AllThingsD » health

If You Throw This Fitbit in the Washing Machine, It's Really Your Fault This Time

Lauren Goode — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:36 +0000

If you love your clip-on Fitbit fitness tracker but frequently put it through the wash cycle, or it seems to jump off your clothes like a flea, your gadget prayers may be answered.

Fitbit today began shipping the Flex, which packs all of that health-and-activity-tracking goodness into — you guessed it — a wristband. The San Francisco-based company first showed off the product at International CES earlier this year, adding to the growing list of wearable “smart” devices that aim to track all kinds of personal data from your wrist.

The Fitbit Flex measures your steps and your sleep, syncs with your other favorite fitness apps … okay, okay. Here’s what you really want to know: How is this different from other activity wristbands on the market, like the Jawbone Up and the Nike+ FuelBand?

First, at $99.95, it’s less expensive than the $130 Jawbone Up and the $150 Nike+ FuelBand. The Flex is also launching with both Android and iOS compatibility, while the FuelBand still works with iPhone only. (Jawbone just released an Android version of Up, about a year and a half after the iOS-friendly product first launched.)

The Flex uses low-energy Bluetooth to sync your data to a mobile app or Fitbit Web dashboard throughout the day, unlike the Jawbone Up, which must be manually plugged into the audio jack of your iPhone. The FuelBand also uses Bluetooth, but you have to press a button on the wristband to pair the two devices and sync your activity data. If you have a newer Android phone, you can also ~~sync your data~~ open the Fitbit app by tapping the Flex against your phone, because the Flex has an NFC chip.

Lastly, Fitbit claims that its clip-on tracker, the One, is the most accurate device of this wearable-fitness bunch when it comes to calculating how many steps you’ve taken, and the company says the Flex is just as reliable. Its competitors, of course, can be calibrated to improve their accuracy in certain areas, although the FuelBand uses a pretty arbitrary currency called “fuel” to measure your overall exertion levels.

In a nutshell, these are some of the features that Fitbit hopes will set this product apart. Keep in mind that this whole personal data-tracking category of tech devices is still pretty new; these companies and others are exploring how to make wearables even more sensor-laden and more precise.

And, fitness bands are good for getting your butt off the couch, but they won’t do the exercise for you. As Billy Joel once sang, you get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.

Jawbone Acquires BodyMedia for More Than $100 Million, as Wearable Tech Gets More Intense

Lauren Goode — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:00:45 +0000

Looking to gain even more traction in the wearable health and fitness market, Jawbone is snapping up another health product company.

The Bay Area-based private company has acquired BodyMedia, Inc., a 14-year-old Pittsburgh-based company that makes health-monitoring armbands.

The move comes just a couple months after Jawbone, which makes the wearable Up fitness band in addition to popular audio devices, acquired data and digital-design companies Massive Health and Visere.

Jawbone acquired BodyMedia for more than $100 million, according to people familiar with the deal, although both companies declined to give more specifics about the financials of the deal.

So what’s the appeal of BodyMedia for Jawbone? Unlike the Massive Health and Visere buys, which were mainly for talent acquisition, BodyMedia’s value lies in both the team and the company’s patents. BodyMedia has had more than 80 patents issued over the years, many in the area of multi-sensor technology. As a combined entity, BodyMedia and Jawbone will have over 300 patents issued and filed.

While the $130 Jawbone Up wristband does many things — it tracks activity levels and sleep patterns, and works with a compatible mobile app for Android and iOS to log food consumption — it lacks some of the high-tech sensors that BodyMedia’s products have.

“I think the first phase of this market has been about accelerometers and what those can do,” Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said in an interview. “Now it’s about getting even more granular, and also, how we can get all that tech into an efficient form factor.”

To that point, BodyMedia’s armbands, which will continue to be sold for the time being, contain four different types of sensors, which measure your skin temperature, heat flux, galvanic skin response (GSR) and overall movement.

But compared with the wristband form factor of the Jawbone Up, the BodyMedia bands are bigger, bulkier products. Earlier this year, BodyMedia introduced a slimmed-down version of its health-tracking band, called the Core 2, to compete in the growing category of barely noticeable, 24/7 wearable fitness devices.

So can we expect to see a Jawbone wristband with GSR sensors anytime soon? “We’re working on lots of things,” was all Rahman would say, adding, “We’re exploring where we would see sensors working, and how we can put more and more on top of the body.”

The BodyMedia team will stay in Pittsburgh and will remain intact, both companies say. BodyMedia’s Chris Robins will no longer serve as CEO of the company, and will instead become the general manager of BodyMedia and a vice president of business development at Jawbone.

Jawbone also said today that it’s opening up its Up mobile software to ten different fitness-app makers, including RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, LoseIt, Withings, Sleepio and IFTTT (for workout prompts). Jawbone Up users with iOS devices will now be able to share data to and from these partner apps with the Up app.

Interview: Bill Gates Talks About Tech Innovations for Vaccines Ahead of Global Confab

Kara Swisher — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:26:22 +0000

Earlier today, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates discussed technological innovations for vaccines, ahead of a Global Vaccine Summit being held next week in Abu Dhabi.

Set during World Immunization Week, 300 people — including Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and who will be delivering a keynote address — will gather on April 24 and 25 to talk about what the world community needs to do move forward the effort to vaccinate children, including a plan to eradicate polio by 2018.

It’s an important effort since, according to the Gates Foundation, every 20 seconds one child dies from a disease that could have been prevented by an existing vaccine.

“The key thing to understand is that vaccines are miraculous,” said Gates in a roundtable telephone interview with several reporters, noting that they are low-cost in relation to the huge benefit they provide.

Two key next steps, he said, have to do with a variety of technologies that are being explored to help in the delivery of vaccines, and also finding ways to make them cheaper.

“There is an under-investment in general, particularly in doing things for the poorest,” he said, requiring his private organization and others to pay for the research or to work with big pharmaceutical companies to create technologies that can also be deployed in more lucrative ways in rich countries. “Usually, there is a missing market incentive.”

Still, there is innovation in the sector, even if it is slow.

Gates referenced a “super-thermos” approach that is being field-tested in Senegal that keeps vaccines cold without needing more energy. Another effort is under way to formulate vaccines so that they do not need to be kept cold in the first place. A third is to combine several vaccines together to get the prices down.

Also important are improvements in satellite mapping technology, which allows field workers who deliver the vaccines to better assess where the need is. That’s especially important since a lot of the work is still on the ground, such as the push to eradicate polio in much the same way as smallpox has been. Currently, noted Gates, it is still an issue in just three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

And since reaching near total coverage is critical — “The difference between 85 percent and 90 percent [coverage] can be the difference between success and failure,” said Gates — making sure health workers find the people they are trying to vaccinate is paramount.

“It’s kind of a high-tech thing compared to how it was being done,” said Gates.

But, although there have been great hopes around the use of mobile devices in the field to access and record accurate data on patient visits, immunizations and other health information, it’s still an uphill battle against easier paper solutions.

“The paper-based systems are preferable,” said Gates, because of lack of reliable connectivity and ease of use. “It’s a high threshold to get rid of that and use cellphones.”

Or, as Gates noted in a blog post from a recent visit to Ghana, where cellphone data-keeping is being tested: “Many of us are looking at potential digital strategies for record-keeping, but paper is pretty good.”

(Photo courtesy of the Gates Foundation)

WhatsApp, Snapchat and the Real "Second Screen" — 10 Things You Missed at Day Two of Dive Into Mobile

Eric Johnson — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:13:50 +0000

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

And that’s a wrap! After Monday’s half-day kickoff to D: Dive Into Mobile — Global Edition, Tuesday saw a full day of great speakers on topics ranging from messaging to activism to driverless cars. In case you missed it, here’s a good place to start:

Starting at the end: “We’re big believers that this [phone] screen is the first screen,” said Bob Bowman, president of Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media, in the conference’s final interview. “Anybody that doesn’t believe that is living on another planet or doesn’t have children. Reality is the second screen.”
“Our goal with Android is to reach everyone,” Google chairman Eric Schmidt said. “We’ll cross one billion Android devices in six to nine months. In a year or two, we’ll hit two billion.” Schmidt also talked about Google’s self-driving cars and the company’s new gadgets.
Intel said it is getting the hang of mobile — which is good, because the company also reported bleak Q1 earnings today, with a 25 percent drop in profit as demand for PCs declines.
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said his messaging app is now bigger than Twitter, which officially claims 200 million monthly active users. WhatsApp has eight billion inbound and 12 billion outbound messages per day, Koum said.
Meanwhile, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said his photo- and video-messaging app has grown by three times in four months, and that users are now sharing 150 million ephemeral photos per month, versus 40 million permanent pictures per month on Instagram.
A mobile app called Better launched onstage, promising to provide 24/7 concierge medical care to paying users. Better’s offerings include the ability to directly contact doctors and nurses, through a partnership with the Mayo Clinic.
Twitter’s VP of Product Michael Sippey said the site is heavily investing in and focusing on improvements to Twitter’s once-poor search and discovery experience.
Microsoft’s Terry Myerson said Windows Phone is a global competitor, because it has had stronger momentum in markets where carriers do not subsidize phones. He also aimed more than a few potshots at the likes of Android and Facebook.
Nonprofit activism organization DoSomething’s Nancy Lublin announced that the company had reached one million teens via weekly text messages, with a 97 percent open rate.
And lastly — mobile security provider Lookout demonstrated how phones can be hacked via phishing emails with phony app-download links, urging users to be wary of unfamiliar download sources.

These 10 blurbs only scratch the surface, though. For more, please check out our full list of stories from D: Dive Into Mobile.

Mango Health App That Games Taking Meds Launches With Target Partnership

Kara Swisher — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:30:45 +0000

San Francisco-based Mango Health — a new mobile app aimed at allowing people to manage their personal health by tracking medications and nutritional supplements they take — is launching after a 16-week pilot program and a strategic deal with retail giant Target. The app rewards users with gift cards or allows them to make charitable donations for correctly following their medical regimens by using game design concepts. Consumers can also check for interactions between medications, supplements and foods, and get dosage reminders. Mango has raised $3.1 million in seed funding from venture firms First Round Capital, Floodgate and Baseline Ventures, as well as angel investors Mark Pincus and Keith Rabois.

Concerned About Cellphone Radiation? Here Are Some Options.

Lauren Goode — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:00:07 +0000

Believe it or not, it’s still unclear whether radio frequency from the cellphones we carry with us at all times is harmful to our health. Cellphone radiation studies have been inconclusive.

So it’s only natural that some consumers are concerned about potential health risks caused by using and carrying cellphones.

For the past week, I’ve been researching and testing possible solutions for these people: Radiation-reduction cellphone cases. To be clear, I haven’t tested these in a lab, as other publications and independent research groups have done. I’ve used the cases as I would a regular cellphone case, and I looked for explanations as to how, exactly, these are supposed to reduce radiation.

These aren’t your $10-on-Amazon.com cellphone cases. The cases I came across, which also included tablet cases, range in price from $50 to $100. They’re made by companies you might not have heard of before; one case even comes in the form of a silver-lined smartphone pouch. My experiences with these were mixed.

Before diving into the cases, though, it’s good to understand how cellphone radio frequency works, and how it’s measured.

[ See post to watch video ]

Cellphones work by transmitting radio waves across wireless networks. The Federal Communications Commission has set a limit on what’s considered a safe amount of radio frequency that can be absorbed by the human body, referred to as the SAR, or specific absorption rate.

That FCC limit was set in 1997.

Needless to say, cellphones have changed since then. Last summer, members of Congress called for the FCC to revise this standard. Meanwhile, the FCC, the World Health Organization and even the handset makers suggest consumers use hands-free solutions to try to reduce our radio-frequency exposure.

Now on to the cases: It was surprisingly difficult to find this type of mobile device case from brands I know. Speck doesn’t make radiation-reduction cases. Neither does Case-Mate, though the company offered one in 2010. OtterBox doesn’t make this kind of case, either, stating that internal research shows its customers aren’t seeking these kinds of cases.

The most well-known radiation-reduction case available is made by Pong Research, which conducts SAR tests in its Virginia lab. The cases have also been tested by two independent labs. The company says its cases have an average SAR-reduction rate of up to 91 percent on supported devices.

I’ve been using Pong’s newest classic and rugged cases for iPhone 5. The classic “soft” case costs $70, and is available in black, red, silver and purple. The rugged case is $80, and comes in blue, black and white. There are also cases for the HTC EVO 4G ($50), the BlackBerry Bold 9900 ($60), the Samsung Galaxy S III ($80) and the iPad mini ($100), as well as for other models.

These cases don’t block radiation entirely, nor does Pong claim they do. If they blocked all radio-frequency waves, you wouldn’t get phone calls on your phone. (Try wrapping your smartphone in tinfoil and see if your calls come through.)

Instead, Pong says, they reduce the radiation levels by deflecting the waves. Embedded in each case is a micro-thin conductive circuit board that draws the radio-frequency energy toward it and away from the user’s head.

I used Pong’s classic case for the first half of the week, and the rugged one for another few days. I didn’t experience any interruption or apparent weakening of my cell signal. Style-wise, I found I preferred the classic plastic case. It was sleeker and lighter, although really hard to pry off when I wanted to switch it up.

The rubbery, rugged case did feel like it could handle a few more drops, but I didn’t like the extra thickness it added to my phone.

The iPad mini case I used is made mostly of synthetic leather, and the front cover folds and flips back to create a stand for the tablet. It’s the kind of tablet cover I might buy regardless of its radiation-reduction capabilities — if only it didn’t cost $100.

While I couldn’t find many recognizable brands making Pong competitors, the Web is littered with companies that claim to offer protective products. Australia-based CellSafe makes and sells cases with a “cushion” that’s supposed to reduce radiation. A company in Israel called CellLaVie has come up a thin film that goes over the phone. I didn’t get to try these, and CellLaVie didn’t respond to my inquiries about how its product works and where it’s sold.

The next cases I used were literally mixed bags. These were “eWall” bags sold through an online store called the EMF Protection Store. Each bag cost $60.

The eWall pouches are just large enough to fit a smartphone. They have a loop at the top for cinching the bag. There are two parts to the eWall product: The main pouch and an outer pocket. The bag is lined with a silver mesh fabric.

According to the instructions, if you put your smartphone in the outer pocket, you’ll reduce radiation but you’ll still receive phone calls. If you put your phone in the central pouch, you’ll block all signals.

I found this eWall bag to be problematic for two reasons: First, I usually don’t want to throw my phone in a bag and hang it on a doorknob and forget about it. It’s either right next to me when I’m sitting at my desk, or within reach on the coffee table, dinner table or night table. And I don’t want to carry my phone inside a bag inside my pocket, either.

Second, the first few times I put my phone in the inner pouch and tightened it at the top, my test calls from another phone still went through, making me question the supposed effectiveness of the pouch. In follow-up tests, the phone didn’t receive calls, but I had to squeeze the top of the pouch to fully close it.

I asked the seller of eWall about his company’s testing methods, and he said that while the product has undergone some testing in Germany, his company does not conduct tests on its effectiveness before shipping the product. A new leather shield listed on the EMF Protection Store’s website has not been tested, either.

If cellphone radiation is worrying you, the Pong cases might put your mind at ease. But I can’t recommend the eWall bags I used, and consumers buying online should carefully consider the validity of these types of cases before buying — especially when they cost $50 or more.

Endless Marathon: A Health Setback for Brett Bullington

Kara Swisher — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:03:14 +0000

For those following the amazing progress of longtime Silicon Valley exec and investor Brett Bullington, it’s been a heartening to see how quickly he has come back from a devastating bicycling accident last year that resulted in severe brain trauma.

After immediate hospitalization, Brett went home and started his promising recovery. It included walking so much that a little more than a week ago, after I had arranged for an UP activity band to be sent to him, he emailed me: “8330 steps and 3.98 miles today. How are you?”

It made me smile.

But a few days ago in a blog post on his recovery, there was some bad news.

Apparently, some of the skin on his head, part of the surgery to repair his skull, has been tearing, creating a worrisome problem after a doctor’s visit.

Wrote his wife Diana:

“It ended up being a shocking and devastating meeting. Because this area of skin is basically not thriving, a skin flap surgical procedure is required to protect Brett’s head. This is a pretty intense operation where a section of muscle (from Brett’s lat muscle) will be removed and attached to the healthy skin on his head. Then a skin graft from his thigh will go on top of that. In addition to all of this, the skull implant will be removed because there is a distinct possibility that the bone flap may be infected which could lead to serious complications.”

The five-hour surgery is Monday, which will put him back in Stanford Hospital for at least a week.

She added to the post:

“We are feeling a bit deflated right now but are working hard at preparing mentally and physically for this next ordeal … this feels like we have been running a marathon and we were in the last 5 miles of the race, but now the rules are changed and we are told that we will be running an additional 26 miles before we finish. It is overwhelming for the moment.”

Indeed it is, so please send all good wishes to Brett next week, whom you can see here in this video interview I did in mid-January:

[ See post to watch video ]

Three Running Apps to Shake Up Your Routine

Lauren Goode — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:00:29 +0000

Last week, I put my iTunes on steroids, recruited a horde of virtual zombies to chase me, and found six different ways to run through Central Park.

Welcome to the new world of running apps. While smartphone-toting runners have long used apps like Nike+ and RunKeeper, which track your runs using GPS and offer training plans, three different apps have recently helped me get out of a running rut.

The first app is a new one called Cruise Control, which adjusts the tempo of the songs in your iTunes library to help you speed up the pace. The second app I’ve been using is called Zombies, Run! It intermittently puts the sounds of snarling zombies into your ear to make you run faster. And lastly, there’s WalkJogRun, which helps you find creative running routes in your local neighborhood, shared by other users.

All of these apps are relatively pricey, ranging from $3 to $5 each. And the only one currently available on both iPhone and Android is Zombies, Run! The other two are iPhone-only. And, since they all use your smartphone’s built-in GPS, they all are geared toward running outdoors, especially WalkJogRun.

[ See post to watch video ]

But despite being forced out into the cold, I’ve enjoyed using these apps and can recommend them if you’re looking to shake up your routine. My top pick of the three was Cruise Control, probably because I rely a lot on music to keep me motivated while running.

Cruise Control costs $4.99, and works sort of the same way cruise control in your car works: If you’re going too slow, Cruise Control will adjust the tempo of your music to help you speed up; if you’re running too fast, the app tries to slow you down.

It does this using an algorithm that speeds up your music without altering the pitch, so that a sped-up song doesn’t sound like the Chipmunks and a dragged-out song doesn’t make the artist sound sleepy or drunk.

There are four modes in Cruise Control: Free Run, Pace, Heart Rate and Cadence. Free Run mode detects and keeps track of your cadence. Pace mode allows you to set a target pace — let’s say sub-nine-minute miles — and creates a playlist that will get you there, adjusting the tempo of songs along the way. The Cadence mode acts as a kind of metronome, prescribing you a cadence to try to maintain.

The Heart Rate mode requires an iPhone-compatible heart-rate monitor to work properly. I didn’t have a heart-rate monitor for testing Heart Rate mode, so I mostly used Free Run and Pace modes.

For me, Cruise Control worked: When my music tracks suddenly sped up, I found myself running faster to keep pace. It was like having a personal deejay in my ear (minus, you know, the whole club atmosphere). If I didn’t like a song, I could tap a thumbs-down sign at the bottom of the app to quickly remove it from my Cruise Control playlist.

But Cruise Control does have one pretty big drawback: The app only plays songs that are between 70 and 90, or 140 and 180 beats per minute, and only about a hundred songs out of 700 in my iTunes library met those requirements. The creator of Cruise Control told me that, for most users, only 10 to 20 percent of their song libraries will be played through Cruise Control.

Next was Zombies, Run!. There are a couple versions of this app, but the one I downloaded is the more expensive version, listed for $3.99 in iTunes. The app is also available on Android.

Zombies, Run! is fun. It made me feel as though I was the last woman standing in a bad zombie flick — “The Running Dead”? — although I was in Central Park, not a post-apocalyptic suburb of London, and the “zombies” 20 meters ahead of me were mostly other humans in cold-weather running gear.

The app’s story kicks off by dropping you from a helicopter into a town called Abel Township. The communications operator is a man named Sam with a thick British accent, who often sounds alarmed. Sam guides you through the different “missions” of the app, introducing new characters and warning you of zombies up ahead. All of this is taking place in your ears, without any crazy graphics or animation happening in the app, so you can keep your eyes on the road.

Missions can last 30 minutes or one hour. The app basically “gamifies” the act of running — along the way, you collect virtual supplies, like batteries, mobile phones and even sports bras, which allow you to grow your base in the township.

You might think running to non-stop helicopter drones and zombie growls would get old after a while. Fortunately, Zombies, Run! thought of that, and the app patches in music from your smartphone’s music library. So, after the helicopter “dropped me off” during the first mission, a Beastie Boys song from my workout playlist came on, like a commercial break.

After using the app a few times, I had only made my way partially through two of 23 missions. But I would keep using Zombies, Run! to add some adventure to my routine. Runners looking for less adventure and more of a training guide might want to try the 5K version of Zombies, Run!, which costs $1.99.

The last app I tried is called WalkJogRun. This iPhone-only app costs $4.99.

Using the smartphone’s GPS, WalkJogRun finds new routes in your vicinity, pulling from its crowd-sourced database of over 1.5 million routes. The routes are categorized by length, so, if I was aiming for a three-mile run, I would select from that group. (Some runs in my neighborhood exceeded 45 miles. I didn’t attempt those.)

Other runners can also leave notes and tips on their shared routes, indicating if a path by the Hudson River is particularly windy, or if a route is a good alternative to the one the New York City marathon runners use.

WalkJogRun helped me discover a new route in my neighborhood that had me sightseeing (and dodging crowds) along Broadway. It also brought me back to another route I haven’t run in years.

However, WalkJogRun is pretty similar to another mapping app called Map My Run, which is free. And I didn’t have enough time to rate this app’s long-term training plans to see how they compared to the plans offered in the RunKeeper app I’ve used on and off for awhile. Lastly, you can’t control your iTunes music through WalkJogRun.

If music is a must-have while you run, Cruise Control might be worth a download. Zombies, Run! is good for those who need to inject a little fun into those long runs. These apps aren’t cheap, but for a few bucks, one of them might just light a fire under your feet.

Update: A previous version of this article said Cruise Control costs $5.49. The app costs $4.99.

Exercising With Friends in a Webcam Fitness Class

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:03:34 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Saturday morning, I joined three friends for a Circuit Training workout class. The odd part was that none of them left their homes and we live thousands of miles away from one another—in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, North Carolina and Louisiana. Our trainer was in California.

[ See post to watch video ]

For the past week, I’ve been working out using Wello, a website that lets people turn on their computer webcams to take one-on-one, trainer-led exercise classes. Tuesday, Wello launched Group Workouts, which involve up to five participants plus a trainer. They cost as little as $10 an hour versus solo sessions that start at $35 for an hour. This week, all users get their first group class free. I tested three hour-long group classes ($15 each), as well as a 30-minute solo class ($29) to get a handle on how the site works.

The thought of seeing friends during workouts and not having to leave home motivated me to use Wello. I could imagine using it as a way to stay in touch with people who live far away, sort of like an activity-based Skype. And unlike using a stale workout DVD, Wello’s live trainers watched each move I made and offered feedback. A pregnant friend in my class even got specific modifications for her condition. (Before using Wello, users are encouraged to fill out a health form. This lets people notify trainers of injuries or specific conditions like pregnancy.)

The default view for a Wello class puts the trainer in the largest screen and class participants in smaller ones.

A page for a class combining kickboxing and high-intensity interval training.

But the Wello class is only as good as the technology it uses, and two of my classes experienced technical difficulties. In one class, the trainer froze half a dozen times, wasting about 10 minutes refreshing his set-up. (A Wello co-founder, Leslie Silverglide, explained that this trainer’s computer met only the minimum level processor accepted by Wello.) During the same workout, a friend could hear us but couldn’t see us for about 15 minutes. (It turned out she had two browser windows opened, with one showing us while the other hid us.) Another friend who was using the Internet Explorer browser could only be seen. (Wello asks users to read instructions beforehand, including a recommendation to use the Google Chrome browser.)

Despite some glitches, Wello is a solid product that I’ll certainly use again. I liked taking classes without signing up for an expensive yearlong gym membership. And it was easy to sort through the trainers on the site to find one who fit my needs.

Of the over 1,000 trainers who have applied to work for Wello, about 200 have been vetted and trained to work in the system as video trainers. Wello looks at experience, specialties, certifications, education, references and other qualifications, and then sorts trainers into three tiers by overall experience, certifications and experience on Wello.

All of the trainers I used fell into the “Tier 2″ category. Three were categorized as “fun and friendly” trainers, two fell into the “focused on form” category and one was labeled as an “all business” trainer. A “Celebrity Trainer” category is also available; this means trainers are well-known fitness experts and have experience training celebrities.

You can sort classes by skill level (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and by trainer specialty (like brides-to-be, postnatal, exercise novices or elite athletes). You can also enter a goal to search for a class, such as “get stronger, lose weight or get Zen.”

Wello’s Ms. Silverglide says the company doesn’t mind if two or more people share a webcam for a class as long as they notify the trainer ahead of time. But this isn’t encouraged as it’s harder for the trainer to see two people at once and to give feedback. I tested this by dragging my husband into a Core Conditioning class. It worked, though we were a little squeezed in some exercises and our trainer couldn’t always see us clearly when she tried to check our form.

Like an aerobics class at the gym, Wello’s Group Workouts could be filled with strangers, as was the case for two of my classes, though I didn’t mind. If only two people sign up for a group class, the class will be canceled 12 hours beforehand. Twenty-four hours before the class, Wello will send an email, encouraging you to invite friends; it will put the class on its home page and will send out targeted emails to Wello users to get others to sign up. Wello offers discounted one-on-one workouts to make up for cancellations. Users can always buy pre-paid bundles that cost less than pay-as-you-go workouts.

To check if your system will work with Wello, the site offers a quick diagnostic test to check your computer’s processor and Internet connection; on some of my computers I had to download a small plugin file before getting started.

After users sign into the Wello website, a handy dashboard displays their upcoming and past workouts. If users opt to “follow” favorite trainers, they’ll see a stream of activity from those trainers on the right-hand side of this dashboard screen.

Wello’s screen layout was a bit squeezed on my 13-inch laptop, but looked better on two larger iMac screens. The default layout puts the trainer in the largest viewing screen, making you and other class participants smaller. I wished I could see the trainer in full-screen view; Wello’s Ms. Silverglide said this option is something that may be incorporated in the next month. The company also is working on an iPad app.

In one of my group classes, called Morning Meditation Flow, the trainer played music, which set the tone and gave the class an added ambiance. Wello has been experimenting with music and hopes to integrate it into the video platform; for now, trainers can play music on their phones.

When classes went smoothly, the setup worked well. When they didn’t, my classmates and I wanted a way to use text chatting to talk to the trainer—or the ability to raise a virtual hand.

For people who hesitate to exercise, Wello wipes out their excuses by helping them work out with friends and trainers who they like. Just be sure you have ibuprofen on hand for aching muscles; these classes are addicting.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

Jawbone "Acqhires" Data and Digital Design Firms Massive Health, Visere

Lauren Goode — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:10:26 +0000

Jawbone, maker of trendy audio devices and, more recently, a wearable fitness band, has acquired two companies focused on digital design and data analysis for an undisclosed amount.

One of the companies, Massive Health, is the maker of an iPhone app called The Eatery that encourages users to snap photos of food, not for “Top Chef” bragging rights but for health and weight awareness. Massive Health was founded in San Francisco in 2010 by former Firefox creative lead Aza Raskin.

The other is Portland, Oregon-based Visere, which created Unstuck, a “life coach” wrapped up in a mobile app.

The news was previously reported by GigaOm.

The acquisition, I’m told, is mainly about bringing in more talent to Jawbone, as the company focuses efforts on its Jawbone Up wristband and possible future health and fitness products. Bringing Visere and Massive Health into the fold will add an additional 20 to 25 employees to Jawbone’s 300-plus staff.

More importantly, Jawbone can bolster some of the software components and data analysis that are so critical to the success of the Jawbone Up.

The Jawbone Up, a wearable activity-and-sleep wristband that works in conjunction with an iPhone app, first hit the market in 2011, but stumbled due to technical glitches with the band. The company re-launched the device just a couple months ago, after months of testing a new band, and early reviews of the new Up have deemed it a working product. (My own experience with the new Up has been a positive one.)

But one of the key elements of the wristband isn’t the hardware — it’s the mobile app, which presents your personal data in bar charts and cloud graphs, lets you log your food intake and workout activities and even creates a kind of mini social network in which your friends become your Up team.

That’s where the applications and data analysis from Massive Health and Visere will come in, as Jawbone looks to set itself apart from the other activity trackers out there.

Nike makes a wristband. BodyMedia makes an armband. FitBit, maker of a clip-on activity tracker, is coming out with a wristband. Lark makes an activity wristband and a sleep-tracking band.

In other words, the competition is steep — and there still isn’t overwhelming evidence that the market is huge for these products. As Forrester analyst Sarah Rotmann Epps noted recently, only a small percentage of U.S. adults, or about eight million consumers, fit a target profile predictive of buying a fitness wearable. “A growing number of products are vying for a relatively limited pool of customers,” the report pointed out.

Mobile Diabetes Tracker Glooko Hires CEO

Kara Swisher — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:00:12 +0000

Glooko, the mobile health company that tracks blood glucose levels of diabetics via an iPhone app, has hired its first CEO: Intuit Health exec Rick Altinger. He replaces co-founder and chairman Yogen Dalal, who has held the job on an interim basis. In addition, the Palo Alto, Calif., startup also added a new VP of product, Dean Lucas, who comes from Epocrates. As it brings in stronger management, Glooko also said it had received 510(k) clearance for its products from the Food and Drug Administration, including being able to offer Glooko Logbook Charts, which allows its customers to graph and analyze their results.

In Activity-Tracking Race, Larklife Band Comes Up Short

Lauren Goode — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:00:26 +0000

A friend recently said something to me that stuck: You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

That’s the basic premise behind all of these new activity trackers you might be hearing about. And I’ve tested quite a few of them throughout the past year.

I didn’t love the Nike+ Fuelband, primarily because I thought its arbitrary currency system, “fuel,” was not an ideal way to measure exertion. And I left the Fitbit clipped to sports bras too often, which meant the thing ended up sitting in my laundry pile.

[ See post to watch video ]

I do like the Jawbone Up, however, for both its physical form factor and its app. In general, I’m very intrigued by this new category in tech, and I think there could be real value in it for consumers.

Now there’s another entrant into the market: Larklife, from Lark. Last year, the Bay Area-based startup came out with a wearable sleep tracker and vibrating alarm clock. It’s newest product is a $149 wristband that measures both daytime and nighttime activity.

Initially, you would think Larklife works just like all of the other bands. It measures steps. It measures sleep. It connects via Bluetooth to an iOS app that catalogs your progress and offers suggestions for leading a more healthful lifestyle.

But Larklife didn’t make me feel like I was measuring or managing anything very well. It actually made me feel sort of dumb, or that I must be doing something wrong if I couldn’t “get” how this activity band was supposed to work. The band itself was clunky. And there are two of them: One for day and one for nighttime wearing.

The Larklife day band is a rubbery rectangular wristband. It’s skinny on the bottom and fatter on the top and sides, reminding me more of a bangle bracelet or, worse, a house-arrest anklet, than the latest wave of slim activity-tracking bands. Currently it only comes in bright blue. More than a few people noticed it on my wrist this week.

The Larklife’s activity-tracking tech — an accelerometer — is nested in a chunk of the band that’s removable. In order to charge the band, you must remove this portion and plug a proprietary charging wire into the band.

This same small chunk of the band is what you’re supposed to snap into the nighttime Larklife, a more comfortable cloth band, for sleep monitoring. So, to be clear, you don’t really need the second Larklife band, because you can just wear the rubbery one to bed, but it’s a more comfortable option for sleep.

There’s a strip of small blue lights on the band, along with a skinny button that you use to sync the Larklife with its free companion app.

Larklife syncs with the app using low-energy Bluetooth. You could, theoretically, just activate Bluetooth on your iPhone whenever you want to sync your data, but Larklife is really supposed to be talking to the app throughout the day, which means leaving Bluetooth turned on all the time.

I tested Larklife during CES in Las Vegas last week, while I was out and about and often not near a power outlet, and some days I didn’t want to risk draining my iPhone’s battery even the slightest bit by leaving Bluetooth on. I much prefer the Jawbone Up method of syncing, which requires that you physically plug the band into your iPhone’s audio jack a few times a day. This is not only low-maintenance, but satisfying, because you’re very aware of when you’re uploading fresh data.

With these activity-tracking bands, the software component is just as important as the hardware. Larklife takes a different approach from others by focusing on simplicity and positive encouragement. Days are displayed as big circles, with a spattering of activity points and achievements within each circle.

After a few days of using the Larklife band, I was getting notifications from the app like, “It’s 4:00 pm. If you’re feeling sluggish, have a glass of water or a piece of fruit.” The app would cheer me on if I hit a milestone of 10,000 steps in a day.

And Larklife is supposed to automatically recognizes when your activity gets more intense, so it would know when I was running a few miles on the treadmill instead of walking around a convention center. I would check the app and see a “running man” figure that marked my activity in that day’s bubble, or a star for my step milestone.

But the app’s food tracking is incredibly limited compared with other apps. Fitbit lets you set weight goals, track food items and measure calories consumed. Jawbone Up also offers caloric estimates for logged foods, and has a cool cloud graph that made me painfully aware of how much coffee and sugar I’ve been consuming.

Larklife’s app doesn’t come with a data set for calories. After I would manually log that I was having a meal, I could edit that meal name to say “Caesar salad,” for example, and then I could select from the food categories: Protein, Vegetable, Fruit, Grain and Water. That’s it.

Lark says it’s really focused on getting people to live a more healthy lifestyle in general, without making things too complicated. So, even if a Larklife user simply starts to realize that he or she isn’t entering in vegetables often enough, that’s one step in the right direction, Lark says. But if I’m going to log my food, I want more specific data.

Lastly, I couldn’t figure out how to track my sleep with the Larklife band. As it turns out, you’re supposed to go into the app, tap the “plus” icon, select sleep, set your alarm and then, while the band is synced to your iPhone, press the skinny button on the band until the app tells you the syncing has been a success. Either I didn’t set this correctly or inadvertently pressed the button again in my sleep, because I could never get a solid reading on my sleep data.

In terms of battery life, Larklife says that each band should last around two full days. I actually got more use out of mine. I charged it fully on Monday of last week, and the battery died early Thursday. But I also wasn’t constantly connecting the band to my iPhone via Bluetooth.

In the activity-tracking race, Lark puts in good effort but doesn’t quite measure up to the competition.

Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe on One Million-DNA March and More (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:00:43 +0000

Last week, I paid a visit to the Mountain View, Calif., offices of personal genomics company 23andMe, which just raised more than $50 million in a new funding round, to add to the $68 million it has garnered since it was founded in 2006.

The new financing includes Russian investor Yuri Milner, as well as existing ones including Sergey Brin of Google, New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and MPM Capital.

While there, I interviewed CEO Anne Wojcicki about what she plans to do with all that money, including the company’s effort to get one million people to get detailed information on their DNA by cutting the price of its tests to $99.

23andMe’s Personal Genome service now offers 244 reports on health and personal traits, as well as genealogy and ancestry information that people can share socially. That’s down from the original $999 price that provided only 14 reports.

Wojcicki said she hopes that will spur more interest about from whence we came, and also how important it is to know your own genetics, to be aware of, prepare for and also prevent diseases of all kinds.

(On a personal note, that is exactly what happened to me after Wojcicki contacted me in China, after I had a serious stroke, to give me critical info from my own 23andme profile about a blood anomoly I had that was key to my care.)

Here’s the video of my interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

New Crop of Online Food Services Offer Everything but the Chef

Lauren Goode — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:42:12 +0000

Last week, some FreshDirect customers found themselves in a mild panic when the online grocery service suffered a two-day outage due to a renewal issue with the company’s Web domain name.

What was a small glitch for FreshDirect might have been a prime opportunity for the newest crop of food delivery services — companies that don’t don’t deliver groceries, but instead ship boxes of pre-prepared recipe ingredients that aim to make even the busiest professionals or harried parents look like food stars.

“We want to be your sous chef,” says Simon Schmincke, chief marketing officer at HelloFresh, which is headquartered in Berlin and recently started serving parts of the U.S. “It’s a subscription model, so you don’t have to order groceries every week.”

These types of formulated meal services, like HelloFresh and Sweden-based Linas Matkasse, have been popular in parts of Europe for several years. Now they’re making their way Stateside — and showing early signs of success.

Earlier this month, HelloFresh secured $10 million in funding. Another fledgling service, Blue Apron, recently nabbed $800,000 in seed funding from a group that includes the founders of Seamless and Yipit.

Here’s how it works: Consumers sign up for weekly food-ordering options, which usually don’t exceed three prepared meals per week. The services then send subscribers an email a week ahead of time with some recipe options. The subscribers have about a day to respond to the email with their selections. The following week, the food arrives in the mail.

But, to be clear, these aren’t precooked meals; they’re boxes with the raw materials, right down to the half-cup of diced onions or a pinch of salt, along with cooking instructions.

The pricing plans range from $8 a meal from a service like FreshDish to $69 a week for three meals from HelloFresh. That might sound like a lot for just a few meals, but the minds behind the companies will argue that you’re not spending chunks of change on spice jars you’ll never use again, or on a whole bundle of cilantro that will soon turn brown and soupy in your fridge.

Some of these services are targeting different audiences. HelloFresh has partnered with Aquavit, a restaurant on New York City’s Upper East Side, to come up with recipes that will be pleasing to the foodie crowd. Blue Apron creator Matt Salzberg stresses that the company sources only high-quality food, including meats from the same wholesaler that provides for Mario Batali’s establishment Eataly. Steve Goldstein, the creator of Fresh Dish, was inspired by the challenges facing working parents, and has said that Fresh Dish is aimed at families.

Like most new ventures, these services don’t address all markets in the U.S., and can be somewhat limited. Most ship meals for two, four or six people only. Some don’t offer vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free meal options, and most don’t allow the subscriber to adjust the recipe before it ships if they’re allergic to certain ingredients (the companies say customers with food allergies can just leave out those items while preparing the meal). They also don’t ship grocery-store items, like a carton of milk or case of water.

And for frequent travelers, a food subscription may not be ideal: You’ll have to remember to pause the service or deselect meal options the week before you go. Fresh Dish says it veered away from the subscription model for that reason.

But, unlike something like FreshDirect, which requires that the customer is home to receive a delivery, these meal kits come in convenient, insulated boxes that can sit on your stoop for up to a day while you toil away at work.

A Health Monitor That Gets You Up and Moving

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:26:41 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Here come the holidays—and with them the extra pounds from family feasts, eggnog and gingerbread. Rather than wait to make a New Year’s resolution to get in shape, one technology product might get people off the couch and moving now. It’s appropriately named Up.

This health-monitoring band is one tech product I’ve put off testing because I didn’t think I had enough time to use it. Nor was I thrilled about wearing a band on my wrist round-the-clock for a week straight. But I realized loads of people who are too busy to track their movement, sleep and nutrition habits could benefit from this gadget. The reason? It works even if you do little more than wear it.

The first version of Up, by Jawbone, was released over a year ago but had hardware problems, causing the company to pause production and issue full refunds to many users. Competitors abound, including the $149 Nike+ FuelBand, $100 Fitbit One and $150 Larklife.

The $130 Up by Jawbone, shown intact (left) and stripped to its innards (right), tracks movement and sleep.

The Up band, which costs $130 and can be bought online or in stores like Apple, Best Buy and AT&T, corresponds with a free iOS app. (An Android app is in the works.) There is no Up browser software. The Up band offloads its data when plugged into the headphone jack of an iOS device, and I found that using this physical connection and watching the data load was a fun, quick experience. Using a physical plug for syncing, rather than a power-draining Bluetooth wireless connection, also means the band’s battery can last for 10 days.

Jawbone suggests syncing the Up twice a day, but I plugged mine in more often, excited to see how many steps I took in a workout or how well I slept.

During setup of the Up app, users enter their gender, weight, height and birthday so the device can more accurately estimate how many calories you’ve burned throughout a day. The Up band has built-in sensors that track your movements, whether you’re walking, running, sitting idle or sleeping—including when you fall asleep, when you wake and whether you’re in light or deep sleep. It also vibrates, a feature that can be used as an “Idle Alert” to notify you if you’ve sat still for a certain length of time, say 15 minutes, or as a silent alarm. It even knows to wake someone during light, not deep sleep, because that person will wake feeling more refreshed. The app will wake you up to 30 minutes ahead of your set time to catch you at the optimal sleep stage.

I had planned to test the Up as a more passive user, letting it track my steps and sleep habits without me doing very much, but I was quickly hooked on adding data manually. This included adding workouts that weren’t tracked, such as my 15-minute abdominal workout, and entering information about what I ate and drank.

Plugging the band into an iPhone’s headphone jack syncs data with the Up app. Details of a night’s rest include the amount of time spent in light- and deep-sleep stages.

Charts in the app show users’ movements each day and over time.

I found food entry to be a weak spot in the Up. Specific foods weren’t always easy to find in the app, or I cooked the food myself, making it a challenge to enter all of its ingredients. I wound up entering broad categories of food, like “whole wheat spaghetti,” rather than entering all of the accompanying veggies, meaning I didn’t get an accurate overall picture of my diet. And the Up app could do a better job of identifying what each color means in the charts that measure your movement and sleep; as of now, you have to guess that red indicates intense movement and yellow means less intense movement. I also wasn’t gung-ho about the app’s mood indicator, which displays a smiley face that you can change to reflect your current mood.

The Up band isn’t a heart monitor, nor does it have a display for seeing things like the current time (if you wanted to use it as a watch) or the number of steps taken.

Wearing the Up band can cramp your style, kind of like wearing sneakers with a business suit. Its sporty, rubber exterior goes with some clothing, but not most of my outfits. It was comfortable enough on my wrist that I barely noticed the way it felt after just a day, even while I was sleeping—though it was a little odd to keep on in the shower. I tested the Up in onyx color; it’s also available in light blue and mint green with five more colors coming early next year.

If you need a digital kick in the pants that makes you more conscious of your body, Up will give it to you. I found myself walking to the farthest bathroom in my office to log more steps, drinking water instead of soda because I knew I’d add it to my food log later, and standing up to walk around nearly every time my Up’s Idle Alert went off.

At first, the Up’s iOS app can be a bit overwhelming because it’s loaded with features. The app sets goals for you according to World Health Organization guidelines, like eight hours of sleep a night and 10,000 steps a day, and shows the average met by most Up users. You can change these settings, but I kept mine at the WHO average. I felt a boost of pride when I met and surpassed daily goals.

Before going to sleep each night, I pressed and held a button on the Up that illuminated a tiny moon on the band, indicating I was going to sleep. In the morning, I pressed the button again and saw a snowflake, indicating that I was awake. This manual press on the Up helps the app to know when you first lie down in bed, so it can measure how long it takes for you to fall asleep. I used the Up’s silent alarm and it woke me 10 minutes before the time I set because I was in light sleep.

I was glad to learn that my brisk 15-minute walk to and from the subway each morning is over 4,000 steps. And after working at a Christmas bazaar, I synced my Up with my iPhone and found out that I walked 11,100 steps—passing my daily step goal in the time of the bazaar. When I woke up twice in the middle of one night, my Up band recorded this and gave me a cheeky tip about sleep the next day. The tip was titled, “Was It Good For You?” I created a “Team” with two other users, allowing us to share whichever stats we chose. We commented on each other’s progress, and it gave me a feeling of camaraderie.

Up gives people the flexibility to engage with it as much or as little as they want. If you’d rather not take the time to sync, the band can store up to nine months of data between syncs. Although the Up band isn’t always fashionable, it will make people more conscious of what their bodies are doing each day.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

23andMe Raises $50 Million in New Funding, Adding Yuri Milner as Investor

Kara Swisher — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:21:46 +0000

Personal genomics company 23andMe said it has raised more than $50 million in a new funding round, a near doubling of its investments so far. 23andMe has already raised over about $68 million since it was founded in 2006. The new financing includes Russian investor Yuri Milner, as well as existing investors Sergey Brin of Google, 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki, New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and MPM Capital. The money will be used by the Mountain View, Calif., company to grow to one million customers and also to cut the price of its Personal Genome service to $99, which offers 244 reports on health and personal traits, as well as genealogy and ancestry information. That price was originally $999 and provided only 14 reports.

Scanadu's Scout Health Sensor to Sell for $150 Next Year, Digital Pee and Spit Sensors Optional

Ina Fried — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:00:31 +0000

Earlier this year, Scanadu shared its plans for a digital health sensor that connects to an iPhone via Bluetooth.

The device is still around a year away, but the start-up is announcing a few more details, including its name — Scout — and its $150 price tag. Scout is designed to give people a continuous record of vital health information such as temperature, pulse and breathing rate. In doing so, people can see how their lifestyle is impacting their health and also notice when things are out of their own personal normal range.

Scanadu is also detailing two other efforts, Project Scanaflu and Project Scanaflo — efforts to bring flu tests and pregnancy tests into the digital age.

The former is a spit test and the latter a pee test, but rather than requiring someone to either play doctor or visit a real one, the tests can be read by a smartphone.

In the case of the pregnancy test, it is a urine test that can determine not only whether one is with child, but can also be used throughout pregnancy to monitor for signs of complications such as liver function, gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. The test itself consists of 10 boxes which turn various colors when mixed with urine, with a smartphone used to capture the colored squares along with a unique bar code linked to the particular test and the time it is taken.

Project Scanaflu is a similar disposable card, but tests saliva to check for the presence of strep and influenza A and B, among other conditions.

Both projects, of course, require FDA approval. However, the company hopes getting that approval won’t be too much trouble since the underlying medical tests are approved on their own, though not in their current packaging.

Pricing and final naming of those products has yet to be determined, though CEO Walter de Brouwer said they should cost in the same ballpark as other home health tests.

As with Scout, the goal of the tests is not just for one-time diagnostics but also to help people put together a record of their health on a more continuous basis.

Health, de Brouwer said, is like a puzzle. “This is a piece of the puzzle.”

Jawbone Gears Up for a Second Shot at Wearable Tech

Lauren Goode — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:50 +0000

Jawbone’s foray into wearable fitness tech has been, well, up and down.

The new Jawbone Up

But now, nearly a year after the company pressed “pause” on its first activity-tracking wristband, Jawbone is giving it a second go.

The new Up band, announced today, promises to fix earlier issues with the product, and comes with much-improved mobile software that offers a more comprehensive data-tracking experience.

The Up looks pretty much the same as it always did. But the company says the band has improved water resistance — one of the reasons why the first band couldn’t hold a battery charge — and better circuit-board pliancy, allowing it to be flexible while protecting the tiny components inside from damage.

In addition to recording activity, the Up mobile app now includes a Trends tab that allows side-by-side comparisons of personal metrics. There are also Moods, which allow the user to say if they’re feeling cranky or like they’re going to conquer the world on any particular day; and more detailed food logging, with a bar-code scanner for scanning food items.

With the last Up, Jawbone’s solution for food tracking was to tell users to snap and add photos to the app. Now, Up provides actual data, like calories and grams of sugar in a particular food item.

And for users who want to track intense workouts, there are now options to log running, yoga or cycling sessions, among other activities.

The wristband costs $129 — $30 more than the original Up — and hits the market today. It’s available through the Apple Store, AT&T, Target, Best Buy and Jawbone’s own Web site. The free app works only on iOS devices to start.

The redesigned Up arrives 11 months after Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman had to issue an apology to some Up owners who were complaining about technical and design issues with the first wristband.

Jawbone also initiated a “no questions asked” refund program (which the company says is technically still in effect, for those who haven’t yet requested a refund on the original Up).

Since then, the Bay Area-based start-up has conducted 46 weeks of user tests and trials, across “thousands” of Jawbone Up devices, the company said.

In the foreground: The guts of the new Jawbone Up, compared with the earlier model

While the redesigned band boasts some important features that weren’t in the previous version of the product, it’s coming to market at a time of increasing competition in the area where mobile health meets wearable tech.

Earlier this year, Nike introduced its own version of an activity-tracking wristband, the Nike+ FuelBand, which also syncs with an iPhone app. Nike uses its own currency, called “fuel,” to measure the wearer’s exertion level.

And Lark, maker of a wearable sleep sensor, just announced its own holistic wristband-with-app, called Larklife, that tracks activity, sleep and eating patterns. Lark CEO Julia Hu declined to give details on when the product will launch, except to say it will hit “this holiday season.”

Both the Nike+ FuelBand and the Larklife bands cost around $150.

But there’s likely to be more competition in the near future. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this coming January, the CEA expects to see more than 215 exhibitors — about 25,000 square feet of exhibit space — devoted to tech surrounding weight loss, body mass, calorie-tracking and other areas of health and wellness. Compared with last year’s CES, this is a 25 percent increase in tech health exhibitors, according to Jeff Joseph, senior vice president of communications for the CEA.

Demand Media Finally Breaks Away for Good From Lance Armstrong

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:00:13 +0000

In the midst of last week’s earnings call, after the company had released strong results, Demand Media CEO and co-founder Richard Rosenblatt made an unusual declaration about its once-tight affiliation with now-disgraced professional racing cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Said Rosenblatt about the Santa Monica, Calif., social content company to Wall Street analysts about the status of the relationship in the wake of Armstrong being stripped of his many Tour de France titles:

“Our relationship is with the Livestrong Foundation, not with Lance, and we are aligned in empowering people to live healthier lives, and we support the important work of the foundation. We have built a powerful destination, popular applications and a very engaged community. None of this has changed and we have seen no material impact on the consumer traffic or metrics.”

In reality, the once-close relationship between Demand and Armstrong ended a while ago, even though the athlete’s cancer-fighting charity has been a high-profile shareholder since early 2008. At the time, Demand struck a four-year exclusive deal with Livestrong to create a health and wellness site, and also got a perpetual license to the Livestrong.com domain name.

But Armstrong — despite appearing at the Web 2.0 conference in 2008 with Rosenblatt — eventually had little to do with the Demand brand.

And it is down to zero involvement now, after he recently stepped down as chairman of Livestrong, due to the doping controversy. That mess has caused a lot of the brands he was tied up with, such as Nike, to disassociate themselves from Armstrong himself, although not from the Livestrong Foundation.

That has also been Demand’s direction, especially given that the commercial Web site, which has become the No. 3 health property in the U.S., is one of the company’s strongest ones. That adds up to about 26 million monthly unique visitors, a gain of 97 percent since last year.

But with that success, why did Demand make the statement at earnings — as well as putting up a blog post recently clarifying that it had “no direct relationship” with Armstrong?

Apparently, according to several sources, Demand had to move to be as explicit has possible, not because of consumers, but because of advertisers.

“The advertisers did care about the affiliation,” said one source. “So it was time to say in no uncertain terms to them and shareholders that Lance Armstrong has nothing to do with Demand.”

Or, as the blog post in late October noted rather strongly:

“We don’t believe the struggles of one individual should detract from the millions of real people who have benefited from work that’s been done to prevent cancer and improve the lives of those unfortunate enough to have it.”

Or, as they say in bike racing, Armstrong had simply become too much of a wheel sucker.

MindBody Banks $35 Million for Small-Biz SaaS

Mike Isaac — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:00:11 +0000

MindBody raised $35 million in venture funding, the company announced Thursday morning, in a round led by Institutional Venture Partners. Catalyst Investors and Bessemer Venture Partners, two existing investors in the company, also participated in the round. Founded in 2001, MindBody sells client management software to health and wellness industry clients, serving 20,000 clients across more than 80 countries. The company has raised upward of $23 million to date.

New Fitbits Use Bluetooth to Sync Directly to Your iPhone

Lauren Goode — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:30:59 +0000

Fitbit, the tiny device that clips onto clothing and helps users monitor their activity levels and sleep patterns, is undeniably popular as far as activity-tracking gadgets go. But over the past year, products like the Nike+ FuelBand, the (now-paused) Jawbone UP and even the BodyMedia Fit Link Armband have elbowed their way into the space — and they sync with smartphones, too.

FitBit One

Fitbit is now joining that fitness club.

The new Fitbit Zip and Fitbit One both have Bluetooth 4.0 capabilities to let users send their stats directly to iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and new iPad via the Fitbit’s updated mobile app. There’s an Android app, too, but my understanding is that this app is supplementary, and won’t let users update their stats on the go.

The Zip is positioned as a kind of baby Fitbit, priced at $59.95 and aimed at more casual users. It’s about the size of a quarter, according to the company, and while it’s pocket-friendly, it also has a clip so you can attach it directly onto clothing (I’d probably still lose it). It has an easy tap interface so you can see stats directly on the display, and it is water-resistant — which means sweat-resistant.

The Fitbit One packs more features. It includes a sleep tracker and an alarm clock, which you can set from either a mobile device or Fitbit’s online dashboard and vibrates to wake the wearer. It shows a clock on its improved display, and sends motivational messages to the wearer. Like other Fitbits, it is splash-and-sweat proof.

The Fitbit Zip is on sale now. The One hits the market later this fall, and costs $99.95. This is less than the $150 price tag of the Nike+ FuelBand and BodyMedia’s armband, and in line with the price of Fitbit’s predecessor product, the Ultra.

Fitbit is killing off the Ultra, which it launched in October of last year; that product included a digital clock, a stopwatch and an altimeter that measures elevation gain. That’s around the time the company launched the Fitbit iPhone app, too.

FitBit Zip

“Anecdotally, we know that a lot of our users want to be able to use these devices completely on the go and not be tied to a computer, so these two new devices have Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity which we think is emerging as the key technology for a connected lifestyle,” a Fitbit representative said in a statement.

It’s a wild race out there in the activity-tracking space. While FitBit claims its average user takes 43 percent more steps throughout the day and loses an average of 13 pounds with Fitbit usage, the verdict is still out on which kind of fitness and activity devices actually work best for consumers — whether it’s those with pedometer or accelerometers (which, by the way, the iPod has, as well), ones that track sleep patterns, those with skin sensors that measure body heat, good ol’ heart-rate monitoring devices, or some combination of all of the above.

Khosla Ventures Hires Ex-Yahoo Mojgan Khalili as Comms Partner

Kara Swisher — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:12:39 +0000

Mojgan Khalili

Another prominent venture firm has stepped up in the marketing arena and hired well-regarded former Yahoo communications exec Mojgan Khalili as an operating partner.

In an interview yesterday, Vinod Khosla said that the move was part of the Silicon Valley firm’s motto of “venture assistance.”

Like many top VCs these days, Khosla said that helping build the start-ups it invests in is a key part of its offering. It already has partners specializing in recruiting and finance.

“We are building an operating organization and communications is an important part of that to help the companies we invest in,” said Khosla. “Obviously, other firms are using this function to promote themselves, but as a fund we don’t need more publicity.”

Khosla noted that Khalili’s job would be almost entirely focused on helping start-ups. But the latter part of that quote was referencing the boom in comms hiring by prominent VC firms — such as Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital — some of which are getting a lot of press attention, too.

Khosla acknowledged the importance of good marketing — even some entrepreneurs, such as Square’s Jack Dorsey, are PR naturals.

“He is someone who does press well,” he said. “But 90 percent of start-ups need help to do this function, which is increasingly critical.”

Khalili is a longtime comms exec, who most recently headed product issues at Yahoo, working with top execs there.

“Working with great partners at Khosla Ventures and assisting awesome companies in so many different industries like, tech, big data, health, food and energy makes this opportunity perfect,” she said. “I am really excited to dig in.”

Mayor Bloomberg Wants You to Supersize Your Health: The Full D10 Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:34:38 +0000

It was fortuitous for the 10th D: All Things Digital conference that the larger-than-life New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had just banned giant servings of sugary and high-calorie supersized sodas in the city.

Because of duties back in the Big Apple, the electronic news entrepreneur was broadcast to D10 via satellite, but he managed to strongly defend his latest effort to fight bad health practices by his constituents — whether they like it or not.

Even remotely, the interview was lively and covered a wide variety of topics, including Bloomberg’s thoughts about technology in the classroom, and the reasons he’s not going to run for president.

Among the reasons — he backs gay rights and, “I believe in science.”

Don’t miss this great interview with me and Walt Mossberg:

[ See post to watch video ]

Yahoo's Parting With Thompson Will Be for "Cause" (aka CSLie)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:21 +0000

According to numerous sources, Yahoo is claiming “cause” in its parting with former CEO Scott Thompson, related to the fake computer science degree on his resume.

Such a determination will mean the company is not obligated to pay him the large severance that would have been due to him otherwise.

In his offer letter on January 3, Yahoo spelled out the terms of the employment agreement, noting what would happen if he left the company under more positive “without cause” terms.

“If Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause or by Mr. Thompson for good reason, the Company will offer him severance benefits similar to the benefits it provides to other senior executives of the Company at the time of his termination,” reads the document, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “In addition, if Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause, by Mr. Thompson for good reason, or due to Mr. Thompson’s death or disability, the Make-Whole RSUs that are then outstanding and unvested will fully vest upon his termination.”

The “Make-Whole” RSUs — or restricted stock units, related to his time as president of eBay’s PayPal payments division — were valued at $6.5 million in Yahoo’s SEC filings.

But sources said Yahoo has relied on another clause in Thompson’s offer letter, titled “Code of Ethics and Yahoo! Policies,” to make the case that it would not have to pay out such a large sum to him.

Reads the clause:

“Yahoo! is committed to creating a positive work environment and conducting business ethically. As an employee of Yahoo!, you will be expected to abide by the Company’s policies and procedures including, but not limited to, Yahoo!’s Guide2Working@Y!, Yahoo!’s Code of Ethics and Yahoo!’s Corporate Governance Guidelines,” reads the letter. “Yahoo! requests that you review, sign and bring with you on your Employment Start Date, the enclosed Code of Ethics Acknowledgment Form.”

Under the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s ethical terms, the borked bio and how it got that way — which was still under investigation when Thompson stepped down — was the major issue in his ouster, since he was responsible for making sure it was accurate when submitted for regulatory filings.

In addition, while Thompson publicly blamed a headhunting firm for making the error back in the mid-2000 timeframe, that company — Heidrick & Struggles — hit back, saying his claims were “verifiably not true.” According to sources, Heidrick apparently possesses an inaccurate resume submitted to them by Thompson.

Heidrick, which placed Thompson at eBay many years ago, was not involved in his hiring at Yahoo. It had to recuse itself from his vetting as part of its search for a new Yahoo CEO, because it had placed him previously.

In fact, Thompson had nominated himself for the job via cold emails with Yahoo board members and was examined and hired quickly.

Perhaps too quickly, given the poor background check that was discovered by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point.

Sources close to the board said that investor pressure relate to these credibility lapses grew too loud, along with employee rancor at Thompson’s actions — forcing the issue this weekend.

What was definitely not a reason for Thompson’s departure from Yahoo — although it was unfortunate timing — was an unspecified “illness” I referenced in my initial story on the subject.

(Note to readers: I found out this weekend that illness was thyroid cancer. But I declined to name it specifically, since I felt it was Thompson’s right to publicly reveal such a personal health issue and not mine. While I recently suffered a stroke and the experience perhaps influenced this editorial decision, the cancer was only a side issue to the resume drama at Yahoo and not naming it specifically seemed, well, more responsible to me. Argue amongst yourselves about it, but that’s my take. And also, I wish Thompson a successful treatment and speedy recovery)

That said, The Wall Street Journal did an entire piece about the cancer today today, noting that “the decision to step down from Yahoo was in part influenced by Mr. Thompson’s cancer diagnosis.”

That might have been true for Thompson — a source close to him characterized the parting as “mutually agreed” — and perhaps his illness accelerated the resume controversy.

But all that aside, he was given no choice in the matter by the Yahoo board, numerous sources said. The parting was almost entirely due to the mess about the botched bio and all its implications.

In fact, in all its public communications about his leaving, Yahoo and its execs offered no token thanks and barely even mentioned Thompson, such as in its official statement yesterday.

It read, referring to newly chosen interim CEO Ross Levinsohn: “Mr. Levinsohn replaces Scott Thompson, former Chief Executive Officer, who has left the Company.”

And left it he has, without a choice and with what will be a much smaller settlement, sources said. It is not clear when Yahoo has to unveil those terms in public documents.

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Apple Grabs Yahoo Exec in Charge of Shine, Women's Lifestyles and Health Content

Kara Swisher — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:00:29 +0000

Jessica Jensen, the Yahoo exec in charge of its flagship Shine women’s site, as well as its lifestyles and health content businesses, has left the Silicon Valley Internet giant, the company confirmed.

Sources said Jensen is taking a job at Apple, working for former Yahoo and Adobe advertising exec Todd Teresi, who was recently tapped to head the mobile iAd division.

At Yahoo, Jensen was the point person on its critical women’s initiatives, including Shine, which is among the top such sites in the U.S., so her departure is a blow to new CEO Scott Thompson’s efforts to push forward its media businesses.

Previously, Jensen worked on strategy for Yahoo’s Americas unit, arriving there three years ago from LowImpactLiving.com, a green-housing-sector site that she founded and led.

Here she is in a Yahoo “Expert Q&A” video on its advertising solutions site: