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Wyze's Alexa-equipped fitness tracker costs $25
Smart home security company Wyze announced last month its plans to launch an Alexa-supported fitness tracker, among other products. Now, the wearable -- simply called the Wyze Band -- has arrived, and is available now as part of an early access launch, and to the general public from April.
Facebook and eBay crack down on fake product reviews after UK warning
Facebook and eBay are taking steps to crack down on fake and misleading product reviews, following an advisory notice from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Both companies have signed agreements to better identify, investigate and respond to fake reviews, resulting in Facebook removing 188 groups and disabling 24 user accounts, and eBay permanently banning 140 users.
Instagram is removing its 'Following' activity tab
Starting this week, Instagram will sunset one of its more infamous -- though lesser-known -- features. Moving forward, the app is removing its "Following" tab, reports Buzzfeed News. If you're unfamiliar with the feature, it displays new likes and comments from people you follow. It also shows any new accounts they may have added to their feed. It's accessible through the heart tab, which is the same part of Instagram's interface where you see likes and new followers for your account.
Nintendo says Switch play time data hasn’t been deleted
Last week, Switch users began to notice that their activity log data had reset and play time from before March 3rd had been deleted. A number of Redditors reported the loss of play time data while a few of us here at Engadget noticed the reset as well. And for those who got a Switch when it launched last March, that could mean that up to a year of activity had suddenly disappeared. Nintendo has now commented on the issue and if you're a Switch user you can breathe easy. Your data isn't gone.
Spire's health tracker sticks on clothes and never needs charging
Wearable fitness monitors promise a lot but research shows that nearly a third are abandoned in junk drawers because they're too fiddly, require too much maintenance or users are simply forgetting to put them on. Health monitoring company Spire thinks it's found the answer to these woes with the Spire Health Tag, the smallest ever fitness tracker that doesn't need to be charged and never has to be taken off.
McDonald's hands out activity trackers with Happy Meals
For more than three decades, McDonald's has handed out toys with Happy Meals. It's been long argued that the gifts incentivize parents and children to eat more fast food, leading to health issues like obesity and diabetes. While we've seen more educational and surprising tech inclusions, like VR goggles, toys that promote fitness and physical activity have been very few and far between (although the company did once include a pedometer with special Go Active! adult Happy Meals back in 2004). With the Olympics now dominating headlines, the fast-food giant is encouraging kids to get moving with a new "STEP-it" fitness tracker. Every Happy Meal sold in the US and Canada will include one of six wrist-worn pedometers that also blink slowly or quickly depending on a child's activity. "Step-it is in line with McDonald's general philosophy for Happy Meal toys, which is to make toys that encourage either physical or imagination-based play," McDonald's Canada Senior Marketing Manager, Michelle McIImoyle, explains to CityNews.
Instagram adds a notification tab to its web interface
Instagram's website has always felt like a bit of an afterthought. Sure, it works, with a feed and the ability to add likes and comments. But it's never been as polished or as fully featured as the company's mobile apps. Now, as TechCrunch notes, the web version is starting to catch up with the addition of an activity tab. Similar to the iOS and Android apps, this lists new followers, likes and users you might know through Facebook.
Google shutters My Tracks outdoor activity-logging app
Google's My Tracks app for logging outdoor activity isn't long for this world. The company plans to shutter the software at the end of April, though it regularly updated the GPS-based app in quite some time. This isn't just an end of support, the app won't run at all after that date. If you stuck with My Tracks, Google says you can export collected data to Drive or external storage. The company says closing down the app will allow it to focus on "more wide-reaching mapping projects."
Samsung's S Health app now supports all Android phones
With an endless stream of fitness wearables hitting the market, it's easy to forget that your smartphone comes packed with sensors that can do exactly the same job. Samsung makes smartphones and smartwatches, so building a dedicated wellbeing app, known as S Health, to collate everything made complete sense. While the app hit the Play Store back in April, the company only made it available to select Galaxy handsets. Luckily, that changes today, meaning anyone with an Android device to see what it's all about.
This adorable desk gadget motivates you like Pavlov's bell
We're almost halfway into April and chances are your self-improvement-minded New Year's Resolutions bit the dust sometime between Valentine's Day and Easter. Whereas our day-to-day habits are pretty ingrained into our minds, establishing new ones is the hard part, and that's where MOTI comes in. It's a cute little gizmo that you place in plain sight (this is key) that acts as a motivator, hence the name, for your menial tasks. How it works seems pretty simple, too. Just put it on your desk or wherever else you might see it on the daily and press its face when you do the task you're having trouble keeping up with.
Jaybird's readiness-sensing fitness tracker arrives October 26th
Want a fitness tracker that can tell you when it's time to get moving, rather than simply record your movements? You won't have to wait long. Jaybird has confirmed that its Reign wristband will reach the US on October 26th at the $199 price promised back in January. The key to the Reign is its "Go-Score," which estimates your readiness for activity based on your heart rate variability -- the higher the score, the better-suited you are to going for a run or bike ride. It's also one of the few trackers that can handle swimming alongside exercise and sleep, so this may be your wearable of choice if you regularly hit the pool. So long as you have an Android or iOS device to pair with, the Reign may be worth checking out if you feel that other activity devices don't cover enough ground.
Misfit's wearable Flash tracks your moves and sleep habits for $49
Remember the Misfit Shine? It was yet another in a long line of crowdfunded wearables that won some points for its uber-clean looks and its activity tracking skills (not to mention the Klingon instructions on the box). $99 may have been a bit much to ask in exchange for an intelligent coin that lives on your wrist though, which is why the Misfit team just pulled back the curtain on a $49 version called the Misfit Flash. It packs the same sort of functionality as its more expensive brother -- it tracks your sleep motion, steps and tough-to-measure activities like swimming and cycling -- into a body that's a little less rugged than the original.
Apple Watch monitors your activity and workouts with two separate apps
Does the Apple Watch spell doom for dedicated fitness devices from Fitbit, Withings and Jawbone? Certainly, it looks as if you won't need one if you own Apple's first wearable, since the device ships with a pair of apps specifically designed to track fitness. The first is Activity, which measures the quantity of your sitting, standing and movement on a daily basis. There are three "rings" on the display, and you make each one disappear by performing the requisite amount of movement for each one. For instance, the exercise ring will disappear if you've moved at a pace above a brisk walk for more than 30 minutes in a single day. The move ring, meanwhile, will disappear when you've burned off a predetermined quantity of calories, and the standing ring disappears if you get up and stand for a single minute each hour, for 12 hours. Apple claims that Activity will learn your daily patterns, and when it senses that you're chilling out on the couch, it will give you a Jawbone-esque reminder to get up off the couch -- just like your very own personal trainer.
Fitbit's activity tracking app comes to Windows Phone
If you've wanted to use activity-tracking wearables that pair with your phone, you've typically had to use Android or iOS. Windows Phone has some third-party apps that can fill in, but they're imperfect at best. As of today, though, an official solution is at hand -- Fitbit has released its own Windows Phone 8.1 app. You can now sync trackers like the Flex, One and Zip to your Microsoft-powered device to get real-time step and sleep monitoring, complete with a step counter on your home screen if you set up the Live Tile. Other Fitbit fundamentals are also here, including food logging, leaderboards and messaging.
Moves' always-on fitness tracking app comes to Android
If you don't fancy buying a wearable or investing in a phone with a fancy motion chip, then Moves might be for you. The activity tracking app sits in the background and learns your daily routine, presenting your movements as a timeline for later study. While it's already been downloaded 2.5 million times on iOS, it's launching on Android devices running 4.0 or above from today. It's available for the princely sum of nothing from Google Play, so there's really very little excuse not to at least give it a go.
Google starts including activity from select apps in search results
Well, it looks like you can soon expect to see yet more information to the right of your Google search results. The company's announced today that it has begun integrating activity from certain apps into its results, with a number of music and movie services the first in line. Expectedly, the common denominator among them is that they all use Google+ as a sign-in option, which lets Mountain View pull together things like aggregate user activity and the most popular movies and music from Fandango, Deezer, Flixster, SoundCloud and a handful of others. As usual, those features are getting rolled out gradually, with the initial batch of app results said to be rolling out to desktop search over the next few weeks, and additional apps and improvements promised over time.
CES: BodyMedia introduces a new Core 2 fitness tracker, with some other interesting ideas
BodyMedia has become a regular stop on our annual CES tour -- the company introduced its first Bluetooth-enabled, smartphone-connected fitness tracker a few years ago -- and since then, they told us this year here in Las Vegas, the smartphone versions of the tracker are outselling more traditional versions "by far." As a result, the company's latest tracker, called the Core 2, is of course designed to sync up almost completely through your iPhone. The device is smaller than ever -- over 40 percent smaller than the current model, and so small, says the company rep, that "the main element is really the strap." The Core 2 isn't only thin, but it also ditches the micro USB port, which means the unit is now essentially waterproof. It comes with a separate Bluetooth dongle (to be used in a computer, in case the user doesn't have a Bluetooth-enabled phone), and can be synced up and charged by being placed in that dongle. Just like all of the other BodyMedia trackers, the Core 2 keeps track of a number of different fitness statistics, including steps taken, calories burned and the duration and potency of whatever activity you undertake. The company has always used a web app called the Activity Monitor to track users' input, but as smartphones became more and more prevalent, the free iOS app has been updated to track more features and even sync live with the device directly. The Core 2 isn't yet priced, but it should be "comparable" to the company's current US$149 offering, according to the rep, when it's finally released in August of this year. By the end of the year, BodyMedia also wants to add in one of the most requested features of its devices, and set it up to also record a user's heart rate. There will need to be an extra accessory for that, as it's not possible to pick up a heart rate with just an upper armband. But the Core 2 has that functionality ready to go, and when the other accessory is ready, the Core 2 should already be compatible with it. The company's also planning to update the app for Android. And before I left the booth here at CES, BodyMedia showed me one other idea they're working on: A disposable version of the fitness tracker, basically a stick-on bandage with a chip stitched inside of it. The stick-on strip is designed to be worn 24 hours a day (including through showers and in the pool) for seven days, at which point users can cut open the bandage, plug the chip into a PC via USB, and then transfer all of the stats off of it. There's no price or release date yet planned for the disposable version, and it's basically not much more than a prototype at this point. But it is a very interesting take on the growing fitness tracker market, and it could convince a lot of people who don't want to deal with pulling a tracker on and off all the time to take the plunge. BodyMedia's plenty busy these days, and these products should move the company forward even more when they hit later on this year. We'll keep an eye out for the Core 2 when it finally reaches store shelves in August.
The Daily Grind: Do you play some games inactively?
I can log into RIFT any time I want. I have my subscription active, and I'm perfectly happy to give Trion Worlds my money on a monthly basis. But my actual playtime with the game is spotty at best. Despite this, I still describe myself as playing the game, because I am still playing, just not in an active capacity. An inactive capacity, if you will. With free-to-play becoming the dominant business model in the MMO genre, it's easier than ever to be an inactive player in your game of choice. You jump in for a couple of days, let the game sit for a week, then jump back in without any real penalties. You don't have to stick with any game longer than you want to. Still, there are games that require a subscription to play, and some people will pop into a free-to-play game to buy new things and then jump right out. So what about you? Is there a game that keeps getting your money even though it's not an active part of your play rotation? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
PlayStation Vita's Near, LiveArea and other social features outlined
Between its Near, Party, LiveArea and Activity social features, there's a whole lot going on under the hood of the PlayStation Vita. SCEE R&D exec Phil Rogers broke down those capabilities at Develop last week: Near, for instance, will allow Vita owners to look at the favorite games of nearby players, and allow players to drop and pick up "gifts," which could range from special in-game items to high score challenges. Rogers explained that Party will give players cross-game chat capabilities, allowing them to invite friends to groups and launch games directly through the UI, which all party members will be invited to. The LiveArea is a tad more esoteric: it will display information about software as it is launched, and will allow users to "comment on people's activities within the game as well as publish your messages." Sounds like the perfect receptacle for smack talk. Finally, the Activity feed will show the in-game accomplishments of friends (including high scores and Trophy unlocks) in real time. The feed can also be updated by publishers and developers, though Rogers suggested, "it's important not to spam users too much and to use it sensibly." We pray that Rogers' advice is heeded.
How the iPad and iPhone shift reading habits
Read It Later is an Instapaper-style platform for saving and tracking various things to read online, and they recently released some interesting information about iPad and iPhone reading over on their blog. The line for when people save articles is pretty constant no matter what hour of the day you're talking about -- we're pretty often browsing for and discovering new things to read all of the time. But when you look at the graphs about when people retrieve those articles on their mobile devices, you see some interesting trends. The iPhone graph, seen above, has lots of little peaks in it, but those peaks come at "in-between" times -- when we're eating some breakfast, traveling via commute or about to go to bed. That's fascinating -- according to this data, the iPhone is really a whitespace device, providing productivity when we don't have access to anything else. And the iPad graph is interesting as well -- as you can see on RiL's page, it sees most of its activity later in the evening, when we're on the couch just relaxing. And there's one more little bit of interesting data -- users who own an iPad are apparently doing less reading on their computers during the day. In other words, they're saving articles specifically for iPad time, because apparently they prefer to do more reading on the iPad itself. Remember, these are brand new categories of devices, and it's really crazy to see how they're changing our habits so quickly. [via TechCrunch]
