sleeptracking
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Hupnos sleep mask gets to work the minute you start snoring
I have a confession: I am a loud snorer, and that's bad news for my wife. As funny as this may sound, it's a real problem for many couples, to the point where they would end up sleeping in separate rooms. I'll need to start slimming down to tackle my snoring (and potentially sleep apnea) in the long run, but in terms of immediate solutions, there are breathing devices that I can wear while sleeping. I've been hesitant to try such products given the mixed feedback, but at CES, I came across the Hupnos smart sleep mask which seems like a good place to start.
Garmin's Vivoactive 3 Music brings tunes to weekend warriors
Garmin has been rolling out GPS watches with music playback for a while now, but the current options aren't what you'd call trivial expenses for non-athletes. Thankfully, it's pushing the price of entry down a bit. It's launching the Vivoactive 3 Music, which (surprise) brings Bluetooth audio and 500-song storage to last year's model. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing -- you now have a soundtrack while you monitor 15 activities and shop with Garmin Pay. The seven days of battery life in smartwatch mode (five hours with GPS) doesn't hurt, either. This is also one of the first watches to support Garmin's advanced sleep monitoring in its Connect app, which might make it worthwhile by itself.
Fisher-Price’s wearable baby monitor is an unreliable rash machine
Spoiler alert: This does not end well for Fisher-Price. For several months now I've been using the company's Sproutling wearable "baby monitor." And you'll notice that's in scarequotes, because it is definitely not a baby monitor. In fact, it's really just a sleep tracker for your child (read: half a Fitbit), and a bad one at that. Even at half the price, the Sproutling wouldn't be worth it. At the full $250 retail, it's an insult.
Dreamlight's smart eye mask is designed to help you sleep
For everyone but the journalists covering the show, CES 2018 is apparently all about catching up on, and improving the quality of, your sleep. One company focused on getting you better-rested is Dreamlight, which is building an eye-mask that, so its founder claims, will help you get some more shut-eye.
The always-cold pillow is no longer a fever dream
The cold side of the pillow is one of life's oddly satisfying phenomena. But no sooner have you felt its gratifying chill caress your cheek than it vanishes. The cold side of the pillow could be more than just a pleasant sensation for your conscious mind, though. It's pretty well known that your body dumps heat as you drift off to sleep and your core temperature follows a rough nightly cycle, much like brain activity, hormone levels, breathing patterns and so on. There are various studies that suggest you can game the system, cool yourself down and minimize those restless nights. That's the intent behind the Moona smart pillow pad: A temperature-regulating pad that keeps the cold side of the pillow cold, indefinitely.
Peter Thiel-backed bed sensor company Hello is put to sleep
In an announcement posted yesterday on Medium, Hello's founder James Proud said that his company would be shutting down. And Hello's product, the sleep monitor Sense, will be shutting down along with it.
Apple just bought a popular sleep tracker
Those rumors of Apple Watch sleep tracking just got more tangible. Apple has acquired Beddit, a company whose business revolves around a sleep monitoring device as well as companion iOS and Watch apps. The fate of Beddit's products isn't clear (we've reached out to both Apple and Beddit), but they're surviving for now -- the only difference is that you're now subject to Apple's privacy policy instead of Beddit's own. Neither side has discussed future plans, but the implications are clear.
Fitbit's new sleep-tracking feature works well (most of the time)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that getting enough quality sleep is important for your well-being. The growth in the number of devices offering sleep-tracking features in recent years shows that companies are catching on. But sleep is a difficult metric to measure and understand, and most trackers these days can tell only when you've been asleep and awake. Fitbit's latest wearable goes one step further than the competition, incorporating your heart-rate data into its algorithms to estimate what sleep state you're in. The $150 Alta HR improves on the original, with a new heart rate monitor that constantly keeps tabs on your pulse. A software update that arrives on the Fitbit app today provides deeper analysis of how you're sleeping. The new feature sounds potentially helpful, but after a few days with the new Alta, I don't know if I can trust that it's accurate. I also wish it were more consistent and easier to understand.
The Zeeq smart pillow is the Swiss Army knife of bedding
Sleep tracking has never taken off the same way activity tracking has, probably because no one wants to wear their smartwatch to bed. (That's when you should be charging it anyway.) The Zeeq from REM-Fit aims to fix that by taking the tech off of your wrist and putting it in a place that's a lot more comfortable when you're asleep: inside your pillow.
Nanit's baby monitor offers wearable-free sleep tracking
A company that's describing itself as the "Tesla of baby monitors" has produced a device that it says is the best way to watch your munchkins at night. Nanit (geddit?) stands over your baby's crib like a shower head, with a night vision camera and motion sensor aimed towards the mattress. Should it detect any noise or movement, your smartphone will get a ping, enabling you to watch the action as it unfolds. That way, parents in another room avoid the vagaries of simply listening out for signs of distress.
Jawbone's fitness trackers will track more of your fitness
"Basically, we're fixing all of the things that people hate," is how one Jawbone rep here at IFA 2015 describes this mid-lifecycle update to Jawbone's range of wrist-worn fitness trackers. When we reviewed the Up3 earlier this year, we described it as a feature-packed disappointment, since while the wearable had potential to be useful, the execution was bungled. That's why the company has spent the last few months working on a firmware upgrade that, it's hoped, will make the device much more attractive to new customers.
Pebble drops prices by $50 and adds continuous fitness tracking
If you've been thinking about getting a smartwatch but haven't been persuaded to plunk down a lot of cash, Pebble's trying to make the decision a little easier for you. The watch maker is lowering the price of its full lineup by $50, which means you can now get the sporty original model (above, right) for $100 and the fancier Steel (above, left) for $200. Usually significant price drops like these are a reaction to slowing sales, but CEO Eric Migicovsky says that on the contrary, sales are still as strong as ever and the ecosystem is growing. The company wants to offer the "right price for the product" and properly represent Pebble watches in light of the swelling competition in this category, Migicovsky said. Indeed, with the debut (and proliferation) of Android Wear this year and Apple Watch next year, Pebble wants to add cost to its list of competitive advantages alongside battery life and cross-platform functionality -- especially as the holidays approach and smartwatch choices become even tougher.
Misfit offers insight on your insomnia with the Beddit sleep monitor
Misfit tackled activity tracking with its Shine offering that looks more like a fashion accessory than a sensor. Now, the data gathering outfit is looking to wrangle sleep cycles with the Beddit sleep monitor. Claiming to be the "world's thinnest sleep sensor," the unit resides on your mattress as opposed to being tucked in between the sheets. From there, the gadget keeps an eye on heart rate, movement, snoring and ambient sound in order to gauge the quality of your slumber. Collected info is then beamed to your smartphone of choice for analysis within the Misfit app. If you're looking to quantify those Zs you catch, Beddit is available now for $150 -- half the price of Withings' Aura bedside system, but without the added sound and light show.
CES 2013: Fitbug launches the Orb, for tracking sleep and activity via iOS
Photo: Engadget Whatever you do, don't confuse the Fitbug with its similarly titled competitor, the Fitbit -- we accidentally did so at this week's CES Unveiled event, and the company's rep gave us a stern correction. In our defense, it's easy to mix the two up: They obviously sound similar, and they perform similar tasks, both tracking health and calorie consumption via a Bluetooth app. But Fitbug's new Orb unit hopes to do even more than the popular Fitbit -- not only will it track calories burned through the pedometer, but it will also measure sleep (presumably by noting when you're laying down and going inactive). The Fitbug will hook up with any iOS device, and can deliver data through a continuous stream, set data to be kicked out at certain times or follow your directions through a Push mode. The unit can be worn around the wrist, clipped on or connected to a necklace attachment. The Orb is available now from Fitbug directly, for a price of £45 (or US$73). The company has also introduced a line of Bluetooth enabled scales this week called the Fitbug Wow, that will also track your progress and share it across to a series of iPhone apps. That information can also be browsed through on the website, to mingle up with whatever data you've collected from the Orb. The scales will be out in March, and can be bought for either £70 or £100 ($114 or $163, respectively), depending on whether you buy the packaged Air activity tracker as well. Engadget has a gallery of each device here. There are already a number of solutions out there for activity tracking like this, but Fitbug is throwing its hat into the arena with a passion. We'll have to wait and see, as the year goes on, if one of these solutions can fight its way up to the top.
