AllThingsD » fitness

If You Throw This Fitbit in the Washing Machine, It's Really Your Fault This Time

Lauren Goode — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:36 +0000

If you love your clip-on Fitbit fitness tracker but frequently put it through the wash cycle, or it seems to jump off your clothes like a flea, your gadget prayers may be answered.

Fitbit today began shipping the Flex, which packs all of that health-and-activity-tracking goodness into — you guessed it — a wristband. The San Francisco-based company first showed off the product at International CES earlier this year, adding to the growing list of wearable “smart” devices that aim to track all kinds of personal data from your wrist.

The Fitbit Flex measures your steps and your sleep, syncs with your other favorite fitness apps … okay, okay. Here’s what you really want to know: How is this different from other activity wristbands on the market, like the Jawbone Up and the Nike+ FuelBand?

First, at $99.95, it’s less expensive than the $130 Jawbone Up and the $150 Nike+ FuelBand. The Flex is also launching with both Android and iOS compatibility, while the FuelBand still works with iPhone only. (Jawbone just released an Android version of Up, about a year and a half after the iOS-friendly product first launched.)

The Flex uses low-energy Bluetooth to sync your data to a mobile app or Fitbit Web dashboard throughout the day, unlike the Jawbone Up, which must be manually plugged into the audio jack of your iPhone. The FuelBand also uses Bluetooth, but you have to press a button on the wristband to pair the two devices and sync your activity data. If you have a newer Android phone, you can also ~~sync your data~~ open the Fitbit app by tapping the Flex against your phone, because the Flex has an NFC chip.

Lastly, Fitbit claims that its clip-on tracker, the One, is the most accurate device of this wearable-fitness bunch when it comes to calculating how many steps you’ve taken, and the company says the Flex is just as reliable. Its competitors, of course, can be calibrated to improve their accuracy in certain areas, although the FuelBand uses a pretty arbitrary currency called “fuel” to measure your overall exertion levels.

In a nutshell, these are some of the features that Fitbit hopes will set this product apart. Keep in mind that this whole personal data-tracking category of tech devices is still pretty new; these companies and others are exploring how to make wearables even more sensor-laden and more precise.

And, fitness bands are good for getting your butt off the couch, but they won’t do the exercise for you. As Billy Joel once sang, you get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.

Jawbone Acquires BodyMedia for More Than $100 Million, as Wearable Tech Gets More Intense

Lauren Goode — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:00:45 +0000

Looking to gain even more traction in the wearable health and fitness market, Jawbone is snapping up another health product company.

The Bay Area-based private company has acquired BodyMedia, Inc., a 14-year-old Pittsburgh-based company that makes health-monitoring armbands.

The move comes just a couple months after Jawbone, which makes the wearable Up fitness band in addition to popular audio devices, acquired data and digital-design companies Massive Health and Visere.

Jawbone acquired BodyMedia for more than $100 million, according to people familiar with the deal, although both companies declined to give more specifics about the financials of the deal.

So what’s the appeal of BodyMedia for Jawbone? Unlike the Massive Health and Visere buys, which were mainly for talent acquisition, BodyMedia’s value lies in both the team and the company’s patents. BodyMedia has had more than 80 patents issued over the years, many in the area of multi-sensor technology. As a combined entity, BodyMedia and Jawbone will have over 300 patents issued and filed.

While the $130 Jawbone Up wristband does many things — it tracks activity levels and sleep patterns, and works with a compatible mobile app for Android and iOS to log food consumption — it lacks some of the high-tech sensors that BodyMedia’s products have.

“I think the first phase of this market has been about accelerometers and what those can do,” Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said in an interview. “Now it’s about getting even more granular, and also, how we can get all that tech into an efficient form factor.”

To that point, BodyMedia’s armbands, which will continue to be sold for the time being, contain four different types of sensors, which measure your skin temperature, heat flux, galvanic skin response (GSR) and overall movement.

But compared with the wristband form factor of the Jawbone Up, the BodyMedia bands are bigger, bulkier products. Earlier this year, BodyMedia introduced a slimmed-down version of its health-tracking band, called the Core 2, to compete in the growing category of barely noticeable, 24/7 wearable fitness devices.

So can we expect to see a Jawbone wristband with GSR sensors anytime soon? “We’re working on lots of things,” was all Rahman would say, adding, “We’re exploring where we would see sensors working, and how we can put more and more on top of the body.”

The BodyMedia team will stay in Pittsburgh and will remain intact, both companies say. BodyMedia’s Chris Robins will no longer serve as CEO of the company, and will instead become the general manager of BodyMedia and a vice president of business development at Jawbone.

Jawbone also said today that it’s opening up its Up mobile software to ten different fitness-app makers, including RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, LoseIt, Withings, Sleepio and IFTTT (for workout prompts). Jawbone Up users with iOS devices will now be able to share data to and from these partner apps with the Up app.

Three Running Apps to Shake Up Your Routine

Lauren Goode — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:00:29 +0000

Last week, I put my iTunes on steroids, recruited a horde of virtual zombies to chase me, and found six different ways to run through Central Park.

Welcome to the new world of running apps. While smartphone-toting runners have long used apps like Nike+ and RunKeeper, which track your runs using GPS and offer training plans, three different apps have recently helped me get out of a running rut.

The first app is a new one called Cruise Control, which adjusts the tempo of the songs in your iTunes library to help you speed up the pace. The second app I’ve been using is called Zombies, Run! It intermittently puts the sounds of snarling zombies into your ear to make you run faster. And lastly, there’s WalkJogRun, which helps you find creative running routes in your local neighborhood, shared by other users.

All of these apps are relatively pricey, ranging from $3 to $5 each. And the only one currently available on both iPhone and Android is Zombies, Run! The other two are iPhone-only. And, since they all use your smartphone’s built-in GPS, they all are geared toward running outdoors, especially WalkJogRun.

[ See post to watch video ]

But despite being forced out into the cold, I’ve enjoyed using these apps and can recommend them if you’re looking to shake up your routine. My top pick of the three was Cruise Control, probably because I rely a lot on music to keep me motivated while running.

Cruise Control costs $4.99, and works sort of the same way cruise control in your car works: If you’re going too slow, Cruise Control will adjust the tempo of your music to help you speed up; if you’re running too fast, the app tries to slow you down.

It does this using an algorithm that speeds up your music without altering the pitch, so that a sped-up song doesn’t sound like the Chipmunks and a dragged-out song doesn’t make the artist sound sleepy or drunk.

There are four modes in Cruise Control: Free Run, Pace, Heart Rate and Cadence. Free Run mode detects and keeps track of your cadence. Pace mode allows you to set a target pace — let’s say sub-nine-minute miles — and creates a playlist that will get you there, adjusting the tempo of songs along the way. The Cadence mode acts as a kind of metronome, prescribing you a cadence to try to maintain.

The Heart Rate mode requires an iPhone-compatible heart-rate monitor to work properly. I didn’t have a heart-rate monitor for testing Heart Rate mode, so I mostly used Free Run and Pace modes.

For me, Cruise Control worked: When my music tracks suddenly sped up, I found myself running faster to keep pace. It was like having a personal deejay in my ear (minus, you know, the whole club atmosphere). If I didn’t like a song, I could tap a thumbs-down sign at the bottom of the app to quickly remove it from my Cruise Control playlist.

But Cruise Control does have one pretty big drawback: The app only plays songs that are between 70 and 90, or 140 and 180 beats per minute, and only about a hundred songs out of 700 in my iTunes library met those requirements. The creator of Cruise Control told me that, for most users, only 10 to 20 percent of their song libraries will be played through Cruise Control.

Next was Zombies, Run!. There are a couple versions of this app, but the one I downloaded is the more expensive version, listed for $3.99 in iTunes. The app is also available on Android.

Zombies, Run! is fun. It made me feel as though I was the last woman standing in a bad zombie flick — “The Running Dead”? — although I was in Central Park, not a post-apocalyptic suburb of London, and the “zombies” 20 meters ahead of me were mostly other humans in cold-weather running gear.

The app’s story kicks off by dropping you from a helicopter into a town called Abel Township. The communications operator is a man named Sam with a thick British accent, who often sounds alarmed. Sam guides you through the different “missions” of the app, introducing new characters and warning you of zombies up ahead. All of this is taking place in your ears, without any crazy graphics or animation happening in the app, so you can keep your eyes on the road.

Missions can last 30 minutes or one hour. The app basically “gamifies” the act of running — along the way, you collect virtual supplies, like batteries, mobile phones and even sports bras, which allow you to grow your base in the township.

You might think running to non-stop helicopter drones and zombie growls would get old after a while. Fortunately, Zombies, Run! thought of that, and the app patches in music from your smartphone’s music library. So, after the helicopter “dropped me off” during the first mission, a Beastie Boys song from my workout playlist came on, like a commercial break.

After using the app a few times, I had only made my way partially through two of 23 missions. But I would keep using Zombies, Run! to add some adventure to my routine. Runners looking for less adventure and more of a training guide might want to try the 5K version of Zombies, Run!, which costs $1.99.

The last app I tried is called WalkJogRun. This iPhone-only app costs $4.99.

Using the smartphone’s GPS, WalkJogRun finds new routes in your vicinity, pulling from its crowd-sourced database of over 1.5 million routes. The routes are categorized by length, so, if I was aiming for a three-mile run, I would select from that group. (Some runs in my neighborhood exceeded 45 miles. I didn’t attempt those.)

Other runners can also leave notes and tips on their shared routes, indicating if a path by the Hudson River is particularly windy, or if a route is a good alternative to the one the New York City marathon runners use.

WalkJogRun helped me discover a new route in my neighborhood that had me sightseeing (and dodging crowds) along Broadway. It also brought me back to another route I haven’t run in years.

However, WalkJogRun is pretty similar to another mapping app called Map My Run, which is free. And I didn’t have enough time to rate this app’s long-term training plans to see how they compared to the plans offered in the RunKeeper app I’ve used on and off for awhile. Lastly, you can’t control your iTunes music through WalkJogRun.

If music is a must-have while you run, Cruise Control might be worth a download. Zombies, Run! is good for those who need to inject a little fun into those long runs. These apps aren’t cheap, but for a few bucks, one of them might just light a fire under your feet.

Update: A previous version of this article said Cruise Control costs $5.49. The app costs $4.99.

Exercising With Friends in a Webcam Fitness Class

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:03:34 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Saturday morning, I joined three friends for a Circuit Training workout class. The odd part was that none of them left their homes and we live thousands of miles away from one another—in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, North Carolina and Louisiana. Our trainer was in California.

[ See post to watch video ]

For the past week, I’ve been working out using Wello, a website that lets people turn on their computer webcams to take one-on-one, trainer-led exercise classes. Tuesday, Wello launched Group Workouts, which involve up to five participants plus a trainer. They cost as little as $10 an hour versus solo sessions that start at $35 for an hour. This week, all users get their first group class free. I tested three hour-long group classes ($15 each), as well as a 30-minute solo class ($29) to get a handle on how the site works.

The thought of seeing friends during workouts and not having to leave home motivated me to use Wello. I could imagine using it as a way to stay in touch with people who live far away, sort of like an activity-based Skype. And unlike using a stale workout DVD, Wello’s live trainers watched each move I made and offered feedback. A pregnant friend in my class even got specific modifications for her condition. (Before using Wello, users are encouraged to fill out a health form. This lets people notify trainers of injuries or specific conditions like pregnancy.)

The default view for a Wello class puts the trainer in the largest screen and class participants in smaller ones.

A page for a class combining kickboxing and high-intensity interval training.

But the Wello class is only as good as the technology it uses, and two of my classes experienced technical difficulties. In one class, the trainer froze half a dozen times, wasting about 10 minutes refreshing his set-up. (A Wello co-founder, Leslie Silverglide, explained that this trainer’s computer met only the minimum level processor accepted by Wello.) During the same workout, a friend could hear us but couldn’t see us for about 15 minutes. (It turned out she had two browser windows opened, with one showing us while the other hid us.) Another friend who was using the Internet Explorer browser could only be seen. (Wello asks users to read instructions beforehand, including a recommendation to use the Google Chrome browser.)

Despite some glitches, Wello is a solid product that I’ll certainly use again. I liked taking classes without signing up for an expensive yearlong gym membership. And it was easy to sort through the trainers on the site to find one who fit my needs.

Of the over 1,000 trainers who have applied to work for Wello, about 200 have been vetted and trained to work in the system as video trainers. Wello looks at experience, specialties, certifications, education, references and other qualifications, and then sorts trainers into three tiers by overall experience, certifications and experience on Wello.

All of the trainers I used fell into the “Tier 2″ category. Three were categorized as “fun and friendly” trainers, two fell into the “focused on form” category and one was labeled as an “all business” trainer. A “Celebrity Trainer” category is also available; this means trainers are well-known fitness experts and have experience training celebrities.

You can sort classes by skill level (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and by trainer specialty (like brides-to-be, postnatal, exercise novices or elite athletes). You can also enter a goal to search for a class, such as “get stronger, lose weight or get Zen.”

Wello’s Ms. Silverglide says the company doesn’t mind if two or more people share a webcam for a class as long as they notify the trainer ahead of time. But this isn’t encouraged as it’s harder for the trainer to see two people at once and to give feedback. I tested this by dragging my husband into a Core Conditioning class. It worked, though we were a little squeezed in some exercises and our trainer couldn’t always see us clearly when she tried to check our form.

Like an aerobics class at the gym, Wello’s Group Workouts could be filled with strangers, as was the case for two of my classes, though I didn’t mind. If only two people sign up for a group class, the class will be canceled 12 hours beforehand. Twenty-four hours before the class, Wello will send an email, encouraging you to invite friends; it will put the class on its home page and will send out targeted emails to Wello users to get others to sign up. Wello offers discounted one-on-one workouts to make up for cancellations. Users can always buy pre-paid bundles that cost less than pay-as-you-go workouts.

To check if your system will work with Wello, the site offers a quick diagnostic test to check your computer’s processor and Internet connection; on some of my computers I had to download a small plugin file before getting started.

After users sign into the Wello website, a handy dashboard displays their upcoming and past workouts. If users opt to “follow” favorite trainers, they’ll see a stream of activity from those trainers on the right-hand side of this dashboard screen.

Wello’s screen layout was a bit squeezed on my 13-inch laptop, but looked better on two larger iMac screens. The default layout puts the trainer in the largest viewing screen, making you and other class participants smaller. I wished I could see the trainer in full-screen view; Wello’s Ms. Silverglide said this option is something that may be incorporated in the next month. The company also is working on an iPad app.

In one of my group classes, called Morning Meditation Flow, the trainer played music, which set the tone and gave the class an added ambiance. Wello has been experimenting with music and hopes to integrate it into the video platform; for now, trainers can play music on their phones.

When classes went smoothly, the setup worked well. When they didn’t, my classmates and I wanted a way to use text chatting to talk to the trainer—or the ability to raise a virtual hand.

For people who hesitate to exercise, Wello wipes out their excuses by helping them work out with friends and trainers who they like. Just be sure you have ibuprofen on hand for aching muscles; these classes are addicting.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

Jawbone "Acqhires" Data and Digital Design Firms Massive Health, Visere

Lauren Goode — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:10:26 +0000

Jawbone, maker of trendy audio devices and, more recently, a wearable fitness band, has acquired two companies focused on digital design and data analysis for an undisclosed amount.

One of the companies, Massive Health, is the maker of an iPhone app called The Eatery that encourages users to snap photos of food, not for “Top Chef” bragging rights but for health and weight awareness. Massive Health was founded in San Francisco in 2010 by former Firefox creative lead Aza Raskin.

The other is Portland, Oregon-based Visere, which created Unstuck, a “life coach” wrapped up in a mobile app.

The news was previously reported by GigaOm.

The acquisition, I’m told, is mainly about bringing in more talent to Jawbone, as the company focuses efforts on its Jawbone Up wristband and possible future health and fitness products. Bringing Visere and Massive Health into the fold will add an additional 20 to 25 employees to Jawbone’s 300-plus staff.

More importantly, Jawbone can bolster some of the software components and data analysis that are so critical to the success of the Jawbone Up.

The Jawbone Up, a wearable activity-and-sleep wristband that works in conjunction with an iPhone app, first hit the market in 2011, but stumbled due to technical glitches with the band. The company re-launched the device just a couple months ago, after months of testing a new band, and early reviews of the new Up have deemed it a working product. (My own experience with the new Up has been a positive one.)

But one of the key elements of the wristband isn’t the hardware — it’s the mobile app, which presents your personal data in bar charts and cloud graphs, lets you log your food intake and workout activities and even creates a kind of mini social network in which your friends become your Up team.

That’s where the applications and data analysis from Massive Health and Visere will come in, as Jawbone looks to set itself apart from the other activity trackers out there.

Nike makes a wristband. BodyMedia makes an armband. FitBit, maker of a clip-on activity tracker, is coming out with a wristband. Lark makes an activity wristband and a sleep-tracking band.

In other words, the competition is steep — and there still isn’t overwhelming evidence that the market is huge for these products. As Forrester analyst Sarah Rotmann Epps noted recently, only a small percentage of U.S. adults, or about eight million consumers, fit a target profile predictive of buying a fitness wearable. “A growing number of products are vying for a relatively limited pool of customers,” the report pointed out.

Moves App Journals Physical Activity Without a Wristband

Liz Gannes — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:00:02 +0000

Moves launches today as a free iPhone app available worldwide to help people track their physical activity and keep a daily journal of it.

The main Moves interface is a neat-looking personal daily timeline, with proportional representation of time spent walking, running, biking, and in transit, in a vertical display that links together all the locations visited within 24 hours.

The app uses adaptive techniques to minimize battery drain by drawing cell-tower data most of the time, and then activating GPS when the accelerometer moves in a recognized way.

It’s made by a Helsinki-based company called ProtoGeo that is led by designer Sampo Karjalainen, a founder of kids’ virtual world Habbo Hotel.

Karjalainen thinks Moves can be a viable alternative to the Fitbit, Nike FuelBand and Jawbone Up, because it doesn’t require people to buy an additional device and keep it charged.

And besides, wristband-based sensors are not terribly sophisticated, anyway — many people find that they only approximate a measure of their physical activity, and they do a terrible job of tracking cycling, since it’s a stiff-wristed sport.

I was particularly interested in the app because I think it’s an example of passively harvesting personal data for the user’s benefit.

So the two big questions are 1) Is Moves accurate? And 2) Will it kill my phone battery?

This isn’t a product review, but I’d say that in two weeks of using the app my answers would be 1) It’s pretty accurate, but not as accurate as constant GPS tracking. And 2) It will have an impact on your battery, but not as bad as constant GPS tracking.

You may still want to use an additional app like Endomondo or RunKeeper to track workouts. I found that Moves was particularly bad at counting my mileage on the treadmill at the gym.

Karjalainen told me that Moves users can hold their phones normally — in their pocket or bag is fine — and the service has learned patterns of movement that correspond to various activities.

His goal is for Moves to be an everyday, mainstream tool to make people more conscious of their physical activity. It’s all about low-effort record-keeping. For instance, a future feature that Karjalainen mentioned would be interspersing photos from the day throughout the timeline.

But there is nothing if not competition in this space. Passive tracking seems likely to be a future feature of Google’s Google Now Android personal assistant app, which quietly launched a monthly activity summary of walking and biking.

I’d previously experimented with using Alohar Mobile’s Placeme app to passively track all the locations I visited on a daily basis, but Moves’ timeline interface seems more interesting and informative than a map of everywhere I’ve been (plus, Moves has a map view, too).

ProtoGeo has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Lifeline Ventures and PROfounders.

In Activity-Tracking Race, Larklife Band Comes Up Short

Lauren Goode — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:00:26 +0000

A friend recently said something to me that stuck: You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

That’s the basic premise behind all of these new activity trackers you might be hearing about. And I’ve tested quite a few of them throughout the past year.

I didn’t love the Nike+ Fuelband, primarily because I thought its arbitrary currency system, “fuel,” was not an ideal way to measure exertion. And I left the Fitbit clipped to sports bras too often, which meant the thing ended up sitting in my laundry pile.

[ See post to watch video ]

I do like the Jawbone Up, however, for both its physical form factor and its app. In general, I’m very intrigued by this new category in tech, and I think there could be real value in it for consumers.

Now there’s another entrant into the market: Larklife, from Lark. Last year, the Bay Area-based startup came out with a wearable sleep tracker and vibrating alarm clock. It’s newest product is a $149 wristband that measures both daytime and nighttime activity.

Initially, you would think Larklife works just like all of the other bands. It measures steps. It measures sleep. It connects via Bluetooth to an iOS app that catalogs your progress and offers suggestions for leading a more healthful lifestyle.

But Larklife didn’t make me feel like I was measuring or managing anything very well. It actually made me feel sort of dumb, or that I must be doing something wrong if I couldn’t “get” how this activity band was supposed to work. The band itself was clunky. And there are two of them: One for day and one for nighttime wearing.

The Larklife day band is a rubbery rectangular wristband. It’s skinny on the bottom and fatter on the top and sides, reminding me more of a bangle bracelet or, worse, a house-arrest anklet, than the latest wave of slim activity-tracking bands. Currently it only comes in bright blue. More than a few people noticed it on my wrist this week.

The Larklife’s activity-tracking tech — an accelerometer — is nested in a chunk of the band that’s removable. In order to charge the band, you must remove this portion and plug a proprietary charging wire into the band.

This same small chunk of the band is what you’re supposed to snap into the nighttime Larklife, a more comfortable cloth band, for sleep monitoring. So, to be clear, you don’t really need the second Larklife band, because you can just wear the rubbery one to bed, but it’s a more comfortable option for sleep.

There’s a strip of small blue lights on the band, along with a skinny button that you use to sync the Larklife with its free companion app.

Larklife syncs with the app using low-energy Bluetooth. You could, theoretically, just activate Bluetooth on your iPhone whenever you want to sync your data, but Larklife is really supposed to be talking to the app throughout the day, which means leaving Bluetooth turned on all the time.

I tested Larklife during CES in Las Vegas last week, while I was out and about and often not near a power outlet, and some days I didn’t want to risk draining my iPhone’s battery even the slightest bit by leaving Bluetooth on. I much prefer the Jawbone Up method of syncing, which requires that you physically plug the band into your iPhone’s audio jack a few times a day. This is not only low-maintenance, but satisfying, because you’re very aware of when you’re uploading fresh data.

With these activity-tracking bands, the software component is just as important as the hardware. Larklife takes a different approach from others by focusing on simplicity and positive encouragement. Days are displayed as big circles, with a spattering of activity points and achievements within each circle.

After a few days of using the Larklife band, I was getting notifications from the app like, “It’s 4:00 pm. If you’re feeling sluggish, have a glass of water or a piece of fruit.” The app would cheer me on if I hit a milestone of 10,000 steps in a day.

And Larklife is supposed to automatically recognizes when your activity gets more intense, so it would know when I was running a few miles on the treadmill instead of walking around a convention center. I would check the app and see a “running man” figure that marked my activity in that day’s bubble, or a star for my step milestone.

But the app’s food tracking is incredibly limited compared with other apps. Fitbit lets you set weight goals, track food items and measure calories consumed. Jawbone Up also offers caloric estimates for logged foods, and has a cool cloud graph that made me painfully aware of how much coffee and sugar I’ve been consuming.

Larklife’s app doesn’t come with a data set for calories. After I would manually log that I was having a meal, I could edit that meal name to say “Caesar salad,” for example, and then I could select from the food categories: Protein, Vegetable, Fruit, Grain and Water. That’s it.

Lark says it’s really focused on getting people to live a more healthy lifestyle in general, without making things too complicated. So, even if a Larklife user simply starts to realize that he or she isn’t entering in vegetables often enough, that’s one step in the right direction, Lark says. But if I’m going to log my food, I want more specific data.

Lastly, I couldn’t figure out how to track my sleep with the Larklife band. As it turns out, you’re supposed to go into the app, tap the “plus” icon, select sleep, set your alarm and then, while the band is synced to your iPhone, press the skinny button on the band until the app tells you the syncing has been a success. Either I didn’t set this correctly or inadvertently pressed the button again in my sleep, because I could never get a solid reading on my sleep data.

In terms of battery life, Larklife says that each band should last around two full days. I actually got more use out of mine. I charged it fully on Monday of last week, and the battery died early Thursday. But I also wasn’t constantly connecting the band to my iPhone via Bluetooth.

In the activity-tracking race, Lark puts in good effort but doesn’t quite measure up to the competition.

2013: Talk Gets Cheaper, TV Gets Smarter

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 02:32:01 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Personal technology never stops changing. Some new products and services are game changers, like Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Others are clever twists or refinements, like each successive version of Google’s Android platform, which gets better and better. Others are bold gambles, like Microsoft’s new Windows 8, which hopes to combine both a tablet experience and a traditional PC environment in one operating system. But there’s always something new, from large companies and small ones.

So here are a few things consumers will likely see in technology in 2013. Many of these began to take shape in the past year, but will be stronger trends in the new year.

Tablets vs. PCs

While the iPad line, including the new Mini, continues to dominate the tablet market, Android-based tablets are finally gaining traction. But the bigger story is that tablets will continue to erode the role of laptop PCs.

Consumers are using tablets for more and more tasks formerly performed by laptops. Traditional computers aren’t going away—they still do certain tasks, like heavy content creation, better than tablets. But consumers seem, at the very least, to be replacing their laptops less often and spending discretionary funds on tablets, which are gradually replacing another device: the dedicated e-reader. Many analysts had expected Windows 8 to halt or reverse this trend, and it may yet do so. But early indications aren’t encouraging for that outcome.

Integrating Hardware and Software

Meanwhile, another big trend is emerging: Apple’s model of one company making the entire device—hardware, operating system, core apps and an online ecosystem—is beginning to take hold elsewhere. In October, Microsoft unveiled its first computer, the Surface tablet. The company will follow it up as soon as this month with a second, more powerful version. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft also made its own smartphone this year.

Google is also moving in Apple’s direction. It now sells three devices—a smartphone and two tablets—under its Nexus brand. These products are built by partner companies, but designed by Google. Now that Google owns its own hardware company, Motorola Mobility, I expect it to get deeper into the integrated model. Motorola, freshly stocked with former Google executives, is reported to be building advanced new hardware devices tightly integrated with Android.

What to Watch: In addition to its Apple TV interface, left, Apple is expected to try to further simplify television viewing.

Rethinking Television

Samsung and others already make TVs that can connect to the Internet, and stream Internet video and run tablet-type apps, without any special set-top box. But I find them clumsy, and their “smart TV” functions haven’t taken off with consumers yet. This may be the year they do.

The biggest expectation is that Apple, which has been working hard on the problem, will finally unveil its long-rumored TV this year, with the goal of greatly simplifying the TV and smoothly melding Internet and cable content. Many, including me, thought it might appear in 2012, but the company reportedly ran into difficulties in negotiating with media companies for content rights. Meanwhile, Apple’s tiny, $99 Apple TV box, while still a relatively small seller, is gaining popularity, partly because the company has built into its laptops, tablets and phones a feature called AirPlay which can use an Apple TV box to wirelessly stream audio and video to a TV.

Republic Wireless offers the Defy XT with a $19 unlimited plan.

Cheaper Smartphones and Plans

Smartphones are everywhere in the developed world, but most are still expensive—around $200 after a carrier subsidy that requires a two-year contract. And the monthly service fees can easily approach or exceed $100, especially if you use a lot of data, which is the very essence of a smartphone’s purpose.

There are already some smartphones, usually older, less capable or less popular models, available for $99 or $49 or even free with a contract. But I expect to see better smartphones at lower prices in 2013, especially those running the dominant Android platform, and the handsome, but low-selling Windows Phone platform from Microsoft.

In addition, some companies are beginning to offer really cheap monthly plans. One example: Republic Wireless, which offers unlimited voice, text and data for $19 a month on a small, Android phone, the Motorola Defy XT, using older software that has been modified to make voice calls where possible over Wi-Fi instead of a costlier carrier network.

The $700 Astell & Kern AK100 plays much higher fidelity digital music.

Costlier, Better Music Players

Audiophiles and recording artists have never much liked the compressed music files that now fill every iPod and smartphone. They complain that the richness of the original recording is lost because the song files are optimized for minimum space and download time, and because they are often made from CDs, not from the master studio tapes.

So in 2013, there will be a push to sell a new kind of portable music player that can handle high quality music. The Korean electronics company, iRiver, has introduced the Astell & Kern AK100, a $700 player that can play much higher fidelity digital music. The legendary rocker Neil Young is backing a second venture, Pono, which is doing something similar. In addition to the price, there’s another downside: The files can be 10 to 20 times as large as standard digital songs, so many fewer tracks fit in a given amount of memory.

The Basis, part of the crop of new wristband monitors, measures resting heart rate.

Fitness and Health Monitors

In 2012, sensor-packed wristbands like the Nike+ FuelBand and the Jawbone Up were introduced to measure how many steps people take in a day, how well they sleep, and other indicators of health and fitness. I expect this trend to continue in 2013, in different forms and with more sophisticated sensors. One new product, the Basis, is a watch with sensors on the back that measures resting heart rate. All of these devices tie into mobile apps or Web-based dashboards to track progress and offer advice.

Internet-Controlled Everything

Another trend I expect to see in 2013 is an expansion of apps and devices that let people wirelessly control many everyday objects, from light bulbs to appliances, using low-powered networks and smartphones or tablets. And we’ll likely see more smart devices with such intelligence built in, similar to the Nest intelligent thermostat, which is Wi-Fi powered.

These are just a few of the trends likely to mark the consumer tech landscape in 2013. Others will also be prominent, most notably the continued reliance on the cloud, or remote servers, to store content and work collaboratively. One thing is sure: There are certain to be developments that will surprise us all, and can’t be forecast here.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

New Exercise App Turns Wherever You Are Into an Obstacle Course

Ina Fried — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:53:42 +0000

It’s almost New Year’s Eve and, for many people, it’s resolution time.

MGS / Shutterstock.com

It’s the time of the year when a lot of workout gear and gym memberships get sold (and, I suspect, a fair number of Fitbits and other gadgets, as well.)

Even if you are not quite motivated to go to the gym, or don’t have an exercise bike or even a TV, you can still get a workout.

There are plenty of fitness apps geared for smartphones and tablets. One of the newest entrants is Obstacle XRT — a $4.99 iPhone app that talks people through a simulated obstacle course using steps, virtual quicksand and other challenges to provide a decent workout.

Brian Atz, co-founder of Barracuda Partners, the app’s creator, said the app was developed in about a month in conjunction with some Chicago-area fitness trainers.

“As someone who travels frequently, I don’t have a lot of time to go to the gym, so I needed to find a way to work out efficiently,” Atz said in an email interview. “The problem with the apps and programs I tried was that they were simply too routine and boring — there came a point where I was no longer looking forward to my workouts, so I stopped doing them.”

With the advent of things like the Kinect, Barracuda decided there was a growing market for using technology to make workouts less of a chore.

“I thought that if there was a way to make exercise more fun — like you were imaging obstacles on the hotel room floor — it would make the exercise more enjoyable, and more likely for me to continue with it,” Atz said.

Jawbone Gears Up for a Second Shot at Wearable Tech

Lauren Goode — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:50 +0000

Jawbone’s foray into wearable fitness tech has been, well, up and down.

The new Jawbone Up

But now, nearly a year after the company pressed “pause” on its first activity-tracking wristband, Jawbone is giving it a second go.

The new Up band, announced today, promises to fix earlier issues with the product, and comes with much-improved mobile software that offers a more comprehensive data-tracking experience.

The Up looks pretty much the same as it always did. But the company says the band has improved water resistance — one of the reasons why the first band couldn’t hold a battery charge — and better circuit-board pliancy, allowing it to be flexible while protecting the tiny components inside from damage.

In addition to recording activity, the Up mobile app now includes a Trends tab that allows side-by-side comparisons of personal metrics. There are also Moods, which allow the user to say if they’re feeling cranky or like they’re going to conquer the world on any particular day; and more detailed food logging, with a bar-code scanner for scanning food items.

With the last Up, Jawbone’s solution for food tracking was to tell users to snap and add photos to the app. Now, Up provides actual data, like calories and grams of sugar in a particular food item.

And for users who want to track intense workouts, there are now options to log running, yoga or cycling sessions, among other activities.

The wristband costs $129 — $30 more than the original Up — and hits the market today. It’s available through the Apple Store, AT&T, Target, Best Buy and Jawbone’s own Web site. The free app works only on iOS devices to start.

The redesigned Up arrives 11 months after Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman had to issue an apology to some Up owners who were complaining about technical and design issues with the first wristband.

Jawbone also initiated a “no questions asked” refund program (which the company says is technically still in effect, for those who haven’t yet requested a refund on the original Up).

Since then, the Bay Area-based start-up has conducted 46 weeks of user tests and trials, across “thousands” of Jawbone Up devices, the company said.

In the foreground: The guts of the new Jawbone Up, compared with the earlier model

While the redesigned band boasts some important features that weren’t in the previous version of the product, it’s coming to market at a time of increasing competition in the area where mobile health meets wearable tech.

Earlier this year, Nike introduced its own version of an activity-tracking wristband, the Nike+ FuelBand, which also syncs with an iPhone app. Nike uses its own currency, called “fuel,” to measure the wearer’s exertion level.

And Lark, maker of a wearable sleep sensor, just announced its own holistic wristband-with-app, called Larklife, that tracks activity, sleep and eating patterns. Lark CEO Julia Hu declined to give details on when the product will launch, except to say it will hit “this holiday season.”

Both the Nike+ FuelBand and the Larklife bands cost around $150.

But there’s likely to be more competition in the near future. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this coming January, the CEA expects to see more than 215 exhibitors — about 25,000 square feet of exhibit space — devoted to tech surrounding weight loss, body mass, calorie-tracking and other areas of health and wellness. Compared with last year’s CES, this is a 25 percent increase in tech health exhibitors, according to Jeff Joseph, senior vice president of communications for the CEA.

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer in Talks to Join Jawbone Board

Kara Swisher — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:59:29 +0000

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is considering joining the board of Jawbone, the high-profile wireless gadget maker whose products include the Jambox speaker and the Up personal fitness wristband, according to sources close to the situation.

Mayer has been talking to the San Francisco-based company about becoming a director since before she become the top exec at the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

While the discussions of her becoming a director are in the late stages, sources cautioned it was not yet a done deal and that it still might not happen for a number of reasons.

That said, the move is an interesting one for Mayer and Jawbone.

The former Google exec is well known for her product chops and also her deep interest in tony aesthetics and high-level design — qualities that Jawbone is well known for.

And the addition of Mayer to the board of Jawbone would add someone with experience in scaling businesses from small to large as well as deeper technical expertise.

Mayer has been an active angel investor in start-ups and currently is on the board of Walmart Stores and is also on board of several cultural institutions in San Francisco and New York.

Jawbone has raised about $210 million in funding from such venture firms as Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, as well as Deutsche Telekom, investor Yuri Milner and others.

One interesting note: Mayer and Jawbone CEO and founder Hosain Rahman attended Stanford University at the same time and have remained close friends since then.

Jawbone declined to comment and Mayer never calls me back, although I am still waiting by the phone — wearing my denim Jawbone Icon HD wireless headset, natch — in the vain hope that she might.

Sleep-Sensor Maker Lark Takes on Nike+ FuelBand With Larklife

Lauren Goode — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:01:21 +0000

Lark, maker of a sleep-sensor wristband that silently vibrates to cause minimal annoyance to bedroom partners, is turning its attention to your waking hours.

Today, the Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up unveiled a pair of activity-tracking wristbands — one for day and one for night — that work in conjunction with a free iPhone app.

The daytime band measures the steps you’ve taken, the total distance you’ve traveled, and the calories you’ve burned. The nighttime band works a lot like the original Lark sleep tracker, recording and analyzing sleep patterns and using the same vibration technology to wake the wearer.

Unlike some devices that require manual syncing or a physical connection to a phone or laptop to transfer data, Lark says the new Larklife bands use “low-energy” Bluetooth 4.0 to constantly sync with your iPhone in the background. The app will analyze the data and send positive “push” notifications throughout the day, which the company sees as a more effective motivation tool than setting a daily exertion level users are supposed to reach (as the Nike+ FuelBand does).

The company expects the new product to be available for the holiday season. It will cost $150 — right in line with the Nike+ FuelBand, but more expensive than the recently announced FitBit One and the troubled Jawbone Up band.

It’s important to note that these products are still a niche thing, even with a big brand like Nike having thrown its weight behind activity tracking. In a report for AllThingsD earlier this year, Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps says while “hardware advances in battery life and the way sensors interact with each other will get us further than we are today,” it’s really the software platforms that “hold the key to consumer adoption” for wearable technology.

Basically, what will set these devices apart from each other isn’t necessarily which one is the fancier wristband with the better tri-axis accelerometer, but the way it interacts with software, and the kind of data and motivation that software provides to the consumer.

Fitness Apps Turn Your iPhone Into a Personal Trainer

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:00:22 +0000

I’m participating in my first sprint triathlon in October, and I’m starting to freak out. I run and bike regularly, but I’m nowhere near ready for the race, and upper-arm strength is a particular weakness. I need help finding the proper exercises and learning correct form, but I can’t afford to hire a personal trainer. Luckily, a smartphone and the right app can step in as a budget-friendly alternative.

This week, I tested two personal-trainer apps for the iPhone: Fitness Buddy by SkyHealth, and iFitness Pro by Health Xperts. Both cost 99 cents (Fitness Buddy also offers a free version with fewer features and an Android app) and include a large catalog of exercises, training logs and more.

[ See post to watch video ]

For serious fitness buffs or people who are already on a weight-training program, Fitness Buddy is the better choice, as it offers a more comprehensive library of exercises and specialized workouts. IFitness Pro’s list of exercises isn’t quite as extensive, but if you’re a beginner like me, there’s more than enough to get you started, and the addition of a calorie tracker is a nice touch.

I used both Fitness Buddy and iFitness Pro at the gym and at home. I would recommend taking the time to review each app before you hit the gym so you can select the right program or create your own custom workout. This is because the paid version of Fitness Buddy contains more than 1,700 exercises (the free version has around 300), and sorting through them is an overwhelming task.

The app categorizes exercises by muscle group, such as lower body, shoulders, chest and arms, and also includes sections for cardio and stretches. Each subcategory features an alphabetical list of various moves, and once you select an exercise, you are given step-by-step instructions, along with pictures and video.

Since I’m a novice, I found it easier to go with one of the preloaded workouts rather than create my own from the list of various exercises. Fitness Buddy offers a number of programs built around different fitness levels, equipment, goals and sports. For example, the app includes programs for weight loss and kettlebell workouts. In the end, I chose the “Female Oriented” workouts, focusing on various muscle groups three days a week.

It took a while to get a rhythm going, since I had to stop and read the instructions for each maneuver. But by having this prebuilt routine, I felt more confident knowing that I was doing the right exercises to achieve my goals.

For each activity, you can record weight and number of reps or sets, and the app will chart your progress. There are also tools for logging and tracking your weight, body metrics and blood pressure. The ability to create a music playlist from within the app is a nice touch, too.

There are several things I didn’t like about Fitness Buddy. First, the programs tailored around sports conditioning are limited to just football, baseball, basketball, hockey and tennis. I wish it had more general categories like running and swimming, as well.

The user interface could also be better. There are icons located at the top of each page, but it’s not immediately clear what they do. Finally, it bothered me that all the female-focused workouts featured male models.

IFitness Pro operates much in the same way as Fitness Buddy but has a smaller selection of exercises. You still get more than 300 activities — plenty for the casual gym-goer, but maybe not diverse enough for more advanced individuals. You can choose from a list of exercises categorized by muscle group, or choose from 22 predesigned programs.

The Body Toning for Women workout, which features female models, concentrates more on strengthening the core and lower back, and doesn’t really address the upper body, which was disappointing. Fortunately, iFitness Pro has a sports-conditioning program for swimming — something I need to focus on for my upcoming triathlon — that includes upper-body workouts. The app also includes training programs for running, soccer and golf, in addition to the sports listed for Fitness Buddy.

For individual exercises, you get written step-by-step instructions, photos and video help, but I had a slight preference for Fitness Buddy’s layout. The latter provides instructions and photos on the same page, whereas iFitness Pro separates the two. I felt that having the written description and visual aid together made it easier for me to learn the moves and make sure I had correct form.

That said, I liked iFitness Pro’s user interface better, overall. It’s clear what each icon does, even without a text description: A pen icon lets you record your workout; the TV icon leads to video. I also thought the app had a more modern look and feel that made it more pleasurable to use, and it offers settings for backing up and syncing your data to the cloud (either through Apple’s iCloud service or the app’s own service). It also lets you add other user profiles.

One other advantage of iFitness Pro is its calorie counter. You can log and keep track of all your meals and snacks, choosing from 90,000 food items. Preloaded entries include brand-name products and fast-food items, such as McDonald’s and General Mills, but if you don’t see an item, you can add it yourself. Keeping track of my caloric intake can help with meeting weight-loss goals. It certainly was an eye-opener for me. Though I try to eat healthy, I saw how all my snacks and juice intake added up.

With such tools, a user-friendly interface and a more manageable exercise list, I think iFitness Pro is the better personal-trainer app for those who are just starting on their fitness goals, whether it be to lose weight or tone up. If you’re already on a program, Fitness Buddy is a great resource for taking it to the next level.

Ten Lessons I Learned in My First Start-Up Job out of College

Brian LaFaille — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:45:57 +0000

So, you just graduated. If you were wise enough to pursue a degree that is in demand among start-ups and have landed a job, congratulations! Despite the hesitancy common among your peers, you’ve taken the adventurous route and have found yourself in the midst of a small group of people who are trying to change the world and find success in the process.

This is the exact path I embarked upon one year ago. I’ve survived 12 months working at my first start-up job — and wow, what a learning experience it has been. If you’re like me and are starting right out of college: 1) Congrats, really. You’ve beaten a ton of other hopeful candidates and are poised to gain some truly valuable work experience. And 2) Get ready to work.

Transitioning from college classes and homework to “real life” and project deadlines can be a daunting challenge. To help you make the most of your first year, I have listed below the Top 10 lessons I learned in my first start-up job out of college.

Take Advantage of the Seasoned Veterans Around You

Chances are there are some really talented people at the table next to you. No, seriously, take a few seconds away from being glued to your monitor and just look around your office. You’re guaranteed to find experienced co-workers who have worked on a great product at one company or another. Introduce yourself! At Luminate, I’ve been fortunate enough to be graced with the presence of engineering brilliance from the early browser development team from Netscape and Mozilla. Find these amazing resources, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. They’ll be happy to hear how interested you are in their experience, and you might just get some good stories out of them.
Find a Passion Outside of Work
Now that you’re done with homework and studying every night, be sure to find something to keep yourself occupied outside of work. I’m working at a start-up dedicated to making the Web’s three trillion images interactive, so photography and photo trips have become my new favorite hobbies post-graduation, and I love it. I’ve purchased my first DSLR and have taken multiple photography trips with friends all around Northern California, always attempting to hone my skills. When you’re left without labs, group projects, homework and tests, an outside interest is a surefire way to have fun and keep yourself active during the weeknights of your first full working year.
Be Active and Get Healthy
I’ve watched too many peers graduate college and all of a sudden think they don’t have time for the gym. Believe me, if you could balance a full college course load and find enough time to work out at your university’s rec center, you can definitely find time to exercise while working full time. My trick is to always go to the gym on my way home from work. Unlike those freak fitness-a-holic types, I’m one of those people who will get home from work and tell myself, “I’ll go to the gym later,” and two beers later, I’m still glued to the latest update on “SportsCenter.” Instead, I pack my bag the night before I leave for work and leave it sitting on my bathroom counter, which forces me to take it with me in the morning. Who knows, you might just develop a new habit! Bonus tip: I’ve actually found that I do some of my best brainstorming while at the gym. In fact, this article was mostly written on the Stairmaster at Mountain View’s 24 Hour Fitness.
Never Think You’re Too Junior
The beauty of start-ups is that they’re small, typically no more than 30 to 50 people. So while you may have been hired as an entry-level employee, there are usually no more than two degrees of separation between you and your CEO. Use this to your advantage — go ahead and spark up a conversation with your CEO, CRO or CTO. You’re not at Google, Facebook, Visa or another large firm which is restricting you to your single role or position, so use this opportunity to take on tasks that wouldn’t ordinarily be assigned to you in a very linear position. Which leads me to my next point.
Constantly Challenge Yourself
You’re young, enthusiastic and full of energy. Use this first year to show your managers why you deserved that opportunity, rather than the 90 other candidates who applied. There are more college graduates living at home and looking for work than ever before, so don’t be complacent once you’ve snagged your first gig. We had a simple saying on the UC Santa Cruz Men’s soccer team that our coaches ingrained in our heads — “Raise the Level.” Every day, every practice, every drill — make your actions faster, cleaner and more refined than the last. This couldn’t be more applicable in the business world. Whether it’s a sales call, an email or answering a customer’s question, constantly challenge yourself to make every action a learning experience and raise the quality level of your business interactions.
Learn About Every Part of Your Company
The growth potential is virtually limitless in any given start-up, so learn every part of your company. Depending on the size of your start-up, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out how the entire business functions. From sales and business development to product design, engineering and customer support, start learning about every moving piece in your company. The golden opportunity that we twentysomethings have working in a start-up is the option to grow with the company and potentially into the department that we are truly passionate about. Start exploring this during your first year, and it’ll pay dividends in the long run.
Never Limit Yourself to One Role
This goes hand in hand with the previous rule. After you find out how your company works, start talking to the people in the department you might be interested in, or have a particular skill set for. Many start-ups are bootstrapped or shorthanded, so you have a built-in opportunity: Ask what you can do to help. I’m sure your colleagues will be happy to see you’re enthusiastic about the rest of the business. Plus, it gives you an idea of what different roles are like.
Grab a Good Pair of Headphones
This is simple: Buy a good pair of headphones. I’m not talking about using the tinny-sounding pair of Apple headphones that come with your iPhone; go out and splurge on a pair of good noise-canceling headphones. With most start-ups sporting an open office atmosphere, it can get noisy in the office. Between board members, investors, flying fish, remote-controlled helicopters, drinking co-workers and the weekly Costco delivery guys, most start-ups might resemble Legoland more than actual businesses. You’ll thank me later.
Don’t Be Afraid to Propose a Change
Look at your CEO. What are some of the key differences between you? Besides a few zeros on your paychecks, age may be another big one. While your managers and CEOs bring wisdom, strategy and leadership, there’s something that you have that they may not: Youth. You just graduated from college among a peer group that is one of the most connected in history. We’ve been using computers since we were old enough to walk and talk. Given that our generation is online and using mobile and Web applications more than any other age group, our perspective is often a huge help to many companies. Don’t be afraid to offer your fresh insight on things. Who knows — your proposal, idea, or suggestion might just be the next big thing for your company!
Work hard, but Work Smart
Be sure to take a step back occasionally from whatever project you’re working on in order to make sure that you’re applying your energy toward the most-needed task at the time. In my first year, I frequently threw 100 percent of my time and energy at projects that definitely weren’t at the top of the priority list. It’s great to have enthusiasm and a work ethic, but make sure your efforts are aligned with your company’s goals, your quarterly goals and your personal goals. Learn from my mistakes. In essence, work hard, but work smart.

Alpha Brings Heart-Rate Tracking to Non-Clunky Wristwatch

Lauren Goode — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:35:58 +0000

Most heart-rate monitors — the ones that actually work — involve chest straps and clunky armbands or wristwatches to get the job done.

Liz Dickinson thinks heart rate can be accurately measured with a sleeker, strap-free device.

Dickinson, the creator of the MIO watch, has partnered with Philips Electronics to create a new watch called the Alpha. It’s a continuous-heart-rate monitor that can be worn on the wrist, doesn’t involve a chest strap and, in testing, has measured an accurate EKG at performance speeds of up to 12 miles per hour.

“The goal with this tech was to eliminate the muscle noise,” Dickinson said in an interview. “The wrist moves so much and there’s so much ambient noise that in the past it’s been hard to get just the heart rate.” She said that paying a visit to the Philips company in the Netherlands two years ago convinced her this device could be done.

The Alpha has a simple white-framed face and comes with a breathable black strap. It tells time, has a timer, gives both visual and audio alerts when the wearer moves in and out of heart-rate zones, and offers a “last run” stats review.

What the watch doesn’t offer is built-in GPS or an accelerometer, so it can’t measure speed, distance or pace. It is, however, compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones to work with certain fitness apps, like RunKeeper. (It currently doesn’t work with Nike+, though Dickinson has said she’d be happy to chat with Nike if they called.)

On June 25, Dickinson launched a Kickstarter campaign for the watch. The Alpha raised more than $113,000 in about a week, surpassing its $100,000 Kickstarter goal. The device is set to ship in November, and will cost $250.

While wearable fitness gadgets that measure activity (but not heart rate) have recently become all the rage, some proponents of fitness tech still believe in the metric of thump-thump-thump to measure exertion levels. The Alpha is clearly marketed at people who compete or take their fitness seriously.

“It’s a huge market for wellness, and people are just dying to buy products that will get them healthy,” Dickinson says. “Most people don’t need to know their heart rate — that’s true. But for athletes, it’s still critical.”

Alpha’s biggest competition might come from the Basis band, which was shown off at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (but has yet to hit the market). The Basis B1 is a cool-looking wristband that uses skin sensors to monitor heart rate, and is priced at $199.

FitBit Now Tracks Heart-Rate Data, Through Digifit App

Lauren Goode — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:22:57 +0000

Fitbit, the popular fitness device that clips on to clothing and measures the wearer’s activity levels, is adding heart rate to the list of metrics it will support, through a partnership with the Digifit heart-rate app. When users are wearing the Fitbit and using Digifit’s app, they can now pull their cardio info into Fitbit’s online dashboard, and can merge it with data from Fitbit’s new Aria scale, as well.

All Things Reviewed: Nike+ FuelBand and BodyMedia Armband on WSJ "Digits"

Lauren Goode — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:57:42 +0000

In case you missed the latest product review in our new All Things Reviewed section of this site: I joined The Wall Street Journal’s “Digits” show today to discuss the latest entrant into the data-tracking fitness gear market, the Nike+ FuelBand — and to decide whether it’s worth all the hype. You can check out what the device looks like compared to the BodyMedia Fit Link armband, which I also tested this past week:

[ See post to watch video ]

Getting Into (Data-Tracking) Gear With Nike+ FuelBand

Lauren Goode — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:00:08 +0000

Despite the fact that I’m a writer, which conjures up images of long days glued to the desk, I consider myself to be pretty active, and I try to maintain momentum by working out regularly. So I’ve been intrigued by the newest wave of wearable health and fitness products meant to track daily activity levels.

This week, I’ve been testing the $149 Nike+ FuelBand, as well as BodyMedia’s $199 Fit Link armband, with varying results.

The Nike+ FuelBand generated a lot of buzz when it was introduced in January. It’s currently sold out, aside from availability at a couple Nike retail stores in New York City. Otherwise, interested customers have to sign up on Nike’s Web site to be notified of the next shipment batch.

In my five-day test of the Nike+ FuelBand, I liked its design, ease of use, and overall coolness quotient. But I didn’t always find the “Fuel” metric — Nike’s new way of calculating exertion levels — to be super useful. On the flip side, while I wouldn’t give BodyMedia’s armband any design awards, it tracked more of the kind of data I’m interested in.

 The Fuelband is a plastic wristband with a smooth, rubbery coating that measures a wearer’s steps, calories burned and Fuel levels, and then syncs the data with an app on your iPhone. It also acts as a watch. The FuelBand comes in three sizes. After adjusting the fit using a small insert that comes in the packaging, I eventually forgot I was wearing mine, aside from some minor annoyances, like when it tapped against my laptop.

[ See post to watch video ]

The wristband’s display of LED lights really stand out, and garnered enthusiastic responses when people noticed it. There’s a single button on the band, for toggling between functions. A USB connector at one end of the FuelBand is used for charging the device and for syncing data through a computer.

Nike estimates that the battery will last up to four days without needing a charge, factoring in several “sync” sessions a day. In my test, the FuelBand went almost exactly four days without needing a charge, though this was skewed slightly because I plugged the FuelBand into my computer at one point to sync the data online, which automatically prompted more charging.

After registering my band online, entering in my height and weight, and setting my daily Fuel goal at around 3,000, I downloaded the free Nike+ FuelBand app from the App Store (the app is currently only available for iPhone). Syncing the FuelBand with the iPhone app was easy and took just about 10 seconds with a good Bluetooth connection.

On the main page of the app, the data appears in a circle with a giant Fuel score in the middle, but I could also view my activity in a linear graph. While the band only shows the number of steps taken, the app displays distance in miles, which was helpful. I found myself wishing the band would display distance in miles.

The Fuel number is drawn from a table created by Nike’s team of researchers, which studied various activities — for example, walking, running, playing tennis, etc. — and the levels of oxygen needed during those activities. While Fuel factors in your movement, it doesn’t factor in your height, weight, or body mass index. It’s meant to be a universal currency for everyone using the FuelBand.

For the most part, my Fuel levels were in line with my activity levels, but there were some aspects of Fuel I thought were sort of bogus. My Fuel level on Monday was hundreds of points higher than the next day’s level, even though I went for a two-mile run on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I lifted some light weights for about 30 minutes, which netted me 207 Fuel points, and then jogged for 20 minutes, which nearly tripled my Fuel score. But then I sat on a plane for 4.5 hours, so I didn’t reach my goal of 3,000 Fuel points for that day.   On Thursday, I worked out twice, which is not a regular occurrence for me, but I did this for the sake of testing activity bands. Both workouts were aerobic, and lasted around 35 minutes. And yet I still didn’t hit my Fuel goal that day.

One explanation for this, according to Nike, might be that I was more consistently active on days I didn’t exercise, like Monday (which would make sense, because I was running around the South by Southwest festival in Austin that day). In the Nike Fuel world, one great hour of exercise isn’t supposed to make up for 17 hours of inactivity.

  By connecting to Facebook and Twitter, FuelBand wearers can share and compare Fuel scores. I liked the competition it created with other friends who were sharing their scores and I liked the reactions I got from the Twitterverse; to me, that was the best part of Fuel, and I could see why this would be motivating for users.

	Nike+ FuelBand	BodyMedia Fit Link	Fitbit Ultra
Form Factor	Wristband	Armband	Dongle, clips to clothing or wristband
Measures	Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned, Nike “Fuel”	Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned and Consumed, Heat Flux, Skin Temperature, Sleep Efficiency	Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned and Consumed, Sleep Patterns, “Flower Power”
Estimated Battery Life	Up to 4 Days	Up to 4 Days	5 to 7 days
Mobile App	Yes, iPhone only	Yes, iPhone and Android	Yes, iPhone only
Waterproof	Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged	Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged	Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged
Price	$149	$199, plus $6.95 a month for data-tracking	$99.95

  For comprehensive data tracking, I actually found the BodyMedia Fit Link armband to be more useful than the FuelBand.   Like Nike’s device, and the Fitbit, the Link armband measures steps and overall movement, but also uses sensors to detect changes in the skin’s surface temperature. So, while it doesn’t measure heart rate (the beauty of this new wave of fitness bands is that many of them don’t use heart-rate straps), it measures the body’s reaction to changes in heart rate, according to BodyMedia CEO Christine Robins.

I also liked that BodyMedia’s product incorporated weight goals, my caloric intake as well as output, and my sleep patterns, through a comprehensive online dashboard. Access to these advanced analytics online will cost users $6.95 a month, after a few free-trial months.

 One night, I slept wearing both the FuelBand and the BodyMedia band. The FuelBand, which isn’t supposed to measure sleep patterns, only showed that my activity level had flatlined. The BodyMedia band, on the other hand, recorded how many hours and minutes I was actually sleeping, out of the total time that I was lying down, and calculated my sleep efficiency based on that. 

 The BodyMedia Fit Link band has its own drawbacks. There’s no display of information on the band itself, and it’s hard to forget you’re wearing it. It’s a bigger band that fastens to your arm, whereas the FuelBand feels like a thick bracelet. The armband also costs more than the FuelBand, and in my experience, syncing my Link armband to my iPhone was problematic. The company plans to release a new app, due this spring, that allows for better Bluetooth syncing, so users can update their BodyFit iPhone app and Web accounts at the same time.

 For users looking for an activity-tracking wristband that tells you when and how much you moved throughout the day, the Nike+ FuelBand may work. But for serious weight-trackers or people looking to track segmented workouts, a product like a BodyMedia band or even a Nike+ SportsWatch would probably be a better fit.

DailyBurn CEO: Fitness-Tracking Devices Aren’t Gimmicks, but They're Close

Lauren Goode — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:47:59 +0000

Health-and-fitness-tracking devices have become all the rage lately. But one fitness-tech CEO dares to say many of them aren’t much more than glorified accelerometers, adding a note of skepticism to the excitement surrounding these gadgets.

Andy Smith, CEO of IAC-owned DailyBurn, says that the benefit of fitness-tracking tools goes away after the first few weeks, and users ultimately fall into the same activity — or inactivity — patterns as before.

“They do help a small subset of people,” Smith said. “You find that there are type-A personalities that like to track everything, and that’s great. For others, it might give them a little jump start. But the value proposition of those devices after the first few weeks goes way down.”

DailyBurn is a fitness-data-tracking company that is now focusing on fitness content. The company pivoted partly because data-tracking wasn’t all that effective, Smith said.

Last week, Nike introduced a $150 lightweight wristband with a tri-axis accelerometer for gauging activity levels; earlier this week, Fitbit — maker of the popular Fitbit device — announced that it had raised $12 million in Series C funding to continue making fitness products.

Nike’s FuelBand just became available for preorder, so it’s too early to tell how enthusiastic consumers are about that particular device. And while it’s unclear how many Fitbit units have sold since it hit the market in 2009, the newer Fitbit Ultra is listed as one of the top 50 products in the health-and-fitness section on Amazon.com.

Another wearable fitness device, the Jawbone UP, is currently in production limbo as the company deals with technical and hardware issues, but the wristband was initially received with excitement from some consumers.

“I feel like these are not quite a gimmick, but are close to it,” Smith told AllThingsD. “You get people to spend $100 to $150 bucks on something that’s just a glorified accelerometer — which, by the way, you have in your phone, too.”

“I think people know when they’re not active,” Smith added. “They know if they didn’t move around enough today. I don’t buy it.”

Smith’s opinion is informed by the fact that DailyBurn used to be more data-oriented, but has since shifted its strategy become more content-focused, he said.

DailyBurn first launched in 2008 under the name Gyminee. Back then, the company was tailored more toward fitness data tracking and the sharing of data through social networks to help users meet their weight loss goals.

In May 2010, the company was acquired by IAC. At the time, the company claimed 500,000 members; Smith said it has around two million users now.

Following the acquisition, DailyBurn introduced the DailyBurn Tracker app, as well as food-tracking app Meal Snap, an attempt to spur weight loss motivation by giving caloric estimates based on photos of food.

Ultimately, Smith said, constant tracking isn’t necessarily the best way to facilitate that.

With DailyBurn’s newest fitness product — a personalized Web video program that streams over smartphones and the iPad to users’ TV sets — the company is focused on getting people to exercise four to six times a week, for 30 minutes a day, at a good level of intensity. It’s not something you buy that’s a quick fix, Smith said.

Readers, what are your thoughts? Are health-and-fitness tracking devices useful or useless?

Amid Increasing Competition, Fitbit Scores $12 Million in Funding

Lauren Goode — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:16 +0000

Fitbit Inc., maker of a popular fitness device that clips to clothing and tracks users’ activity levels, has raised $12 million in Series C funding.

The new round comes entirely from existing investors Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC and Felicis Ventures.

The company said it plans to use the funding mainly for hiring and for aggressive product development. Fitbit declined to elaborate further on what type of new product or products it has up its sleeve, except to say that it is now looking ahead to other connected and affordable health-and-fitness devices for the year, and is hiring top engineers to get the company there.

But Fitbit’s next steps — no pun intended — probably need to be very strategic ones.

The funding round comes amid increasing competition from other makers of wear-’em-and-forget-’em data-tracking devices. While Fitbit has been a leader in this area of health-and-fitness tracking, Jawbone, a maker of audio products, launched the $99 UP wristband tracker late last year, which was initially received with enthusiasm. And Nike just introduced its version of a polymer-encased wristband, the FuelBand.

The Jawbone UP has since suffered technical difficulties, forcing the company to refund unhappy customers and temporarily pause production.

But with the $149 FuelBand, Nike has brought big-brand cachet to activity tracking. And Nike isn’t just targeting the serious athlete or runner anymore — it’s going after the casual athlete and the desk jockey, too.

While some fitness devices involve the use of pedometers, accelerometers or galvanic skin-response sensors, Nike’s band promises to combine oxygen uptake with the activity tracked through the device’s tri-axis accelerometer for a high-tech reading. To be fair, it’s not entirely clear yet how that differentiates the FuelBand, and we won’t be able to gauge how well it works until we can get our hands on one and test it.

The Fitbit also uses a three-dimensional accelerometer to measure users’ steps and activity levels. When the $100 Fitbit device launched in 2008, it punched up the idea of the average pedometer, and offered hassle-free, wireless uploading of 24-7 personal analytics and activity data. Fitbit also created a Web dashboard through which users can monitor their activity levels; for $50 a year, Fitbit users can view even more detailed analytics.

In October 2011, the company introduced the Fitbit Ultra, which added a digital clock, a stopwatch and an altimeter that measures elevation gain; a Fitbit iPhone app was launched, too.

San Francisco-based Fitbit, which recently started selling Fitbits in Canada and the U.K., declined to say how many units have been sold to date. In the U.S., the Fitbit recently became available in Target stores through a retail partnership.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Fitbit also unveiled the Fitbit Aria, a Wi-Fi-enabled “smart” scale, as Forbes reported here. The company plans to ship the scale starting in April.

(Fitbit photo courtesy of Redefinery/Flickr)

With FuelBand, Nike Gets Into the Ultra-Wearable Fitness Game

Lauren Goode — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:02:21 +0000

Another lightweight, polymer-encased fitness wristband has hit the market. But this one comes from Nike.

The Nike+ FuelBand measures time, calories, steps and “NikeFuel.” It uses an accelerometer to measure movement, has built-in USB and 20 LED flights that flash red or green to show your progress, and can connect wirelessly to the iPhone via Bluetooth.

The FuelBand comes with a free iPhone app, and is social network friendly, for those users who want to share their activity updates with Facebook, Foursquare and even Path. For now, the FuelBand app is iOS-only. Stefan Olander, Nike’s vice president of digital sport, says that the company will eventually explore other mobile operating systems for the app.

Nike, for competitive reasons, currently isn’t sharing details on how the band calculates users’ NikeFuel levels, whether they’re running, skateboarding, or doing any other kind of physical activity. The idea of NikeFuel — a measurement or score of a user’s activity — sounds a little bit like the Fitbit’s “flower power” currency. It’s a way for users to compare workouts without necessarily referring to data like calories burned, which may differ from user to user.

With FuelBand, Nike seems to be taking a slightly different measurement approach from those of other makers of health-and-fitness bands. The company says it maps oxygen uptake against a three-axis accelerometer during both activity and downtime to measure the metabolic equivalent of a task (a.k.a. M.E.T).

The Jawbone UP, for example, measures steps, heart rate, calories burned and sleep patterns. Basis is also focused on measuring heart rate and other metrics with its Basis B1 Band (no chest strap needed). And BodyMedia’s Fit armband uses galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors to measure body temperature and how much heat has dissipated from the body to determine the amount of energy that’s being used.

The Nike+ FuelBand will be available for preorder in the U.S. on Jan. 19, and will cost $149 — more than the UP, less than the B1 Band, and in the same range as BodyMedia’s bands.

Nike has a few other wearable workout tools already on the market, but its FuelBand is really meant to be worn all day, so Nike device users don’t have to switch from day wear to workout wear. With the FuelBand, Olander says, Nike is aiming to hit all areas and levels of the fitness market, not just serious athletes and runners.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the FuelBand compares to Nike’s other fitness-monitoring devices:

There’s the Nike+ SportBand, which currently retails for $59, has a slightly bulkier form factor, and works in conjunction with a sensor that goes under the sock liner of your left-foot Nike+ compatible shoe. This one is water-resistant, tracks distance, pace, time elapsed and calories burned, and stores 30 hours of running data. (It’s also available as a “Livestrong” SportBand.)

There’s also the $199 Nike+ GPS Sportwatch powered by TomTom, which works with or without a Nike+ sensor as well as a Polar WearLink Transmitter for measuring heart rate. Compared to a single rubbery wristband, that’s a lot of stuff to carry around; without those devices, the watch alone shows a mapped route and tracks time, distance, pace, heart rate and calories burned. It plugs directly into a USB port on your computer to upload run data and recharge the battery.

And the Nike Amp+ iPod Remote is no longer available through Nike’s store, but way back in the day — four years ago — it was a nifty device that synced the Nike watch to users’ iPods and provided voice updates on time, distance, calories and pace during workouts.

CES Hangover: What You Might Have Missed

Lauren Goode — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:59:28 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Show is over. We came, we saw, we conquered … but we couldn’t possibly write about every one of the more than 20,000 products showcased in Las Vegas last week. Here are a handful that stood out at the show:

Nintendo Wii U
The gaming company didn’t have a spot on the show floor at CES, but Nintendo offered private demos of its upcoming Wii U console, the successor to the popular Nintendo Wii.

The “new Wii” comes with a 6-inch tablet-like motion sensor control that offers a full touchscreen and alternative views of the game being played on the TV set. While using a larger controller to play games might seem cumbersome at first, the interactive options it adds can be fun. The new console also works with the standard Wii controllers, as well as the Wii Nunchuk and Balance Board. It supports 1080p HD output, and the games in the demo were remarkably crisp and clear.

But there are still more questions than answers about the Wii U. Its launch date is still pegged to sometime in the later part of the year, but exactly when and how much it will cost is still unknown. And while Nintendo was the front-runner in motion-sensor gaming with the Wii, Xbox Kinect, in the meantime, has been setting new gaming-console standards with its gesture-control technology, content partnerships and even basic voice command.

When asked about content partnerships in the works, Nintendo declined to comment on any specifics. As for voice-recognition technology, Nintendo also declined to say whether it would be added to the Wii U prior to launch; the company did point to some audio capabilities built into the tablet-like controller, and said it is exploring all kinds of possibilities right now.

Samsung Dual-View 3-D OLED TV
That’s quite a mouthful for a television set, so let’s simplify it: This is a TV that lets you watch two programs at the same time on the same screen — and not by creating separate boxes within the screen. Instead, users wear active-shutter 3-D glasses, and each wearer has a different 2-D image projected to them, or even a different TV show or movie.

What about audio, you ask? Good question: The audio for each program is streamed right through the glasses, so you’ll hear your own program, while your significant other sitting on the other side of the couch will hear his or her choice of entertainment.

A dual-view screen has a certain appeal for gamers, and both Sony and LG have introduced such screens for gaming purposes.

For the average TV watcher, this is notably both high-tech and isolating.

LG’s Blast Chiller
You might have heard about this one by now. We still think it’s cool, no pun intended.

It was apparent at this year’s CES show that appliance makers think we want fridges that tweet and washing machines that send messages to smartphones when the laundry is done. While interconnectivity within the home is still in its teenage — if not even earlier — stages, there was one feature of LG’s refrigerators that seemed quite smart: The Blast Chiller is a compartment that chills cans of soda or beer in about five minutes, and can cool down a larger bottle of wine in about eight minutes. It will be available in LG’s new line of refrigerators — price is unknown, but current models cost around $2,500. The Blast Chiller was definitely a favorite with conference-goers — likely because, by the end of the week, many may have wanted a cold beverage.

Corning Gorilla Glass, the Sequel
You might wonder where glass fits in at a tech show, but this isn’t just any soda-lime glass: It’s the ultra-thin, chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass that forms the displays of many smartphones and tablets, and even coats some laptops. Last week, Corning showed off Gorilla Glass that was 20 percent thinner and just as durable (which I was unable to break with a metal stick, as you can see from the photo here, although you might not want to use my arm strength as your gauge).

Gorilla Glass can be used to create stronger, brighter product displays, the company said. Last year, Corning had also said that it believed the future of glass was “3-D” or flexible glass that can be used in different form factors, including keyboards and kitchen countertops. At CES, the company showed how Gorilla Glass 2 can be used in home appliances and dashboard display systems.

Sleeper Pick: “The Patch”
As anticipated, armbands, accelerometers, exercise gear and health-and-fitness-focused apps dominated the digital-health section of CES this year (and even Jawbone’s UP armband made an appearance). But if you’re not ready for a full-time commitment to some of these devices, BodyMedia and Avery Dennison have come up with a temporary adhesive patch to test your resolve. Meant to be worn on the back of the left tricep for up to seven days, the patch combines the sensors of BodyMedia armbands with Avery Dennison’s wearable tech to aid in weight-loss management.

The patch is still awaiting U.S. regulatory clearance, so it may not be available until the third quarter of the year, or later. I’m told it will be less expensive than BodyMedia’s armbands, which run from $150 to $179 (and now work in conjunction with a new digital-wellness platform from fitness guru Jillian Michaels.)

But in future-form, a potentially inexpensive, disposable patch that has some of the same sensory capabilities of an armband could be an interesting fitness “gadget”: Slap it on, forget it’s there while you exercise, save the data and throw it out.

(Blast Chiller photo courtesy of Flickr/LGEPR)

MORE CES NEWS:

Complete coverage

HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet

Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)

What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)

Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market

Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.

Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES

Inside the CES Lost & Found

FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!

Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber

Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different

Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)

Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question

T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service

Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)

Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year

Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game

More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone

Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”

And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!

Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There

Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It

BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8

Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon

Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways

Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D

Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote

Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV

Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV

Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share

Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)

Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile

AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works

LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way

LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum

Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia

CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret

Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?

Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service

There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!

CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!

Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2

RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES

Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops

At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year

Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

Groupon's New Year's Resolution? To Make Money on Yours!

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:30:34 +0000

So far this year, one of the hottest daily deal categories has been — you guessed it — weight-loss programs and fitness classes.

Just in time to make your 2012 resolutions, email offers are pouring in to help you meet your goals.

The number of fitness-related deals offered over the past few days is twice as high as average, according to Yipit, which tracks the major daily deal providers, including Groupon, LivingSocial, Travelzoo, Amazon and Google.

Just a small sampling of the offers I’ve noticed: Lipotropic injections that promise to speed up your metabolism, boot camp to help whip you into shape, and Pilates and “hot yoga” galore. (Sorry, no Jane Fonda!)

Yipit said in December that the average number of fitness-related deals across the major daily deals providers in North America totaled 63.

But already this month, the numbers are much higher. On Tuesday, the number of fitness-related deals expiring that day totaled 85; on Wednesday, it soared to 163, and on Thursday it stayed elevated at 131.

But that doesn’t mean people are plunging in to make the fitness commitment. Yipit said that those deals are performing only slightly above average.

In December, the average fitness deal generated $4,852 in gross billings, but on Tuesday and Wednesday, the average fitness deal generated $5,085 in gross billings.

Yipit says those dollar figures are only a rough guide, since they only include deals that make the purchase-count information publicly available. Companies like Groupon now disclose only a subset of their deals.

Careverge Says It's the First HIPAA-Compliant Social Network

Liz Gannes — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:51:29 +0000

Careverge launches today as a privacy-focused social platform for health and fitness, where users share highly personal information about themselves under pseudonyms.

The idea is to provide a resourceful community, as well as a “gamification” service that incentivizes better health. Users can do things like set up and track fitness goals and get SMS reminders to take medication.

The Careverge site is a product of Audax Health, a Washington, D.C.-based company that has raised $16 million from investors including New Leaf Ventures, TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson, former Aetna CEO Jack Rowe and former Apple CEO John Sculley.

Audax CEO Grant Verstandig said he believes Careverge is the first social network to receive HIPAA compliance, indicating a high level of security for users’ personal health data.

Verstandig, 22, dropped out of Brown University to found Audax, after seven knee surgeries effectively ended his career as a lacrosse player.

His business plan is to make money from health insurers, who give their customers promo codes to sign up for Careverge anonymously, in return for deductions on premiums.

Insurers receive anonymized information about their members, with the intent of reducing costs by having healthier customers. The behavioral-health-focused ValueOptions is one such client.

The trick will be getting users to buy into Careverge’s privacy and security controls. It does seem a little odd to sign up for a site at the invitation of your insurance provider, and trust that your insurance provider doesn’t get to track your participation.

Verstandig said Careverge users can opt to share some of their identifiable information with their insurer at their own discretion; for instance, one Careverge customer invited its members to opt in to get a coupon for a free flu shot.

Audax is already a sizeable company of 53 people, and is raising more funding now, Verstandig said.

At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch

Lauren Goode — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:01:50 +0000

If your resolutions for the new year include health and fitness goals, several new products showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in January just might help you get there.

Two of the 25 TechZones on the showroom floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center will be geared specifically toward digital health, with more than 171 exhibitors showcasing products as part of the Digital Health and Fitness category.

Basis B1 Band

One notable device attendees will see is the Basis B1 band, which offers an alternative to accelerometer-based fitness products. The band is a water-resistant wristband that uses multiple sensors to calculate calories burned, amount of physical activity and sleep patterns. It also sports Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors that track perspiration to measure body temperature alongside ambient temperature.

In addition to showing off the B1 band at CES, Basis CEO Jef Holove said the company plans to demo a Web dashboard that works with the USB-compatible band to help users track the activity data they upload.

The cost of the Basis B1 band, which is expected to launch in early 2012, is still to be determined.

Another company, called Striiv, will showcase a $99 keychain-friendly device meant to track a user’s every movement; the idea is to motivate individuals by using activity-based games and creating challenges based on real-world distances, like crossing the Grand Canyon. The Striiv device hit the market this past October.

Among the other health-related products to be featured at the CES 2012 Sports and Fitness TechZone are waterproof MP3 players, armbands, heart monitors, high-tech goggles, GPS-enabled cameras and the integration of gesture-recognition technology into games for fitness and sports.

According to a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organization that runs CES, the sports and fitness category is a $70 billion annual business in the U.S. alone.

The growing mobile phone market and explosion of mobile apps has contributed to the growth of the digital health market as well. A recent ABI Research report says the market for sports and fitness apps is expected to reach $400 million by 2016, across more than one billion annual health-related app downloads.

Health care companies have also been getting into the app arena. United Health Group plans to show off mobile applications at CES 2012 for managing health care accounts, tracking prescriptions and creating health goals. Aetna already has mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry; Blue Cross and Blue Shield introduced an app for iOS devices earlier this year.

The development of these mobile apps, as well as lightweight wearable devices such as the popular FitBit, opens up a new category of products that are less expensive — and in some cases less cumbersome — than a traditional, bulky fitness watch or a heart-rate monitor that straps around the chest. In many cases, new fitness products come with analytical Web services, and aim to go beyond the standard pedometer or accelerometer to offer a comprehensive look at activity and health.

But the marriage of health and fitness data applications with actual hardware can be a difficult one in terms of product development. Case in point: The Jawbone UP wristband.

Jawbone UP

Jawbone, a maker of slick audio products, recently made its first foray into the fitness market with the $99 dollar Jawbone UP. A few weeks after the launch of the UP, which tracks user activity and plugs directly into the iPhone to sync the data, user complaints began to trickle in. Some cited battery issues, syncing problems and poor design. The company put out an apology, instituted a no-questions-asked return policy and has temporarily halted production of the device.

Jawbone declined to comment on when the company will resume production of the UP device, but Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s Vice President of Product Management & Strategy, issued a statement saying, “The passionate response to UP has been phenomenal — and this is just the beginning. We’re extremely committed to the category and we’re going to keep improving the UP product until we realize the powerful vision of what this category can be.”

Basis’s Holove concurred that fitness devices that look to eliminate straps and wires while still performing multiple tasks can be complicated products, and said part of the reason the Basis band isn’t officially launching at CES is because the company is focused on “getting it right.”

“We don’t want to repeat any lessons learned in the industry recently. We’ve redoubled our testing plans now,” Holove said.

Holove says he believes the initial excitement over the Jawbone UP is evidence of growing consumer demand for wearable health-and-fitness devices. He also predicts that, in the near future, more corporations will begin to institute health-incentive programs, like Virgin’s HealthMiles, which could involve the mass distribution of health monitors. Through Virgin HealthMiles’s Pay-For-Prevention program, companies encourage employees to use a GoZone tracker and record their daily activities for potential rewards.

But for now, Holove says, the focus is still on marketing directly to the consumer when it comes to fitness and health. ”It’s no mystery that we need to be healthier. Health care costs are rising while health is declining, so we’re going directly to the customer and saying, here’s what you can do about that.”

MORE CES NEWS:

Complete coverage

HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet

Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)

What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)

Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market

Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.

Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES

Inside the CES Lost & Found

FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!

Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber

Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different

Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)

Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question

T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service

Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)

Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year

Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game

More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone

Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”

And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!

Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There

Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It

BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8

Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon

Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways

Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D

Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote

Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV

Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV

Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share

Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)

Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile

AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works

LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way

LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum

Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia

CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret

Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?

Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service

There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!

CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!

Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2

RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES

Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops

At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year

Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012