Philips DirectLife Activity Monitor Turns Exercise Into Something A Geek Can Understand

As a professional geek, I spend most days of the week staring at my computer in an attempt to will status bars to move faster so I can get on with my work. I hope one day to be able to speed them up with the power of my mind, sort of like George Clooney kills those goats in that new movie trailer. With so much time spent looking at status bars, they are familiar to me. If you are like me and need a status bar to tell you if you're doing well and how close to finished with your task you actually are, Philips has the perfect exercise device for you.

The gadget is called the Philips DirectLife Activity Monitor. The thing looks like a fancy pedometer and has the necessary status bar in green LEDs on the front. Using the software the device ships with you enter your fitness goals and then go about your day with the thing in your pocket.

As you meet your daily fitness quota in 15% increments, one new LED will light up. The thing will even track days you go over your quota. The only day that happened to me was when my power was out last week and all the twitching from data withdraws tired me out. The Activity Monitor sells for $80 and Philips went nuts and tacked a $12.50 monthly fee onto the device to ensure it fails.