Best Buy MacBook Pro sale helps push down prices on 13" Retina models - Apple and Best Buy have again teamed for a week-long MacBook Pro sale, not only helping the Mac maker push units in an unfavorable climate for the PC market, but also helping to driving down prices for consumers even further at competing resellers.
(Via AppleInsider.)
Fitbit Flex fitness tracker ships with Bluetooth 4.0 synchronization - 
Fitbit has started shipping its first wrist-based activity tracker. The Fitbit Flex follows the Jawbone Up and the Nike FuelBand in providing tracking of activities and sleep patterns from the wrist, and like other Fitbit trackers in the entire range, is able to sync over Bluetooth 4.0 through iOS and Android devices, as well as using the provided Bluetooth dongle with a PC ...
My life with the Jawbone Up activity tracker - If social makes things better, the Jawbone Up might be the tracker for you. It's easy for friends with the device to motivate you. But for "non-step" activities, you may need to do manual logging.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Thor's hammer gets a Tesla coil, puts out 80,000 volts - According to comic book legend, Thor's hammer can summon lightning. A couple of makers decided to make that concept real with an assist from a Tesla coil.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Using IFTTT with the Jawbone UP -
The Jawbone UP fitness tracker is a lot more useful now that Jawbone has opened the API to third-party developers. One of the most exciting companies tapping into the UP platform is online automation tool, IFTTT. In the article below, I will talk a little bit about connecting your UP to IFTTT and then list some of my favorite recipes.
IFTTT is an automation tool that allows you to setup tasks that happen at a certain time or in response to a certain event. It uses a trigger event ("If this happens") to initiate an action ("then do that"). Within the IFTTT framework, you create what are called recipes to select the trigger event and its resulting action. For example, you can create a recipe that uses a date/time trigger to send you an email at the same time each day.
IFTTT is extremely useful because it ties into services, called channels, like Dropbox, Google Calendar and, of course, the topic of this post, the Jawbone UP. With IFTTT and an UP, you can do a myriad things like update your UP mood to exhausted when you get less than 6 hours of sleep, automatically add your morning coffee to your UP food list, and log the daily weather. Configuring the UP within IFTTT is extremely easy.
Just login to the IFTTT dashboard and click on the UP channel to activate your Jawbone account. You have to login to your Jawbone account and authorize Jawbone to share info with IFTTT. You can share your moods, moves, meals, events, sleep info, weight and more between IFTTT and UP. It's a bi-directional connection so you can pull down info from UP and send new information back to the fitness tracker. As you can imagine, there are a lot of ways to interact with the Jawbone fitness tracker using IFTTT.
Below are some of my favorite IFTTT recipes for the UP.
See the big picture of how you sleep. Track your Zzz's with a spreadsheet!
If I get more than X hours of sleep, set my mood to 'energized' in my Jawbone UP feed
Log my UP meals and their nutritional content into a Google spreadsheet
Send your spouse a friendly email when you get below 7 hours of sleep
If I get less than 5 hours of sleep, put on a pot o' coffee with WeMo
There are now 110 recipes on IFTTT for the UP and this number is climbing. If you have an UP, let us know in the comments if you use it with IFTTT.
Using IFTTT with the Jawbone UP originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
BodyMedia, the makers of a few fitness trackers that work directly with the iPhone and other smartphones, has announced that it has been acquired by Jawbone, creators of the popular Up motion tracker and other Bluetooth headsets and accessories. Techcrunch's "reliable sources" say the deal was close to US$100 million, which is a substantial price for a company like this.
BodyMedia's work has been very impressive so far -- not only has the company been doing very well selling its body and fitness trackers (and an accompanying premium subscription service), but it shared lots of future plans with me a few months ago at CES, including some disposable tracking units and new ways to keep an eye on your health. BodyMedia's also got a number of patents on new devices, which are becoming more and more valuable as the trend of fitness trackers grows. Jawbone is no slouch, either -- their well-built Bluetooth headsets have been very popular for quite a while.
BodyMedia says the two companies will join forces to "deliver great things across health and wellness." We'll look forward to seeing exactly what those things are.
Apple, Verizon earn poor marks in EFF privacy report - They're among a number of companies that disappoint with their privacy practices, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- which likes what it sees from Twitter and others.
(Via CNET News.com.)
