We wrote the other day about the less-than-stellar review that Re/code gave the new fitness trackers from Fitbit. In the interest of fairness and completeness, we also note that Gizmodo has a set of reviews, and they like the Surge and the Charge HR much more than Re/code did, finding them respectably accurate. Gizmodo dinged the entry level Charge for a dreadful clasp, and … [Read more...]
Adafruit’s Ringly Teardown. Or, What $5.1 Million Buys You
We're suckers for a good teardown, so when the fine folks at Adafruit emerged from the New York snowstorm with a deconstruction of Ringly, we paid attention. Maybe we wouldn't have been so interested if Ringly hadn't closed that big funding round, but it did and we are. And a teardown that requires the use of a hammer, no matter how gently wielded? Sign us … [Read more...]
The Verge Reviews Microsoft Band: Great Concept, Middling Execution
The Verge is carrying a long and thoughtful review of the Microsoft Band and Microsoft Health ecosystem. Author David Pierce digs into the use case of health trackers in general and the Band in particular. His conclusion: the Band as a device has some drawbacks -- comfort, battery life, interface -- but the volume of data it generates is impressive and potentially useful. It … [Read more...]
Acer Shows Liquid Leap Wristband
Only serious techies will remember that the big Computex show is going on in Asia right now. Acer released a raft of new products today, including the Liquid Leap wristband that it teased a little while ago. Engadget's got a good hands-on. Short version: it looks like the Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit, but will for now work only with Acer's Liquid line of phones. Availability in the … [Read more...]
Fixya Crowdsources Five Smartwatch Reviews
We here have been writing and editing tech product reviews for going on three decades, so we claim some significant expertise about them. But Fixya's showing an interesting approach to the process we haven't seen before: collecting thousands of troubleshooting reports and drawing conclusions about the products. Fixya aggregated about 6,000 user reports about five smart … [Read more...]
WSJ on Samsung Gear: Not Awful, But Not Great
Reviews of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone and Gear Fit wristwear unveiled at Mobile World Congress are starting to hit. The Wall Street Journal's got a pretty good write-up of the Fit, which is admiring but mixed. Its major points: Battery life is disappointing: two days with notifications on, four with them off. Interface is good Device is pretty and … [Read more...]
FiveThirtyEight Takes On Fitness Trackers
Some months ago, we reported that different brands of fitness trackers appear to count steps in fundamentally different ways from each other -- and that called their accuracy into question. Yesterday, Nate Silver's ESPN-owned data journalism site FiveThirtyEight.com launched, and there was a wonderful piece about just that topic. Reporter Carl Bialik counted his own steps … [Read more...]
Hands-On With the Samsung Gear 2s and Gear Fit
As promised, Samsung unveiled the new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo tonight at Mobile World Congress, along with a surprise: a sports band that fits neatly into its ecosystem. The new products, frankly, are lots better than we'd expected -- and vastly improved from last year's initial versions. (There also was the Galaxy 5 smartphone, a nifty piece of gear. But it's not wearable in … [Read more...]
The new, less-dorky Glass
TechRepublic's Jason Hiner has a set (pair?) of Google Glass 2.0, and he's kind of liking it. The new version is built better, is less obvious, has more useful software and APIs so programmers can more easily build interesting apps, and can accommodate prescription lenses. We're still not talking about a mainstream product here, but six months has apparently made a big … [Read more...]
Comparative Review of Fuelband vs Flex: Can You Trust The Data?
I've been wearing a Nike Fuelband for the last year or so, since it first became commercially available. I added a Fitbit Flex three months ago, when it too first hit the market. They differ considerably -- not just in design and intent, but in measuring what is supposedly the same thing. The short version: over the course of the last three months, the Flex counted an … [Read more...]