We all have our New Year's Resolutions, most of which we will inevitably dump before we even flip over the calendar to reach February. Mobile companies aren't excluded from this tradition, so let's guess their resolutions while we take a look back at the news of the week.
With a whole new year upon us, filled with promise and free of any oppressive habits built up over the previous twelve months, it is customary for people to set resolutions with the intention of bettering one’s self. In layman’s terms, it’s a plan to suck less as a person. Lose weight, quit smoking, get finances in order; These are all common choices for people. For me, I want to write more. Partially for creative reasons and partially because that’s how I make money. Whatever you may choose as your plan for self-improvement, I look forward to joining you in giving up on the resolution before January is even over. Let’s look at what some of the biggest names in mobile has resolved to do in 2013 as we look back at the news from December 31-January 4, 2013.
HTC: Be more productive
Perhaps no Android phone maker had a tougher time in 2012 than HTC. Despite some great phones from the Taiwanese manufacturer, the market was overwhelmed with other options and HTC was lost beneath the waves of the competition. Treading water is not on the agenda in 2013 as the company gears up to rebound with increased productivity and better sales figures. A leak of HTC project code names earlier this week is a sign the company is planning to make good on its word. The list seems to confirm the rumored M7 phone that appears to be the company’s next flagship handset and also lends more credibility to the ever-growing legend of the Facebook phone.
Microsoft: Get organized
One would think of all companies, Microsoft has to be one of the more organized. I mean, it even redesigned its logo to fit together better. But the operating system that was supposed to tie everything together, Windows 8, hasn’t exactly been doing its job, so far. The operating system seems to be loved on phones, hit or miss on tablets, and a total miss on PC. What better time to get your stuff in order than at the start of a brand new year? Microsoft appears ready to follow through on this strategy, as Windows 8 Pro for tablets will make its debut in January. Despite a high price point, Microsoft swears this is the version that’ll win people over. If that doesn’t work, it can always just sell more phones. There are plenty more of those in the works.
Samsung: Get more creative
It’s hard to argue that Samsung wasn’t the most successful name in mobile last year. So where do you go when you’ve already hit your highest note? Well, you start branching out and getting creative. The Galaxy Camera is a pretty good example of what the company may be capable of but, as a great philosopher once said, “[that's] so 2000 and late.” Samsung is all about 3008, but it has to ease into it a bit. It’s starting by just giving the Galaxy Note II a couple new colors. After that, though, Samsung has a new plan: Tizen smartphones. This platform would give Samsung the chance to continue owning the Android market while creating an entirely new one all its own. It makes my plan to read a few more books this year seem far less ambitious.
Sprint: Meet new people
Sprint spent some time trying to make more friends in 2012, but it just couldn’t quite figure out how. Then it got a penpal from Japan who is planning to come visit. 2013 will be all about getting out and meeting people for Sprint, and it’s starting by offering a pay-as-you-go, contract free phones. It’s a good way to go – low commitment and if all goes well, maybe some of those new friends will want to hang out more.
Devices: Try something new
It’s easy for routines to become stale, and adding a little spice to your life is never a bad thing. For the devices of 2013, variety is the way to go. Too much same-old-same-old made the market flooded with similar looking, similar behaving portable options. And there’s a ton of them out there. We’ll see next week exactly how much uniqueness the year will bring, but lineup for CES 2013 looks like it won’t disappoint. Sure, there will probably be some outlandish things there that never hit mass production, but it’s about trying new things. What these devices will be running might be the most interesting question, with Firefox OS on the way, the aforementioned Tizen-powered smartphones, and Linux based portables planned as well. 2012 was the year of the clones. Let’s get weird in 2013.
Snapchat and Facebook are blazing a trail with self-destructing messages. But how all that information is stored and if it's even completely destroyed may seem like a mystery. Here's a look at how each service treats your super secret information
Imagine waking up for the first time on New Years morning. The sun is shining, there’s a fire crackling in the fireplace, and you think to yourself, “Gosh, I what’s the best way I can sext someone today?” The choices of the moment you’ll quickly find are easily Snapchat and Facebook’s unabashed clone Poke.
What’s a sexter to do?
While the idea of ephemeral messaging, or sending text, picture, and video messages that are swiftly destroyed, is new, exciting, and perhaps a little frightening, the idea that either of these apps might be used principally for sexting is still contentious. Snapchat on its own has even been called the new Instagram, while Facebook has been the butt of many jokes since Poke’s release. But the choice remains, and navigating that choice hinges on how both services work and, most importantly, how they each handle the messages that are supposed to self-destruct. Making that choice means taking a quick dip into the murky land of Terms of Service agreements.
What’s yours is ours
With social networks-cum-media companies, it’s become something of a given that your personal identity — who you are, what you like, your wants, your dreams — aren’t completely yours anymore. However, these companies have learned hard that using this information carelessly causes major problems. Instagram learned this lesson hard, and now Foursquare is treading lightly with their own privacy revisions. In the end, both Snapchat and Facebook attempt to treat your identity with import, even as they find ways to make a profit against it. It’s just a question of scale.
Snapchat outlines in their TOS that collect personal information that identifies you as an individual, such as your name, email address, phone number, and Facebook ID, as well as aggregating usage data like your device’s operating system and UDID. However, Snapchat is careful in how it outlines the way it shares that personal information with third parties:
“We may share your personal information with third parties including as follows:
with your consent, for example, when you agree to our sharing your information with other third parties for their own marketing purposes subject to their separate privacy policies;
with third party vendors, consultants and other service providers who work for us and need access to your information to do that work;
to (i) comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process, (ii) to protect the rights and property of Snapchat our agents, customers, members, and others including to enforce our agreements, policies and terms of use or (iii) in an emergency to protect the personal safety of Snapchat , its customers, or any person;
in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution, transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets to another company.”
Poke inherits Facebook’s overarching policy; that is, collecting your personal and usage data in an attempt to encourage “frictionless sharing,” as well as aid their partners and advertisers. However, they too are careful to add that “you always own all of your information.”
“Your trust is important to us, which is why we don’t share information we receive about you with others unless we have:
received your permission;
given you notice, such as by telling you about it in this policy; or
removed your name or any other personally identifying information from it.”
Another key difference here is that Snapchat does not divulge location data while Facebook does. Keep that in mind when you choose one over the other.
Privacy is King
Somewhat lost in the entire Snapchat-Poke discussion was the idea that messages sent on either services needn’t be explicit and suggestive. You can, but, especially where Facebook is concerned, poking your uncle probably shouldn’t be fraught with tension.
But those messages being deleted at all creates a space where privacy is that much more important. If you as the user decided that what you sent was sensitive, anyone else seeing it becomes an even bigger issue.
Snapchat attempts to delete your shared messages from their servers as soon as possible — typically as soon as the user has seen them, though there are vague as to whether or not that’s a certainty.
“When you send or receive messages using the Snapchat services, we temporarily process and store your images and videos in order to provide our services. Although we attempt to delete image data as soon as possible after the message is transmitted, we cannot guarantee that the message contents will be deleted in every case. For example, users may take a picture of the message contents with another imaging device or capture a screenshot of the message contents on the device screen. Consequently, we are not able to guarantee that your messaging data will be deleted in all instances. Messages, therefore, are sent at the risk of the user.”
Facebook retains Poke messages for two days before deleting them. However, those messages can be recovered for up to 90 days. Per a clarification they made with TechCrunch:
“All Poke messages are stored in encrypted form and retained for two days after the last recipient views the poke — a process that helps facilitate abuse reporting. After that period, a Poke’s encryption key is deleted. However, it may still be possible to recover that key from logs or backups. After a fixed time period, this key becomes inaccessible, rendering the content completely unreadable (unless it was copied for abuse reporting.) Today, that fixed period can be up to 90 days, but we are working to significantly reduce that period over the next several weeks as we verify the stability of the Poke deletion system.”
Of course, all this says nothing about people saving your secret messages via screenshot. All told, you’ll want to take care when using either app, especially as we’re still working out what it means to have self-deleting messages.
Is this trend over yet? Maybe we should just go back to phone sex.
Apple offers a Find My iPhone app to help ill-fated users recover stolen handsets, but one recent victim relied on a much more a cunning stunt to reacquire his beloved smartphone.
Nadav Nirenberg, 27, left his iPhone 4 in the back of a New York taxi on New Year's Eve and, much to his surprise, woke up the next morning to see registration emails from dating app OKCupid.
Yes, the thief was using his victim's phone and details, including his email address and photo, to scour for willing women in the Brooklyn borough.
It was then that Nirenberg, who plays trombone in the awesome ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto, hatched a master plan to get his iPhone back.
Lots of winks and smileys
Nadav decided to set up a fake profile, in which he used "lots of winks and smiley faces so I would seem like a girl" in order to lure the rapscallion into a date he certainly had not anticipated.
He grabbed a picture of a random lady (with just about enough cleavage to be intriguing) from Google Images, named the chesty woman Jennifer Gonzales, 24, and then played a waiting game.
Sure enough, the misguided iPhone thief hit him up with a "U wanna meet" message minutes later and the trap was set. Nadav said he'd like to meet at "her" place.
When the short, cologne-clad thief knocked on the door clutching a bottle of wine, Nirenberg, walked up behind him wielding a hammer and demanded his phone back.
Naturally the thief obliged and was generously gifted a $20 bill for returning the phone before skulking away, hopefully to reflect on some of the poor choices he had made in his life to that point.
"It's pretty rare to get your phone back," said Nirenberg, who did not contact the police afterwards. "I feel pretty giddy."
What technology will shape consumer electronics and digital products in 2013? We've got a few ideas - including everything from personal social networks to car-sharing to energy consumption. Here are the tech startups you'll want to keep an eye on in the coming year.
With CES just days away, the tech world is about to be introduced to a bevy of new concepts and products that will define 2013 (at least, here’s hoping, right?). That said, there are plenty of startups already on the market (or nearing it) that have been building momentum over the past year, poised for success in 2013. Here are our picks for tech and digital startups that will be innovating and inspiring over the near year. If you don’t know these names now, we think you will come this time next year.
Publishing is evolving at rapid speeds that trend watchers can barely keep up with. Incubator Obvious Corp, which is run by some of the earliest brains behind Twitter, Biz Stone, Ev Williams, and Jason Goldman, launched Medium into private beta this past year. Since then, the site has been something of an experimental lab for writers and content producers, but Stone recently told me that the team wants to open it up “as soon as possible.” As news, search, and social continue to intersect, it’s anyone’s market right now, and it could very well be Medium’s.
The tweet-to-buy startup has finance disruption written all over it. The site allows you to send simple tweets in order to purchase items its sellers are using the system to offer; it’s a fast, easy, frictionless solution that’s attempting to actually make e-commerce social. It’s an idea others in the digital finance market, notably startup Dwolla, are starting to implement. As Chirpify grows in 2013, it’s like we’ll see more mechanisms to connect shopping and consuming with social networking – it recently launched integration with Instagram.
Gesture control will continue to grow this year, especially with the influx of Windows 8 PCs that are continually hitting the market. Leap Motion launched this past year to big acclaim for bringing its incredibly affordable, incredibly accurate device, The Leap, to consumers directly (CEO Michael Buckland recently told me shipments will start as scheduled in 2013). The startup has made significant headway with its developer and app ecosystems, and says we should except continued OEM partnership announcements, like its recent deal to bundle its hardware with Acer units.
It should go without saying that Snapchat makes this list. The app that first took middle schoolers – and then the rest of us – by storm this year only just launched and has already secured itself a top spot in the App Store and inspired a Facebook clone. But it’s more than just the app itself that we should keep on an eye on 2013, it’s the private content sharing trend. Apps like Pair, Path, Bonfyre, and Everyme are in a nice position, thanks in part to Snapchat’s meteoric rise.
Lyft has been the talk of the Bay Area startup scene. The ride-sharing app allows you to either drive others or catch a ride, giving you the opportunity to earn a few bucks or find a more affordable lift. What’s perhaps the most encouraging part of using Lyft is its $1 million per occurrence excess liability insurance policy, so the inherent risk of ride-sharing is minimized. The sharing economy has strong-armed the startup world, and this – as well as its early popularity – could propel Lyft in 2013.
It should go without saying that 2013 stands to be very nice to Nest. The learning thermostat debuted to much applause from tech and green geeks everywhere. The company will only sell more units and earn more acclaim as home owners are increasingly concerned about saving money and energy – two things we have only seen become more and more important to consumers in recent years.
With the animated GIF solidly recapturing our fascination this year, Cinemagram could break into the big time and maybe even earn the coveted (and overused) “Instagram for ___” title image sharing apps have so liberally thrown at them. Cinemagram launched its app nearly a year ago, putting animated GIF (technically, cinemagraph) creation into the hands of anyone with an iPhone. Thanks to the mild but remaining Instagram backlash and the year of the animated GIF, it could become a popular new platform for creative image sharing.
Nextdoor is a private social network for your neighborhood, and despite that somewhat limited scope, it’s grown to 6,500 neighborhoods and just raised $18.6 million to keep expanding its platform. The site’s focus on keeping things private, secure, and local for its users has made it a popular social tool that’s also filled with utility. The private social networking concept is getting a big boost lately, and Nextdoor will likely keep benefiting from that.
The personal landing page continues to become a staple of your virtual profile, and RebelMouse has been at the forefront since winning the favor of Silicon Valley’s tech elite. The site brings together the various, scattered elements and content from your social profiles and creates a story board of sorts. There’s a lot of competition in this space, notably from products like About.me, Flavors.me, Vizify, and more directly Storify, but RebelMouse has managed to win some impressive beta users that could pump some new blood into it this year.
This 2012 TechStars NYC graduate falls squarely into the collaborative consumption startup bracket. This gadget startup is selling an $80 hotspot that connects to your Wi-Fi signal and distributes it to others in your area; it’s a concept Karma calls “social bandwidth.” The device uses a pay as you go system (1GB costs $14) and rewards you for sharing your connection – each time someone uses your Karma hotspot to connect to the Internet, you each get 100MB of free data. Karma has some impressive investors on its side, including Collaborative Fund, Elliot Loh, TechStars, and 500 Startups.
Now that Zipcar has exited the space and simultaneously given some more credence to the auto sharing concept, Getaround is poised to make a big play for the peer-to-peer car sharing market. Getaround gives car owners a way to share their wheels and make a few bucks in the process – and renters get temporary access to a car without having to deal with the prices and attached strings of traditional rental services. After winning TechCrunch Disrupt back in 2011, the startup has continued to gain momentum and expanding across the country. In a recent interview, co-founder Jessica Scorpio said the startup signed 10,000 car owners in the year and a half it’s been in business and just raised $13.9 million.
Keep fit and healthy with your iPhone, iPod and iPad
Usually, when you come across a feature in a magazine about getting fit and healthy, there's a bullying, hectoring undertone. Get up off your backside, seems to be the underlying message, and do some bloody exercise.
Well, you won't hear that here. It's no business of ours how much exercise you take, how few calories you consume every day, or how otherwise healthy you are. Our job is to tell you how your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can help you get the most out of your life, and that's just what we're going to do here, specifically looking at how your device can help keep you fit and healthy - and hopefully happier as a result.
Another thing we're not going to do is prescribe what apps, kit and techniques you should use; only you - in consultation with your doctor, if needs be - can know exactly what mix of these is right for you.
Our task here is to present you with all the options, and let you make your mind up about which things will work for you. So unlike those other magazines that tell you to get up off the sofa, we're going to tell you to sit down on the sofa and enjoy reading the rest of this feature.
Once you get to the end, you'll see that your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch can help you make health and well-being changes for the better both in big, traditional, sweaty ways, but also in subtle, entirely pleasant ways that shift your behaviour just enough to effect some big-scale changes without having to get totally exhausted or deny yourself a good, balanced diet.
This isn't some pie-in-the-sky promise that you can sit around eating, well, pies, all day and that you'll be fine if you just install a couple of apps on your iPhone; rather, we'll talk about how using your iOS device cleverly can gently coax you into making good choices, everything from deciding to take the stairs rather than the lift, to conventional exercise, and dozens of points in between.
There are lots of reasons that your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad is the perfect companion in helping you get or stay fit and healthy. One of the simplest and yet most important is that, especially in the case of the iPhone and iPod touch, most of us always have ours with us.
If you're doing the thing of counting calories or watching your cholesterol, for example, your results are going to be more accurate and more complete if you can just pull out your device when you have lunch and quickly tap in a few figures directly rather than waiting until you get back to your PC or noting things in a physical diary.
The social, connected nature of these devices is also a boon. Getting encouragement from friends, whether that's them explicitly egging you on or, as with the Nike FuelBand system, seeing how they're doing compared to you and being spurred on through friendly competition, can have a subtle but hugely motivating effect on you.
And, of course, having the always-on internet in your pocket when you have an iPhone or iPad with cellular access can be invaluable when you want, say, to look up the GI value of something you're thinking about eating.
The Wi-Fi or cellular access to the internet isn't the only connectivity an iOS device has, mind you; accessories can connect to the headphone port, can use Bluetooth and, ever since iPhone OS 3 in 2009, can plug into the dock connector that's on the devices' bottom edge. This last point is especially exciting, as it means companies can make terrific medical and well-being add-ons such as glucose monitors for people who have diabetes.
iOS devices are stuffed with all sorts of sensors too. Some of them are used in ways you'd expect; the GPS chip in all iPhones but the original model is great for mapping your runs - indeed, the RunKeeper app can map your run live so that friends and family can watch your route as you run it.
Some of the sensors are used in innovative ways; apps such as CrunchFu can count how many sit-ups you do if you hold an iPhone on your chest under your crossed arms, just by using the accelerometer.
And that particular sensor is so sensitive that it can even detect your heart rate in apps such as Cardiograph. And sometimes, developers use sensors in ways we bet Apple never imagined.
Instant Heart Rate, for example, can read your heart rate when you press your finger against the camera on the back of your iPhone 4/4S - the flash lights up and shines through your skin, and the camera picks up the change in the light levels as your heart pumps!
Using your iPhone itself, with all its built-in sensors and connectivity, or augmenting it with accessories that you plug in or connect wirelessly, is usually a more cost-effective strategy than buying a drawerful of stand-alone gadgets that only do one thing. It's not just to do with the cost of buying these widgets; it's how good the experience is once you start using them compared to how it could be on iOS.
Sure, you could buy a cheap pedometer with a basic numeric LCD, but while that would tell you how many steps you've taken today, say, if you were to use a Fitbit Ultra instead, your iPhone would display the results on rich, full-colour graphs, be able to store weeks, months or even years of data that its powerful processor can manipulate and present in different ways - to help you spot trends, set goals and more.
It's easy to forget the benefits of having everything linked together, with your iOS device as the nexus; Medisana's range of health-focused accessories for iOS - for measuring blood sugar, blood pressure, weight and more - all use the same app, so if you choose, you can have all your data in one place. This makes it easy to spot trends, or share results with your doctor who could then see correlation between things that might have been tricky to identify otherwise.
Your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch itself, then, can be an useful bit of hardware at the centre of a terrific ecosystem of accessories, apps and services, but it's not just this that makes it an invaluable companion when you're trying to achieve or maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.
There's a subtle but effective and affecting psychological benefit as well; the mere act of writing things down can make a big difference. Partly, this is because you can actually keep track of changes and trends in, say, your weight rather than relying on your trousers feeling tight or loose. We're often surprised to find that the raw data we note down is at odds with what we presumed was happening, both in a positive and negative way at times, a testament to the fact that our minds are a mess of preconceptions and downright lies about ourselves.
Partly, too, it helps because you can see, live, how close you are to the goals you've set, and we've been amazed at the difference this makes to us in the months we've been using this kind of kit.
With the Nike FuelBand, for example, you can, at the press of a button, get a little row of LEDs that show you how close to your activity goal you are, and it's fascinating to note how this can help us make different choices.
Thinking about getting the bus home? Ah, but that will probably mean you won't hit your goal for the day - and though that doesn't really mean anything, it really can influence your behaviour.
It's the same idea with the Fitbit Ultra; it can also tell you how many floors you climb, and your willpower when deciding whether to take the lift or the stairs can get a welcome boost when the angel sitting on one of your shoulders reminds you that you're a bit behind today and should really make the extra little bit of effort.
This all isn't just anecdotal, either. Academic studies have shown the positive effect of simply recording progress; one 1986 study even showed that the results of students with disabilities improved even more greatly when graphed compared to when simply recorded, and that's another place where your iOS device can be a huge help.
Sports specifics
First, let's talk about accessories, and specifically those that can help track how active you are every day.
Our favourite is the Nike FuelBand. It's the most expensive, but gets our vote both because it's the most useful and informative device on its own, and also because, when you connect it live to your iOS device over Bluetooth (another tick!), you get rich, informative graphs and achievements.
What's more, the Facebook integration acts as a great incentive to walking or running more; when you can see that your friends' scores are higher than yours, a small (and slightly unpleasant, if we're honest) voice in your head will get you off the sofa, just for your own pride! The FuelBand is, though, expensive at £129, and there are other options that are almost as good.
We like the Fitbit Ultra, a little thing you clip to your waistband that measures how many steps you take and how many floors you climb. Like the FuelBand, it also estimates how many calories you've burned, though in both cases we're sceptical about how accurate this extrapolated figure can really be.
Unfortunately it doesn't link to your iOS device directly - you have to sync it via a PC or Mac - but the iPhone app is good, and will also track other metrics such as how much water you drink. It will also track your sleep patterns, unlike the FuelBand, and, especially if you pay for the premium online service, will give you personalised guidance on realistic goals and interpreting your results.
Even better at giving you advice with a detailed, personalised report is another device that can help track your sleep, the Lark. We tested this alongside the Zeo, and though the data from the Zeo is more accurate - it measures electrical activity in the brain rather than merely movement data in a device strapped to your wrist as with the Lark - the fact that it's relatively bulky and straps to your forehead means that it really gets in the way when you're trying to sleep.
Sure, you could 'fool' the Lark by lying perfectly still while remaining wide awake, but you'd only be fooling yourself. The information, trends and, ultimately, advice the Lark gives you really is useful and written in a very human way, and we think it can really make a big difference to those people struggling with light insomnia.
There's one last activity tracking gadget we'd like to mention here, but with a big caveat. The Jawbone UP, like the Nike FuelBand, is a bracelet-like thing you wear on your wrist. It lacks the FuelBand's display and Bluetooth connection, and the app isn't as rich, but it's less bulky, and cleverly connects to your device by plugging into its headphone port.
The caveat, though, is that there were problems with the early models, and while the company acted quickly and did everything right in keeping customers happy, as we write it still hasn't gone back on sale. It's likely to soon, though.
Step it up
While all of these are great ways of passively tracking how much you move around every day, they will, of course, also do a great job of recording your effort if you do decide to step it up and actually go for a run. But there are other options that are specifically designed to be used for running.
There is, of course, the Nike ecosystem, which we'll talk about in its own section later on, and it's worth noting that, though it's much less well known and doesn't have the same heritage as Nike, Adidas also has a similar range of sensors and apps that are worth considering.
You don't have to go for a lock-in with one of the big sportswear companies, though; Scosche, for example, makes the myTREK, a sensor you strap to your wrist that communicates your heart rate to your device over Bluetooth. This information can help ensure you exercise well - not pushing yourself too hard, but not doing so little as to be ineffectual. You can get audio prompts too as you run.
Your iPad, of course, isn't exactly ideal to carry with you on a run, but if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can easily strap it to your upper arm with an armband from companies such as Belkin, Griffin and Incase. You can still use the device through the clear plastic covering, but it's protected and securely fastened so that you can just concentrate on running.
The headphones that come in the box with an iPhone or iPod not only don't sound great, but for most of us they fall out of our ears far too easily. Happily, there are plenty of other options. Earphones such as the Iqua Ear-go actually clip on to your earlobes, but we'd prefer something wireless so we can swing our arms freely when running without fear of tangling in a cable and yanking the earphones out.
If you like in-ear headphones, we recommend the Jabra SPORT. They're comfortable, connect over Bluetooth and are rainproof to boot. For over-ears, we still, years on, like the Bluetooth-toting JayBird Sportsband. They fit snugly, and though we get a bit squeamish just writing the words, we appreciate their lifetime warranty against sweat.
Your iPhone can help you with more than just running, mind you. The Wahoo Blue SC Speed and Cadence Sensor for iPhone 4S attaches to a bike to track distance, so you can see how far you've ridden today, last week, ever and so on; the data is passed to your iPhone 4S or new iPad over Bluetooth 4.0 - which is why it won't work with older devices.
Remember: the mere act of recording this data can be a powerful motivator. If you need even more motivation and coaxing, though, you should look at the iBike system, specifically the POWERHOUSE model. That gives you a weather-proof and rugged case for your iPhone that you attach to your handlebars, plus a sensor to measure speed and cadence.
The reason we like this so much, though, is that the accompanying app will calibrate to your level of fitness, then, through a series of training programmes (two are included, with more available as In-App Purchases), it will gradually build you up even from a standing start.
If you've bought a bike with the best of intentions and yet never actually found yourself using the damn thing, the iBike POWERHOUSE is a good way to get yourself using it to improve your fitness levels, without it feeling like you're being punished by a sergeant at boot camp.
There's a whole slew of iOS accessories that can help track biometric data too. You might, for example, be advised to watch your blood pressure, and for many of us, getting a blood pressure test from a doctor is infrequent, inconvenient and stressful - which, ironically, pushes up your blood pressure.
Instead, a blood pressure cuff from Withings or Medisana lets you measure yours regularly, and in the comfort of your own home. The results are stored and plotted on a graph on the bright colour screen of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, so it's easy to see trends and problems, and consult with your doctor to interpret results and formulate strategies to improve your health.
Both companies make other medical hardware that connect to iOS devices too. Withings' original product was a set of Wi-Fi scales which not only measure your weight but also your lean and fat mass - and, as an encore, your Body Mass Index. Results are sent to the web, and can be viewed on your iOS device.
Medisana makes a similar set of scales. We found them a bit inconsistent when we tested them a few months ago, but Medisana was working on the problem. The Fitbit Aria scales are at least more consistent.
Brand loyalty
When picking one of these sets of scales, allow yourself to be influenced by whether you own something else from the same company. If you already have the Medisana blood sugar monitor to help control diabetes, for example, and want to buy a set of scales that will send its measurements to your device, you should consider the VitaDock TargetScale from the same company.
We say this because having all your biometric data feeding into one app or one platform makes it easier to spot trends and correlate events; you can see, for example, what effect weight loss over a period of time has on the frequency and dose of insulin injections. Medisana even makes an infrared thermometer that plugs into your device's dock connector, and while infrared thermometers can only measure surface rather than core body temperature, something like this would still be a great way of tracking, say, a fever.
There is, then, a huge ecosystem of kit that you can add to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch in the quest to improve your general well-being, but you don't even need to spend lots of money on hardware. There are, of course, many dozens of great apps that are ready to gently guide or challenge you, and some of them don't cost a penny.
Apple has created a great list of these apps on the App Store, which you can browse through here - tap on that link to be taken straight to the list on the App Store.
Let's talk about a few of the apps that Apple has highlighted, ones that we think are particularly worthy of your attention, as well as a few other ideas. Which apps you get will depend on what kind of exercise you want to do - and if you don't want to do exercise, at least just yet, you'll have to skip a few paragraphs to get to the apps that aren't about exercise!
If running's your thing, you can choose between the stalwart RunKeeper or the Nike Plus Running app (discussed in the section on Nike) when you want to track and map your runs. Nike's app is a little prettier to our eyes, and hooks into the wider Nike ecosystem, but serious runners tend to prefer RunKeeper.
As we've mentioned, one of RunKeeper's really cool features is the ability to broadcast your run live on a map great for letting friends, family and fans see how you're doing on a half marathon, for example.
If you'd like to get running but aren't sure how to start, apps such as Couch-to-5K and Get Running (Couch to 5K) can get you moving gently, and if you're an experienced runner, Ultimate Running Races will help you find challenging courses all over the world. And if, ultimately, you need novelty to get you interested, try Zombies, Run - a weird mix of app to get you running (you can hear the zombies getting closer in your headphones) and game that uses supplies you collect while running to build up your base.
There are lots of apps for cyclists too, whether you want to simply use the iPhone's on-board sensors to map your ride and give you live data about your distance, speed, pace and so on with an app such as Xtrail, administer first aid to your bike on the roadside with Bike Doctor 2, challenge your friends using Strava Cycling, or just find great bike-friendly routes with apps such as London Bike Rides, CycleStreets and Ride the City. Remember to get a secure mount for your device, though.
Swimming's a bit trickier, not just because keeping your device dry is a challenge in itself, but also because it's less easy to track distances automatically. Nevertheless, there are a slew of apps that can help. Swimming Log PRO and its ilk are there so you can record and track your progress, there are apps such as Stroke Builder and Swim Coach Plus to coach you in swimming, and Splashpath can show you where your local pools are and when you can go.
And if churning up and down lanes doesn't sound like your idea of a good time, BeachWeather lets you track conditions at your favourite beaches.
If you prefer the gym, or are forced into one by a lack of local amenities, your iPhone can be a great buddy. Competing with friends and even strangers all over the world can be a great motivator, in apps such as Push-Up Wars and Fitocracy.
The great thing, though, is that you don't need to pay for a gym membership to get started. The App Store is stuffed with apps that will train you. Now, we're not saying that you can't get better and more personalised advice at a gym from a qualified instructor, but if you're worried about making that sort of financial commitment, an app such as Nike mTraining club or DailyBurn (both of which are free) can start you off in your living room, and are a good way to test your resolve.
Again, though, don't just think about exercise in the traditional sense. There are apps for yoga, apps for jiujitsu, capoeira and much more.
Besides, your iPhone can help look after you in more ways than just promoting exercise. If you need a little encouragement to eat more healthily, a recipe app such as Good Food Healthy Recipes can be invaluable, or you can 'gamify' healthy eating with an app such as Munch 5-A Day, which spurs you on to eat plenty of fruit and veg. Of course, long-established weight-loss companies such as WeightWatchers also have apps to complement their services.
If you have a medical condition, search the App Store; there's almost certainly something there that can assist in managing it. And if you're thinking of starting a family, apps such as Period Diary can lend a helping hand.
All of this comes down to the fact that your iOS device can really help with whatever aspect of your personal health and well-being you want to work on. We reckon that the best bit is that you can start gentle - even, in the case of activity trackers such as the Nike FuelBand and Fitbit Ultra, by not changing your lifestyle at all, at least initially - and then, if you think you need to, gently cranking up the intensity.
With the right apps, kit and attitude, your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can make you healthy, happy and fit. Go for it!
The Nike ecosystem
In May 2006, the Nike+ iPod system was revealed, and it was quite a big deal. It was one of the highest-profile partnerships Apple had or has ever made, and Apple is a company famous for doing its own thing; other companies, the impression given seems to be, aren't up to Apple's standards.
Originally, you put a sensor into one of a very small number of Nike trainers, and plugged a receiving dongle into an iPod, all in aid of tracking your runs, and playing motivating playlists while you jogged. These days - ever since the second-generation iPod touch, in fact - iPhones and iPod touches have the receiver built in, and all you have to do is enable the built-in app by going to Settings and flicking the switch to On in the Nike+ iPod section.
What's more, there's a huge range of Nike trainers now that can accept the sensor, or - though Nike doesn't recommend it - you can attach it to non-Nike shoes with an adapter such as the LaceLid. We mention this not only because the Nike+ iPod system remains a great way to track your runs today, but also to demonstrate the company's legacy here.
Its range of accessories and apps - mostly linking live to iOS devices - has greatly broadened, especially in the last year or so, but it's the company that first saw and realised the potential for augmenting a device you carried with you everywhere with a few extra sensors to make every workout - or even just a walk to the shops for a pint of milk - count.
Fuel's gold
And although Nike's gadgets and services don't quite yet all hook up to a common platform, things are moving in that direction. It has introduced the concept of NikeFuel, a synthetic measure of activity and energy expended, and new accessories will be able to record using this, making it easy to increase your NikeFuel count no matter what you're doing.
Though we still like the venerable Nike+ iPod system, there are newer technologies out there to give you even more detail and even more training support. The Nike+ Training shoes have more built-in sensors that provide much more granular data, transmitting it live to your iPhone over Bluetooth not only so you can track and monitor your activity, but also to hook into daily training sessions from pros.
The Nike Hyperdunk+ trainers for basketball are even more, um, redunkulous. A system of sensors embedded in their soles will transmit your performance back to your iPhone or iPod touch, and can tell you an amazing amount about how you're doing - including how high you jump and your hangtime. All this is converted to NikeFuel, and you can share your results with your friends.
Free running
You don't need to buy expensive trainers, though, especially if you just want to have a go and see if it's for you. The free Nike+ Running app uses your iPhone's GPS and/or accelerometer to record your progress. You can easily display GPS-tracked runs on maps, share them on the web and more - even having your friends on Facebook and Path cheer you on.
It's rich, accurate and free; the only bad thing is that you have to use either this or the Nike+ iPod sensor; you can't really use both at once.
