My new $20 scale told me more about my muscle mass, bone mass, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and other indicators of bodily health than I ever thought possible. I’m wowed.

According to TechRadar, the Vitafit Smart Scale offers nearly the same results as the $8500 Tanita MC-780MA P. The review said it’s also about the same as the commercial models found in some gyms. A techy friend said it’s motivating him to exercise more, eat less.

For each measurement, the scale tells you what’s normal or excessive, lean, standard or high. I was pleased to learn that my visceral fat score is one. The higher the number, the more fat. Healthy is between one and 12. Visceral fat is the dangerous fat around your organs.

Once you’re ready to weigh, keep your phone handy, with the app open. When the scale is finished taking measurements, a row of circles will flash across the scale’s screen and your phone will chime. Immediately, the app screen shows you 14 different statistics.

But does everything depend on what you tell it? For a test, I added the app to my iPad, saying I was a 4’8” tall 24-year-old, which is much younger and shorter than I actually am. So instead of a body fat reading of 21.1 percent, it said my body fat was 34.5 percent. Maybe its best feature is motivation. At least it only costs $20.

Antivirus Disaster

After I paid $19 for TotalAV antivirus software, the program demanded more money if I wanted to see the results page. In the meantime, my screen resolution got pixelated, my computer acted buggy, and I had to do a system restore. What’s worse, the restoration took far longer than any I’ve experienced before. But after a phone call to the company, at least I got my $19 back.

It all started when a reader asked whether it was worth paying McAfee $119 a year to keep her Chromebook and Pixel phone safe from phishing attacks, fake apps, fake extensions and dangerous websites. I’ve often read that an antivirus is unnecessary if you’re careful. But Security.org gives TotalAV its highest ranking and offers a huge discount. “Why not try it?” I thought. My Chrome browser keeps switching my default search engine from Google to Yahoo, no matter how many times I reset or reinstall it. Maybe there’s a bug in my system. Unfortunately, TotalAV was a total disaster.

From now on, I’m sticking with Windows Defender. As for Chromebooks, Androids and Apple products, you should be fine if you avoid clicking links to verify information or on anything suspicious. If in doubt, don’t.

Making Music

The Zefiro looks like a small flash drive. But it plugs into a USB-C port on your phone or tablet to make music when you blow on it, simulating the sound of wind instruments, including the flute and clarinet. It also gives you tracks to play along with. Just tap on the keys in the app. It also acts as a standard MIDI controller. Get it on Kickstarter.com for $31.

Kickstarter allows companies to raise money to get their products fully launched. So far, Zefiro has raised about $55,000 more than their goal of $5,271, though they’re selling their product at a deep discount. Its expected delivery is February 2025.

Another Facebook Scam

Did you ever notice an area in the upper right of your Facebook page called “Sponsored?” Most of the time it’s fine but look out for scammers. Sometimes a fake ad floats invisibly above a real one.

When a reader clicked on a sponsored product, she was asked to “verify that this payment really went through.” When she clicked again, she heard a female voice telling her that her computer was locked. “Do not attempt to shut it down,” the voice said, before asking her to call a certain number. Fortunately, she did the opposite: She shut down her computer. When she restarted it, everything was fine. The lesson? It’s safer to avoid the Sponsored section and go to a shopping site directly.

 Amazon Haul

Amazon Haul is a new shopping site for your phone or tablet that competes with bargain sites like Temu. Everything it offers is $20 or less. Though it’s been criticized for using AI to make faulty product images, you might not care. So what if a fisherman’s catch looks like a six-foot-high glove?

 Stretchable Screens

You may soon be wearing a computer screen on your shirt, thanks to stretchable technology developed by LG. Announced in Seoul, the OLED fabric could be used on uniforms and tote bags to display important information. The fabric uses contact lens technology and a micro-LED source, which can be stretched over 10,000 times. But the resolution is low, just 100 pixels per inch. The average phone’s PPI is 300 to 500.

People Prefer AI

When asked whether a mix of ten classic poems were generated by AI or humans, most people got it wrong. Half the poems were written by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson, T.S. Eliot and other famous poets, and half by artificial intelligence. But the test subjects thought the AI poems were human. They said they were more beautiful and had better rhythm. They thought the famous poems rambled. For more info, see the TechRadar story: “People can’t tell when a poem is written by AI.”

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