Gadgetory

it's only been five years in this new industry and it's shaping to supplement our lives smart activity bans wearable fitness gear that goes beyond just counting your steps like a pedometer what I'd like to do is not a review as I traditionally perform but an outlook on what's they come in 2014 so sit back and I hope you enjoy this as this is my first attempt and reporting on an industry here's activity bands shaping our lives pedometers have existed for some time keeping count of every rhythmic bounce taken for every step performed but in 2007 James Park and Eric Friedman broke new ground into an industry that didn't really exist with their product called Fitbit it was the first company to propose a wireless activity tracker to be worn all day and claimed to track steps distance calories burned and even sleep at the time performance comm most a recent interview with James Park by Christmas of 2009 just two years after the company was established when a product first launched the company had over 25,000 orders today it has 77% of the market of full-body activity trackers Fitbit is one of the pioneers that created that demand a demand to understand ourselves better these bands are typically worn 24/7 that provides data to track your health and fitness but I believe even for the non fitness person it's an insight to view our habits and behaviors now imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and giant audio technology company jawbone followed suit with their own tracker in 2011 with the jawbone up currently it's in its third iteration of the band with the up 24 released late 2013 enhancements over the years for companies including jawbone and Fitbit included food logging flights of stairs climbed and improved amp for details of your sleep and your tivity levels now her NPD consumer market research firm from January of 2013 to January of 2014 Fitbit accounted for 68% of sales while jawbone up accounts for 19 and Nike accounted for 10% of sales all remaining percentages are from other activity manufacturers like misfit and polar and that really brings us to where we are today the outlook for 2014 is full of options and the technology behind them is even more fascinating and advanced and I'll start with the small companies first as a January 2014 basis released what they claimed at the moment to be the most advanced tracker on the market measuring your heart rate calories burned during a specific activity and not just in general multiple sleep stages like REM sleep and there's also a perspiration monitor and skin temperature reader right under watch itself now how well does it perform at the moment I personally don't know but once I get my hands on this I'll be sure to review it but that's where the direction of these bands are heading for 2014 another band that will basically revolutionize this industry is the move where it's your personal fitness coach instead of putting out another wristband the move is placed on your body corresponding to your workout it's even placed on your bike pedal or golf club as shown on the moves a website the reason being as simple as it is more accurate readings than on the wrist for jet shorten your stride and while most trekkers read three axis of movement to measure performance the move has nine axis sensors per their websites the move collects your body's position and data and advises in real-time the correct posture this has performance tracking injury prevention for monitoring 3d motion sensing and it is waterproof as well the former Apple engineer that founded moved started her crowdfunding in hopes of raising $40,000 and this was surpassed in just in 90 minutes of starting because of that move is slated for release summer of 2014 at least to its backers and from reports early adopters are buying two at a time at a discounted price of $99 Atlas fitness and amigo are both similar and concepts yet different in its technology currently funding has surpassed and sits over $500,000 for both companies with Atlas and amigo the analytics can tell the difference between bicep curls versus alternating bicep curls because different exercises burn different calories both companies focused on differentiating each activity and individual performs in the Atlas promotional video that claims it can read your posture to ensure you're not cheating while at the same time showing the current heart rate on the display the Atlas tells which style swimming you're performing and distinguishes what lap you're on amigo does the same it also counts type speed and quality of every movement down to reps and sets it's that intuitive pre-order is still currently open at the time of this video with 189 dollars being the minimum pre-order cost for the Atlas and as low in $99 for the amigo in retail of course will be a little bit higher once these products are fully released now Atlas plans are shipped to its backers December of 2014 and I believe the amigo is still in its prototype stage so I'm not sure when the release date is on that one now with these small companies mentioned first there's no question of these tech giants will try to get a piece of the pie as well recently announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain Samsung is releasing the latest wearable tech the gear fit it'll feature a beautiful Super AMOLED screen that's focused on health but also has some SmartWatch features as well like media control and notifications from your phone like text email and incoming calls because it's so new at the moment the only features confirm so far are a heartrate and sleep monitor with a pedometer tracker as well the band will work in conjunction with s health which is Samsung's fitness app currently available on the Galaxy s4 smartphone there's tons of metrics that can be seen and additional features that some other tracking software don't even have for example I'm real big and food logging and counting protein sugar and sodium intake is a huge plus for me but keep in mind the Samsung gear fit comes to market as more of a lifestyle band and I would speculate this is not as deep featured like a move or atlas mentioned previously where it can measure your posture and differentiate your activity as of this video Samsung has yet to review pricing and release dates Sony as well entered into this market for their first time the Sony focuses on life logging with activity monitoring as we record your basics like distance traveled calories burned how active compared to very active moments and from what sony claims this band will differentiate and see if you've been walking running cycling and how while you slept but sony focuses on recording your date automatically though which includes non sports and non fitness related movements again think lifelogging this will keep note on what games you've played how much time you spend socializing with your friends and what music you've listened to this i'm sure will not be for the person with a strong focus on fitness but actually overall quality of life and how their days are spent at first the band didn't have much substance but the concept is different in painting a picture of you as an individual now one example may be not yourself but i'm sure you know someone who puts on facebook or twitter which restaurant they're currently at and basically their meal or dish they have for that night tapping this Sony band bookmarks this life event for you storing your photo you taken and basically bookmarking it for retrieval later it'll also store the restaurant location you're at and also the friends they were with you that day and Sony says they're smart band will be about $135 and released later in March of 2014 Garmin one of the pioneers of GPS will be releasing the vivofit counting the basics like steps calories and distance will be provided this will also be waterproof up to 50 meters and having a one-year battery life and sleep monitoring capabilities and it being Garmin I can only anticipate this being very beneficial for runners again just speculation but I would assume this to have GPS tracking and showcase your distance over a map but more importantly I'm hoping and anticipating for hardcore runners this will detail your pace per mile in detail elevation changes as well now perfect for those training or just wanting a bit more detail than just counting steps in the distance in general this is being released end of March of 2014 for the price of one hundred $29 and which I do highly recommend though if you think $170 is a lot it's actually on par with the polar loop and the basis price so it's interesting to see where the world is heading with connected and wearable technology it's only a matter of time until these bands measure our entire lives holistically from a matter of health and a matter of our habits and behaviors of course there'll be more bands coming out and possibly some I haven't touched on in this video if I forgot please comment on them below so here's to 2014 and what comes ahead this is Jimmy from Jim's review room up to your FEMA soon