GeekSugar

Get Nutrition Facts to Your Phone With Diet.com

GeekSugar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:00:46 -0700

Since you're already getting nice and buff thanks to a handy workout program on your phone, why not complement your cell phone workouts with a calorie counter?

With Diet.com's on the go service, you can text certain food items to DIET1 (34381) and receive a text back with the nutritional values of your item. Their database already includes more than 36,000 foods from 1,700 restaurants in North America, so you'll always know whether that BLT sandwich is a go or a no-go for that bikini-ready diet!

Diet Floor: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:45:03 -0800

And I thought it was the media, poor role models, and unsupportive friends who gave us body image problems and eating disorders! Now you can actually pay to have technology verbally abuse you to get you to stay on your diet. Gizmodo peeped this Diet Floor by Spanish ceramic company Tau Ceramica - tiles that yell at you to knock it off when they sense your weight standing on them (ostensibly in front of a fridge).It's unclear whether the phrases it yells at you come pre-set or if you can make your own custom messages, but you can set different phrases for different people (you enter each individual's weight and coordinating phrase). If you can customize it, then I guess those who do well with tough-love can hurl hurtful insults at the themselves, and those who like a gentler approach can program in some kind words of motivation. It may have its uses, but I personally hate diets, and therefore anyone or anything telling me to stay on a diet? Hate that more! What do you think?

Website of the Day: WikiDumper

GeekSugar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:25:15 -0700

With over three million entries, Wikipedia is the ultimate online encyclopedia. Most of you said that you regularly use it, but that you don't ever contribute or edit articles. But what happens to all of the entries that are considered for deletion by the Wikipedia gods? A website called WikiDumper pools together some of the Wiki articles that get flagged as inappropriate submissions or ones that have been nominated to be deleted. I'd have to say "The Purple Diet" entry that Mariah Carey supposedly followed - which involves eating only purple foods like plums and beetroot - is pretty hilarious.

Have an interesting website you want to share? To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more.

First of all, join the Website of the Day group.
Click "New Post" under the website of the day tab at the top of the page.
Give your story a "Title."
Fill in the "Body" with a link to your favorite website and the reasons why you love it.
Type "Technology and Gadgets" in the Categories box
Add keyword(s) in the tag field with relevant tags (for example mine for this story was "Website of the Day").
Choose whether you want the post to be private or public.
Click "Create Post" to submit content.

Hook It Up With the Cassette Tape USB Hub

GeekSugar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:44:19 -0700

I'm not sure if it's the fact that this Cassette Tape USB Hub is, well, a cassette tape that makes me a little bit excited, or if it's the fact that I can hook up four more peripherals to my machine when I need it. Having some extra ports can come in super handy when I'm rocking my stylish netbook and need to connect my camera and external hard drive at the same time. Or you know, to plug in my USB mini fridge to cool my Diet Coke. Whatever.

I could easily throw down the $15 or so that it takes to get my hands on this, mostly because I have an obsession with mixed tapes and old-school boomboxes.

Testing Out the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach

GeekSugar — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:50:45 -0700

In my opinion, achieving a sense of general well-being includes three vital components: incorporating a balanced and nutritious diet into your lifestyle, getting regular exercise, and getting enough sleep. Not surprisingly, most people are lacking in one or all of these areas, which is why I am thrilled to tell you about this new device that acts as your personal sleep coach - because we all know if we don't get enough sleep, diet and exercise tend to be the last things on our minds.

Based on academic articles within sleep science and designed in conjunction with sleep scientists, the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach is a four-part system which includes a headband, a bedside display, an interactive website, and a seven-step sleep fitness program. Its purpose is to measure your sleep patterns and give you tools to help improve your sleep by educating you on how you're actually sleeping. It's not some magical sleep doctor in a box, but it is pretty cool.

To keep reading about my first few experiences with Zeo and to see some more photos of the device, just read more.

If you're already thinking, "Huh?" let me explain. The way it works is you wear the wireless headband to bed, and with its sensor technology, your sleep patterns will be tracked and transmitted to your bedside Zeo clock. You can see me wearing the headband below - it's really not that bad once you get used to it, just make sure on your first night you're really tired and it's the weekend so you can slowly adjust!

After a night of wearing the headband (it fell off my first night, although I learned I could pull my ponytail right through the back strap), you can read the bedside display to see a sleep graph which summarizes your pattern of sleep phases each night (like total amount of REM, and light, and deep sleep, which is broken down into hours, minutes, and percentages), and your ZQ score. I think the best part of this entire trial run was the excitement of waking up to read the graph - and check out my ZQ score, naturally! It's funny because my highest score (usually around 110) would be on the weekends (they say your ZQ can range from 0-120). The fact that I was completely tuckered out from the week before, and relaxed because it was the weekend, made for some ideal sleeping conditions.

Zeo also comes with a SD memory card that will load all of the info from your headband onto it (when you dock your headband), which you can then upload onto your computer to your web-based personal sleep account. The Zeo's seven-step fitness program will then analyze your sleep patterns and lifestyle (like exercise, diet, stress, and environment), and recommend techniques, tools, and tips to address the issues that may be affecting your sleep. The program is intended to be completed within eight to 12 weeks.

The Zeo also includes a neat feature called the SmartWake Alarm which will look for a moment when you transition into and out of REM sleep when the brain is highly active. Therefore Zeo may wake you as early as half an hour before your set wake-up time, but it will never wake you up later than your actual alarm time. Because the Zeo costs $399, you'll be happy to know that this is one fancy schmancy alarm clock. Even if you're not using the headband, the alarm clock itself includes settings to adjust its brightness, and it offers relaxing alarm sounds to make the wake-up process a little less startling.

Overall, I give the Zeo a nice four out of five stars. As I said, it's not some magical sleep doctor that's going to cure insomniacs or people with major snoring issues, but it is going to educate you on your sleep style and give you some helpful suggestions for improving your sleep. Note to self: no more gadgets in the bedroom!

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5 Games That Work Your Bod For Fall

GeekSugar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:45:08 -0700

If you've slacked off on getting fit this Summer, there's still time to whip your bod into shape before Fall. You don't want to miss showing off those shapely legs in the season's hottest knee-high boots, do you? I didn't think so. Check out five games that can get your heart pumping, muscles working, and will help you get your diet under control so you're not only healthy, but happy for the upcoming season.

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Incipio's iPod Shuffle Wafer Cases Are Good Enough to Eat

GeekSugar — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:50:17 -0700

It's rare for me to actually describe an iPod case as mouthwatering, but that's exactly what Incipio's Wafer dermaSHOT Case is ($15). Naturally, it's not edible, but it just looks like a delicious treat.

The case, which works only with the iPod Shuffle's latest generation, is available in chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla . . . oops, I mean brown, pink, or yellow. The silicone will protect your little iPod, and your diet, possibly; I just don't think it would taste very good.

Would You Live on Only Ramen To Get a Gadget?

GeekSugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:25:03 -0800

Some people may go to extremes to buy the gadgets they love. We've all heard the stories of Apple fans sitting outside for days in the cold for the iPhone, and others plunking down hundreds of dollars to scalpers for the latest game console that isn't available on store shelves. Have you ever gone the distance to get your hand on a gadget that you just couldn't live without? Would you eat Top Ramen every day for every meal until you got it? Based on national facts, the average person in the US makes around $46,000 dollars a year, which will barely get you a Ferrari Phone to tote around. So just for fun - and keeping in mind this is not including any of your other financial obligations - let's see how long the average American would have to live on Top Ramen to get their hands on the ultimate gadgets. Source

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Have You Ever Suffered an Extended Internet/Cable Outage?

GeekSugar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:45:52 -0700

Dear friends and readers, take pity on me. I have no Internet or cable at my house right now. Both services come from Comcast, and now I'm starting to see where that bundle deal was not such a great idea after all. The modem's probably broken, they say, and the only solution is to send someone out to our house. The catch? They can't come until tomorrow. That happened Monday (without even an apology for the outage, which would have been nice).

Since then, we've been living on a steady diet of season one Lost DVDs and video games (to add insult to injury, Little Big Planet keeps reminding me how fun online play is).

Sure, I should probably be using this forced disconnect time to read some books, maybe go on some long, thoughtful walks, but let's be real: I just want my Internet back (I'm whimpering). And cable and TiVo and Boxxee.

What I really learned this week is how dependent I am on these things - and that I really hate forced outages. Have you ever had to live a few days without cable, Internet, or both, against your will?

Source

Get in Shape With the Lose It iPhone App

GeekSugar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:33:05 -0700

Are you on a diet and exercise regimen and trying to lose weight? If you also have an iPhone, you can track what you're eating and your workouts with the free Lose It! iPhone app.

The app tracks what's going in your body, calculates the calorie intake, and compares it with the calories you're burning.

Let's face it, it is about to be bathing suit season. Don't face it without your iPhone!