45% of Shoppers Buy Items Online They Wouldn"t In Person

Online shopping is discreet, easy and fast. It’s no wonder shoppers are filling up virtual carts instead of visiting brick-and-mortar shops.

Shopping online allows us to skip the lines, crowds, travel expenses and the hassle of parking. A recent survey conducted by Lab42 — a market research company — found 66% of consumers prefer web retailers. About 73% of survey participants complete nearly half of their shopping online.

Savvy shoppers are also turning to web and mobile stores for bargains. Nielson recently reported nearly 50% of U.S. smartphone owners are using shopping apps each month, frequenting eBay, Amazon, Groupon and LivingSocial’s mobile stores. About 45 million smartphone owners access shopping-and-commerce apps each month.

Lab42 produced the infographic below showcasing the findings from its online shopping survey. The company also explores the factors influencing online shoppers to make purchases.

Are you more likely to buy something online if offered free shipping? Tell us in the comments.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/25/online-shopping-trends/

45% of Shoppers Buy Items Online They Wouldn"t In Person

Apps, e-commerce, Health & Fitness, infographics, Lifestyle, Mobile, Travel & Leisure

FitBit Is the Gift for Health-Conscious Data Nerds

Mashable’s Gift of the Day series highlights cool, interesting and fun products for that special someone on your holiday list.

She counts calories on her iPhone. She tracks her runs on RunKeeper (or Nike+). She has even inversely correlated her weight against the number of hours she sleeps each night.

If that sounds like someone on your holiday gifting list, you might want to take a look at Fitbit One Activity + Sleep Tracker. The device records the number of steps taken, stairs climbed, distance traveled and calories burned each day. It also measures how many hours you’ve slept and the number of times your sleep was interrupted during the night. All of that data is synced over Bluetooth to Fitbit’s website and companions apps for iOS (and soon, Android) devices. Charts and graphs help you identify patterns in the data and make better choices about healthy living.

“The One” is about the size of a USB stick and can be clipped onto your belt or bra, inserted in a wristband or tucked in your pocket. It’s waterproof and its battery lasts five to seven days before needing a recharge. You can also sync the data you record with other apps you’re using, including Endomondo, LoseIt, RunKeeper, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and SparkPeople.

Or pick up Fitbit’s Wi-Fi Smart Scale for $129.99, and you’ll be able to automatically sync your weight with the other data you’re recording.

Price: $99.95 (including shipping)

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/19/fitbit-the-one/

FitBit Is the Gift for Health-Conscious Data Nerds

fitbit, fitness, gadgets, Gift of the Day, Health & Fitness, holidays 2012, Lifestyle, sports

E-Wheelchair Creators Raise $1 Million

While everyone’s talking about the strides Tesla and Terra are making in transportation, there are plenty of startups working on electric vehicles, too. One of these innovative companies is Japan’s Whill, which makes an e-wheelchair that promises to be the next big thing in personal mobility. This week, Whill raised $1 million in funding from 500 Startups, Itochu Technology Ventures, Sunbridge Global Ventures, Wingle and various angel investors. 500 Startups’ Dave McClure also threw in some of his own capital.

Whill has created some working prototypes and is in the process of mass-producing 50 of the Whill Type-A machines. According to Startup-Dating, those will ship in the U.S. market in early 2014. The team is based in Tokyo and San Francisco.

The Type-A’s seat doesn’t seem ample enough for those with a physical disability, so the Japanese startup is marketing it as a personal mobility EV. It has a range of 20 kilometers on one charge, which is more than enough for a slow-moving vehicle like this. It can charge in under two hours. But the Whill Type-A weighs in at a hefty 35 kilograms.

There is also a Whill Concept (pictured above) which takes just the robotic part of the vehicle — the bit that looks like a giant Beats Audio headphone set — and attaches it to a conventional non-powered wheelchair.

Whill’s co-founders are engineers who previously worked at major Japanese companies such as Nissan, Sony and Olympus. Having first unveiled drawings of the prototype back in 2011, the team is now a lot closer to mass production with this new funding round.

Check out demo videos for the Whill Type-A and the wheelchair add-on concept:

via: Startup-Dating

Image: Whill

• The launch of ZTE’s newest phone shows why it’s lost so much ground to Xiaomi


• Facebook to open branch office in Taiwan


• Alibaba’s very public punch-up with Chinese regulators shows that knock-offs are still a problem


• Japanese Bitcoin marketplace lands $1.1M from domestic and US investors

This article originally published at Tech in Asia
here

Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/07/17/whill-e-wheelchair-funding/

E-Wheelchair Creators Raise $1 Million

electric vehicles, Health & Fitness, Japan, Japanese, startups, tech, transportation, vehicles, wheelchair

Start Moving! Sitting Can Reduce Your Life Expectancy

If you’re sitting at a desk reading this on a computer screen, take note: reducing sedentary behaviors like sitting and watching TV may have the potential to increase your life expectancy, even if you get regular exercise.

According to a study published in the online journal BMJ Open if you sit for more than three hours a day, your life expectancy is lowered by about two years. Throwing in a few hours of watching TV can add another 1.4 years.

That’s enough to make someone stand up and take note! And similar research backs up these findings.

A recent study by Australia’s Sax Institute says even with exercise, sitting down for several hours a day could bring you to an early grave.

Another study reported tracked 123,000 Americans and found the death rate for those who spent six or more hours a day sitting was 20% higher than for men who sat for three hours or less. For women, the difference was 40%.

So what can you do to get moving? For office workers who have desk jobs, it’s particularly difficult to find time to get up and walk around during the day.

Experts suggest standing up as much as you can, like when you’re talking on the phone. Don’t ‘ping’ your co-workers; get up and go over and talk to them. It might even improve communication too.

Companies can help out by allowing time for short walks, or bringing in tools like standup desks, or the treadmill desk we recently tried out.

You can use fitness gadgets like the FitBit Ultra, MotoActv, and the Nike+ Fuel Band, to name a few. They’ll all help keep track of your steps and let you know when its time to get up and start moving.

Would you use a treadmill desk in your office? How do you try to take extra steps in your day? Let us know in the comments.

LifeSpan Treadmill Desk DT-5

1. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Front View

   
   

   
   

   You can fit just about everything you need on the DT-5’s expansive and solid desk area.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


2. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Side View

   
   

   
   

   Here’s the LifeSpan’s official product shot. You’ll need a good 7 feet of space for this baby.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


3. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Control Panel

   
   

   
   

   These are all the controls you need, plus the emergency stop clip familiar to any treadmill user. Hitting start, even after pausing the treadmill, will return you to a snail’s pace — 0.5 mph.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


4. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Wrist Guard

   
   

   
   

   In many ways, working at the treadmill desk is more comfortable than working on a regular desk.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


5. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Undercarriage

   
   

   
   

   As with any treadmill, you can get mesmerized watching the diagonal strip come around.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


6. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Adjust Size

   
   

   
   

   Changing the height of the treadmill desk is a pain. LifeSpan recommends most people set it at about 8 or 9.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


7. 
   

   
   

   
   

   First to Try

   
   

   
   

   Intrepid intern Sonia Paul is the first to take the LifeSpan for a spin.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


8. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Getting Things Done

   
   

   
   

   My first treadmill desk session. Even though the height was set too low, I was sold.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


9. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Treadmill for Tall People

   
   

   
   

   Reporter Sam Laird discovers the desk’s main shortcoming: the height setting needs to be radically altered for users over 6 feet — and then back again for us shorter folk.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


10. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Treadmill for Two

    
    

    
    

    As Emily Price and I found, it is entirely possible for two people to walk on the treadmill desk at once. Just don’t try this at home (or the office).

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/10/sitting-can-reduce-your-life-expectancy/

Start Moving! Sitting Can Reduce Your Life Expectancy

exercise, fitness, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, sedentary, Work and Play