Gadgetory

hi I'm Scott Stein and I'm wearing a Nike FuelBand se to try to get a little more fit this is one of a variety of intelligent fitness trackers that are suddenly all over the place on the market you've got Fitbit you've got a jawbone up so what's the advantage of the FuelBand se versus others well Nike came out with the fuel band a year ago and it had this innovative design that has LED lights here doubles as a watch and has a really slick futuristic readout that lets you tell how many steps you take and how much fuel you've earned now if you haven't used the Nike system before fuel is a point system that accumulates daily and over time to calculate what it considers kind of a a gamer score for your health and it calculates how fast you're walking how many steps you've taken using its three axis accelerometer that's in here and it does some additional magic sauce math to come up with that number the whole Nike+ system is about earning achievements and badges and how does it feel as a motivating tool well I found that being able to glance with the press of the button here as I'm working or walking encourages you to say well I've only gotten to this point maybe I can do a little more and it's not just the digital readout here it actually has this really cool multicolored LED progress bar that tells you like a little gauge how close you are to the goal that you've set now FuelBand se the main hardware differences are that it uses Bluetooth 4.0 now that's a big trend across all wearable devices and what it means is that it can connect and disconnect wirelessly and sync even when you're not setting it to in a more seamless way it only is available for the iPhone still no Android support and it works with the iPhone 4s and later which have Bluetooth 4.0 in it it will also sink to a computer in fact one of the coolest things about this fuel band besides its comfortable feel is the fact that when you disconnect it it actually is its own USB stick and the durability on this has been amped up a bit so that it's now shower resistant and far better than before and so you can wear this in the shower you can wash your hands with a you can't go swimming with it there's also a session tracking feature now if you play basketball if you ski if you're sleeping which is an activity if you press and hold this button it will begin to log an activity and what it does is it actually shows you like a speedometer how many fuel points are earning per minute and you can share that with your friends in fact there's a social system here that if friends want to join in become your fuel buddies and you can see how they're doing over the course of the week and a nice thing about the Nike system is that it's kind of getting a little more open because you don't have to just use the wristband although the fuel band is is the way that Nike intends for you to experience this there's actually a Nike Move app on the iPhone 5s that uses the m7 accelerometer tracking technology in there that also records your steps it doesn't give you the same amount of points over time because it's in your pocket but it's a good little starter kit to experience the eco system but in this day and age the fuel band is a little simplistic it does tell you to move every hour with a little notifier but it doesn't buzz there's no vibrate in this I need a cattle prod I need this thing to tell me to move it's a nice step up but it's expensive compared to the competition but for a stylish and comfortable sports tracking band it's hard to beat the feel of the fuel band and it is fun to use especially if you wanted as a watch just don't expect too much beyond that fuel score gamification I'm Scott Stein and that's a look at the Nike FuelBand se which did get me to go to the gym and enjoy walking and running a little bit faster