Wearable Technology

Has your activity tracker given up? Are you looking for a new one? The Garmin VivoFit Wireless Fitness Band may be the perfect solution for a replacement activity tracker. Each activity tracker has advantages and disadvantages. The first step to understanding if a tracker is going to be right for you is knowing what type of activities you participate in, are you just running and walking or are you swimming, cycling and playing sports?

Features and Design

The Garmin Vivofit offers a wide range of features to its users. The band is close fitting, without being too snug or loose. This limits the amount of snagging that can occur. The activities monitored are varied and include cycling and swimming, for individuals who do more than run or walk as part of their monitored activities. It pairs with a heart rate monitor, so you can keep track of your heart rate, in addition to your sleep cycle and calories burned.
The clasp is sometimes an issue with activity monitors; however, not so with the Garmin. The clasp is secure so you do not have to worry about losing it while participating in your active lifestyle. The device is water resistant, not water proof, so it is good for swimming but not diving activities.
The design is for wear 24/7 and has a changeable rather than rechargeable battery. This does add to its size, so if you are looking for a device that is very sleek, with little to no bulk, it is important to be aware that this device has some bulk to it, though minimal. The batteries are easy to find at most local stores or online.
One of the advantages is the device works to help you increase your fitness goals by reviewing your data and giving you new goals to stretch yourself. For beginners, this is a great way to get started. The fact that the battery does not need to be recharged means you can wear it all the time, no need to worry about forgetting.
The monitor comes with an accurate sleep tracker. Unlike some models, which can disengage during sleep, the Garmin seems to stay engaged and active for the entire night. Tracking sleep patterns is easy. You set it before you go to sleep and disengage when you wake up.
If you are inactive for a certain length of time, a bar will start to appear on the screen/display of the device, after a certain period that line grows until it fills the screen. You will need to take a short walk in order to reset the bar. This is just one way this activity tracker helps to motivate individuals to keep moving, keep their metabolism working, and lead a healthier lifestyle.
The application is easy to use; the device synchronizes well to the software. It does so via a smart phone with Bluetooth 4.0 or through the USB connection and your PC. The interface will help you keep track as well as record all your information. It uses this information to increase your daily activity goals via the device.

Disadvantages

While there are numerous advantages, there are also disadvantages to this device. The following are some of the disadvantages found with this model.
• No backlight. If it is dark outside, such as an early morning before dawn run, or late at night, you cannot see the display
• The battery is not rechargeable. It uses easy to find watch batteries, which should last a year; however, with continued use, you may need to replace the batteries every few months or so. This is a disadvantage to individuals looking for a rechargeable product
• It is not waterproof. Water resistance will not save it from an accidental dip to the bottom of the pool
• It responds to vibrations. Significant vibration can fool the device into thinking you are walking. If you are planning on riding a motorcycle or are traveling down a bumpy road, consider recording your steps before you leave or turning the device off until you reach your destination to avoid false data
• As with all of these devices, there is a level of inaccuracy. It is important that when you set the device up, you walk as normally as possible. This will help to ensure that the device records more accurately
• There is no way to judge stairs. Many people use the stairs at their office as a way to increase the amount of movement and exercise they get in a day. This device does not count these steps
• Limited activities. If you are highly active and you want to count these activities outside of walking, running, cycling, and swimming, this may not be the device for you.

The Garmin Vivofit is a great monitor. It has a number of advantages, such as having compatibility with heart monitors and PCs. It still has the advantage of being able to connect wirelessly to your smartphone and the software is easy to use. The device will even increase fitness goals to help keep you moving and provide you with inactivity alerts.

Overall, the device has more advantages than disadvantages for your standard activities such as walking, running, jogging, cycling, and swimming. The band fits well and stays on, something that can be a problem with other models. The big question is whether it is worth the money. The Garmin has numerous features and is at the higher end of the mid-range pricing wise for this type of fitness tool. If you have the money and want a device that should last for a year between battery changes, has decent customer service, and seems relatively accurate, then this is the device for you. However, there are models that offer the same features for less money.

Have you become frustrated with personal trackers not covering all the activities you want to do? Have you become tired of an activity tracker that can only handle a limited range of motion? The Misfit Shine could be the activity tracker for you; this tracker is designed to give active adults, who enjoy a wide variety of activities, the tracking band they need.

Features and Design

The Misfit Shine design is waterproof up to 50 meters. It is the perfect solution for individuals who love swimming. Most trackers do not handle activities other than steps with any accuracy. However, the Misfit Shine’s design allows it to track swimming, cycling, running, walking; even sports like soccer and tennis. This tracker is unlike any other trackers that promise they can handle other activities but fall well short of the mark.
It comes with a sleep tracker. The sleep tracker handles both light and deep sleep. This is a step above other trackers that look at restful sleep. Tracking sleep functions can be a great way to alter your sleep patterns to optimize your rest. This is an excellent tool for individuals who may not feel as rested as they believe they should after a night’s sleep. Finding out when and how you sleep can be a huge benefit.
The battery in the Misfit is replaceable. Battery life will last for approximately 6 months. Replacement batteries are found at most drug or general merchandise stores. This is an advantage over rechargeable models. While you may need to spend additional money for batteries, you are more likely to use the tracker. Many people take the tracker off to charge it and forget to turn it back on.
The design of the Misfit allows you to use it on more than the provided wristband. You can attach it to any band. It is the perfect tracker for people who like to wear their tracker all the time and match it to their outfits. The sleek design is minimalistic, making it unnoticeable, unlike bulkier models.
The face features LED lights, which show your progress. The tracker will synchronize with your smartphone but is only compatible with IOS and Android. Unlike most trackers, the Misfit also works as a watch giving you a multifunction and sleek wrist unit.
The application that comes with the device is also easy to use and navigate. This makes it easy for you to keep track of your goals. Customer service is quick to respond to issues and seems willing to work to resolve customer issues quickly. This is unlike other companies, which may be difficult to work with or take a long time to respond to requests for assistance.

Disadvantages

• The battery on the Misfit states it is good for 6 months; however, with daily constant use, the battery life can last for about 2-3 months. This is off set by the common availability of replacement batteries. However, it also means that you cannot charge it using a USB port while you work. Some people may find this to be a disadvantage. There are trackers, which charge in as little as two hours using a wall unit or USB port. This makes them ideal for charging, while sitting working at the computer. For some; however, it means that you may place it on the charger and forget it, making tracking inconsistent. This is especially true for individuals who may not be as disciplined as other users.
• One of the reasons this unit moves from band to band is magnetism. The unit attaches in the band via a magnetic connection. This means that the unit can occasionally become attracted to metal such as stairwells. Additionally, if you work with metal, you may wish to remove it since frequent contact, such as with knitting needles, can cause the unit to read each movement as a step. This will lower the accuracy and mess up results.
• The included app is the only app that the Misfit Shine uses. If you are already using an app such as MyFitnessPal, you will need to manually enter data or start where you left off on the other app to use this unit.
• The supplied wristband can be a little loose. This is a known issue and the Misfit Company is working on a design replacement for the bands. If you use the band that comes with the device, make sure that your unit is secure in the band.
• The unit is aluminium. It seems durable and is a wonderful black colour that goes with everything. However, it is easy to scratch. The black coating comes off leaving the silver underneath. This means that if you tend to bang your wrists or work in a physical job such as construction, you may find that the overall appearance of the unit could decline as a consequence of this.

Overall, the Misfit Shine seems to be one of the better models out there for personal activity tracking. The unit offers a wide variety of options when it comes to activities, a definite leg up from other trackers. You can easily program it by just tapping the unit to the appropriate activity.
The tracker looks at both light sleep and deep sleep, which can help users determine their sleep cycle and how to best use it to their advantage. The item is water proof up to 50 meters, versus water-resistant, which is one of the reasons why it is easy to use for swimmers and even divers. It is pricey for an activity tracker, which may put some users off; however, given the numerous features and benefits, it is well worth the money you will spend on it. The disadvantages in the instance of the Misfit Shine, do not outweigh the numerous benefits available to users.

Are you looking for a way to keep track of your activity levels, monitor your sleep, and want it in real time? The Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity Tracer and Sleep Band may be just the solution you have been looking for to keep track of your activity and sleep cycles. This wireless wrist unit makes it easy to keep track of the fitness aspects that matter the most.
The Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity Tracer and Sleep Band is a small wristband that keeps track of your activity, as in steps taken and distance moved, the amount of calories you have burned, the number of minutes you have been active, and then helps keep track of your sleeping cycle. It even comes with a silent alarm so that you can get up without waking your partner.
What You Will Get
The Fitbit Flex Band comes with a rechargeable battery, two bands, and comes with a free app. It can also be used with several other leading fitness applications for your IPhone or Android based service. You use the wireless feature to synchronize it in real time to your phone or computer.
The two bands are adjustable. The small band will fit wrists between 5.5” and 6.9”. The large band will fit wrists between 6.5” and 8.2”. There are two standard colors Slate Gray and Black; however, multiple colored bands are available for purchase separately, so the Fitbit is customizable for fashion aware users.
To increase motivation, the Fitbit gives you real time visual proof of your daily fitness goals through an LED light system. The closer you are, the more lights will light up. All you need is a quick glance to see how well you are doing. The wrist unit is water resistant up to 10 meters.
The battery is rechargeable and lasts for five days between charging. Charging your wrist unit is fast, about two hours is all you need to reach a full charge level. The system allows you, in addition to your activity levels, to log things such as the foods you have eaten, your beginning, and your goal weights.

Pros and Cons

The Fitbit Flex Band has several things going for it. It is a wrist unit unlike previous units that were awkward and need to be strapped to the torso. It comes with a silent vibration alarm that wakes you up without waking up your partner. This is perfect for individuals who work a separate schedule from their partner’s or need to get up at an earlier time. The wrist unit will track restful sleep, meaning your arm does not move for two or more hours at a time.
The ability to synchronize the wrist unit wirelessly is one of the features that make this wrist band an interesting addition to anyone’s fitness routine. You can update your progress during your day, whenever it is convenient to your schedule. You can also locate your data and review it wherever you are, using your phone, computer, or tablet.
If you are someone who has difficulty keeping track of his or her daily goals then this is a good solution to help keep you motivated. The LED system helps to give you a good measure of how well you are doing, at any given point in the day.
The wristband also has some real life in it. Some of these products tend to break all too easily. However, the Fitbit seems to have some durability to it, making it great for people who tend to be a little rougher on this type of equipment. For example, people in physically demanding jobs, that may not have considered this type of fitness tracker, may find the Fitbit to be a solution.
While there are many upsides to the Fitbit Flex band it is not without its faults.
• The band while water resistant builds up water and cannot handle pressurized water
• Additionally, there are other issues to consider. For example, the activity tracker is not as accurate as regular users might expect
• It works for two strides: walking and running. It needs to be calibrated for these two strides and if you alter them, the accuracy drops considerably
• It does not have a built in altimeter so it cannot track activity such as walking up the stairs
• It cannot handle swimming, tennis or other activities.
This is not designed to be an all in one activity monitor; however, a good feature to have, which it is missing, is a heart monitor. When you are tracking your steps, whether walking or running and doing heavy exercise, you want to be able to watch your heart rate in order to ensure that you are meeting the necessary guidelines, so as to obtain the most benefit from your activity. However, in the case of this tracker, you will need to purchase a secondary device to help monitor your heart rate or you will have to pause to check your heart rate.
Overall, the Fitbit Flex activity band has its good and its bad points. The good points make it well worth the time to take a look at it. However, the price may be a bit too much for most people, given the downsides pointed out in this review. The band is great for tracking movements that sit within its calibrated range, but outside of that range, it becomes increasingly inaccurate. The result is that it may only track some of the movement you make during a day and it will only track movements that fit within the strides you have programmed into the software applications. However, you can wirelessly synchronize the equipment, which makes it easy to keep track of everything.
Most people have access to an IPhone or android product and if not the website offers the ability to connect and upload all your information. It also comes with the ability to chart everything so that you can track your progress in more than just text on the page. Generally speaking, the product is decent and offers some great features but the price makes it a bit cost prohibitive.

Finding a reliable wireless activity tracker can be difficult. There are numerous models out there. How do you pick the one that is right for you? The UP24 by Jawbone Medium Wireless Activity and sleep tracker wristband may just be the solution for you. The Jawbone products are one of the leaders in activity and sleep tracking monitors. Numerous benefits and a name that is an industry standard really does back this wristband.

Features and Benefits

The UP24 has numerous features designed to make tracking your movement and sleep patterns easy. The design is trendy and fits well with people who want something fashion aware that does not look like a standard activity tracker. It also contains the standard food and drink tracking features that seem common with these devices. It has the standard step tracker, that handles running and walking steps. As with most activity trackers these days, the UP24 also comes with a sleep tracker to help track your sleep cycle.
Many people do not realize how important how they sleep is to their ability to function. You are used to sleeping a certain number of hours or a certain way. However, have you ever stopped to wonder why certain types of sleep, certain times, or certain lengths, make you feel different? The answer is in how you sleep. One of the things that the UP24 does is to track your sleep and how restful it is.
Do you move around a lot and when? You may find that the first few hours of sleep are deep sleep, you do not move around a lot. Then you have a period of movement that disrupts this. You may find that sleeping for a few hours, waking for a few minutes and sleeping again may give you longer restful sleep periods. This means better sleep even if it appears disrupted. The better your overall sleep, the more energy you have during the day, making it easier to accomplish your goals.
The Up24 is Bluetooth compatible making it easy to synchronize your daily results to your smartphone. The tracker is only available with Android 4.3 or later and IOS 6.0 or later. The accompanying app is easy to use. The UP24 also comes with a silent wake up alarm. This vibration based alarm system ensures that you do not wake up your partner.
The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 7 days. This enables users to use it on 6 days a week and charge it on their day off; charging is quick and easy via a USB port. All you need to do to access the charger is remove the end of the band and plug it in to your computer.
One of the biggest advantages this tracker has over other trackers is that it learns through the Insight Engine. The Insight Engine provides the user with information on how their eating and exercise habits affect each other, and in turn, affect the user. The more information you input, the more the engine learns about you and your habits.

Disadvantages

As with all products, since no product is perfect, there are some disadvantages to the UP24. The band is larger and thicker than other trackers. This can be cumbersome for people in jobs that require a lot of computer work or jobs that involve working with your hands.
• The band tends to get caught on the keyboard, especially laptops, and can get caught while you are moving around
• There is no heart monitor: you will need to use a second monitor if you are doing activities that require heart rate monitoring
• It does not function as a watch. You will need an additional watch unit. This can be irritating if you want to or need to wear everything on the same wrist, given the larger size of this tracker
• There is no desktop application for the UP24. You will need to use it with a smartphone or tablet that features the operating systems mentioned earlier
• It is rechargeable. This appears in both the advantage and disadvantage section because it can be both. For some people, having a rechargeable tracker is a benefit. You do not have to worry about additional batteries, generally for the life of the unit. However, some people prefer to have a replaceable battery because they tend to leave the tracker on the charger, instead of using it as often as they might want. For someone who is highly disciplined, this may not be a problem. For most people who are using this as a motivational tool, they may have difficulty with devices that have rechargeable batteries.

Overall, the UP24 keeps the standard set by Jawbone for trackers. It offers good benefits for what it is and those benefits seem to work well. There are some disadvantages but no more so than other trackers of the same type and level. The big question is whether it is worth the money. This is one of the more expensive trackers available on the market, for its class. There are numerous trackers available on the market that offer similar features. For someone using Jawbone products and wants to stay loyal to the brand, this is definitely a tracker to consider.
If you are looking for the cheapest tracker, this may not be the model for you, but the model is reliable and provides an excellent tracker. If you are looking for a good solid tracker with a company that has been around for a while, this is definitely a product to consider. The name has been a standard in the industry for a while now; customer service is decent and while there are cheaper models, this has proven to be a seriously reliable product.

Nike is a brand with a plan in all areas from footwear to sportswear. Their watches are no different when it comes to providing a product that catches the attention of world users. The Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom offers plenty of mainstream running features you would want to have with any watch. It is safe from sweat and rainstorms, plus offering you uplinks to websites for helpful tips. If you need a runners watch it is worth considering and comparing, although you may find the satellite response is sluggish or non-existent indoors and around tall buildings.

Description and Features

The Nike Plus or Nike + Sportwatch GPS powered by TomTom offers a beautiful design with the band size the same as the watch face. It is overall a sports watch made to provide you with an easy to read screen for tracking your run.
Features it offers are GPS to track your run location. It will record your pace for the entire run, as well as have a timer to track the amount of time you might wish to run. It will mark laps and any rest intervals you might take.
With a calorie tracker and heart rate monitor, you have further information to track your fitness for the day. The heart rate monitor requires a polar wear link and heart rate transmitter to signal the watch.
It is also water resistant. This ensures protection against sweat and any rainstorm that occurs during your marathon.
The watch designed to track automatic features and those you customized before you start your run. In this way, you have a personal coach along for the run while you enjoy the exercise and track your latest stats. With distance, laps, location, and pace you can take the information back home for download. This enables a comparison of your personal records, which helps to encourage you on your path to fitness. The watch will store all your run history.
After your run, you can check your NikeFuel page, set goals, track history, view splits, and connect with other runners using the same watch or any Nike sports watch. It is a watch for runners versus other exercise modes.
Additional features include auto looping and inverting the screen display so you can see date/time plus your run stats based on your preferences. It also comes with metric choices should you wish to have secondary metrics displayed.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The first thing you need to do with your watch is plug it in to charge the battery. There is a USB cable for the computer, which allows you to go through the entire setup for your watch, including logging into the website for Nike+. As the watch is charging, you can customize the screen settings for the displays you would like most to see. It is all very straightforward, with few instructions actually in the box.
A nice option with Nike’s website for the watch is offering up detailed training programs. If you have yet to run a lot or you want some new training tips for your next marathon, I found these helpful programs are definitely a nice addition to your access on Nike+.
The battery life is also another feature of advantage as you can use GPS and the watch up to 10 hours. It might not be enough for a marathon of 50 Kilometers, but it is enough for most users. You can use the watch in standby mode or without GPS during the day. The simple design will not detract from your business dress.
It comes with Facebook integration in the event you want to put your stats up on your page to share with friends, which is nice for those who like to share.
Unfortunately, the GPS has had some issues. While many do not find satellite problems, it has limitations with many tall buildings and particularly with indoor use. The GPS is not going to link up if you are in a building working out. Luckily, as you are indoors the GPS is not really a huge issue; after all, you want to track your run on the track better than caring about your current location. You can always upload to Nike+ later on.
Something that can be a little disadvantageous is all the firmware updates. In fact, taking it right out of the box can lead to quite a few updates. It is nice as it helps make the watch better, but sometimes when you just want to complete your data transfer, I found that it gets annoying.

Is this the Right Watch?

Value is always subjective and based on shopping around for price comparison. There is value in this runners watch. The setup is easy, which makes it simple to start your run each day. In addition, the initial setup takes a few minutes where you can play around with customizable options.
The battery life has one of the longer run times with GPS enabled than other watches, including some Garmin runners watches, which adds value especially if you intend on running marathons for hours.
The fact that you can stay linked to social media pages adds to the social and sharing aspect of your runs, which for some adds value, too.
Updates are something that add value, but occur often and along with some GPS issues based on location, there are some devaluating points to the watch. Overall, I would say the conclusion is a resounding yes. Buying the watch is worthwhile, but it is important to look at various sellers around the Internet to ensure a fair price for the value you do get. Buying new is especially important about the price. In terms of comparison to other watches, the price to value ratio is similar, so do not discount this and its website attributes over other watches, particularly if you are a Nike fan because it is definitely worth it.