People in China have been putting the heart-rate tracking Xiaomi Mi Band 3 on rolls of toilet paper and coming up with a puzzling result: the tracker found a beating heart in the plush roll. It's not only toilet paper that's supposedly come alive either, with social media users finding a pulse in everything from bananas to stuffed animals.

I'm not into watches or wristbands, but for the last few weeks I've been wearing a fitness tracker on my finger. It knows how long I sleep and detects when I walk or run, and all I've gotta do is wear it like jewellery and forget about it.

We're in a golden age of arguably unnecessary health gadgets, including several new entries to the market that aim to optimise our sleep, or at least give us lots of data describing it. We asked a few sleep experts what's useful and what isn't. Here are the features they liked.

Huawei's Watch 2, the first 4G SIM-enabled model available in the Australian market, is available from today. Here are all the details on what it can do, where you can get one, and how much it will set you back.

A fitness wearable promises to aid you in your quest for a healthier life by providing data on how your body responds to physical activity. They're good at providing some bits of information and not so good at others. In particular, a new small-scaled study from Stanford University suggests that fitness trackers are not great at measuring calories burned.

You've got data pouring in from your connected fitness tracker, your smartphone, your smartwatch, the smart scales in your bathroom and the dieting app you use to log your meals -- so how do you get all of this information in one place? It isn't easy, but here are a few pointers to help.

One of the perils of smart devices is that many rely on their respective company's online servers to function, and sometimes those companies shut down. Which leaves you with an expensive paperweight. Luckily Pebble has had the foresight to update their smartwatches after being acquired by Fitbit last year.

Most modern fitness trackers are electronic devices you wear on your wrist to track steps, overall physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. They typically work with a smartphone app or website that allow you to track your progress over time using graphs and figures. Advanced fitness trackers can also record heart rate and GPS related outcomes, like your route, speed and distance.

Some days you just don't have the time or energy to get your 10,000 recommended steps in. These tricks won't help you keep active, but they will make sure you keep your numbers up.

Fitbits alone won't make you healthy, but the more you see the data, the better understanding you can have of what you need to do. Over at Initial State, they made a guide that creates a big dashboard of all your Fitbit data so you can easily see it visualised.

A lot has changed since we picked our favourite running apps a few years ago. Now there are tons of apps that save your stats in the cloud and let you share runs with your Facebook friends, but they're each different enough you might have a hard time picking the right one for you. Here's how to choose.

There are plenty of smartphone apps that can help map your movements as you are driving, cycling, running or just out for a good walk. Many of these apps encourage you to share your route publicly on websites or with friends on social media. Some people even go to extreme lengths to pre-plan their routes to produce maps with entertaining shapes. What many people don’t realise is that by using such apps, you could be giving away information that could be abused by others.

Diet and exercise are both important parts of a weight loss plan, but kilojoule or calorie counting apps are only good at tracking half of the equation: diet. Logging your activities can skew your sense of how many kilojoules you should be eating.

The Fitbit Blaze is part of the company's push to bring the fitness bands to those with some fashion sense. Unlike the utilitarian bands we've been dished up over recent years, the Fitbit Blaze tries to bridge the gap between function and fashion.

The Microsoft Band 2 is a Windows-flavoured fitness wearable designed to work with Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices. It provides all the tracking options of a high-end fitness band and some of the functionality of a smartwatch. We've been using the product for the past two weeks and have since promoted it to our fitness band of choice -- despite some foibles.

In 2014, Microsoft dipped its toes into the fitness wearable market with the imaginatively titled Microsoft Band. Today, it is finally bringing the brand to the Australian market. If you're on the lookout for a new fitness/smart band, the Microsoft Band 2 is one of the main products you should be considering. Here's what you need to know.

With the original Microsoft Band never seeing release in Australia, the Band 2 is going to be our first glimpse of Microsoft's wearable technology. While it can access email, messages and call alerts, the Band is far more fitness tracker than smartwatch, unlike Apple or Samsung's wearable offerings. So is there any advantage to getting the Microsoft Band 2 over one of the forerunners of the industry like the Fitbit or one of Garmin's fitness trackers?

A few weeks ago I set myself the challenge to shape up a little for summer. Nothing crazy, just positive changes in a healthy direction. The below tips are some of the basic principles I've used as direction.

Wander into just about any shop and you'll be bowled over by the sheer range of fitness trackers, all claiming to help you on your fitness journey. But are they actually accurate at tracking exercise? And what kind of features should you look for? This guide will help.