Every you step you take... more wearable tech

The fitness, healthy lifestyle craze doesn’t seem to being going anywhere, and everyone is quickly jumping on board to offer something people can use to complement their workouts and eating habits.

There’s a million diet apps out there, numerous blogs and photo sharing sites all dedicated to healthy living. Wearable technology is becoming a big part of many people's lives, with fitness the main focus for many designers.

Sony's latest offering in this market is the SmartBand, a wristband that synchs with your phone to track how many steps you take, the number of calories you burn each day and how well you sleep. The SmartBand helps you gather all the statistics you’ll need on your physical life.

It's very simple to set up - just tap it against your Android phone to get them "talking" to each other and download the Lifelog app when prompted.

The wristband's sensor tucks into the top of the strap and there is one adjustable button to do up. The band is light and discreet, so the idea is that after a few hours you’ll completely forget that you are wearing it. The band is waterproof, so there’s really no need to ever take it off.

The Lifelog app is the key to this product and it’s where you’ll be spending most of your time. The app is well presented and its basic functions are easy to use. It gives a visual display of a timeline and your activity, with boxes monitoring your steps, calories, kilometres walked and more.

Lifelog goes beyond just fitness. You can monitor time spent on social networks and photos taken, though I'm not sure why you'd want to know any of that. You can make goals for each category, such as reaching 10,000 steps a day.

Set your target and get walking. It can become quite addictive checking your progress throughout the day, though it can also be a bit depressing to realise that “huge” walk to the car after work didn’t actually amount to much.

But having hardware with an app sets it apart from other fitness apps out there, and it’s a fun way to monitor your life and where you need to step up.

The Smartband is available from Sony stockists for $169.95.