The Apple Watch Series 3 delivers solid improvements over its predecessor. This includes a few updates which make it more useful as a tool for health and fitness tracking. The big news, of course, is the inclusion of cellular connectivity.
What has remained constant, however, is battery life. You still need to charge it a lot. Perhaps that was to be expected taking into account the bump in specs.
Nevertheless, the last iteration enabled the company to sail past Fitbit and Xiaomi and take a commanding lead in global wearables sales. The tech giant has also smashed through an important milestone. Apple is now the largest watchmaker in the world, managing to outpace the entire Swiss watch-making industry! And lets not forget – as of last Thursday its the first trillion dollar company ever.
In each of the last four years, we were treated to a new version of the Apple Watch. With September just around the corner, here is what to look forward to this year.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal from
PURPOSE:
This study aimed to apply open-source analysis code to raw habitual physical activity data from wrist-worn monitors to: 1) objectively, unobtrusively and accurately discriminate between ‘running’ and ‘non-running’ days; and 2) develop and compare simple accelerometer-derived metrics of external training load with existing self-report measures. METHODS:
Seven-day wrist-worn accelerometer (GENEActiv, Activinsights Ltd, Kimbolton, UK) data obtained from 35 experienced runners (age, 41.9±11.4 years; height 1.72±0.08 m; mass 68.5±9.7 kg; Body Mass Index, 23.2±2.2 kg.m; 19 [54%] women) every other week over 9-18 weeks were date-matched with self-reported training log data. Receiver-Operating-Characteristic analyses were applied to accelerometer metrics (‘Average Acceleration’, ‘Most Active-30mins’, ‘Mins≥400mg’) to discriminate between ‘running’ and ‘non-running’ days and cross-validated (leave one out cross-validation; LOOCV). Variance explained in training log criterion metrics (Miles, Duration, Training Load) by accelerometer metrics (‘Mins≥400mg’, ‘WL(workload)400-4000mg’) was examined using linear regression with LOOCV. RESULTS:
‘Most Active-30mins’ and ‘Mins≥400mg’ had >94% accuracy for correctly classifying ‘running’ and ‘non-running’ days, with validation indicating robustness. Variance explained in Miles, Duration and Training Load by ‘Mins≥400mg’ (67-76%) and ‘WL400-4000mg’ (55-69%) was high, with validation indicating robustness. CONCLUSION:
Wrist-worn accelerometer metrics can be used to objectively, unobtrusively and accurately identify running training days in runners, reducing the need for training logs or user input in future prospective research or commercial activity tracking. The high percentage of variance explained in existing self-reported measures of training load by simple, accelerometer-derived metrics of external training load supports the future use of accelerometry for prospective, preventative and prescriptive monitoring purposes in runners.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
It was a bit of a bumpy start, but it’s beginning to look like Fitbit’s push into the smartwatch market is beginning to bear fruit. While the company is still operating at a loss, yesterday’s Q2 earnings report revealed that the Fitbit’s downward revenue and device sales trend was lessened by the success of its Versa smartwatch, which the company said has outsold all Samsung, Garmin, and Fossil’s smartwatches in North America combined.
New connected health research of U.S. broadband households from Parks Associates finds that 75% of smart watch owners and 68% of fitness tracker owners report using their devices on a daily basis. The international research firm will host its fifth-annual Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, August 28-30 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, to examine consumer demand for connected health solutions, usage patterns, and strategies to increase, engage, and improve health outcomes, and ultimately save costs.
“Consumers report high usage rates for their wearables,” said Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates. “At Connected Health Summit, we will examine strategies to ensure consumers sustain their engagement with their connected health solutions and assess how use of health tech affects outcomes.”
Let’s get something out of the way right up front: The Suunto 9 is the Suunto Spartan V2. Or next-gen Spartan Ultra, or whatever you want to call it. Except Suunto changed the naming system this go around – and now it’s called Suunto 9. Thus, if you’re looking for Suunto’s top-dog watch, this is the one you’re looking for.
Despite the significant shift in naming though (for the better), think of the Suunto 9 as more an evolutionary update to the Suunto Spartan series, rather than a major revolutionary change. Aside from the addition of the optical heart rate sensor (which Suunto had placed in other units anyway), the only three other major changes at present are related to battery life, new super-cool GPS tracking modes, and a new GPS chipset provider (Sony). Actually, four if you count the new universal band straps – allowing you to use any strap you find on the interwebs with it.
But that doesn’t mean Suunto isn’t doing more behind the scenes on their mobile app and website – as they certainly are. It’s just that those changes don’t fit well on the back of the box, nor into this intro section. Instead, they require a bunch of text to try and explain. Thus how you end up with a 9,774 word review.
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing leaked reports on Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch. The South Korean tech company accidentally revealed the image of the new watch on its own US website, where it remained for a few minutes before someone realized and took it down. Thankfully not before CNET could nab a screengrab.
What we learned so far is that the new watch will be called the Galaxy Watch, and not the Gear S4.
… Fast Company has learned that Amazon, Apple, and Google each have high-priority projects to pick up where Doppler left off. All three are working on products that combine the utility of the hearing aid with the entertainment value of a pair of high-end headphones, and potentially much more, say sources. Since all three have announced plans to get into healthcare, they could easily add fitness and health monitoring sensors for everything from counting steps to measuring oxygen saturation. And while it may take years to happen, none want to be left behind should it become possible to create a general purpose, in-ear computer that allows consumers to leave their phone in the desk drawer.
“Ultimately, the idea is to steal time from the smartphone,” says Gints Klimanis, Doppler’s former head of audio engineering. “The smartphone will probably never go away completely, but the combination of voice commands and hearing could become the primary interface for anything spontaneous.”
Today, Strava launched a new membership service called Summit, which is a replacement for Strava Premium. The company is introducing new fitness packs that members can purchase individually or together, based on their own custom goals. If you are already a Strava Premium member, you will retain access to the features you’ve paid for at the same price.
Strava’s new packs focus on Training, Safety and Analysis. The Training pack features real-time training GPS tracking, training plans, custom goals, race analysis, filtered leaderboards (sorted by age and weight) and more. The Analysis pack focuses in on tech that’s connected to Strava. It will analyze the impact of your workout over time, based on metrics from heart rate monitors and other devices, visualizations of pace and lap data, assess performance and fitness and more.
Finally, the Safety pack focuses on helping you plan your outdoor adventures and focuses on helping you stay safe during these endeavors. Your pre-chosen personal contacts can privately see where you are in real time so they can assess if you’re in a situation where you need help.
… Technology plays a significant part for many people’s race day, with wearables increasingly used to track speed and distance, but runners in the San Francisco Marathon were able to use a dedicated application to prepare for the big day.
Neurun allows runners to join a community of like-minded athletes who share similar goals and to access tips from professional coaches and runners in a particular group. However, the most intriguing aspect of the application is the ability to visualize the entire course beforehand.
A global shortage of the passive components that GoPro Inc. integrates into the company’s action cameras has created a significant supply chain challenge, yet the company remains confident in being able to weather the disruption and meet increased product demand beginning in the first quarter of 2019.
“We are closely monitoring a well-known, industry-wide shortage of passive components such as resistors and capacitors,” CEO Nicholas Woodman said on Thursday’s conference call with analysts. “While the shortage represents the risk to consumer electronics companies, we’re fortunate to have an industry-leading operations team working closely with the large-scale contract manufacturer to secure supply.”
… The Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT is a somewhat surprising device. What looks like a simple black and white bike GPS is actually a full Android machine, powered by a MediaTek SoC that’s usually used in Android Wear devices. It takes updates over HTTP, and although it’s feature-rich, it manages to violate not just the GPL, but the Apache2 license too. All that said, it is a cool device.
Oh, right. And I’m presumably supposed to write a gear review, too. Uh, I might keep it as a hackers’ toy. But I think I’m probably just going to get an Edge 520 Plus. As far as I can tell, the ELEMNT BOLT does everything the Garmin does, but about 10% worse.
One hurdle to greater adoption of solar power is the performance and longevity of solar cells.
Maria Chan, nanoscientist at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), and Ji-Sang Park, a CNM facility user from the Imperial College London, are studying the causes of silicon solar cell degradation in an effort to make solar power more affordable.
A T-shirt that can change color to complement your mood (and help you pare down your wardrobe). An apron that transforms into a dress and has interchangeable pockets with high-tech functionality. These are the forward-looking concepts presented by a group of three students from MIT and three students from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), making practical use of the latest active textile technologies.
For the first FIT/MIT Summer Workshop, held over two weeks in June, the six students spent one week at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts and one week at FIT in New York City to explore and develop clothing concepts using advanced functional materials that incorporate 3-D printing or advanced knitting technologies. The workshop was held collaboratively with Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), a Cambridge-based national nonprofit enabling a manufacturing-based transformation of traditional fibers, yarns, and textiles into highly sophisticated integrated and networked devices and systems.
University of California-Riverside, UCR Today from
Claudia Chaves Villarreal, a Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering in UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering, received a 2018 AAAS Pacific Division Alan E. Leviton Student Research Award. The $700 award will support her ongoing collaboration with Ashok Mulchandani, the W. Ruel Johnson Chair in Environmental Engineering, to integrate biological components with photovoltaic cells to deliver fully sustainable solar energy.
Existing photovoltaic technology is not fully capable of realizing the promise of sustainable solar energy. Commercial and emerging photovoltaic technologies require energy-intensive extracting and manufacturing processes and often require metals like tin that generate social conflict and environmental harm with their mining. Slave and child labor, along with rampant environmental destruction and pollution are widespread in the tin mining industry, which in some places is even controlled by militias to fund wars.
… These runners and roughly 100 others were competing in the historic, first-ever U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Only 63 would finish. There was no qualifying time; anyone who could get to Alamosa could run. Previous U.S. Olympic marathon runners had been chosen by committee from their performances in a select group of existing, established races–Boston, Yonkers, Culver City, and so on.
However, on August 18, 1968, the racers would self-select in do-or-die fashion, previewing what we now consider the traditional Marathon Trials test.
The first three would qualify for the Mexico City Olympic Marathon in mid-October. The others would limp home with massive glycogen deficits.
After the first of five 5.2-mile loops–the Ted Corbitt-certified course ended with an additional .2 mile dogleg to the finish–Deines lagged far behind even Young and Mills. He figured he was in about 30th place, right where you’d expect to find a 21-year-old who believed in Long Slow Distance training. Deines had switched from traditional mixed-pace running midway through his four years at Occidental College. He slowed down, ran more, and raced far better. He also raced often, 67 times in 1968, at distances from 800 meters to the marathon.
It’s summer, a time when many people who might have spent the winter hibernating get outside and start being more active by doing things like playing sports and going for bike rides.
While raising your heart rate and exercising your muscles is unquestionably a good thing, being more active – particularly after a long stretch of inactivity – has a downside: increased risk of injury.
… Copenhagen’s legendary cycling culture is economically beneficial, healthy for residents and good for the environment.
Canadian cities such as Toronto are diametrically different – a hostile, and often dangerous, environment for cyclists (and pedestrians) that is costly, unhealthy and polluted by excess vehicular traffic.
So what can Toronto (and other cities) learn from the Danish capital? How can they Copenhagenize?
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association; William Speier et al. from
Telemedicine has been used to remotely diagnose and treat patients, yet previously applied telemonitoring approaches have been fraught with adherence issues. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the adherence rates using a consumer-grade continuous-time heart rate and activity tracker in a mid-risk cardiovascular patient population. As a secondary analysis, we show the ability to utilize the information provided by this device to identify information about a patient’s state by correlating tracker information with patient-reported outcome survey scores. We showed that using continuous-time activity trackers with heart rate monitors can be effective in a telemonitoring application, as patients had a high level of adherence (90.0% median usage) and low attrition (0.09% decrease per day) over a 90-day period. Furthermore, data collected correlated significantly with clinically relevant patient surveys (r2=0.15 for PROMIS global health scores, p < .00001), and therefore might provide an effective signal for identifying patients in need of intervention.