Product: Withings WiFi scale.
Features: It measures weight, body mass index, fat mass and lean mass. It automatically saves the data to your personal online profile, using your home's WiFi Internet connection. iPhone users can view weigh-in history through a free app. Users can also choose to share weigh-in data over Twitter or get an HTML code to post a graph of their progress on a website.
Manages multiple user accounts, and it knows a user just based on their weight. If two users in a household are close in weight, it will ask to confirm who you are before continuing.
Price: $159.
Ups: It's really easy to set up. And once set up, there's no need to ever fuss with managing data again. All you have to do is step on it to have it collect and save your data. And it only uses WiFi when someone is standing on it, in order to conserve the battery. The data showed up on my iPhone app and website (my.withings.com) instantaneously after standing on the scale.
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Down: I found the Twitter feature to be wonky. You can set it to update as soon as you step on the scale, but I couldn't get that to work every time. And if you want it to automatically send out one tweet a day, it will always send out your most recent weigh-in every morning -- even if you didn't step on it for days.
Bottom line: It's sleek, sexy and totally easy to use. It's a cool product, but obviously not necessary for many people. If tracking your weight isn't a big issue, get a cheaper non-WiFi scale. But having it automatically track the progress of everyone in your house can be a huge convenience for the weight-conscious family. And it's a must-have if you are publicly blogging about getting fit.
