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Fitbit Surge and Charge HR automatically detect and log exercises

Just in time to entice holiday shoppers, Fibit is updating its Surge and Charge HR fitness trackers with a handful of new features. First, a SmartTrack feature automatically recognizes exercises during your workouts and records them in the Fitbit app along with details on duration, calories burned and heart rate. SmartTrack can determine if you're on the elliptical, outdoor biking, running, walking or doing one of a few aerobic workouts (Zumba, cardio-kickboxing , dance, etc.). It can also detect if you're playing sports like tennis, basketball and soccer. You can personalize the activity recognition too, telling the tech which movements you want logged as exercise and how long you want to be moving before it starts to track them. By default, you'll need to be in motion at least 15 minutes before the recording starts. When it comes to heart-rate tracking, the two wearables are getting improved PurePulse performance for those more intense workout sessions. By using Exercise Mode on the Charge HR and multi-sport modes on the Surge, the gadgets will provide a better "experience" during and after those high-energy activities like Zumba.

Fitbit's app and its entire line of wearables are also getting weekly exercise goals. The goal here is to provide you with a tool that'll help you achieve consistency in your workouts and surpass those overall fitness milestones. As you might expect, progress is tracked inside the app so you'll always have an update on how you're doing. The SmartTrack and PurePulse updates are available for the Surge and Charge HR starting today, as is the exercise goals feature for the Fitbit app on iOS and Windows (Android is coming soon). And if you've yet to pick up a Fitbit device, there are new blue and tangerine colors for both the $250 Surge and $150 Charge HR.