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How an insurance company is trying to craft eyewear of the future
I had just driven 85 miles north of San Francisco when I finally reached my destination: a bright red building with large floor-to-ceiling windows in downtown Sacramento. The structure's high ceilings and spacious interior gave a subtle reminder that it used to be a former Chevrolet dealership. But instead of Camaros and Corvettes, the space was filled with desks, project boards adorned with Post-it notes and temporary work spaces separated by flexible cardboard walls. A hanging pirate flag and a Rubik's Cube sculpture lent the office a startup vibe.
Runtastic takes on Withings with 'Moment' analog fitness watch
Runtastic may have started as a training log app, but it soon progressed to putting its badge on running watches and accessories. The Orbit was possibly the company's most confident step into the world of wearables, and today it's making another with the "proper watch" Moment activity tracker. The Moment logs all the basics you'd expect from a fitness tracker: steps, distance, time active, calories burned and sleep patterns, along with a dial on the watch face showing progress towards your goal. Like Withings' Activité and Pop devices, the Moment's analog styling extends to running on a regular watch battery, so it won't need daily/weekly charging. This means no annoying ports, too, which helps keep things nice and sealed -- waterproof to 300 feet by Runtastic's reckoning.
Sony's latest SmartBand has a heart rate monitor
Sony has revealed the SmartBand 2, a new version of its original fitness tracker that brings a much-needed heart rate monitor. That was a notable omission from the first SmartBand, a device that's mostly aimed at the sports set. In fact, the new model looks much the same as the original and keeps the same raison d'etre: it tracks your fitness levels and nearly everything else you do using the Lifelog app. While it lacks a screen, it can keep you abreast of your smartphone reminders via LED and vibration notifications.
Misfit teams up with Speedo on a fitness tracker for swimmers
Misfit's Shine activity tracker has been around for a while now, but today the company is giving the wearable new duties. The company has teamed up with Speedo for a new Shine gadget that logs the details for your workout in the water. The duo says that this is "the first device of its kind with swimmers in mind," packing in lap-counting algorithms to tally stats for all stroke types. Keeping its aluminum exterior, the waterproof Speedo Shine sports a lighter shade of silver but it'll still beam all of your lap and distance details to Misfit's Android and iOS software. In the near future, it'll also play nice with the Speedo Fit swim-tracking app. And yes, this Shine still keeps tabs on the rest of your activity and sleep patterns with a watch battery that's said to last six months.
Spain's first smartphone maker calls it quits
Geeksphone, the world's first Spanish smartphone maker, has decided to leave the phone business after nearly six years. The company has decided that, after developing six devices, that it has come to the "end of a cycle" and will stop making hardware. Instead, it'll open-source everything that it's able to for the benefit of the community and remain a viable concern to keep the lights on in its technical support division.
Fitbit tracking data comes up in another court case
When you wear Fitbit or any other fitness tracker and smartwatch, you not only monitor your physical activities, you also collect data about yourself -- data that can apparently be used against you in investigations. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania cops responded to a 911 call by a woman who claimed she was raped by a home invader. The woman told the police she woke up around midnight with the stranger on top of her, and that she lost her tracker while struggling against her assailant. However, authorities found her Fitbit, which recorded her as active, awake and walking around all night. Combined with the evidence that was missing (tracks outside in the snow from boots she said the attacker was wearing, or any sign of them inside), an investigation led to her facing misdemeanor charges.
Jawbone's Up3 fitness band hits the UK just weeks after the Up2
At long last, Jawbone's Up3 fitness tracker is available in the UK. It's been almost eight months since the health band was first announced, so we suspect many Brits have forgotten about it entirely or bought something else instead. Still, while we wait for the new Up4 -- which offers an NFC chip for American Express payments -- this is Jawbone's flagship device. The "Black Diamond" version is available now (the "Silver Cross" version will follow later this summer) for £129.99 and comes with one key hardware feature to separate it from the cheaper Up2: heart rate monitoring. As we mentioned in our review, it only tracks your resting heart rate though, which could be a non-starter for workout fanatics. So if you've already bought the Up2, which only came out in the UK a few weeks ago, fear not -- it's probably a better deal anyway, at least until the Up4 comes out.
Jawbone's Up2 fitness tracker arrives in the UK for £90
Jawbone's delayed Up3 still isn't available in the UK, but it seems the company is quite content to push ahead with its cheaper Up2 instead. The wrist-worn health tracker is available now for £89.99 in-store from Currys, PC World, John Lewis and Selfridges. You'll also be able to order it online via Jawbone and Apple's online stores, and the company says it should soon be up for pre-order on Amazon. The Up2 retains Jawbone's sleek design aesthetic, but drops some of the more advanced features found in the Up3, such as heart rate and skin temperature monitoring. While useful, those metrics aren't essential to everyone and the Up2 does everything else you would expect from a fitness tracker -- recording steps, sleep and calories burned, as well as food logging, should you want a more complete picture inside the Smart Coach app. Given we weren't too impressed with the Up3, you might be better off with the Up2 or one of its competitors anyway.
Jawbone sues Fitbit for 'plundering' product information
Jawbone is suing its archrival, Fitbit, for "systematically plundering" confidential information. According to the complaint, Fitbit recruiters attempted to poach almost one-third of Jawbone's staff. Some of those employees left the company, but not before downloading "critical trade secrets" including business plans and product details. The accusation comes right on the heels of Fitbit's decision to go public. The company, which sold 10.9 million wearable devices last year, filed for an IPO of up to $100 million earlier this month.
Basis' fitness tracker now comes in titanium, talks to other health apps
As useful as the Basis Peak may be for tracking your fitness, your data has largely been trapped so far -- you couldn't see it outside of Basis' own apps. However, you'll be glad to hear that things are loosening up. An app update rolling out to the Peak today will share the wristwear's activity data with either Apple's Health app or Google Fit, so you get a more complete picture of your health. If you only strap on your Peak when you're running, for instance, you can still merge its info with the walking data your phone collects. It'll also open a "Playground" for testing app features (such as an activity map and a Photo Finish selfie recorder) before they're available to everyone elseShould that not be enough, there's a firmware update coming on May 20th that will add a stopwatch and improve heart rate monitoring.
Zepp upgrades its tennis game with a beefed-up app
Just in time for the French Open, sports-tracking firm Zepp is launching a big update to its tennis app. The simply named Tennis 2.0 app works with the company's multisport sensor -- a bright, little widget that attaches to golf clubs, baseball bats and tennis rackets. We've taken a few swings with the sensor in batting cages and on tennis courts in the past, and while we praised its ease of use and the fact that it worked with most any bat/racket, we thought the accompanying tennis app lacked the depth of competing options like Babolat's Play series or Sony's Smart Tennis Sensor. Now, Zepp's significantly beefed-up app looks to address many of those concerns.
Jawbone and AmEx want you to pay for stuff with your fitness band
If you're looking to get a little more mileage out of that fitness tracker, Jawbone and American Express are about to lend a hand. The duo is teaming up to bring a payment feature to the former company's line of gadgets. Of course, Apple's new wearable sorts payments too, and now a similar function will be on an upcoming Jawbone device. This means that the Up3 that's set to ship next week won't help you pay for a burrito, and neither will it's predecessors. Instead, the collaboration with AmEx will arrive on wearable that we've yet to hear about, so it's unclear if it'll be another band or a smartwatch. If your go-to credit or debit card is Visa or MasterCard, there's no indication if Jawbone's mystery tech will handle payments from those either. However, when it does arrive, it'll wrangle those payments via NFC -- just like the Apple Watch.
Jawbone's Up3 finally ships on April 20th, but don't take it swimming
November 2014 almost seems like a lifetime ago and folks who've been itching for a Jawbone Up3 since it was announced that month would probably agree. There's good news, though: the wearable finally starts shipping come April 20th. So long as you're one of the folks who pre-ordered from the company website, that is. Jawbone vice president Travis Bogard says that the reason behind the Up3's delay has to do with its water resistance. Apparently, not every single unit met the 10-meter claims Jawbone promised and that didn't come out until ramping up production. Now they're "comparable to, and in line with" other sensors. All that to say, you can't swim while you're wearing one but it should be okay if you take it in the shower or are caught in an April rainstorm. If that lets the wind out of your sails, Bogard says that you can cancel your pre-order without penalty.
Fitbit's Surge fitness watch will soon track your bike rides
The Fitbit Surge is now useful for tracking more than just your running when you're outside. An April update to the GPS fitness watch will let it track outdoor bike runs, so you'll know if you beat your previous best time or got your heart thumping on that uphill route. On the mobile app, you'll also have a history that shows whether or not that last ride was as intense as you thought it was. And Surge cycling isn't the only big Fitbit update in the works -- you can finally link multiple trackers to a Fitbit account as of this week, so you don't have to wear your exercise gear to the office just to maintain an accurate step count.
Microsoft Band arrives in more US stores and the UK
You no longer have to head to a Microsoft Store in the US to put the Band on your wrist. Microsoft's smart wearable is now available through Amazon, Best Buy and Target in the country at the usual $200 asking price, and it'll go on sale in the UK on April 15th for £170. Fitness-minded Brits can pre-order today, with Amazon, Curry's PC World, Dixons Travel, Harrods and O2 all promising to carry stock. And you won't have to rush quite so quickly to get a Band this time around -- the crew in Redmond is planning both more frequent shipments and larger supplies in each batch, so shortages won't be as common.
Withings' Activité fitness watches now talk to your Android phone
If you've been aching to try Withings' Activité fitness watches but couldn't because you don't carry an iPhone, you can relax. The company has announced that both the original Activité and the Pop will support Android as of March 2nd. While the Health Mate app will largely go unchanged, you'll be glad to hear that Withings' data will plug into Google Fit so that you can easily share it between devices. Given that the Pop hasn't reached US stores yet, this is good timing -- you can pick up the new wristwear knowing that it will likely work with your handset of choice. Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.
Withings Activité activity trackers are beautiful, but limited
Forget notifications, forget apps, forget all of the noisy little distractions masquerading as help -- sometimes a wearable is at its best when it stays out of your way. As it turns out, that's just what French hardware house Withings had in mind when it built the Activité ($450) and Activité Pop ($150). In addition to that, though, these fitness bands have something perhaps even more important going for them: With their round faces and classic dials, they don't actually look like activity trackers. Indeed, they're not quite traditional fitness devices, nor are they full-on smartwatches, and I sort of love them for it. Just know that one of them probably isn't for you.
Just 720,000 Android Wear smartwatches shipped last year
Wondering how well Android Wear managed in its first months on the market? Merely so-so, if you ask Canalys. The analyst group estimates that 720,000 Google-powered smartwatches shipped in 2014. That's not terrible for a young platform where many devices didn't even hit stores until the fall, but it's a drop in the bucket versus a total of 4.6 million total wearable bands. As Canalys explains to the Wall Street Journal, the current Android Wear crop is too rough around the edges to be a smash hit. The battery life isn't usually that hot (rarely more than a day), and there aren't enough apps to make the wristwear particularly useful.
Study says phones are just as good as wearables at tracking fitness
Think you have to wear a dedicated fitness tracker to get accurate data? Don't worry -- you may have a good excuse to skip the wristband. The University of Pennsylvania has published a study showing that smartphone apps' step counts are reasonably on the mark, at less than a 7 percent variance between their data and what observers saw first-hand. With wearables, it's all over the map. Some are very accurate, like Fitbit's One and Zip; others don't give you much of an advantage over a phone, and Nike's Fuelband was sometimes off by a wide margin.
Healbe GoBe review: Can a fitness band really track your calorie intake?
In 2015, a simple activity-tracking wearable just doesn't cut it. Unless, perhaps, it's cool-looking, or dirt cheap. Being able to keep tabs on how active you've been (or not) is certainly helpful; the problem is it's only one part of the picture. A fitness tracker might know I hustled my way through a 5K run this morning, but it doesn't know about the waffle-mania breakfast I enjoyed straight after. Some products work around this by letting you log your food intake. I'm prone to "forgetting" to log my meals, though, including the guilty, post-run carb-fest breakfasts. The dream fitness wearable, then, would be one that tracks your activity, auto-logs your sleep and knows what you've eaten without you telling it. Enter GoBe, by Healbe, a $300 wearable that promises to do exactly that.
