Bluetooth tracking keyfobs have gone from novelty to must-have for many, and TrackR is stepping up its game with custom printing as well as new group support. Roughly the size of a large coin, but just 3.5mm thick, the TrackR Bravo relies on Bluetooth LE to help your phone figure out whereabouts your keys, pets, or anything else might be.
Samsung's newest addition to its Gear line has begun hitting the shelves: the IconX wireless earbuds. We were impressed when we got our hands (ears?) on them back in early June, with high-quality audio maintained even over a Bluetooth connection. But the IconX, which Samsung bills as "truly cord-free earbuds," do much more than just audio output; they're also a fully functional fitness tracker and heart rate monitor.
During Google's Android Wear announcements and presentations at the Google I/O event back in May, we got a few quick looks at a revised app for Google Fit, the health and fitness tracking service for Android. Now, after a long wait, the app is finally seeing an update released this week. Google Fit version 1.57 is rolling out to the Google Play store, featuring an overhauled UI, a customizable widget, and new ways to set goals.
At its Tech World show in San Francisco yesterday, Lenovo revealed a pair of smart shoes, that, while a concept prototype, are fairly close to a finalized product. Adding a new layer to the term "wearable," the running shoes offer most of the same features that a wrist-worn fitness tracker or smartwatch would have, including number of steps, distance, calories burned, and activity tracking.
If you're a Samsung fan and have been eagerly awaiting the new Gear Fit 2 sports band, now's your chance to finally pick one up. The GPS-enabled wearable has officially gone on sale around the globe in a number of markets, including the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. Priced at $179 and available in two sizes, Samsung says that Gear Fit 2 will be available in other countries in the near future.
China's Xiaomi has just announced the new Mi Band 2 fitness tracker, the company's third wearable after the original Mi Band and Mi Band Pulse. While Xiaomi has become mostly known for its smartphones lately, it's also found success with wearables in its domestic Chinese market, having sold more than 20 million devices so far. Now that its recognized as the second-largest wearable maker in the world after Fitbit, Xiaomi looks to continue that growth with the Mi Band 2.
It is the nature of activity trackers to, well, track the activities of its users. But isn't a blanket permission to track everything and anything the user does, especially when it goes over and and beyond legal boundaries. That is basically the point that the Norwegian Consumer Council is trying to make as it files a complaint against Runkeeper with Norway's Data Protection Authority. Its beef is that the service's Android app keeps on tracking user's data, specifically their locations, long after the user has stopped his or her running activity. It even hands over that data to a third party, without the user's consent or knowledge.
Garmin has announced a new fitness tracker today, and it has a specific appeal for golfers looking to keep active. The Approach X40 takes on the appearance of a standard digital display-equipped wearable, and has several features that are right at home on the golf course, but it balances that with other tracking options that will keep it useful even when wearers aren't teeing off.
The Apple Watch's heart rate monitor has been praised before about how accurate it is for a smartwatch, but now it's about to get even more advanced with a medical-grade ECG (electrocardiogram) monitor built into the new Kardia Band from accessory maker AliveCor. The watch band features a small metal sensor on the side that communicates with an accompanying app on the device itself, monitoring and alerting wearers of abnormal heart rates.
Garmin has announced several new additions to its Vivo line of wearables today: the Vivoactive HR fitness watch and the Vivofit 3 activity tracker. Right off the bat, it's obvious that Garmin is introducing a design that aims to be more fashionable and unique, especially with the Vivofit 3. But looks aren't the only thing that's new, as both devices have been improved with new features, including automatic activity detection and tracking, and an optical hear rate monitor.
Misfit has been busy at CES 2016, first announcing Ray, a sleek fitness wearable like those the company is more know for, and now its unveiled something entirely new: a pair of wireless in-ear headphones called Specter which feature activity tracking tech. The headphones appear similar to any standard Bluetooth earbuds, with a small clip-on base and a cord remote with music playback buttons, but are capable of tracking the standard data, including steps, activity, and even sleep (assuming users wear them bed).
Wearables maker Misfit has just announced its first device since being acquired by Fossil just two months ago: the Misfit Ray. The fist thing you notice is that the Ray differs greatly from the sporty, coin-shaped design of Misfit's other wearable, the Shine. Instead, the new fitness tracker has a clean, simple look that could easily be mistaken for a simple bracelet. It's little more than a tube-shaped piece of aluminum attached to a flat band made of rubber or leather.
