The road to six-pack abs and an all-round better level of fitness is made up of tens of thousands of steps taken, calories burned and elevated heartbeats per minute. This wearable smart activity tracker monitors all of that and more. To further assist you keep track of your progress, you can even pair it up with your iPhone or Android for more options and health statistics on the go. What sets the Withings Pulse apart from its competitors is the inclusion of an easy to use heart-rate sensor. Besides measuring your BPM at the gym to see when you’ve entered the zone, the product’s creators suggest you measure how much your heart rate rises before that hot date -- bet it’s not low. Another helpful feature is its ability to measure your sleep cycles to find out how long you are in light sleep, deep sleep or awake. There are plenty of useful things you can do with the Withings Pulse, it’s just up to you to keep track of your progress and use it.
With the expansion of the Internet in 2012 to include more IP addresses, the "internet of things" or machine-to-machine technology is set to boom and connect billions of electronics worldwide. Home appliances like the Nest Learning Thermostat have already been hooked up to the ecosystem that will connect all the world’s technology giving you more control of how low to keep the heat -- and can assist you in lowering your heating bill. Besides its main function that lets you control the heat anywhere in your home from your smartphone, the Nest also comes with a humidity sensor to hook up to your humidifier/dehumidifier, has three temperature sensors and even a Wi-Fi radio. In addition, the stylish design puts any old white-box thermostat to shame. If you’re looking for a device that will help you save some money on your electricity bill, and would feel good about reducing a bit of your household’s carbon print, getting a smart thermostat would be a good investment.
3. Muse Headband
Definitely the most futuristic product on this list and a gadget that’s not even released until January (fingers crossed), the Muse headband made by Toronto-based InteraXon is a peek into the future of brain-sensing technology. While Muse won’t let you move your cursor by thinking or automatically play songs based on your mood (yet), it gives you a real-time measurement of your brain’s activity. So how does that assist you? If you are one of the many people who complain that they "can’t turn off their minds," wearing Muse while focusing on your breathing (mindfulness meditation) or doing brain training games will assist you in improving your focus and give you an opportunity to see your progress. Meditation or simply getting better at letting go of your stresses will help you boost your productivity at work and make a zen warrior out of you. Muse will also be getting new apps that will eventually do the things sci-fi films have predicted for years. However, you don’t have to worry about it ever being able to read your thoughts or control your mind -- or so they say.
4. Ipad Air
You’ve heard it many times before, but tablets are useful and assist you on a daily basis in a variety of ways. From checking the weather, stocks, your social networks and surfing the internet, there’s really an app for everything these days and they also can save you a lot of money on books, printed newspapers and magazines if you like to read. If you want the best, the newly minted iPad Air with a new and improved processor and retina display is the way to go. My ranking of Apple might not make me any new Android-user friends, but most critics still put Apple’s tablet on top. The iPad Mini with Retina Display is a smaller less-expensive alternative to the iPad Air for the budget conscious and for an even better deal look at prices of the last generation iPad 2 or iPad Mini.
5. Kor Nava Hydration Vessel
US landfills are overflowing with 2 million tons of discarded plastic water bottles, according to The Water Project. The plastic in the bottles also give off chemicals that are terrible for us. So assist both the environment and yourself by getting a water bottle of your own. The Kor Nava benefits you by filtering the water to to an extent that it exceeds the standards for chlorine taste and odor removal. It has an easy-to-open lid, hard plastic casing and sleek design -- all make Kor Nava a worthwhile investment.
6. Waterpebble
Showering is an important start (or finish) to your day, but if you're in the shower for 20, 30 or even more than 40 minutes you might be in there a little long. The Waterpebble assists you in saving both time and money by monitorong your shower’s water flow and tells you when its time to get out. Don’t worry, you are able to program the Waterpebble to the length that you want, but keep in mind that longer showers rack up the water bill. This cheap little gadget could end up saving you a bunch if you shower excessively.
At $200 for a package, Philips Hue Light Bulbs might not be the most affordable gadget on this list, but if you can afford it, the Hue is extremely useful. Like any old light bulb, the Hue can screw in anywhere, but that’s where the regularity begins and ends. Hue can be programmed through an app to flash when you get an urgent email, Facebook notification or get mentioned in a tweet. But that's not all the Philips Hue can assist you with. When you walk in the door, Hue can sense your phone and automatically turn the light on. It also changes colors at will to create scenes like "energize" or "concentrate" and lasts up to 5 years before you need to change it. In all, Hue is pretty useful, convenient and fun -- it’s just not the most thrift-conscious buy on the list.
The most successful crowd funding campaign landed Pebble a million dollars in donations and launched it into the hands of consumers this year. While many critics have said the Pebble Smartwatch has it’s kinks, its already more useful than any watch we’ve seen before. And it also functions as a conversation piece. As you might have guessed, the Pebble Smartwatch can save you time by assisting you with email, Twitter and Facebook notifications -- and it's also waterproof. Oh yeah, it also tells the time.
Beards are cool when they’re maintained, so getting an electric beard trimmer can assist you when it comes to styling, and is pretty helpful when it comes to the cleanup as well. Cleaning the sink every day can get annoying, so Philips added a vacuum to one of their powerful trimmers to save you the mess, which is really nice of them. Considering how expensive straight-blade razors are, buying a trimmer might not be a bad idea, and this one also saves you a lot of time on the cleanup.
10. Aeropress Coffee
$2 here, $3.50 there, buying a coffee every morning can cost you a fortune. With the Aeropress you are only spending about a week’s worth of coffee shop coffee to buy it, which will assist you in saving money. You simply place a spoonful of coffee in the tube, add hot water, then press down on the plunger. It’s just for one cup, so don’t worry about wasting a whole pot or using the wasteful Nespresso cups. It’s also really easy to clean, which means you can’t lose.
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