I've seen joggers and walkers buzzing around with these gizmos strapped around their arms or even their ankles. I can only imagine what all they do, but I assume that they count steps.

Does anybody use these in their workouts? Especially walks/jogs. I walk/jog for 20-30 min, and the only way of measuring what I did is by time. I'm just going through neighborhoods and don't have a concept of the distance I've gone.

So I was thinking about looking into one of these devices. What are the different features that they come with? Do they measure heart rate or calories burned in any way? Speed? Distance travelled? Or just steps?

People keep asking me what I want for Christmas

What you want is a pedometer. Don't get a really cheap one. I love my Omicron and it was about $20. It counts steps, aerobic steps, calories burned, and distance and it keeps it in memory for a week. Body Buggs go around your arm and heart rate monitors come in various models. They are a lot more expensive and do other things besides count steps.