EA Planning a 'Wii Fit' Competitor?
by Engadget Staff, posted Nov 1st 2008 at 4:10PM
[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Posts with tag exercise
[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
'Wii Fit' Set to Outsell 'Grand Theft Auto IV'
'GTA4' was dominating at first, but with time, interest has waned,while Wii Fit and its included Balance Board peripheral have stayed hot despite supply shortages. Nintendo's hardware-focused strategy seems to be working; the Balance Board install base is approaching 12 million, or roughly 30% of all Wii owners.
You can bet it'll be put to good use in future games and other, less mainstream applications even after folks have given up on losing weight and resigned themselves once more to lifelong loneliness.
More US Workers Replacing Desk Chairs With Treadmills
The phenomenon of U.S. office workers' replacing their chairs with treadmills is sweeping home offices and corporate headquarters alike, the New York Times reports.
This development is at least partially attributed to the research of Dr. James Levine, whose 2005 Mayo Clinic study showed that, of folks who work in offices, the most fit are the anxious types who are constantly moving, whether by walking back and forth between co-workers' desks or nervously tapping their feet. Going off of those findings, Dr. Levine constructed himself a low-speed treadmill-desk and found it to be beneficial to the health of less squirrelly workers such as himself.
Treadmill-desks are beneficial to everyone, though. Let's face it, while those aforementioned types of anxious movement might serve to distract, they're not quite as effective as real workouts. But there's more: Some treadmill-workers interviewed in the Times piece claim that exercising helps them to work harder at their jobs.
Although we don't see treadmill use becoming as pervasive in the workplace as, say, texting on the job, we can't help but foresee an increasing number of companies and individuals incorporating the activity into their office environment. It's not as crazy as it sounds -- a few companies, including Salon.com and Mutual of Omaha, have already acknowledged those potential benefits by implementing treadmill workstations in their offices.
Now, all those offices need are a good projector and Google Maps' Street View, so that they can truly make all those go-getters feel like they're really going places. [From: The New York Times]
Wearable Fitbit Automatically Tracks Your Exercise Routines
[From: Fitbit Via Gearlog]
Coming Soon: Treadmill Beds and Human-Powered Gadgets
The treadmill bed attaches a treadmill (surprise, surprise!) to the foot of an adjustable hospital bed. The bed slowly tips the patient into a standing position on the treadmill, which removes the need for staff to assist the patient. The exercise bed is the invention of Charles Filipi, a surgeon at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
Meanwhile, Greg Hampikian and Peter Mullner, from Boise State University in Idaho, have learned to harvest motion to generate energy with magnetoelastic materials. This type of material changes shape when a magnetic field is applied to it, but also works in reverse, producing a magnetic field when deformed. Connecting the material to a transducer then converts the magnetic field into an electrical charge. The materials require small amounts of motion to generate energy, making them ideal for keeping medical implants and gadgets powered.
Check out the ABC News article for more information and links to the complete patent filings. [From: ABC News]
Screenshots for iPhone Nike+ Running App Found to be Fake
Update: And to think, we actually believed that Nike and Apple were this close to delivering the long-awaited running application for the iPhone. While it was widely bruited that these shots were indeed the real deal, AppleInsider is pointing out a chink in the armor: Cupertino doesn't offer iPhone developers a programming interface for accessing one's music, yet this mysterious program clearly showed someone listening to Chris Martin and friends while attempting to make it to 0.02km. The take away? It's still pretty likely that the two outfits are working to create a fitness program for the App Store, but those screenshots ain't it. [Thanks, Michael]
New York Gym Offering Nintendo Wii Workouts for $110 Per Hour
According to the New York Post, Gravity Fitness at New York's Le Parker Meridien Hotel has mixed Nintendo Wii gameplay into its personal training rotation along with sessions of boxing and weight training. The hotel charges $110-per-hour for its personal trainers, regardless of whether guests are weight-training or, as it turns out, Wii-training. The Wii (which costs just $250 to buy outright) is mixed into a workout routine as a bit of a reward, acting a boost between sessions of more trying things, like real boxing, serving to keep peoples' heart rates up -- 140-t-150 beats-per-minute for some. That's comparable to what you get on a treadmill, and flies in the face of some folks who that playing Wii is not exercise.
Just the same, we'd recommend buying your own and playing from home. It's the economical thing to do, wherever you live. [Source: The New York Post]
Running Shoes That Light The Way With Each Step
Do you run at night? We've found the shoe for you. Down dark alleys and through the murky underbrush (are you sure you really want to run in such places), your way will be lit with this concept shoe from the folks at Pioneer.
With each pavement pounding step, the shoes power up a small battery, which keeps a small light going, letting you see what's before your feet.
The concept seems familiar in a way to what the Toyota Prius does, garnering power with each step on the brakes to keep that battery charged (except on this small scale, the mechanism is, of course, tiny).
The other obvious reminder is of those shoes for kids that blink maddeningly with each step (except, of course, those are not self charging).
The LEDs on these feet wheels will keep going for 12 hours, according to what we can parse from the postings.
From Yanko Design.
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Geriatric Wii Tournament Crowns 84 Year-Old Winner
Don't look now, but it appears that even the AARP digs the Nintendo Wii gaming console. Want proof? TG Daily reports that a Washington, D.C.-area retirement community recently held a Wii bowling tournament that culminated in a matchup between 79-year-old real bowling champion and an 84-year-old Wii-prodigy challenger. Nancy Davies beat Hal Winters 202 to 182 at the Riderwood Retirement Community in one of many Wii tournaments held at the geriatric complex. While Winters is an actual bowling expert, Davies only began bowling only a year ago, exclusively on the Wii, which makes the upset so shocking.
Since several Wii units were received last March, the plaid-loving residents have flocked to play and challenge each other in shooting and hockey games in addition to bowling free-for-alls. This item of news marks the unique marketability of the Wii toward demographics heretofore unresponsive to the gaming world, groups including the elderly, female and middle-aged populations. Now if we can just get Grandma to talk trash we'll be getting somewhere...
From Engadget Via TG Daily and Examiner.com
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Playing Wii is Not Exercise, Say Scientists
On the plus side the researchers did say these extra calories could help to contribute to weight management, but still suggested kids get out and join little league.
From the BBC
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