body

Jawbone, the company that made its name on Bluetooth headsets, has made a strategic purchase to expand its wearable technology business.

Jawbone announced Tuesday that it has acquired BodyMedia, a company that specializes in wearable body monitors and sensors. BodyMedia holds 87 patents and makes the Fit product line, which includes a gadget registered with the FDA as a Class II medical device capable of helping users lose weight.

According to All Things Digital, the deal is valued at $100 million. Neither Jawbone nor BodyMedia disclosed the acquisition price.

Jawbone already sells a wrist monitor, known as Up, designed to … Read more

It's mission accomplished for the experimental X-48C aircraft.

The distinctively shaped machine this week made the last of 30 flights in an eight-month program as backers Boeing and NASA sought to show how well a "blended wing body" aircraft can perform. The X-48C program is tied to NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aircraft project, which is geared toward developing futuristic airplanes that burn less fuel, spew fewer emissions, and make less noise.

The Boeing-designed X-48C has a radically different look than that of conventional aircraft. Where a big 747 or a little Cessna has -- very roughly speaking … Read more

Go way beyond the typical bathroom scale with the new Withings Smart Body Analyzer. This fitness gadget not only measures your weight, it also calculates the amount of fat you're saddled with, plus keeps tabs on your heart rate.

The Body Analyzer, which goes on sale March 20 for $149.95, even sniffs the air for carbon dioxide levels in an effort to monitor ambient air quality. Another indication of the product's intelligence is that it can sync wirelessly with mobile devices via Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi.

When it's paired with the Withings Health Mate app, … Read more

When the Country Fire Authority in Victoria, Australia, noticed that its firefighters were showing signs of heat stress even when their ear thermometer probes were reading normal temperatures, they decided it was time to find a better gauge in the hopes of preventing heat-related illnesses.

So they tested a smart pill on 50 firefighters evacuating 20 people from a burning medical center, and have already used the readings to change firefighter work patterns, including how long they're exposed to blazes, according to the Australian Associated Press.… Read more

You do realize that those nice people in Transport Security Administration uniforms have been examining your naked body, don't you?

You do realize that scanning machines arrived so swiftly in U.S. airports that there wasn't time to write software to preserve what remains of your modesty -- as you hold your hands up in surrender, just so that you can fly to Seattle?

Ah, you didn't.

Well, I bring news of a cover-up.

No, not that sort of cover-up. The TSA has decided that it's had enough of staring at your denuded selves -- perhaps … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you ever wanted to know what it would feel like to have Mick Jagger massage the knots in your back muscles while you listen to "Tumbling Dice," then I have the perfect gadget for you. The iMusic BodyRhythm massage vest sits over your shoulders and upper back. Plug it into your iPhone, fire up the app, and enjoy a rubdown to the beat of your favorite song.

I got to try out a fully functioning prototype of the vest at CES 2013. The vest's creator Uwe Diegel hooked me up with some "Gangnam Style" massage action. I could see going for the full-album experience and having an extended session with "Exile on Main Street." It would be a very different way of experiencing the music.… Read more

Body Symbol Free: The Romantic Heart Photo Booth is an app that guides you in creating romantic photos. It does this by helping you shape your body into different positions that then are mosaicked into a larger photo of a heart, for example. Body Symbol Free: The Romantic Heart Photo Booth is a free app available from the App Store; it installs quickly.

The intent of Body Symbol Free: The Romantic Heart Photo Booth is to help you position your body by matching an onscreen outline. These images are then combined into a larger tiled image to match a shape … Read more

Body Scanner is an entertainment app that supposedly lets you see through clothes and zoom in on body parts. Of course, Body Scanner doesn't really do anything like that, but it does show a representation of what you'd think is an X-ray image based on what the camera is pointing at. There's no real scanning involved, of course, just photo manipulation.

Of course, this wouldn't be entertainment if the app simply showed a skeletal figure or perhaps just a smooth body skin, so Body Scanner spices things up with some imagination. Some images will show a … Read more

Connecting to a wireless scale through your computer is so first-quarter 2012. Now, if you're willing to drop $150 on the new Withings Wireless Scale WS-30, all you need is a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or tablet to do the trick.

Withings, the French technology company best known for its sleek wireless scales for adults and babies alike, just announced its latest offering at IFA 2012 in Berlin and says the WS-30 will be available in Europe in late September (PDF). Its new (and free) Health Companion app, which helps users track not just weight and BMI (body mass index) but … Read more