Exist

Games to help you get fit and more: Quantified Self weekly links

Exist news this week: we were in the British edition of GQ:

In GQ Jan 2014, there's "100 best things in the world". In that list, there's "Life Trackers". In there is Exist. pic.twitter.com/GsBzORzEWs

— Exist (@ExistApp) December 12, 2013

We also set up this snazzy new blog on Exist for all of our Quantified Self and life-tracking content. Our Hello Code blog will remain the place for all of our thoughts and learnings about running a startup.

Onto this week's links:

1. The Best Fitness Tracking Apps for Every Type of Exercise, according to Lifehacker

we wanted to see which apps don't require much manual input on your part (which rules out a lot of strength-training and other similar apps).

We're all about minimal effort for maximum reward when it comes to tracking, so this is a great list of apps to get you started. It includes apps to track daily steps, running, cycling and sleep.

2. Get motivated with fitness-tracking games The Walk and Zombies, Run!

For those who haven't heard of it, Zombies, Run! is an audio-based game to motivate you to run by putting you in the middle of a story.

The developers recently released a similar game for those who are more into walking, called The Walk:

At its core, The Walk is a fitness tracker that measures your daily steps and activity. Like Zombies, Run! The Walk also has a story that goes along with it. This time, it's a thriller, and you're following the story of Walker, a man who's trying to deliver a mysterious package. All in all, it includes 65 episodes and 800 minutes of storytelling.

3. Choose a fitness tracker with EveryMove's new comparison tool

There are so many fitness tracking apps and devices to choose from, and more are hitting the market all the time. If you're having trouble deciding which one suits you (or which one to buy as a Christmas present), this tool could help you choose.

You can filter by brand, activity or style, and compare multiple trackers at once.

If you want to know what others are saying about the tracker you're considering, you might like our review roundup.

4. Goji Play: get fit while playing games

The creators of Guitar Hero have built a new gaming product that integrates fitness tracking—as opposed to a gamified fitness product.

"That's where we're different from all the other fitness devices out there, given our background in games," said Huang. "The activity trackers are less about games and more about gamification – tracking you and letting you compete against friends. We do that too, of course, but you're really playing a game."

The product lets you play games which encourage you to become active as a side effect:

As you play the various Goji Play games, it records your activity – time, distance, calories burned etc – with this data available to view in the separate Goji Play app. The company has already announced a partnership with fitness-tracking app MyFitnessPal to enable users to share data to it from Goji Play.

5. Logsit: simple habit tracking

If you're looking for an app to easily track your regular habits, this is neat one to try (though it's iPhone only). It gives you simple graphs to view your progress over time, as well as making tracking really easy.

If you're after something more social, or you want a web or Android version, Lift is another popular habit tracking app to try.

More:

• FitStar: personal training on your iPhone or iPad
• Hack your Jawbone UP: A DIY fix for when your UP band is too sporty for a fancy outfit
• Argus update: iPhone app Argus now integrates with Fitbit