wearables
Huawei Band 2 Pro – Brilliantly basic fitness facilitator
Fitness wearables have gone from the anonymous-looking Fitbit to the spectacular stylishness of the Apple Watch Series 4 in the space of just a few years. They've also scaled up in price, to the point where you're shelling out close to R20k for a tracks-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink piece of high-end wristwear. But what if you don't want or need all those extra bits? What if you just want ...[Read More]
Samsung’s upcoming wearables leak (through Samsung’s own app)
We treat a lot of tech leaks with suspicion -- not because it's inaccurate, but because we can't believe that they're anything more than 'leaks'. Hey, it happens. But sometimes a leak is actually a leak and we'd like to believe that this is one of them. If only because the circumstances are so weird. Samsung's upcoming range of wearable tech, which should be announced alongside a whole mess of sma...[Read More]
Link your Huawei wearables with Discovery Vitality and earn points
Today, Huawei South Africa announced their partnership with Discovery Vitality. This means you’ll now be able to earn Vitality points from Huawei fitness trackers and smartwatches. Time to get off the couch, hey? Discovery Vitality gives users special benefits and rewards in exchange for getting fit… or, depending how you look at it, in exchange for their personal fitness data. Fitness track...[Read More]
Want Nike’s self-lacing Adapt BB kicks? You’re going to need to import them
We’re still waiting on Back to the Future-style hover boards, but at least self-lacing takkies are a reality thanks to Nike. Last week the company announced its Adapt BB footwear will come to market on 17 February 2019 with a recommended price tag of $350 (around R4,800). The bad news? Nike South Africa says there are no plans to bring them to local outlets, so if you want ’em, youR...[Read More]
Samsung Pay has arrived for Samsung wearables
Samsung has announced that Samsung Pay, its mobile payments solution that launched with Standard Bank and Absa earlier this year, is now available on the company’s recent wearable devices, specifically, the Gear Sport, Gear S3 and Galaxy Watch. The Korean electronics giant has confirmed the service will be coming to five more banks in 2019, including the recently announced Discovery Bank due...[Read More]
Digital diagnosis: How your smartphone or wearable device could forecast illness
What if you could forecast sickness, before you even had any symptoms? Your smartphone and digital data might be able to help. If you carry your smartphone with you everywhere, then it’s probably already tracking a lot of data about you and your behaviour. If you have a wearable device, you’ll be generating a multitude of fitness data too. Put it all together and you get your “digital phenotype” –...[Read More]
Here’s what we know about the Huawei Watch GT – thanks to Huawei’s own website
It’s hard keeping secrets in an age where everyone has a video camera and a microphone in their front pocket, and when all the information you could ever need (and a whole lot more that you never will) lives inside that same device. Huawei learned that the hard way this weekend when the company prematurely published info concerning their upcoming smartwatch, the Watch GT. All of the specific...[Read More]
Should you upgrade to an Apple Watch Series 4?
Apple’s made some pretty big improvements to its Watch lineup over the years, adding features such as waterproofing and 4G connectivity to its wearable (assuming you live in country that supports eSIMs, unlike South Africa). But the design of the watch itself has remained broadly the same during that time. With Series 4, Apple has overhauled the Watch with new sizes, increased screen space, ...[Read More]
Fitbit launches Charge 3 with up to 7-day battery life and updated health features
Fitbit is expanding on their Charge range with the new Fitbit Charge 3. The company’s latest mid-range wearable tracker is water resistant to 50m, features a range of nifty exercise modes, and promises up to a whopping 7-day battery life. You can even get Fitbit Pay on it… but only on the ‘Special Edition’. An interesting development is the addition of an SpO2 sensor – not ...[Read More]
The Samsung Galaxy Watch could give Garmin and Fitbit sleepless nights
After a slip-up a month ago, we already knew to expect a new smartwatch from Samsung, but the details were slim. Last night the Galaxy Watch was unveiled at Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 unpacked event and it will officially be available in South Africa in September. There’s also an LTE-enabled version coming, and Samsung says the device will last “several days” on a charge…...[Read More]
Turning your health data into a “wellness score” might not be good for you
Cameras watch us almost everywhere we go. We know the internet tracks our searches and purchases, and our smartphones can be used to monitor our activities too. As sociologist David Lyon points out, “this is a culture of surveillance.” In this watched world, our data is compiled into products to be used by businesses, not only to discover what we buy, but to understand how we are doing financially...[Read More]
Pay with your Fitbit or Garmin wearable with FNB
South Africans will soon have a range of new mobile payment methods to choose from. Earlier this week Absa announced integration with Samsung Pay (with Standard Bank expected to do likewise any day now), and today FNB announced support for Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay that will work with any contactless enabled point-of-sale device. Apple Pay, where you at? Now anyone with compatible Fitbit and Garmi...[Read More]