Exist

Quantified Self weekly links: a slap band tracker for kids, Microsoft's rumoured wearable and more

Hardware

KidFit

The KidFit is a slap bracelet fitness tracker for kids. I actually wouldn't mind my own fitness tracker being a slap band.

• Helium: connect smart devices to the web without wi-fi, bluetooth or cellular data
• cloud: an interactive lamp and speaker system that looks like a cloud
• IPunch: smart combat gloves [Indiegogo]
• KGoal: a "Fitbit for your vagina"
• LEO: wearable leg band to track your workouts [Indiegogo]

Apps

Tinker [iOS]

Tinker can be used for completing habits or ordinary tasks. The app lets you set a specified time and counts down as you work on that activity. You can pause during the activity to take a break, and that's pretty much it. It sure looks nice, though.

• Life: a smart gardening diary [iOS]
• TIMER: a simple timer [Android]

News

Microsoft wearable rumors suggest more fitness tracker, less smartwatch

You may want to dial back your expectations for Microsoft's oft-rumored smartwatch. According to sources speaking to the historically well-informed Paul Thurrott, the wearable isn't intended as a watch -- it's a Gear Fit-style health tracker that happens to deliver phone notifications and timekeeping.

• Android Wear review: Taking smartwatches in the right direction

Articles

Google’s big bet on the future of UI: Gadgets that predict your needs

It's nice to see Google agrees with our vision of the future. I suppose Google is as good a company to be competing with as any.

Can you really cobble together seamless, contextually aware interactions from stuff as plain as a precise set of sensor readouts? Or do people want context in different ways, at different times—so much so that it’s silly to map our needs to simple chains of if/then logic? We still have a long way to go before what these devices can do is more than simply logical.

• Watch this: Human transforms its app data into striking activity maps
• Salesforce and Philips Connect Doctors to Your Fitness Tracker
• Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features
• Healthy Skepticism – My Critique of HealthKit as Both iOS Dev and Registered Nurse
• Living the Fitbit life

Image credits: AppAdvice, The Next Web, Engadget, Wired