activity tracker
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Wellograph is an activity tracker with good looks and fun graphs (hands-on)
One of the latest entrants to the crowded wearables market is an activity tracker that you might actually want to wear on a night out. The Wellograph, a device with a sapphire crystal display, features a heart rate monitor and an activity tracker, and -- gasp -- it's a standalone device, with no smartphone integration to speak of beyond syncing with Bluetooth 4.0. Sarasin Art Booppanon, CEO of Wellograph, told us his product stands out from other activity trackers by displaying information such as steps taken and heartbeats per minute in graph form (rather than simply displaying digits). Another distinguishing feature: the sapphire crystal display, allegedly the first to appear on a moderately priced consumer product. This type of screen is known for its scratch-resistance, and while that's not something we could easily put to the test here at CES Unveiled, we can tell you it looked (and felt) pretty sturdy.
This activity tracker lives in your shoe's insole
We're still several days out from CES, and we've already seen previews of a couple of fitness tracking devices. It's far, far too early to start talking overall trends for the show, but it seems pretty safe to suggest that we'll be seeing even more before the week is out. At the very least, Footlogger ("-logger," not "-locker," mind) offers a bit of an alternative to the standard wristband devices. The insole-based gadget is probably more in-line with those socks we saw the other day, but arguably has the potential to record even more detailed information about things like foot strike position - as for how such a product would stand up to the stress of of daily running, however, we certainly can't say. 3L Labs is talking up a wide range of potential uses for Footlogger's three-axis accelerometer and eight pressure sensors, including the standard activity tracking and sports recording fare. The company is also making some interesting healthcare claims here, including rehabilitation monitoring and even potential early disease prediction. You can check out the company's admittedly dated-looking site in the source link below.
Misfit Wearables Shine activity tracker stands out in the crowd
One segment of the iOS accessory market that is extremely popular right now is connected activity trackers. This segment all started with the original Fitbit and Nike FuelBand, and the segment now also includes a family of Fitbits, an entry from Withings, the Jawbone Up and more. Many of the devices either clip onto your belt or are built into a wristband, but the new Misfit Wearables Shine (US$119.95) stands out as a device that not only looks different, but can be worn on your body in a number of ways. The Shine also stands out in one other unique way; the company that created it was co-founded by a gentleman who should be very familiar to Apple fans -- former CEO John Sculley. Design The Shine is a tiny aluminum disc-shaped unit about an inch in diameter and about a quarter of an inch thick. There are no buttons on the exterior and most of the time, no glowing lights. To wear the activity tracker, you have several choices. First, there's an adjustable silicone wrist strap that the Shine can be slipped into. The Shine has a channel around the exterior that the silicone strap snaps into, and as you'll see that channel also helps with the other mounting methods. There's a small silicone clasp with a powerful magnet on one side that can be cleverly used to attach the Shine to clothing. That magnet is so strong that while fooling around with this device for the review, I attached the Shine to my earlobe and to one nostril... Most of the time, though, it was grabbing the cuff of a long-sleeve shirt. If you're more of a dressy person, you may want the leather strap (optional, in black or natural leather) or the optional necklace. However, I do not recommend using the clasp. On the last day of my testing I misplaced the tiny Shine once, then lost it forever somewhere during the early evening. If something that expensive -- $130 -- cannot stay attached to its owner, then potential buyers either need to have deep pockets and buy a lot of Shines, or use something other than the clasp. The Shine comes in four different finishes; gray and jet, and from Best Buy stores in the US, also topaz and champagne. Unlike a lot of the activity monitors on the market, the Misfit Shine will take a shower or an accidental spin through the washer with ease. The company even recommends it for swimming! For power, Shine uses a single and readily available CR2032 battery cell that will last up to four months, so there's no charging port or any need to obsess about charging the Shine regularly. When it's time to change out the battery it's quite simple to do -- use a tiny pry tool that is included to pop the Shine apart, pull out the battery, and drop another one in before closing it up again. So how do the little white LEDs glow through aluminum? Is it Scotty's transparent aluminum from Star Trek II? No, even better, the LEDs glow through some laser drilled micro-holes that are so small that water cannot get into the case, but light can get out. It's brilliant! Functionality As with most of the newest activity trackers on the market, Shine uses Bluetooth LE to link to your newer iOS devices. Just fire up the app with the Shine nearby (and with the battery installed) and the two will recognize each other quickly. The free app is quite useful and colorful, and includes some clever animations. If you put the Shine atop your iPhone display, it begins to animate the sync process with a series of pulsating rings. Note that you don't need to manually do this to have Shine and your iPhone sync ... but it's a great incentive to see how your activity is going. Let's talk about that activity tracking. Shine doesn't have a built-in GPS receiver, just a three-axis accelerometer. As you move about, the device tracks that information and the app then translates that into a type of motion. At this time, it recognizes walking, riding a bike, running, swimming. The company says that as they begin to recognize profiles for other types of activities -- say, skiing or karate -- they'll send out app and device updates that automatically track those activities. As it is, I'm just happy that it can also track my favorite activity -- sleeping. So how do you use Shine? Just strap it or clip it on, and go. Misfit Wearables suggests putting it on your shoe, sock or ankle if you're cycling, as it won't do too much if you're riding a bike and have it on your wrist. You use the app to set a goal, which corresponds to a certain amount of activity. For example, the review Shine is currently set at 600, equivalent to walking for one hour, running for 20 minutes, or swimming for 30 minutes. To see where you're at during the day, a double-tap on the shine displays an arc of white LEDs that give you a percent complete total. That same double-tap can display the time as well. The Shine has an "up" or twelve o'clock position that is marked on the back; if you know which way is up, then it will display LEDs that give you the approximate time. For example, at 4:12 PM local time the double-tap displayed some dimmed LEDs at the :00, :15, :30, and :45 positions, then brighter LEDs at the :15 and :20 positions to indicate that it was "around" 4:15. A triple-tap can start tracking an activity like sleep, with another triple-tap ending that tracking. All tracked activity is displayed on an intensity scale, and total results during a specific day are visible in the app in terms of points, steps, calories burned, and miles walked or run. If there's any issue I have with the Shine, it's that at this point it doesn't really work well with others. For example, the Fitbit and Nike Plus devices have quite a few services which they can work with, like RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, and our AOL company favorite, Virgin HealthMiles. Right now, there's no way to share activity data with other services nor can I share my information with friends. Conclusion The Misfit Wearables Shine is a very unique and well-designed activity tracker that should attract a following by those who are looking for a way to track fitness without a plasticky device. Its water resistance and long battery life make it a winner in the activity tracking market. Pros Very solid construction, machined from aluminum Water-resistant -- you can shower or swim with it Unobtrusive user interface that uses taps and cleverly hidden LEDs to show your percentage of total points for a day as well as the time Can be worn any number of ways, with a wristwatch-like leather strap, silicone sports strap, magnetic clasp or necklace Incredible four-month battery life, no recharging required Cons No way to share activity results with other people through social networks or share with other fitness services Magnetic clasp apparently isn't strong enough to keep the device attached to clothing in all situations, making the device quite easy to lose when the clasp is in use Who is it for? The fitness buff who wants more than just a cheesy-looking plastic band for activity tracking.
Hands-on with the Fitbit Force activity tracker
When it comes to the "connected self" activity tracker market, Fitbit has been around for what seems to be an eternity -- two years. In 2011, the company unveiled its first tracker, the Fitbit Ultra, and they've been innovating with new and more sophisticated activity trackers ever since. The latest design evolution is the Fitbit Force (US$129.95), a sleek wristband that captures activity and sleep information. The Device While the original Ultra was a tiny clip-on monitor with an OLED display, the Force is a wristband model. That wristband is made of a durable silicone material, and it is so light that the Force is really unobtrusive. Unlike a wristwatch, you can't really feel the Force on your wrist so you'll want to wear it all the time. While it's water-resistant, Fitbit recommends taking it off when you take a shower or go swimming. Like the original Ultra, there's just one button on the Force. With a push it displays the current time in your choice of formats, the number of steps you've taken so far today (along with a thermometer-like line showing your progress to your daily goal), the distance you've walked, how many calories have been burned, how many flights of stairs you've climbed, and the active time you've spent during the day. There's also an indicator for alarms, which I'll talk about later. Back in the old days with the Fitbit Ultra, I was constantly frustrated with the syncing method to move data from the device to the cloud. That old model had a tiny dock that you had to clip the Ultra onto for charging; that dock connected to your computer via USB, and any time you were near the dock the Ultra and dock synced. In reality, it didn't work that well a lot of the time. What's great is that the Fitbit Force really doesn't need that computer connection anymore, as it's perfectly happy connecting directly to your iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth LE. You can set up the device through your computer; all of the setup instructions are found on the Fitbit website and you download software that's appropriate to your device. The Mac app for the Force is also used for the Fitbit Flex, One and Zip devices. So you do need to plug in a small, easily lost USB dongle during setup, but it can be removed from your computer or hub as soon as you're done. Before doing anything, you'll need to charge up the Force. I was unhappy to find that Fitbit chose to use a proprietary charging cable, although I'm sure that there were some design constraints that led to this. Use of a standard -- like the ubiquitous micro-USB cable -- would have been nice. It also turns out that this proprietary plug can be plugged in upside-down, which I found out after unsuccessfully trying to charge the Force for four hours before turning the plug over... On the plus side, battery life seems to be stellar with the Fitbit Force. After wearing the device for eight days, it still has more than half a charge so it appears that one might be able to go for two weeks without charging. Design-wise, I like the understated look of the Force. It's a slender black (or slate) strap, not emblazoned with bright LEDs, and all in all quite futuristic-looking. The band straps onto your wrist securely with two small studs that go into holes on the strap, and it's easy to put on and take off. One feature of the Force that I love is the built-in vibration alert. With other activity trackers it's quite common to have to actually look at the screen to indicate that you're starting an activity or going to sleep. Not so with the Force -- you just push and hold the button until you feel the device vibrate, and you know it's ready to go. The same vibration feature works when stopping the timer as well. As if that's not cool enough, the Force vibrates when you reach your step goal for the day, and you can also use it with the app as a silent alarm. Fitbit notes that with an upcoming firmware update, you'll also be able to get call notifications from an iOS 7 iPhone 4S and higher smartphone. That should be very useful, providing a physical alert if your phone is nearby and you have the ringer shut off. The App The Fitbit team has obviously been quite busy behind the scenes, as the app has been updated to not only provide an iOS 7 flat design, but provide control and monitoring of the features of the Force and other monitors. The app is quite colorful, starting the day with all indicators in a teal color, but then changing the colors to yellow, red or green depending on how close you are to reaching a specific goal. Steps are tracked and converted into miles or kilometers walked. There's an indicator for how many flights of stairs you've clmbed, and a calculation of how many calories you've burned based on your base metabolism and activity. If you're tracking your weight either manually or automatically, your current weight, percent body fat, and pounds to go to reach your weight goal are displayed in the app. Sleep is tracked, and an indication of how many times you awoke or were restless is visible. Should you want to use the Fitbit app to track the number of calories you consume, you can enter each item you eat or drink into the app and get a calculation of just how many calories are still available to you. There's even a way to track the amount of water you drink each day. Fitbit is quite into the social sharing of your goals and steps, so there's a tab in the app that shows you how many steps your friends have taken during the past seven days and just where you stand in the ranking. I'm still trying to figure out how Scott McNulty manages to rack up about three times the number of steps that I do... The account screen in the app allows you to set up a new Fitbit device, set fitness goals, find out when the device last synced (it usually syncs every time you open the app), set those silent alarms I love so much, and set up social network sharing. One other thing: if you happen to be sitting at a computer, you can log into the Fitbit website and get the same information or change settings. As with the app, the website uses the teal color scheme and levels change color as you near or surpass a goal. Conclusion In the increasingly crowded activity tracker market, Fitbit has not only created a range of devices of various prices (US$60 to $130) and capabilities, but has kept pace with the competition by developing the Force. Through its sleek design, Bluetooth LE integration with iOS devices, and well-established ecosystem of data-sharing partners, this is a Force to be reckoned with. Pros Setup is straightforward and fast Firmware update will soon allow incoming call notifications from an iPhone on the device Nice design, very comfortable to wear all the time Water resistant App is iOS 7-friendly and very usable, as well as providing detailed statistics on every aspect of your fitness Built-in vibration alert enables eyes-free setting of sleep or activity modes, provides notification of goal achievement Long battery life Cons Proprietary charger cable Who is it for? Anyone who is interested in keeping track of achieving fitness goals but is tired of clip-on monitors
Moves: fitness tracking without a pedometer in your pocket
Since blogging is a rather sedentary profession, many of us at TUAW try to find another way to stay in shape. Walking and running provide a good aerobic workout, so a lot of us have picked up one of the popular fitness metrics devices to help track our daily mileage. Whether that device is a Fitbit, a Nike FuelBand or some other connected activity tracker, it's usually stuck to a belt loop or shirt so we can track every step. Features vary from brand to brand, but the core functionality is almost always a pedometer that tracks strides and extrapolates your activity level from the number of steps you take in a day. Moves (free) is a new app based on a simple premise -- why do you need a separate activity tracker gadget that you can lose, forget or damage when you already have your iPhone with you almost all the time? Moves tracks your activity simply by running in the background on your phone, using the phone's accelerometer to estimate your step count and Location Services to keep track of where you are. Of course, for iPhone owners, the words "background" and "Location Services" bring up a mental alert about the times that you've used other location-aware apps -- and watched your iPhone charge level drop like an Acme anvil from the sky. The developers at ProtoGeo Oy admit right up front that "continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life." The developers say that their goal "was to create an app that will keep your phone running fine if you charge it nightly." In actual day-to-day use, I'd say they've met their goal. I've been using the app for five days on an iPhone 5 and have never completely run out of juice prior to plugging in the device at night. It's been close, though -- and without Moves running I usually have about half of my charge left every night. With that acknowledged, and knowing that the Lightning-equipped iPhone 5 battery cases that could extend your power profile aren't quite shipping yet, does Moves actually work? Like the Fitbit and Nike FuelBand, it records your daily walking and running as well as other movement-based exercise. Like Runkeeper and similar apps, you can use Moves to track the amount of distance you cycle. Moves recognizes those different activities and displays a pulsing circle for each. Walking is measured in steps taken, while cycling and running are totaled in miles or kilometers. %Gallery-177535% That's where the similarity to a connected fitness tracker like the Fitbit ends. Since Moves shares the iPhone's awareness of where you are and where you go, it can tell how long you've spent at a specific location, show you the paths you took, and create a "storyline" of your day. The storyline is something totally unique to Moves; a timeline that is automatically constructed during the day as you move from place to place. Through integration with Foursquare, you can identify places that you go to and see how long it may have taken you to walk from one location to another. A tap on a walk or run displays a map showing the exact path you took between locations, as well as the number of steps and your average speed. One of my few gripes about Moves at this point is that it doesn't integrate with any other fitness services. For example, when I use Runkeeper to track walks, that information is immediately sent to a number of services including the Withings Health Mate app that tracks my weight and blood pressure. Once Moves starts creating those connections with other fitness apps or services, it will be much more useful. Another issue is accuracy. I was able to adjust my stride length for the Fitbit, and I know that both the step count and distances are quite accurate. If I take a look at my recorded step count for last Saturday from the Fitbit, it shows that I walked 4,839 steps and about 2.22 miles. For the same day, Moves shows that I took 4,055 steps and doesn't tally the total distance -- only how far I walked during those bursts of energy between bars and restaurants on Saturday night. I'm not sure what happened to those other 784 steps, but perhaps having the phone in my pants pocket kept the accelerometer-based step-tracking from working correctly if I didn't take a fast stride. I have to admit that I like being able to track my motion without a Fitbit, since I always have my iPhone in my pocket. My Fitbit (an original Ultra) occasionally has issues syncing with my Mac, and the older tracker model still needs a small base station plugged into a USB port to receive the sync data. Fitbit no longer sells the Ultra, and the new Fitbit One, Zip and Flex, all of which synchronize wirelessly with no additional dangly bits. I'll continue to give Moves a try, although not while I'm at Macworld/iWorld this week. I need my iPhone to have a decent amount of charge at all times, so I'll pause Moves tracking during the trip.
Withings goes after Fitbit with its pulse-reading Smart Activity Tracker (update: hands-on video)
Withings' assault on our paunchy bellies doesn't look like it's going to stop, now that the company has launched a portable sleep and activity tracker that's clearly designed to go after the Fitbit Ultra. The Smart Activity Tracker makes some impressive claims, offering pulse monitoring if you push your finger onto the back of the device, calculating calorie consumption and monitoring the quality of your sleep. The 43.3-millimeter device has an OLED touchscreen display and will instantly upload your data to the Withings Health Mate app over Bluetooth Smart, and promises to go a full fortnight without needing a recharge. The company hasn't made any statement as to when it plans to release the unit, or how much it'll cost you, but we're looking forward to putting it through its paces. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
