Earlier this week, Matt Cutts wrote about his favorite pedometer, the Omron HJ-720ITC. When he mentioned that it has a USB connector and comes with software so you can upload and track your data on a computer, I thought it was worth checking out. It didn’t sound like any ordinary pedometer to me, and sure enough, it’s not. This pedometer is the ultimate fitness gadget for geek’s, because after all, not all geek’s sit in front of the computer or play video games all day!
The biggest thing that sets the Omron HJ-720ITC apart from other pedometers is the Omron Health Management Software that comes with it. It’ll work great on Windows 2000 or XP (No Mac, Windows Vista, or Linux) and provides you with a visual graph of the total steps you’ve taken, the aerobic steps you’re taken, and a walking report. This software will help you keep track of your progress over time. The image below shows what the interface looks like:
Another great thing about this pedometer is that you don’t have to clip it to your belt! You can either attach it to your belt, a pocket, or even a bag. Other features include:
- Measures steps, aerobic steps and minutes, calories, and distance
- Display a 7 day history
- Keeps a 42 day history in memory
For only $33 bucks at Amazon, I’d say this is a great deal!
Matt pointed out a few other things in his article such as this suggestion for Omron: “Make the pedometer look like a little flash drive, and create a special text document on the pseudo-drive with the user’s step data. Then anyone could read their data, regardless of the type of computer they used.” Wouldn’t that be nice?
Now, we know all of you don’t sit in front of your computers 24 hours a day, so what do you do in your free time to stay active?
“Now, we know all of you don’t sit in front of your computers 24 hours a day, so what do you do in your free time to stay active?”
Swimming, Running, British Football Not (American Football) and walking my dog
I have the Nike+iPod thing; I have a sensor in my shoe and a receiver plugged in to my Nano, and it tells you how fast you go and your pace, etc. It has all sorts of fun features and stuff.
If you’ve read the comments at Matt’s blog, then you may know that our company WalkingSpree.com, the only North American distribution partner of the web based version takes that pedometer and offers an online program to upgrade from the pc software. We provide a walking community with access to personal trainers and food tracking and other health related tracking. A vista beta is available and hopefully a mac version in the future. It’s a fabulous pedometer and you can’t go wrong with it, but for those who want more from it, then a dynamic web program replaces the ITC software well. The flash drive suggestion is one that has been made many times and with our partnership with Omron, who knows what the future will hold.
Interesting fact about me: I don’t know how to swim.
I’ve tried to, but it never works out.
That does look pretty cool, but my iPod is pretty old and doesn’t support that. I could definitely see how that would be perfect with the Nano though.
Actually, it ONLY works with the Nano.
We created a competition at work around walking using pedometers. Each person got a pedometer and tracks their steps, we then divide up into teams and try to see who can walk across America the first. You have to manually enter the steps in each day, but it’s only 1 number so it takes you a couple of seconds (probably longer than it would take to plug the USB device in)
[walkacrossusa.com]