Nike’s High-Tech Wristband

FuelBand by Nike

Price: $150

FuelBand is a wristband that records data collected by an accelerometer. It tracks calories expended, steps taken and the time of day as well as your NikeFuel score and presents it on an LED display. Your score is based on an algorithm that assigns points to various movements. The more active you are, the more NikeFuel you earn. You can earn it doing just about anything, track your progress with your iPhone or iPad and eventually share it with others via social media platforms.

FuelBand is the latest addition to the Nike+ line of data-trackers launched in 2006, and it joins gadgets like the Jawbone Up and Fitbit in the growing number of wearable fitness trackers available to everyday athletes. It is remarkably compact and elegant, a simple flexible circuit board with two integrated curved batteries in a polymer casing. Its lone button toggles through the four metrics displayed with 100 white LEDs. Twenty other LEDs, which transition from red to yellow to green, indicate the progress you’ve made toward your daily NikeFuel goal. The band resets at midnight each day.

The band is water resistant and Bluetooth lets you sync it to your Apple iDevice through a free Nike+ FuelBand app. A built-in USB connects you to computers running Mac OS version 10.4 or later and Windows 7, Vista or XP.

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World’s Most Expensive Bicycle Saddles by Crown Saddle

Bicycle Saddles by Crown Saddle

Price: $1,772 to $2,550

Crown Saddle, German luxury saddle-manufacturer, has created the world’s most expensive bicycles’ saddles,  designed with some high end treatment and use of materials like leather and carbon fiber to look like a work of art.

The three new models launched by them recently are Konig Freidrich, Graf Ludwig and Herzog Ebarhardt.

The Konig Friedrich saddle released in a limited edition of 80 pieces, has a light carbon fiber body with Kevlar rowings, with intricate work of gold in artistic pattern with airbrush finishing.  The seat is offered with a rhodium, gold or platinum plating options.

The Graf Ludwig saddle is much heavier and comes with a nappa leather grey and white cover, which has been double pipe stitched to perfection. The artwork on the carbon fiber and Kevlar Rowling seat has been rhodium plated, however gold or platinum options are available as well.

The Herzog Ebhardt saddle weighs somewhere between the two at 93 grams, is also limited to 80 units. This saddle has used carbon fiber and napple leather in perfect harmony, featuring aesthetics of both. The brush finished carbon fiber and Kevlar base, has intricate work of gold motifs, where as the leather fittings used is double stitched with fine craftsmanship.

[Crown Saddle]

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Star Wars Snowboards – Limited Edition

Star Wars Snowboards

Price: $190 each

Burton Snowboards and Lucasfilm have teamed up to launch a new youth snowboarding products inspired by Star Wars, a limited edition series of Chopper Star Wars Snowboards for kids.

 The Chopper Star Wars snowboard is available in eight different images from the original Star Wars trilogy, including Yoda, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett. They include grippy foot pads and the Riglet Board Reel accessory for board towing. The board sizes range from 2.5 feet (30 inches) to about 4 feet (50 inches) long.

Source : [Burton]

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Mach1 prototype-world's first telemetry-enabled racing board

Mach1 prototype

Designer and manufacturer of military grade tracking technologies Edgetrak and performance board producer wefunk have now joined forces to form Stealth Division to create a new operational prototype longboard called the Mach1, the first deck in the world to feature built-in telemetrics.

The longboard's deck is made from seven layers of Formula One grade carbon fiber with an Airex and Ash core, and is said to offer unmatched rigidity thanks to a center channel with carbon fiber inlay.
The top is home to two different grades of grip - board tape at the front and more coarse race corumdum behind, a tough synthetic sapphire crystal said to be nearly as hard as diamond. The 37.5 x 10-inch (95.25 x 25.4 cm) board is flat along the middle and tapers out and flares towards the edges for a more stable and tactile foot braking experience.

The nose and tail sections have been reinforced with Makrolon for high velocity impact resistance and also feature cutouts to cater for additional wheel clearance during tight turns. It has a fully gripped weight of 1,295 grams (45.6 oz) and features Gang of Germany 180 mm CNC-machined aluminum composite alloy trucks with reversible hangers for adjustable ride height and rake. Four white Venom Cannibal wheels finish off the cutting edge board's striking look.

Built into the area of the deck above the rear truck mounting - so positioned for optimum GPS reception and sitting behind a clear acrylic casing - is something Stealth Division is calling the Gnarvigator. The tiny device brings together GPS technology, solid state data logging functionality, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a 3-axis accelerometer. 

The kind of performance information offered to riders includes GPS positioning with proprietary RDGPS error correction, speed, start/stop run time, altitude, vertical drop, velocity, and G-force .
The developers are currently working on some proprietary smartphone apps for iOS and Android devices that will further expand the capabilities of the technology, including placing an emergency call to the emergency services via a linked smartphone in the event of a crash, for example.
These new Mach1 competition race boards will be available for pre-order during Q1 of this year at an as yet unspecified price.
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Source: Gizmag

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