Categories
Fitness

BodyFly will tone your body, won’t provide flight

Fitness buffs get a little crazed about their all-in-one products. Here’s another one to go wild for: BodyFly. This hexagonal platform uses cables and handles to make your body fly (as in toned, not airborne). It offers a multitude of workouts upright or lying down to tone abs, pecs, arms, legs and core. With a slider, those working out can adjust the weight they want to lift from 10 to 20 or 30 pounds. The side has a handle for easy carrying and the creators claim that their product is quite lightweight. In addition, the campaign boasts that BodyFly can be used anywhere, humorously showing a hunk using the product in a supermarket.

It’s difficult to get excited about fitness devices in the crowdfunding world because there are simply so many out there. Some sacrifice function for versatility, wanting their product to be used in so many different ways that they forget the entire purpose. Others sacrifice portability for functionality forgetting that people need to tote it around, like the recent STABALLIZER. All in all, BodyFly seems to be the full package, offering a range of workouts, not the biggest range ever, but a range nonetheless with portability for convenience. Backers can have their own for $699 and if they don’t die from heart attack at the sticker shock first, they’ll get it by July 2015. BodyFly hopes to raise $150,000 on Kickstarter.

Categories
Organization Tech Accessories

Cablestop is a small cylindical weight to tame your cables

Desks are notorious for wires shooting out all over the place making a messy work environment. It’s hard to keep them all organized as we continue to add more devices to the mix. Cablestop is like a paperweight for your wires. It’s small and discreet, using little slots to slide the wires through. This product comes in several different colors. In addition, Cablestop doesn’t use any type of magnet or adhesive so it can be adjusted easily. To use, simply snake through one or two wires.

Each Cablestop only holds up to two wires, which is good from an organizational perspective, but not so great from a financial perspective. The typical backer with a cluttered desk will probably need at least two to tidy up. One will cost backers $21 AUD (~$18 USD) for delivery in April 2015 from Australia. This product is looking to raise $29,000 AUD (~$25,000 USD) on Kickstarter. Some backers may opt for a more do-it-yourself approach to the wire situation by using binder clips as wire holders. For the less creative, however, Cablestop is a nifty little solution to your clutter problems. 

Categories
Luggage and Bags

TUL briefcase builds in a scale to save on airline baggage expenses

TULIn spite of full body scans, baggage and over-the-limit fees, obnoxious ticket prices and generally treating most passengers like they are prisoners, there are still people out there willing to fly what is quickly becoming not-so-friendly skies. For those who seem to be able to put this outrageous affront to customer service aside, TUL offers a way to save a few pennies via luggage with a built-in scale. Just close the lid, flip on the switch and the sensors and digital display do the rest. There isn’t even any lifting involved. This seems like a great idea, but Americans take note: it appears that only kilos are calculated. For $229 AUD backers get one suitcase and an expected delivery of May 2015.

Categories
Connected Objects Food and Beverage Health and Wellness

SITU smart food scale counts calories and more from raw ingredients

situAs easy as people say it is to count calories and eat less junk food, combining those two goals can prove to be a bigger challenge. Boxed, frozen, canned, and fast food options have readily available nutritional data. But cooking at home, preparing meals out of fresher, healthier ingredients, how exactly does one figure out a serving size?

Extending the idea of a smart scale for humans, SITU is a smart food scale that can provide nutritional data for any bit of food. SITU weighs food and then transmits that information to an iPad. From there, users can track calorie intake, sugar, sodium, or any other ingredient. That information can be used and applied to analytics that will guide users through whatever their goal is: shedding pounds, adding weight, managing diabetes, and more.  It’s an idea that others have tried already, including the eerily similar Smart Food Scale by Chef Sleeve, but SITU hopes that its complete nutritional data and ease of use will help it stand out.

While there’s plenty of cause to be skeptical about the scale’s accuracy, he campaign video shares the personal weight loss story of the inventor who used to count calories by hand and managed to lose 100 pounds, lending credence to the effectiveness of a smart scale like SITU. Backers who pledge £50 plus £12 for shipping outside the UK can get a SITU in November and start losing pounds in time for an easier New Year’s resolution.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

KERO keeps your iPhone cable from moving around the aluminum block

KERO Cable Weight  9998a221511bfe129f2252d045740ce4_large[1] Aarrgh! There goes my iPhone cable again! Seems like those things are always falling onto the floor, flying away like a spastic snake. The good news is that Kero Cable Weight easily converts an iPhone 5 cable into a weighted doc. The  aluminum quasi-dock block has slots for the iPhone connector and its attached cord that allow the iPhone to sit upright at most any dedicated charging area and mobile work station. The iPhone Lightning cable remains anchored, docked and incapable of sailing off into the sunset — or falling onto the floor. One concern: because it is fitted so precisely to Apple cable specifications, third-party cables may not work. A pledge of $18 gets a backer a KERO Cable Weight in their choice of black or silver, with an expected delivery date of June 2014.