bodybugg

Two of my friends have begun to use a fitness device called a bodybugg. The bodybugg armband is used to track calories consumed and also tracks calories expended using four types of sensors. It measures motion, body temp, skin conductivity, and heat flux. (Not sure how all the science works, but their web site provides some details.) Then you upload the info to your personalized web site and can view your results and progress. The concept is simple: balancing calories consumed against calories burned in order to manage weight. Cost is $399. It's a nice concept, but the armband is a bit bulky. And I don't know that I'd be consistent about entering my calories consumed into the armband. I prefer going to my Weight Watchers online web site and using their tools, although I'm less consistent with that than I should be.

The bodybugg reminds me a bit of my Sportbrain, but the Sportbrain only counts and uploads my steps. And of course the Sportbrain only costs $29.99. But again--less functionality.

All things TiVo

For those of you who enjoy TiVo, how are you liking the new Amazon Unbox service? I've used it to download a few movies and TV shows, but wish they offered more selection.

And, as many predicted, the price is coming down on the Series 3 TiVo. Actually its a new "lite" model that features HD, and at a significantly reduced price from the Series 3.

I moved houses recently, and have felt a little frustration at dealing with multiple TiVos or not having TiVo available in the room I want to be in. This stems from the walking program that I began in January (yes, I do get well over 10,000 steps a day and I've lost over 50 pounds since January!). I now have my treadmill in a room without a TiVo. And I really don't want to purchase another Tivo--I already have 2. So I began to investigate networking options for my TiVo and came up with two solutions:

1. X10 offers what they call a Wireless Video Sender. I could hook the transmitting unit up to one of my TiVos and then hook the receiving unit to the TV next to my treadmill. $49.99 for this solution.
2. Here is the solution I like the most. CrossBar Media sells a kit that allows you to network all your A/V devices over your existing coax cables. So I could send programming from my TiVo to any TV in the house, as well as pop a DVD into the drive in my living room and watch it on the TV in my bedroom. (I don't know about you, but I'm tired of buying multiple devices for each room.) Their AVCast Media Kit runs $99.95 and provides a CableCaster, MediaCaster, IRCaster, IR Detector and the associated cables and power supplies. You replace the splitter where all your cable runs connect with the CableCaster, then install the MediaCaster on the device that you want to transmit throughout the home. The IRCaster allows you to remote control the device from other rooms. Note that you'll need a MediaCaster and IRCaster for each device that you want to transmit programming from. So in my case I'd need a MediaCaster for both the TiVo and the DVD player.

I'm actually planning to try out both devices and see how they perform.