wearables
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]
Wearable technologies help Olympians achieve top performance
As Fitbits and other wearable activity monitors change how regular people exercise and track their activity, they’re having similar effects on how Olympians train and recover between workouts. It’s long been common for coaches to use video cameras to show athletes what their form and movements look like, to track progress, and to fine-tune exactly the right technique for, say, taking off for a jum...[Read More]
Fit parade: the 11 best tips and tricks for your new Fitbit
We’ve been using Fitbits since 2009 – amazingly, they’ve been around almost as long as iPhones. Their world has changed a lot since those days. Fitbit is no longer just a way to get you off your backside by obsessing over your step count (although they’re pretty good for that too). It’s a whole lifestyle platform that can get you to retrain your brain to think, and be, more healthy in ...[Read More]
A brief history (and a look into the future) of fitness technology
Have you recently taken ownership of a shiny new activity tracking device? For many people, the essential fitness kit now includes gadgets designed not for sitting and staring at a screen, but for encouraging users to get up and move. And they even come with political recommendations. For the UK Government, apps like MapMyRun and Strava and wearable technologies made by Fitbit and Jawbone are the ...[Read More]
LG Watch Style – Without much substance this smartwatch struggles to Style it out
Trying too hard is often the death knell for ‘fashion’ gadgets that want to be admired for more than their silicon. Thankfully, LG hasn’t gone all Derek Zoolander on us or re-teamed-up with Prada again for the LG Watch Style. This may be its most style-obsessed smartwatch yet, but LG hasn’t lost the plot. It’s just a shame that the LG Watch Style doesn’t do a lot. And will conk out bef...[Read More]