By Wil Dubois

Let’s talk about sex today. Well, more correctly, let’s talk about sex appeal. Because sex appeal and technology are intimately linked.

I mean, have you ever caressed an iPhone, Galaxy, Kindle Fire, or any of those other amazing devices? I know this is a family site, but I think we can all agree that our modern tech-toys are an orgy for our senses. But our d-Tech isn’t as sexy as our ordinary-tech. Why? Four words: Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approval process is so long that by the time a device is approved, it’s as archaic as a stone-tipped spear.

But sweet surprises happen. Case in point: the impossibly light, pancake-thin Confirm meter. You could be wearing the tightest jeans imaginable and still slip this sweet little meter into your back pocket, no problem. I guess this is a new product category: Tight Jeans Tech.

Who makes this sexy meter? I hope you’re sitting down, the answer is: Wal-Mart. Yep. The flattest meter in the world is sold by the biggest box around. I love that kind of irony.

I field tested the Confirm and found it simple and easy to use. The strips proved highly accurate, comparing favorably to all the others on the market. It also features a wedge-shaped strip vial that’s flatter than the traditional round tub we’re all used to, and a nicely engineered lancing device. On the negative side, Confirm doesn’t have a back light, but neither do more than half the other meters on the market.

With an optional cable, it downloads into Ark Care, a cloud-based program that allows you and your healthcare team to dissect your blood sugar seven ways from Sunday. It’s equal to any other meter software out there.

So what makes Confirm special? It’s just another meter, right? Correct. But that’s kinda my point. When it comes to meters, there really aren’t any lights, bells, and whistles worth mentioning. So what makes one meter better than another? One thing, and one thing only: sex appeal.

And what makes Confirm especially kudos-worthy is that Wal-Mart is the pharmacy of last resort for the 50 million uninsured Americans; a group with one healthcare priority—lowest possible cost. And Confirm is cheap. The meter is less than nine bucks. The strips a third the cost of the big-name brands. Given that, you might expect a “generic” meter to look like a Soviet-era garage door opener, not Tight Jean Chic. Wal-Mart could have produced anything, and their customers would have been forced to buy it. Instead, the most needy of us all still can have sex appeal in their d-Gear. Amazing.

PS: ReliOn also makes the equally modern and sexy-looking Micro, which is actually much smaller and flatter than either the famous OneTouch UltraMini or the Bayer USB. Micro uses the same strips as the Confirm, but, sadly, it can’t be downloaded.