Hasta La Gadget!

The Withings Pulse is the latest device in the personal activity tracker category, and it isn’t a wristband, which runs counter to the latest fad. Instead, it’s a portable rectangle not unlike the original Fitbit devices designed to be carried in a pocket or attached to clothing via an included clip. The Pulse fills out Withings’ line of home health monitoring gadgets, pairing up with its smart scales to deliver info about steps walked, calories burned, altitude traversed and heart rate.

Basics

• 128×32 OLED touchscreen
• 43mm x 22mm x 8mm
• Heart rate sensor built-in
• Micro-USB charging
• MSRP: $99.95
• Product info page

Design

The Pulse is a small package, but as per the old adage, it’s a good thing. It’s not tiny enough that it’s hard to find in your pocket, and yet it’s thin enough that it doesn’t add a bunch of bulk. The rubberized finish means you won’t lose it, and the way the OLED display is invisible when inactive is very cool. It’s got a single button, and touchscreen functionality to let you swipe through previous day totals, and it all works quite well.

The actual pulse tracker on the back of the device is the one break in the smooth exterior (barring the micro-USB port) and that aspect of the Pulse is highly functional, so the fact that it mars the unbroken surface is forgivable. I like that Withings has opted for an external clip that can be removed instead of building one in, as I’d much rather have just thrown the thing in a pocket. And the micro-USB is great, since it means you don’t have to use a specialized cable to charge the Pulse, as you often do with wristbands.

Features

The Pulse has a step counter, calorie counter, altitude meter and distance travelled tracker. All of that is pretty standard among these devices, and about as accurate as you’ll find elsewhere (which is to say not very), but the Pulse also has a pulse sensor and a time/battery indicator, as well as a sleep mode that works in tandem with an included wristband accessory. The wristband is a soft material that’s perfect for sleeping, too, and far more comfortable than the Jawbone UP or the Fitbit Flex.

I’m addicted to the pulse sensor aspect of the device, and in tandem with the Withings Smart Body Analzyer, it really helps paint a more full picture of your overall personal health. The Pulse offers the best value for money of any fitness tracking device I’ve tried so far, and that’s saying a lot.

The Bottom Line

The Withings Pulse is probably the best available option in fitness trackers, but that might depend on how you want to wear one. For wristbands, I’d still go with the Fitbit Flex, but the Pulse is my overall pick. It seems like companies operating in this space are doing a very good job of watching their competitors, gauging the needs of their users and iterating based on that information to improve things overall.

Withings just closed a big round last week, and that’s helping them grow internationally. The Pulse is a key tool in the arsenal the company has to help fuel its growth, and it’s a solid ambassador for the company’s line of devices.

Health gadget company Withings will announce in a few minutes a new funding round from Bpifrance, Idinvest Partners, 360 Capital Partners and existing investor Ventech. Out of the $30 million, $15 million comes from Bpifrance, the newly created public entity — BPI means Public Investment Bank in French. It is one of its first traditional VC deal.

Withings is perhaps best known for its series of smart scales and body analyzers (along with curious one-off devices like a baby monitor), but the company has recently decided to take a stab at creating yet another sort of fitness gadget: a wearable activity tracker. Calling that particular market crowded is putting it awfully mildly. Devices from the likes of Nike, Jawbone, and Fitbit have put an approachable face on the quantified self movement and have garnered plenty of attention from press and health-conscious consumers.

That’s not to say that Withings’ own fitness tracker, the Pulse, is entering the fight unarmed — it’s capable of measuring its user’s heart rate with a single touch in addition to tracking steps taken and hours slept. The Pulse’s big value though is that it provides even more data for existing Withings device owners to tap into, which helps users piece together a more fully-realized image of their health. That street runs both ways too — the $99 Pulse may wind up acting as a sort of Trojan Horse to introduce its users to the rest of Withings’ health-centric gadgets.

While Withings prepares to face off against some highly popular rivals, it plans to use that fresh infusion of capital to strengthen its foundation. In addition to expanding to new markets, and fleshing out its R&D efforts with new hires, Withings hopes to improve its retail distribution deals to more prominently show off its health-conscious wares to consumers. The Paris-based company was founded in 2008 and previously raised $3.85 million (€3 million) in 2010.

When it comes to the investment, the most surprising part is that Bpifrance is leading the round. Bpifrance is the new venture with teams from OSEO, CDC Entreprises, and the FSI (France’s sovereign wealth fund). In its past iterations, it has invested in France’s biggest startups, such as Dailymotion, or even well-established companies, such as Orange.

Many startup enthusiasts thought that the public institutions weren’t supporting France’s startup economy by putting money into those companies. Dailymotion was already a “success” when the FSI invested. Withings may indicate a new trend at Bpifrance. The institution could make many smaller and riskier deals to support startups at an early stage.

Just how many activity trackers can this emerging, but admittedly niche market support? We have no idea, but Withings is hoping that there’s room for at least one more. The company will be releasing the Pulse tomorrow for $99, and taking on veterans of the scene like Fitbit and relative newcomers like Jawbone. The tiny device counts steps, monitors your sleep patterns and can even measure your heart rate. Unfortunately, it can’t do the latter constantly and in real time, though, that might be a slightly unrealistic expectation of any tracker. Like some of Fitbit’s products it can also monitor your altitude, which is great for people who want to know how many steps they’ve climbed. The Pulse itself is quite small, about the size of standard issue pedometer and almost as light. The casing is made of a nice soft touch plastic that feels down right lovely in the hand, which is good since you’ll be manhandling the Pulse more than most other trackers. It’s a far cry from the glossy piano black finish it sported at CES.

Filed under: Wearables

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Withings introduced its Smart Activity Tracker at CES with many details regarding how it worked, but few hints of just when it would reach our belts and wrists. Courtesy of an FCC approval, we now know that it’s relatively close. The exercise and sleep sensor has gone through US testing with no real surprises in hardware, but a much simpler branding strategy: the manual suggests the tracker will just be called the Pulse, which could help in a market full of one-word rivals. About all that’s left is for Withings to say exactly where and when we can get its new wearable.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

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Source: FCC

We wouldn’t blame you if, three months into 2013, you’d let those New Year’s resolutions slide a bit. Luckily for you, Withings is giving you a chance to wipe the slate clean after launching its air-sniffing flagship, the Smart Body Analyzer. As well as monitoring your weight and body fat, the new hardware measures the local atmosphere and your heart rate — to ensure you’re not overdosing on carbon dioxide. It’s available for $150 / €150 from today — just don’t forget to cancel the In-N-Out order on your way to the store.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Source: Withings