Stay in shape with these fitness gifts for the holidays

The past few years have brought an explosion in fitness technology. Where we used to be limited to basic pedometers and then fitness trackers that were little more than glorified pedometers with a Bluetooth radio, today's fitness devices are tracking our movements in all dimensions, monitoring our vitals, and are even smart enough to dispense advice in real time.

Check out some of our favorites below and feel free to get filled in on some other amazing gadgets with our extensive 2015 Holiday Gift Guide.

There are quite a few wearables out sporting Android Wear — Moto 360, LG Watch Urbane, Huawei Watch, and many more — that are all able to use Google Fit to track your activity without toting your smartphone with you. Whether you're going for a walk, run, or bike ride you can use your voice to tell your smartwatch the activity you're about to dive into for accurate tracking. Google Fit is also compatible with many 3rd party fitness trackers, but doesn't offer automatic syncing just yet. If you're not into the idea of wearing a dedicated fitness tracker, Android Wear on your favorite smartwatch grants easy access to your fitness goals, personal records, and more details using Google Fit while also offering a fully-functional smartwatch.

If the primary goal of your Android Wear watch purchase is fitness, you may also want to consider the extra software that some manufacturers offer on their smartwatches. Motorola, Sony and LG specifically go above and beyond (in addition to) what Google Fit offers, with Moto Body, Sony Lifelog and LG Heath, respectively, adding extra fitness tracking features to their watches. Look into which one offers the best features for your type of activities — it may be worth choosing one specifically for what it offers your workout routine.

Unlike the original Galaxy Gear, the newer Gear S2 doesn't require a Samsung device to use — though you will need a phone with Android 4.4 or higher that has at least 1.5 gigabytes of RAM. This smartwatch is powered by Tizen, and features a 1.2-inch circular display with a 360x360 resolution. Its rotatable bezel makes navigating through apps easier than ever and it comes loaded with S Health to track things like calorie, water, and caffeine intake and utilizes the watch's accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and heart rate monitor to track your activity.

VR headsets are currently too 'bulky' for longer content

Virtual reality (VR) headsets are currently too "big and bulky" for longer form content.

That is the view of Jens Christensen, the founder of Jaunt, a company that specialises in making cinematic VR cameras.

BBC Click spoke to Mr Christensen about the potential for the technology and why he believes that future versions of the headsets will be just like wearing sunglasses.

More at BBC.com/Click and @BBCClick.

Nasa's dancing robot

Nasa's dancing robot destined for Mars and other news

BBC Click's Nick Kwek looks at the week's technology news including Nasa testing its humanoid robot R5 (Valkyrie) by getting it to dance to electronic music.

Children's toy company Vtech reveals the number of children's accounts which were affected by a recent hack and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan say they will give away 99% of their shares in the company to good causes.

Making a fortune - just by playing games

t's a common worry among parents - the amount of time children spend playing computer games. But those endless hours in front of a screen have paid off for some who have become celebrity gamers competing for huge prizes.

You know a sport has arrived big time when 120,000 people gather to watch a competition. Or when TV channels are devoted only to televising games in professional leagues. Or when the top prizes run into the millions of dollars. Or perhaps when match-fixing scandals erupt around big events.

Welcome to e-sports, which may now be the Korean national game. In South Korea, there was once a moral panic as adults feared a generation was about to waste its time in front of screens but that seems to be fading. Instead, all the signs are of growth and increasing professionalisation.

The recent launch of the latest iteration of StarCraft took place in Gangnam in Seoul with all the trappings of a big, minutely choreographed Hollywood event, complete with red carpet for TV interviews with celebrities and a staged wedding of one of the game's stars to celebrate his recent marriage.

There have always been killjoys who've got themselves into tizzies over games. In 1942, Mayor LaGuardia of New York personally took a sledgehammer to pinball machines. The games were banned in the city until 1976.

Even chess has had its critics. In the Scientific American of 2 July 1859, under the headline "Chess-playing excitement", an article bemoaned that "a pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country". This was deplorable because "chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while at the same time it affords no benefit whatever to the body".

The outraged author continues in full indignant flow: "Persons engaged in sedentary occupations should never practice this cheerless game; they require outdoor exercises for recreation - not [this] sort of mental gladiatorship."

Change the word "chess" to "video games" and you might get the same outraged sense of moral panic. That feeling is no longer associated with chess - it is a byword for virtue.

Will the same be true of e-sports?

Man held in UK in VTech hacking probe

A 21-year-old man has been arrested in Berkshire by police investigating the hacking of electronic toy maker VTech.

The man has been held on suspicion of "unauthorised access" to a computer, said the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (Serocu) in a statement.

VTech was hit in mid-November when servers holding its customer information were breached.

In total, details of more than six million people are believed to have gone astray.

Data deluge

"We are still at the early stages of the investigation and there is still much work to be done," said Craig Jones, head of the cyber crime unit at Serocu.

"Cybercrime is an issue which has no boundaries and affects people on a local, regional and global level."

In the attack, servers used to support VTech's Learning Lodge app were compromised. The software lets registered customers download extra content such as games and e-books to their handheld devices.

VTech firm sells a wide range of electronic products ranging from toy cars and interactive garages to cameras, games, e-books and tablets.

The Learning Lodge database logged names, email addresses, encrypted passwords, IP (internet protocol) numbers and other personal data. Some of the information was about children including names, dates of birth and gender.

No credit card data was stored in the compromised database.

Details on customers from all over world, including the US, UK, France and China, were taken.

Some of the data is believed to have been posted briefly online before being removed.

When details about the extent of the data loss became known security expert Troy Hunt said he had "run out of superlatives to even describe how bad" it was.

VTech is just one of a growing roster of firms that have suffered data breaches in recent months. Pub chain Wetherspoons and telecommunications firm TalkTalk both recently lost data in attacks.

Is Europe going to restrict teens from using Facebook?

By the end of this week it could be illegal for any European child under 16 to use Facebook - or Snapchat or any messaging service - without the express consent of their parents. That, according to some interpretations, would be the result of a vote by an obscure committee to raise the digital age of consent from 13 to 16.

Who knew there was a "digital age of consent"?

I certainly didn't but I am told it is built into the decisions that many online firms make about the age they will allow people to join. In the United States a law called Coppa (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) gives extra online protection to children under 13, and Europe has had a similar policy - which is why the likes of Facebook have not allowed children in until they become teenagers.

Now, though, the European Parliament's civil liberties and home affairs committee is considering a change which is opposed both by social media firms and many child protection experts.

A last minute amendment to Europe's Data Protection Regulation, says this: "The processing of personal data of a child below the age of 16 years shall only be lawful if and to the extent that such consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility over the child."

In other words, online firms that want to deal with anyone under 16 will have to make sure they get mum or dad's permission first. That according to several online safety experts, will make children more vulnerable not less.

In an open letter to the committee they write that changing the age limit "would deprive young people of educational and social opportunities in a number of ways, yet would provide no more (and likely even less) protection."

Image copyrightThinkstock

Image captionOthers argue that social media has provided a vital lifeline for troubled teenagers, and the risk is that they will not feel able to go online in search of help.

Now, there are plenty of children under 13 using Facebook and other social media sites, with and without parental consent, so it is worth asking whether raising the age limit will make a difference.

But the social media companies and their lawyers certainly think it will make it much harder for responsible companies to police their sites.

That is why a furious lobbying effort is going on to try to persuade European lawmakers, who meet today and vote on Thursday, to chuck out this amendment.

What is missing from this debate so far is anyone making powerful arguments in favour of raising the digital age of consent. Time, perhaps, for those voices to be heard.

Update:

I have now heard from one supporter of the higher age limit.

Dr Rachel O'Connell from the consultancy Trust Elevate suggests that new technologies could be used by social networks to detect under-16s and limit what was done with their data without blocking access outright.

"Social media firms could continue to offer access without processing under-16's personal data, ie gathering data, creating psychographic profiles of a young person and selling it to third parties, until they got permission from a parent and young person," Dr O'Connell said.

"This would require companies to be transparent with both parents and young people about how their data will be processed."

New Samsung Galaxy S7 coming soon

New Samsung Galaxy S7 rumors are always interesting, and today brings forth some very big expectations. The first comes out of the Wall Street Journal, who has heard from sources that Samsung is looking to go with pressure sensitive displays for their 2016 flagship.

We’re not all too surprised Samsung was considering the move after Apple introduced it in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but there wasn’t anything solid to cling on when it came to affirmation. While Samsung won’t be considered the innovator in this case, they’ll certainly maintain their status quo of pushing exciting new technology and standards whenever and wherever available. Samsung’s also said to be exploring USB Type-C which would improve not only data transfer rates, but also offer natural fast charging (though Samsung’s 2015 phones already charge nearly as fast as USB Type-C devices).
Moving on, another solid source — @evleaks — has caught glimpse of a product database which tells of not 1 or even 2 variant, but 4 different Samsung Galaxy S7 variants. Here’s what we’re told to expect from Samsung in the early parts of 2016:

• Samsung Galaxy S7
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Plus
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Plus

That’s a whole lot of variation, we’d say. The Plus variants are sure to be big-sized models of the other two and we wouldn’t expect much difference otherwise. This launch strategy by Samsung could be risky, but it allows them to cover all their bases in a market where Apple has made an increased demand in bigger phones.
It’s wise for the company to launch their phablets alongside the standard models to keep pace with the bitten fruit company, but whether it will help their financial performance improve remains to be seen. Recent rumors suggest the Samsung Galaxy S7 lineup won’t be all that different from the lineup preceding it, though that’s mostly in the areas of looks and there are still other tricks (like the aforementioned pressure sensitive displays) Samsung could have up its sleeve to make it a worthy upgrade.

5 Apps and Gadgets to Help Get You Out of Bed

Hitting the snooze button is generally understood to be bad for you—the extra sleep you're getting isn't of a very good quality, and on top of that you have to choose between missing breakfast and missing your bus. If you really can't resist the temptation to take another twenty minutes under the covers on your own, here are some ideas and apps to help you break out of the habit.

1. Get moving

It's a lot more difficult to get back to sleep once you're up and about and talking to the cat about how much work to have to get done today. There are quite a few alarm clock apps out there that won't shut up until you've actually clambered out of bed and walked a few steps: SpinMe Alarm Clock ($1.99 on iOS, free on Android) is worth investigating if you need something like this and so is Step Out Of Bed! ($1.99 on iOS). By the time you've staggered all the way to the door you should be able to escape the clutches of sleep successfully.

2. Talk to a stranger

You have to hand it to Wakie for a novel idea—tapping into the app's community of users so you can have a stranger from somewhere else in the world wake you up at a specified time (and vice versa, if you so wish). It's anonymous and free (because everyone's volunteering), and the calls are automatically cut off after one minute, so the awkward small talk is kept to a minimum. Get up on time, and meet someone new as well, all before breakfast. The app is available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

3. Wake up naturally

There are a ton of apps and gizmos to pick from if you want to be woken up with a slow increase in light or sound that's more soothing than a shrill, piercing, robotic ringtone. If you need help choosing, we'd suggest Sleep Cycle ($0.99 on Android and iOS) for giving you a nudge at the right point in your circadian rhythm, Rise ($1.99 on iOS) for waking up to a more relaxing set of sounds, and the Philips HF3500/60 Wake-Up Light ($69.99) or something similar for slowly filling your room with light to ease you into the day.

4. Exercise your brain

Your brain might think it wants another ten minutes in bed, but it doesn't—not really. Make sure your pre-sleep common sense wins out by setting yourself a task to complete before your alarm will switch off: I Can't Wake Up! (free on Android, free with in-app purchases on iOS) lets you set one of eight tasks first thing in the morning, from matching pairs of words to doing maths equations. It may seem like the most annoying app in the world the first few times you use it, but you'll soon be grateful for its help in smoothing out your sleep cycle.

5. Use a wearable

Almost any fitness tracker or smartwatch worth its salt has a vibrate alarm feature, from the Jawbone UP24 ($129.99) to the Fitbit Charge (four cents cheaper at $129.95)—if you're in the market for a new wearable, make sure it has a smart or silent alarm feature if you're going to find it useful. There are new products coming out all the time, such as the Kickstarter-funded Sense (also, oddly, $129) — it monitors the atmosphere in your room as well as your sleep patterns to help you get up and moving at the right time.

9 Free Apps to Get Fit Using Only Your Smartphone

You don’t necessarily need the help of a wearable or a smartwatch to help track your steps and monitor your activity—most modern-day smartphones have all the sensors and hardware you need to keep an eye on how much (or little) exercise you’re getting. Here are 9 apps up to the task of improving your fitness, no extra devices required.

1. Human

Human is an activity monitor and calorie counter built around the idea of doing 30 minutes of exercise a day. It automatically picks up your walks, runs, and bicycle rides without you having to do anything. What’s more, adding friends or colleagues and getting active as a team is very simple and well integrated. One of Apple’s ‘best of App Store’ picks for last year. [Free on iOS]

2. Moves

Moves promises to keep a watch on your exertions from your pocket or even your bag, so you can track your activities without having to think about it. Again the three main options are covering—walking, running, and biking—and the app also scores points for its clean and clear interface. It’s possible to review your routes on a map as well. [Free on Android and iOS]

3. Map My Fitness Workout Trainer

There are a bunch of Map My Fitness apps, tracking runs, hikes, bike rides, even dog walks, but we’re using this one as an example. It logs all the major activity types, using the sensors in your smartphone, and keeps tabs on everything from your speed to the number of calories you’ve burned. The data analysis and community tools are very good, too. [Free on Android and iOS]

4. Strava

Strava is one of the most popular apps for runners and cyclists, and it’s not difficult to see why: comprehensive tracking of your routes, speeds and distances, as well as a pile of social features so you can test yourself against friends, relatives, or coworkers. The app can even show you routes that are popular with other users. [Free on Android and iOS]

5. Runtastic

The recently revamped Runtastic can cope with all kinds of sports and fitness activities, with running, jogging, walking and cycling automatically logged from your smartphone. It’s one of the better options for letting you log and analyze your performance over a long period of time, and like Strava there’s a strong community behind the app, too. [Free on Android and iOS]

6. Endomondo

One of the most well-established and best-loved fitness tracking apps out there, Endomondo again focuses on the three main activity types: walking, running, and riding your bike. Altitude, speed, duration, calories, heart rate and more can all be piped into the Endomondo system, and there’s the option to manually log your workouts. [Free on Android and iOS]

7. RunKeeper

Particularly strong on social and history features, RunKeeper combines a slick and simple interface with automatic monitoring of your runs, walks and bike rides. A bunch of training plans are included, so it’s easy to set goals—though sticking to them is up to you. RunKeeper also syncs neatly with plenty of other apps and services. [Free on Android and iOS]

8. Google Fit

Don’t forget that both Google and Apple offer free apps for monitoring your activity built right into Android and iOS. Google Fit is the more spartan of the two but it does have some advantages—such as a web interface. Walking, biking, and running is monitored automatically and you can add a host of other activity types manually as and when required. [Free on Android]

9. Apple Health

Apple Health is certainly a comprehensive tracking app: It’s difficult to think of anything the integrated iOS app can’t keep tabs on if you want it to, and it syncs with a bunch of third-party programs and devices too. It’s perhaps lacking in flexibility and (of course) cross-platform compatibility, but many iPhone owners won’t need to install anything else besides this. [Free on iOS]

Google's new family plans also let someone else pay for apps, books and more

Either Google flat-out never mentioned this, or it's badly slipped our memory, but Google'snew family plans aren't just for Google Play Music. Once you set up your family plan account you'll get an email with more information. And in that email is a link to Google's support docs for all this, and in that you get two clear lists of what you can and can't pay for with a family payment method.

With a family payment method you can buy apps, books, movies, games, TV shows and magazine issues. Not available are devices from the Google Store, Google Play balance, and Android Pay purchases.

Also note that by default everyone in your family will have to get approval to make in-app purchases. But you turn that off for family members individually — at your own peril.