humanity

The most I've paid for an iPhone app is $5.99. This is why I was so excited to get a a promotional code for the $19.99 Human Atlas and install the software on my iPhone 3G right away. The app also works on the iPod Touch.

Human Atlas offers 3D images and videos of 150 common medical treatments and conditions. After a few days of use, I think this is a great application for those who want to learn about their body and conditions ranging from allergies, muscle pain, high blood pressure, stroke, and tendon injuries to diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and more.

Basically, you will appreciate anything you can learn from this app.

What you won't appreciate, however, is its lacks of features. The Human Atlas app has two parts: 3D image and video. The images don't allow for rotating the body, you're stuck with the front of the object. This makes the images seems less "3D" than they could be. Also, you can't display the images vertically. While it's OK to watch the video with the phone put in the horizontal position, the images could benefit a lot more from the vertical display as you won't have to scroll as much.… Read more

Spring is almost here, and soon we'll be showing the world much more than just our heads and hands. That means it's time to get up off the couch and start doing whatever we can to get our bods ready for summer. Need advice on that? These sites can help.

Gyminee If you're looking for a way to track your workouts and get some dietary advice, Gyminee is a great place to start.

In a matter of seconds, you'll be able to join Gyminee and start creating a workout regimen that will help you lose weight, tone your muscles, or gain strength. And you won't need to do it alone. With the help of Gyminee, you can find exercises and create a regimen from pre-configured workout routines based on your goals. Gyminee does a fine job of helping you do whatever you want.

Gyminee's tracking tools are very good. Once you sign up, you can put your weight, resting heart rate, and measurements into the system to see where you stand today. As long as you keep inputting that information on a regular basis, it will show you a detailed graph providing your progress over the term of your workout. That's easily my favorite feature because it's a great motivation tool that helps me see just how far I've come since I started exercising.

While Gyminee does a fine job with workouts and tracking, I was disappointed with its dietary advice. It does provide a detailed analysis of required calorie, fat, and protein intake to get you to your goal weight, but it doesn't do much more. It doesn't tell you what to eat and how to do it. It doesn't tell you when you should be eating. It basically tells you that you need to have a certain number of calories every day and leaves it at that. For a full-featured health improvement site, that's weak.

Gyminee boasts extra features like a forum so you can discuss health considerations, and you can make friends with others and track their progress. If you want, you can also set challenges and see how close you are to achieving those goals. Gyminee offers good features and it's worth using even though it doesn't have enough dietary information.… Read more

A tech industry watchdog plans to investigate conditions at a Chinese hardware factory that supplies IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard, following a damning report on conditions there by a human-rights organization.

The National Labor Committee report, "High Tech Misery in China," said these tech giants use Meitai Plastic and Electronics, a keyboard supplier that operates a factory that "dehumanizes young workers."

In response, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a self-regulating body set up by tech companies, will carry out a third-party audit into the working conditions at the factory, IBM told ZDNet UK on … Read more

After the somewhat strange occurrence of Google suggesting that the entire Internet was diseased (and after CNET's Natalie Weinstein revealing that the company initially placed the blame on a nonprofit organization out of Harvard University), I have delved deep to discover whether there might be other instances of Google error--you know, the sort that might not have seen the light of a million laptops.

This was hard work. But not as hard as one might have thought. There are more than one might have imagined. Here are the Top Five:

1. The Bernie Madoff Scandal. Mr. Madoff, the disgraced … Read more

Storage maker NetApp ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of the top 100 companies to work for, bumping Google from its perch, according to a report in the publication on Thursday.

NetApp, which employs nearly 8,000 people worldwide, was selected for its "employees enthusiasm," along with its benefits from nearly $11,400 in adoption aid to five paid days to do volunteer work.

And even better still, the company is one of the few in the hiring mode during these recessionary times, seeking to fill 55 positions as of January 13.

This year's ranking … Read more

The DNA records of about 850,000 people could be wiped from the U.K.'s national database after the European Union ruled it breached human rights.

The European Court of Human Rights decision on Thursday means that the DNA details and possibly fingerprints of people suspected of a crime, but later cleared, could be removed.

The court found that in keeping the DNA details of people suspected of a crime the "state had overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation."

The case was brought by two Britons, Michael Marper and "S", who were cleared of crimes … Read more

A man cheats on his wife and after learning of the affair the woman leaps from her 24th-floor balcony. Before committing suicide, the wife blames her husband and his mistress for her death in a blog post.

The woman was a 31-year-old Beijing resident who has since become the face of what the Chinese call "human flesh search engines." The term is used to describe cybermobs banding together online to hunt down people who have committed perceived wrongdoings.

There's a fascinating story about these Web vigilantes from Beijing-based freelance journalist Chris O'Brien at Forbes.com. He … Read more

Apple may have a real fight on its hands if it believes Mark Papermaster is the right man to nurture the iPhone.

In an age where employees move between companies as often as relief pitchers change teams, noncompete agreements seem an outdated concept. But lawyers say the noncompete agreement that Papermaster signed with IBM is serious business that demonstrates how companies are increasingly looking to enforce restrictions on their most important employees, and that could force Apple and IBM to share valuable information to make their argument stick.

IBM is suing Papermaster for violating the terms of a noncompete agreement, … Read more

If you were going to design a robot to look like a real human being, which famous face would be your model?

Would you go for an Angelina Jolie because, well, she's already been Lara Croft and somehow the distance from video game character on your telly to robot in your living room is shorter than the walk to your garage?

Or might you prefer a warm-hearted intellectual such as Kanye West, the Marquis de Sade, or Ann Coulter?

Well, the University of West of England and the University of Bristol, as part of a project called Human-Robot Interaction, … Read more