July 2008

Jonathan Mitchener admits he is somewhat obsessed with gadgets. He spends his days at BT keeping a close eye on the industry and meeting manufacturers as he researches the direction devices are going in. And he spends a fair amount of his own time playing with the latest technology he can get his hands on. In this regular column, he will offer his insights on the latest gizmos to hit the market.

July 2008With the summer season here, I’m spotlighting some innovative fitness related devices, and others designed for the great outdoors.

First, the latest £75 addition to the Wii games console, is the pressure-sensitive wireless balance board – you can step and jump on it and do yoga and press-ups.

Next, a competitor to the iPod Nike-plus system which supports those who run with motivation and tracking information about their sessions. The Nike+ SportBand uses a small LCD screen on a wrist band to show progress and stores data for uploading to the Nike+ website via the USB port on your PC.

Samsung is getting in on the act with its ‘miCoach’ mobile phone, developed in collaboration with Adidas. Just 14.5mm thick, it has a 2MP camera and 1GB of memory for storing music to jog with. The phone also gives motivational spoken encouragement. Its built-in fitness mode counts calories burned and can measure heart rate using a monitor strapped around your chest. After the run you can upload your fitness data via your PC to the miCoach website and analyse your performance.

Note: While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, BT accepts no responsibility for any information contained in Jonathan’s article, nor does the company endorse any product or service mentioned.

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