Healbe’s GoBe2 is a cutting-edge wearable that promises to help you get a grip on your day-to-day health and happiness

It has been a surprise to Tech Trends that wearables have been so slow to evolve into a truly indispensable part of our lives. A tidal wave of wearable tech hit stores a few years ago and since then I don’t really see the use case advancing or manufacturers offering us increasingly compelling and original solutions for everyday problems. Not to belittle the health tech implementations of wearable tech, including the GoBe2 tested here, but surely we can do more with modern wearable technology than just help us monitor our fitness? Anyway, rant over and onto the product on test here.

GoBe2 is the second iteration of the original product Healbe GoBe crowdfunded and released a few years ago. It is a “specialized wellness tracker”, and claims it’s not a substitute for a general-purpose fitness tracker. Well poo to you Jawbone, Fitbit, MiBand et al.

At Healbe, we believe that how you eat, sleep and feel makes you who you are. Changing one’s life requires identifying and addressing underlying lifestyle issues. GoBe2 can give you deeper insight into quality, quantity, frequency and duration of your nutrition, rest, stress episodes and more. GoBe2 helps you understand how these lifestyle factors interact with each other. When managed properly, these crucial lifestyle factors can positively reinforce each other resulting in improved toning of your body and mind.

The @Healbe #GoBe2 is more than just a watch, you get an impressive online account where all your data is logged and analyzed to help you make the right decisions about managing your health
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So what does it do? Well, first off it is more than just a watch, you get a quite impressive online account where all your data is logged and analyzed to help you make the right decisions about managing your health and wellness. You also get regular email updates on your health data which can boost your commitment or like mine below, bring a tear to your eye! Surely I can’t have put on a Kilo! Yes you did fat boy, and don’t call me Shirley. The interface and communications are really good and allow you to browse back through your energy, hydration and other data to see patterns and improve your goals.

You get regular @Healbe email updates which can either boost your commitment or bring a tear to your eye. Surely I can't have put on a Kilo! Yes you have, fat boy, and don't call me Shirley
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There are five sensors, a heart rate monitor (based on piezo-sensor), bio-impedance sensor, accelerometer, temperature monitor and skin galvanic reaction sensor but lacks GPS so is not useful for those planning their routes or tracking distances covered. It is more a product for your everyman/woman looking to engage with their health and their daily routine than your modern fitness freak.

@Healbe is more for your everyman/woman looking to engage with their health in their daily routine than your modern fitness freak
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The GoBe2 tracks your net calories automatically. Typical calorie counting tools rely on averages and estimations from what you eat. Healbe’s patented FLOW Technology (more info here) estimates the amount of carbs/fat/protein, net calorie deficit (which causes weight loss) or surplus (which causes weight gain) that are crucial for healthy weight management. It automatically determines your activity levels and combines it with your heart rate data to accurately track how many calories you burn throughout the day. Healbe’s patented technology measures activity and body movement. This sensor counts your steps, as well as distance travelled but as I mentioned will not be as accurate as a GPS device. A pulse wave sensor measures your heart rate, so it can tell when you’re active and when you’re not, mostly not in my case!

GoBe2’s patented technology measures cell glucose concentrations to estimate calorie intake, which only spikes 1-2 hours after ingestion. Be aware that for this reason the calorie intake measurements seen on your GoBe2 will be delayed and this is completely normal. By combining your activity level with calorie intake, the predicted calorie deficit is important for not starving yourself or overeating, both of which are crucial to avoid for reaching your desired body weight without losing body mass.

Using #Flow tech and the impedance sensor, @Healbe #GoBe2 automatically measures your hydration level and reminds you when to drink water, based on your body's needs
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Proper hydration is vital to your general health and workout performance. Your hydration level depends on your body requirements and activity level. Using FLOW and the Impedance sensor, the Healbe GoBe2 automatically measures your hydration level and reminds you when to drink water, based on your body’s needs. I love these reminders but found they came a bit late and once notified I realized I was gagging for a drink, not just thirsty. Better than nothing though.

I sleep terribly and well know that the quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your productivity, emotional balance, and weight. The GoBe2 analyzes your heart rate and movement to model your waking, REM and regular sleep periods, and reports total sleep, quality of sleep, waking minutes, and sleep efficiency metrics. It uses this data to recommend how much sleep you need the next day thus helping you actively reduce sleep deficit.

Stress is one of the silent killers in modern life, and one of the major causes of bad sleep, lowered endurance and unhappiness
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Stress is one of the silent killers in modern life, and one of the major causes of bad sleep, lowered endurance, unhappiness and difficulty maintaining healthy body weight. The GoBe2 Fitness Tracker estimates your stress level once an hour and also shows stress episodes. By being aware of these episodes as they happen, one can begin to correlate the cause. The online account lets you look back over your history and can be an especially powerful tool when you want to find what triggers your stress and work towards minimizing it going forwards. I noticed that everyday things like popping to the shops or the post office radically spiked my stress levels, however not much I can do about that!

The @Healbe #GoBe2 Fitness Tracker estimates your stress level once an hour and also shows stress episodes
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The device itself is not small but is not cumbersome and looks pretty nice to be fair. Battery life was just about OK. The fully charged but small 370 mAh battery lasted up to 24 hours on continuous use, half what is claimed. The large, flat profile of the back of the GoBe2 makes it fit a wrist well enough while maintaining contact during activity, thus making it comfortable for long-term wear, but I found it got very sweaty when on my wrist for six or more hours. I suppose this is inevitable but something to be aware of. The snap-on charging cradle is easy to use and produces full charge in 30-60 minutes.

Like the online account interface, the @Healbe smartphone app is well designed and very useful, it is simple to use and presents all the data you might need in an approachable way
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Like the online account interface, the smartphone app is well designed and very useful. Available for Apple and Android devices, it is simple to use and presents all the data you might need in an approachable way. It is vital to note that the GoBe2 also integrates with third-party health tech services for easy use including, GoogleFit, Apple Health, Withings App & InKin so users get some very important options there.

Overall my experience of the #GoBe2 was positive but it is a very involved process, but wait, that is what it is for, involving and engaging people more with their day to day health #Win!
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Overall my experience of the watch and research into the usefulness of the data it gathers was positive but it is a very involved process, but wait, that is what it is for, involving and engaging people more with their day to day health. Importantly by all accounts the GoBe2 is the most versatile device of its type and is breathing down the neck of tech giants in this space, if not outpacing them in their efforts to advance wearable health tech. Recommended if you want more data to help you improve your health!

Pick one up in the UK for £199 on Amazon.co.uk or $199 in the US on Amazon.com And be sure to use the exclusive discount code techtrends – 10% now!

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Review: Healbe GoBe2 Wellness Tracker appeared first on Tech Trends.

More of us are suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury, so here are some things you can do to tackle this modern curse.

I’ve given up counting how many hours a day I spend on the computer (phones, tablets and other gadgets count). The best estimate I can come up with is pretty much every waking moment. When a friend showed up with both arms heavily bandaged, I asked him if he’s had an accident, but wasn’t all that surprised when he blamed RSI instead. It’s the price we pay for being always on.

RSI is the price we pay for being always on
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This also costs the economy, as the broad category of “Musculoskeletal Disorders” is responsible for a third of all workplace injuries, lost workdays, and compensation claims. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), RSI affects some 1.8 million workers per year. One government study puts the cost of RSI between $17 billion and $20 billion a year.

RSI affects some 1.8 million workers and costs the economy about $20 billion a year
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Since I started to struggle more and more with the various pains associated with long hours of typing, tapping and clicking, I researched some of the less radical options (those that didn’t involve surgery or retreat to a remote location bereft of WiFi) and thought I’d share some of my first impressions with you around what worked and what didn’t. Please add your own ideas below!

Work Out

One simple thing that really helped was getting a little exercise routine going. This is something that only takes 3 minutes per session, so I try and do it at the start and finish of each workday. Trust me, it will be the wisest six minutes a day you ever invest on yourself, and I’ve grown to really like it. There are many versions out there, but my favourite is this popular YouTube video:

Strap On

My friend’s solution of bandaging his arms with strips of surgical tape might seem a bit dramatic, but mainly works in two ways: Diminishing the discomfort caused by RSI by applying some pressure, and also making you think about your posture and movement a bit more. Similar to tying a piece of string around your finger, it reminds you to take some care with how you sit, how you place your hands on the keyboard, and other factors that really do make a difference in the long-run. As the name implies, RSI is caused by repetitive movement, and most of us will repeat movements unnecessarily and without realizing it throughout the day. Anything you can do to stop yourself from doing that quite so much is helpful in combatting the problem.

Mix it up

It’s important to take a step back and do your own health and safety assessment every once in a while. Take a look at where you work, and how you’re working. It’s easy to become used to working in a certain way, but often there are simple things we can do to cut back on the kind of repetitive patterns that cause RSI. Do you find that you’re constantly clicking your mouse in a certain way? Think about whether every click is actually necessary. Maybe there is an equivalent keyboard shortcut or voice command that would do the same thing? Try clicking smarter and less often. It’s also good to practice becoming ambidextrous, clicking with your other hand every once in a while, even if it feels strange at first.

Try clicking smarter and less often
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Take a break

This is the one everyone knows, but few of us manage to stick to. It’s all too easy to caught up in our work and before you know it you haven’t moved from your desk all afternoon. Be strict about creating the habit of taking regular breaks, preferably to go through some of the exercises in that video above. Your work won’t suffer because of those ‘lost’ few minutes, quite the contrary. Studies have shown that taking regular breaks actually increases productivity.

Be strict about creating the habit of taking regular breaks
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Get the Gear

I recently also tested a few different gadgets that promise to help improve your workplace setup, here are some of my first impressions:

Penclic Keyboard and Bluetooth Mouse

The keyboard promises optimal ergonomic design, and light-touch keys supposed to minimize the strain caused by typing. I found it comfortable enough to use, but the connectivity with my Mac didn’t work too well, so I had to keep pressing keys repeatedly and harder, which sort of defeated the purpose. It got so frustrating I ended up reverting back my external Bluetooth Apple keyboard, which does work smoothly and still has light-touch keys. The main advantage of such external keyboards is that you can adjust their placement in relation to the edge of your desk and screen so that your wrists are properly supported.

I was making an effort to really think about my clicking, and the fact that I could not automate my movements helped with that
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The Penclic mouse is designed like a swivelling pen mounted on a gliding base, so you don’t need a mousepad, and takes up very little desk space. It’s quite awkward to use, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I actually stuck with it, because I was making an effort to really think about my clicking, and the fact that I could not automate my movements helped with that.

Wacom Pad

My husband is a digital producer and spends a lot of time editing photos and videos. The professional software he uses is incredibly click-centric and so his RSI is a bit different from mine, which bothers me more with typing. He really liked the large surface area of the pad, which meant that he could track movements easily over a large screen, and the buttons on the side, which he could use to click with his left hand while holding the pen on his right. He still likes working with the traditional mouse, however. “you actually forget what an efficient piece of design the mouse is, and for the kind of work I do it is great, apart from when you start to rack up thousands of clicks a day.” His solution is to alternate between using the pad, keyboard shortcuts and the mouse so that no single muscle group gets overstretched for long periods of time.

You actually forget what an efficient piece of design the mouse is
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Varidesk

By far my favourite home office piece of kit is the standing desk, however. I always thought these looked a bit strange, but the health claims were impressive. Apparently, the mere act of standing up boosts your blood circulation and feeds more oxygen to your brain, increasing energy levels, alertness and productivity. Although sceptical at first, I did feel much more energised as soon as I started using it, and the next day my legs felt like I’d done a bit of a workout! It also folds and adjusts to various heights, so that it can be used as a normal desk if you want. The best part was the way it helped the positioning of my arms and wrists, which were nicely supported and level. It was very difficult to fall back into a bad posture, and my back, neck and hands all thanked me for it even after one week.

I did feel much more energised when I started using the standing desk
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Backjoy

OK, never mind the rather ill-judged name, and the fact it looks a bit strange… It is actually a nice gadget for when you do want to sit down on a proper chair. Varying your position throughout the day is helpful in keeping you mindful of your posture and movement. The seat works to keep your spine in alignment and works on most chairs, which is particularly good if you don’t quite have enough dosh for a Hermann Miller.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post RSI is a Pain: Here’s What You Can Do About It appeared first on Tech Trends.