalized healthy eating plan based on the foods you like.
Maps out meals for the following week and considers foods you have in stock.
Allows for meal variety by permitting foods to be exchanged for others.
Records weight loss progress and allows posting of success through social media.
Triggers meal reminders, generates grocery lists, and other features.

Intelli-Diet is currently being offered for a promotional price of $3.99 in the U.S. No word on what the app will eventually cost or when the price might be raised.

Official intelli-Diet Web site

Nike+ Plus GPS

The trouble with dongles is that these little things are easy to misplace. Maybe it is some sort of technology conspiracy theory that is part of the planned obsolescence. If you lose it, you must replace it and thus buy it again. That’s basic Marketing 101 stuff, but Nike has long been a company that skips the basics and goes the distance to earn customer satisfaction. To that end the company has decided to ditch the needed dongle that was part of its Nike+ system for the iPhone.

Instead, the new app version uses GPS radio in compatible iDevices to track a user instead. That is already good news, but it gets even better. With the app users can also plot a run on a map with the handset. The only downside is that you do need an iPhone for the full-fledged mapping options, as these aren’t available on the iPod Touch – but that still can keep track of distance via an accelerometer that tracks a runner’s steps.

What really makes us question Nike’s marketing approach is that the app is actually cheaper too. The Nike+ version with the shoe dongle actually cost $29, while the app is a mere $2. Of course, this company knows that keeping customers happy in the long run means making running easier in the first place. Nike doesn’t need to remind us to “Just Do It,” as they just did it, by making the Nike+ system for iPhone a whole lot easier (and cheaper to use).

Nike+ Website

[Via Wired: Nike+ App Ditches Dongle, Gains GPS]

Motorola Introduced Rugged Smartphone That Will Handle Extreme Travel and More

There are few sad truths about an active lifestyle. The first is that bones don’t heal as fast as you get older. The second is that while the BlackBerry and iPhone maybe great for staying connected while you’re out, on the road or off, the handsets aren’t exactly what we’d label as “rugged.”

Even with protective sleeves the mobile smartphones aren’t exactly designed for those with more active lifestyles. But Motorola is looking to defy what the traditional handset can do, and that’s where the Motorola Defy comes in. This is actually the company’s second rugged Android smartphone, and it promises to be waterproof and dustproof.

The Defy has a 3.7-inch 480×854 Corning Gorilla Glass Display, along with a 5megapixel auto focus camera that offers video recording, LED flash and most notably image stabilization, so you can capture the thrill of victory as well as your personal agony of defeat. The Defy also includes A-GPS, WiFi, stereo Bluetooth, MotoBlur 1.5, a microSD card slot, and it runs on Android 2.1 OS.

That all sounds great, but there is some bad news, you’ll have to head to Europe to get one, when the Defy is released in Q4. No word on pricing or when this handset will arrive in hands in North America.

Zen to the iPad with All-in Yoga HD

For less than the price of a yoga class you can get customized routines on your iPad or iPhone with the All-in Yoga HD app from Belarus-based Viaden Media. The company has developed many apps, most of them gambling, which may inspire the name “All-in Yoga.”

While deciding to buy the app for $4.99 for the iPad may seem like a gamble versus all the other yoga apps in the iTunes store, it appears to be comprehensive. The software promises 200 poses and yoga classes to enhance both mind and body. It offers a database of asanas (poses) recommended by professional yogis and highlights the most popular. If you’re not sure of the sun salute routine or any number of other positions, there’s detailed how-to’s, photos, video and male voice guidance to instruct yoga classes and tutorials. Continue reading Zen to the iPad with All-in Yoga HD

Strap On the iPhone with iSkin pulse Sports +

Take your iPhone on a run, and you may worry about the handset flying out of your grip on a sprint. It’s also not ideal to do exercise, say push-ups, that an app is dictating on the screen while holding the phone. Enter the pulse Sports + case from iSkin.

Designed as a case to be used with the iPhone app PocketCPR, the pulse Sports + case has a hand strap that secures the phone on the back of the hand or palm so you can easily see the display. While it is marketed as the companion to PocketCPR, the strap design lends itself to referencing the iPhone during activity. If you have a running program, you can play music and look at your progress for your run on screen. If you’re doing stretches or exercises, you can reference the proper positioning while in pose or movement.

The case is contstructed using microban, which stretches to accommodate your hand and the material also has antimicrobial properties and inhibits the growth of fungus and bacteria that you may otherwise worry about after sweating on a case during a workout.

iSkin pulse product page

PocketCPR product page

Cyclist Uses Twitter To Call for Help

: Even after her crash Leigh Fazzina couldn’t stop “Tweeting”

Ready for the big cycling race? Have your check list ready for a safe race: tubes, check; water, check; helmet, check; gloves, check; first aid kit, check; mobile phone with Twitter account, what you say? The last item might seem like a stretch, because after all, who needs to make a call or send a Tweet while they’re in the middle of a race. But for Leigh Fazzina being able to send a Tweet to her Twitter follows may have just saved her life.

After getting lost in a 300-acre Connecticut woods last Tuesday during the downhill stage of a mini-triathlon, Fazzina crashed when her front wheel hit some roots. The 36-year old was bleeding, and unable to walk. Instead of panicking, she tried to use her mobile phone to call relatives, but as the calls failed, she resorted to using Twitter to reach out to 1,000+ “followers.” Continue reading Cyclist Uses Twitter To Call for Help

Apple Spins Patent for Cycling

s-APPLE-BIKE-large — Apple's diagram for its Smart Bike patent application currently in development.

Looking for a cycling computer? There’s an app for that. Apple recently filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for various concepts of a newly-advanced Smart Bicycle System. Reportedly in development, the app will use the iPhone’s (or iPod iTouch) accelerometer and gyroscope to measure speed, distance, time, altitude, elevation, incline, decline, heart rate, temperature, weather, wind speed and other factors relevant to cycling. A few other add-ons such as a heart rate monitor strap and sensors to place on the wheel will likely be required to take full advantage of the app.

Other news outlets are reporting the iPhone and app that pro cyclists could adopt and even used to communicate while racing in a stage. Most teams already have cycling computers that read all the same settings and report back to the team’s manager in the team car. Garmin-Transitions Slipstream, for example, has Garmin as a sponsor and part of the GPS manufacturer’s commitment is in supply of cycle computers and other equipment. It is possible some teams will opt for the iPhone app, and certainly will be open to a sponsorship. Several new teams have been announced and it wouldn’t be all too surprising to see an Apple team form in the next year or so.

Whether the app is used by competitive cyclists, expect to see plenty of hipsters on track bikes with their iPhones mounted to the handlebars. We just hope they refrain from text and ride practices.

[via: Patently Apple and Huffington Post]