Life Tracker 1
Latest
Which fitness bands are worth buying?
We spend a lot of time in front of our computers, which could be why we're so keen to track all the times we actually step away from our screens and get a little walking or running done. To that end, every manufacturer seems to be coming out with a fitness band to brandish on your wrist. But when one wearable looks like the others, and they each operate in different ecosystems, it's hard to know which will best suit your needs. We've taken a look at a few recent releases and their reviews, narrowing the field to seven of the better models out there -- plus one you should avoid.
Pivotal Living hopes you'll pay $12 a year to use its fitness tracker
Fitness trackers come a dime a dozen and worse, they all seem to do the same thing: monitor your step count, calorie burn and sleep quality. As it happens, the Life Tracker 1, the first device from a startup called Pivotal Living, does all these things, and not much more. But it's not what the product does or how it looks that has the potential to distinguish it -- it's how you pay for it. Whereas most health trackers cost somewhere around $100, and work with a free companion app, Pivotal Living is charging $12 a year for access to its Android and iOS apps. For the money, you also get the hardware, a simple plastic band with an OLED screen for showing your daily step and calorie count. Every time the company introduces a new iteration, you can renew or extend your subscription for $12 and in so doing, get the latest piece of kit. If you ever cancel, you can keep the band and continue to view your daily stats on the device; you just won't have access to the app, or any of your big-picture data.
