Fully intent on making full use of the smart wearable devices you might already own, the company known as Zero has begun to take shape. This company is brought on by former HTC executive Kouji Kodera, and is starting out with attention on fitness bands. Working with the bands from a variety of companies – […]
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Big holiday meals beget ambitious New Year’s resolutions, so you should treat yourself or your loved ones to a tool that helps you shed a few pounds and live a healthier lifestyle. The Fitbit Flex, normally $100 and rarely discounted, is available for $68 today from Best Buy using code bloggers15off. [Best Buy via 9to5Toys]
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Valley-based startup Movimento is looking to further exploit the flood of data coming out of our wearables. By creating a platform that integrates familiar social gaming concepts with products like Fitbit, Jawbone UP, or Nike FuelBand, the company is enabling users to compete with their friends and create unique challenges while keeping in shape and getting some exercise.
Developed by software house Werktab during the Glazed hackathon, Movimento’s initial idea was to gamify healthcare. However, its team quickly realized the potential behind it and decided to target both the consumer and enterprise sides of the market. The whole idea behind Movimento is simple – you connect your Nike+ FuelBand, Fitbit or any other supported wearable device with the mobile app. From there, you can create different challenges, invite your friends and directly compete with them. You earn points and badges throughout the process and build up your profile – think of it as an automated Fitocracy. Because it works with multiple devices you don’t all have to be on the Fitbit website or in Nike’s clutches.
Ivan Markovic, Movimento’s CEO, stated that the idea came from inside the company. “At Werktab we like to stay healthy and we love our wearables, but we’re also competitive. Movimento incorporates these things beautifully as it provides a unique social experience for you and your fitness buddies,” he said.
Movimento is hoping to further engage people when it comes to working out. At this moment only some of the tracker data is processed. Ivan points out that there are dozens of variables that can be monitored and exploited by the app. However, the basic ones, such as pedometer, physical activity and sleep time, are just enough to create a gamified fitness platform that works across the range of devices.
From the enterprise standpoint, Movimento is looking to provide valuable data to corporations and health care companies. By actively working out and following doctors’ instructions, users can receive different rewards. Companies can use this information to create the right health plan for each employee, effectively saving millions of dollars in insurance. Movimento is already a part of SAP accelerator and is actively raising a seed round with several undisclosed Valley firms. Markovic stated that demand for such a product is high, especially now that big companies such as Google and Samsung have entered the wearables game.
The company is currently running a closed beta with Markovic, promising a 2014 Q1 launch date.
Last year, the Fitbit One
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The Fitbit Force has been revealed – ready to take on the wrists of fitness lovers across the world with a couple of color choices and extreme simplicity. This device works with a tiny OLED display that shows the time and how many steps you’ve taken. This device works very similar to the Fitbit Flex […]
Fitbit, makers of the fitness tracking Flex wristband, announced Thursday that it will be releasing the Fitbit Force this fall. The Force is an updated version of the Flex with some additional features, most notably an OLED display right on the device.
The added display is a big advancement in the device. Not only will this allow the user to see their distance progress and calories burned as you might expect, but it can also see the names of incoming callers. The Fitbit Force will pair with your iPhone via Bluetooth and is the first of the wrist-worn devices to take advantage of the new Apple iOS 7 notification center. This way users on a run can track the calls that come in without having to pull out their phone and gives Fitbit a jump on the competition from Nike’s Fuelband and Jawbone’s Up. There is no integration for this with Android yet, but touching the Force to an Android phone (NFC equipped) will automatically launch the Fitbit application.
The Fitbit Force will track steps taken, distance, calories and sleeping habits as its predecessor did. It will also track stairs climbed through a built-in altimeter and total active minutes throughout a week. The Bluetooth 4.0 also supports pairing with your computer to avoid the need for the USB connection to sync up your data.
Fitbit already offers an small array of fitness tracking products including the Zip, and One that attach to your clothing, the integrated Aria smart scale and the Flex wristband. Fitbit is offering the Force for $129.95.
Fitbit did a lot of things very right when it made the One, its tiny activity-tracking pod. But then the company—caving to peer pressure from the likes of Nike—made the Fitbit Flex wristband. There’s nothing wrong with that form-factor, but the Flex lost a lot of the functionality that made the One so great, and it felt like a big step backwards. Today the company is releasing the Fitbit Force, and it’s exactly what the Flex should have been.
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For the first time, motion sensing occurs in a separate processor, which makes constant activity tracking more power-efficient without turning on the rest of the A7 chip. This means we’ll start to see more Quantified Self (QS) tracking apps without …
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Fitbit is readying a new flagship wearable, the Fitbit Force, building on its Flex fitness tracker with more sensors and a digital display for doubling as a watch. Yet to be officially announced, but spotted lurking on Fitbit’s site by Engadget and The Verge, the Force includes an altimeter with its motion sensors, which can […]
The Verge has obtained
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