Hasta La Gadget!

You know what they say, right? You can never have too many fitness trackers. After coming out with two health monitors back in September, Fitbit is back with a third product, the Flex — a waterproof wristband seemingly designed to compete with the Jawbone Up. (In PR speak: “Fitbit understands that one tracker does not fit all.”) Like other Fitbit devices, it counts calories, steps taken and distance covered (but not flights climbed). It then automatically sends that data to a personalized website over Bluetooth. You can record your food intake, too, but you’ll have to do it manually using either the website or one of the company’s mobile apps.

The Flex tracks your sleep quality as well, but the approach here differs from other Fitbit products: whereas the Fitbit One and Fitbit Zip have a key you can press to enter sleep mode, the Flex has no buttons at all, so your only recourse for logging sleep is to use the app or website. We have to say, that sounds like a bit like a case of form over function: the Up can detect when you’re sleeping, as can the pricey new Basis band. The good news is that the battery life seems decent: Fitbit says the Flex can last between five and seven days on a charge, and that’s despite having a Bluetooth 4.0 radio inside. For comparison’s sake, the Jawbone up is rated for up to 10 days but then again, you have to plug it in every time you want to sync, and the cap covering the charging piece is easy to lose. So, that’s something to keep in mind. In any case, if you prefer the wristband form factor and want something less expensive than the Up, the Flex costs $100 and is up for pre-order today, with shipments expected to begin sometime in the Spring.

Filed under: Wearables

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We liked the Fitbit One activity tracker, but there was some convenience lacking. While its pebble-like form-factor was very discreet, it meant you always had to take it out and put it in a special arm band if you wanted to monitor your sleep, then return it to your pants in the morning. And which pants did you forget them in this time? More »

Best Buy omitted a handful of details when it unveiled the Insignia Flex Tablet last week, not the least of which is the price that usually sells Insignia-branded gear. A Reuters tipster claims to have filled in that blank: the 9.7-inch, Ice Cream Sandwich-based slate will reportedly cost between $239 to $259 when it ships November 11th. That’s not bad for a tablet at the size of the Flex, but you’ll be giving up a lot to get that screen size if the price tag is real. A similar outlay could net a (likely faster) 32GB Kindle Fire HD, for starters — and while we don’t know any details of what’s coming from Apple’s “little” event next week, we have a hunch that it just might overshadow Best Buy’s hopes of being the value leader in the tablet field. Without an official confirmation or denial, we’d suggest fence-sitting for a little while longer if you’re not already in love with the big-box retailer’s in-house brand.

Filed under: Tablets

Reuters says Insignia Flex Tablet may cost $239 to $259, we’d say it faces stiff odds originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were planning on attending the Pantech Beach Championships this weekend in Ocean City, MD, you might be able to catch a glimpse of an upcoming handset by the manufacturer. Dubbed the Pantech Flex, not much information has been given out by the manufacturer except to say that it will be a 4G LTE capable device and will be making its way onto AT&T’s network in the coming months. Apart from that, photos and additional specifications remain unknown at this point, although we guess it would be a safe assumption to think that it will at the very least be powered by Android, but it remains to be seen if it will prove to be a high-end phone capable of holding its own against devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3, or a low-mid ranged handset that will come with an affordable price tag. In any case the details should be provided this weekend at the Beach Championships event, so we guess we will learn more then. Smartphone users who have enjoyed Pantech’s previous offerings in the past, be sure to check back with us as we keep you updated with the details!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AT&T expands 4G LTE coverage to new areas, Samsung SGH-I547 stops by the FCC with AT&T’s LTE radios on board,