Balance by High Gear Basic Pedometer EC1600

Step by Step.... Slo-o-o-wly I turn...

Pros
flip-up display, calorie counter, reset delay

Cons
not the most comfortable clip when you're sitting

The Bottom Line
The New Balance Via Step is a nice basic pedometer for walking and light running. It's also convenient and easy to use.


Have you walked your 10,000 steps today? I already have - 10,000 steps is a fairly low day for me... and the reason I know that is because I've got a New Balance Via Step Pedometer clipped onto my belt. It's one of two I own - the other one's an old Sportline 340 Electronic model I got for free.

The Via Step is made for and imprinted with the New Balance logo by High Gear. It's one of several models with the NB logo, including such niceties as a pedometer with a panic alarm, one with an FM radio, and one that performs body fat measurements. Here's what you get for sixteen dollars or so:


The gray rectangular case with rounded corners is about two inches long and an inch high, perhaps half an inch thick. Three red buttons for "up," "down," and "set" are spread around the perimeter; a fourth "mode" button is on the face of the unit. There's a two-line LCD display, with the measurement (selected by "mode") on top and the current time or stopwatch reading on the bottom line. A broad spring-loaded clip with "teeth" at the end is mounted on the back. This clips onto waistband or belt. That may be the only disadvantage of the Via Step - it's rather chunky, and the edges of the clip have a tendency to dig into the wearer's waistline.

The Via Step counts steps and calories and measures both elapsed time and distance traveled; all controlled by the Mode button. You can also set a target calorie count and check how close you're getting on a bar graph across the top of the screen. That daily calorie count and bar graph automatically reset at midnight. One screen is a 1/100 second stopwatch (no splits, if anyone cares). And there's also an "odometer" that keeps track of how many miles the pedometer's been used since the last time the batteries were replaced. Battery-wise, it uses a single CR2032 battery - no idea how long it lasts, since I've not had to do it yet...


Some cool and/or useful features:

• the readouts are upside down so that you can read them when looking down at your belt.
• the body is mounted so that you can tilt it upward to look at the face while it's in use.
• the reset button must be held for two seconds to activate, so accidental brushes don't set the counter back to zero
• there's a sensitivity adjustment on the back, so the Via Step can be optimized for "power" of the stride, e.g., runners vs. walkers, men vs. women. Not much instruction on its use, however...


Over a few hundred thousand steps, I've noticed that the Via Step is pretty dependable. It rarely gets stuck - although it did do so occasionally before I tweaked the sensitivity measurement. It's only spontaneously reset itself twice, both times when I was running my garden tiller (could that be a coincidence?). Overall, a pretty good little basic pedometer: it doesn't have an FM radio, a panic alarm, or body fat measurement; and it's not GPS-enabled and doesn't hook up to upload my numbers to my PC. Those are all a big "Who cares?" in my book - this one just counts steps and keeps track of mileage, and that's all I wanted.

Finis SwiMP3 v.2 Waterproof MP3 Music Player

Great swimming companion

Pros
It works! Music while swimming! "Good enough" sound.

Cons
Storage space, multi-function buttons.

The Bottom Line
Want music while swimming? This is the best alternative.

I love this product. It works great and the sound quality is sufficient to entertain me while I'm doing long swim workouts. An added bonus for me: with the bone conduction technology I can wear earplugs to keep water out of my ears. I bought a waterproof case for my I-Pod shuffle (which I love) and have used two other waterproof earphones (which I hated). I didn't want to have to buy another MP3 player, but am glad that I did with the purchase of this product.

It works, and is simple to use. You plug it into your computer USB port to charge, and although it only has 256MB of storage space it is really easy to update songs and podcasts when it's charging. It attaches (clips on easily) to my favorite goggles and rests comfortably on my cheek bones. Once it's turned on, especially in the shuffle mode, I never have to think about it again. It stays in place and gives me constant company lap to lap to lap.

My only complaint are the multi-function buttons which control both volume and track. You press and HOLD to raise or lower volume. If you don't hold the button long enough it skips or starts over the track I'm playing. I rarely have this problem any longer, once I became accustomed to the controls.

Finally, don't forget to use your computer's "safely remove hardwear" button before detaching it from the USB port. Otherwise you'll have to reset the device and reload all your music before it will work.