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The best fitness tracker
By Amy Roberts This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. Over the course of 60 hours, we surveyed readers, interviewed industry and exercise-physiology experts, walked, ran (and ran some more), slept, grocery-shopped, jumping-jacked, swung kettlebells, and analyzed user experience to determine that the Garmin vívosmart HR is the best fitness tracker. It effectively collects the same data as top competitors from Fitbit and Jawbone but offers a larger, more legible touchscreen and more useful smartphone-notification options, as well as full waterproofing to 50 meters (other models are merely splash-resistant).
Consumer Reports backs Fitbit accuracy despite lawsuit
Given that there's a lawsuit over the accuracy of Fitbit trackers' heart rate monitors, you might be wondering how trustworthy those wearables really are. Should you buy a chest strap if you need to track your BPM? Not necessarily, if you ask Consumer Reports. It just retested both the Charge HR and Surge under more stringent conditions (additional arm locations and higher-impact workouts), and it found that both were effectively as accurate as a chest-based heart rate monitor. The only significant deviation was when using the Charge HR in particularly intense workouts, and even that could be fixed by wearing the wristband on the forearm.
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 announces three new activity trackers, including a GPS watch
The last year has been a bit rough for Fitbit. The biggest thorn in its side has obviously been the allergic reactions to, and the subsequent recall of, its Force fitness tracker. Despite having spent the better part of 2014 without its flagship model on store shelves, the company still holds a lead over its competitors in market share. And now it's hoping to extend that lead with an all-out assault on the activity tracking market. Today the company is announcing not one, but three new devices that are set to be released over the next several months.
Meet Fitbit's new Charge activity trackers (update)
Nearly a year after Fitbit revealed its last fitness gadget, it looks like its next devices will be called Charge. The wearables passed through the FCC revealing the moniker and designation as a "wireless activity tracker." Thanks to a USPTO filing, we can glean that it'll carry the usual waterproofing alongside pedometer and altimeter for tracking steps, sleep and calories burned. On top of those expected features, the paperwork also indicates that a heart rate sensor, navigation info, weather forecast, call notifications and volume control will also be lumped in for syncing up with your phone.
