Let's Talk Tech
Let’s work together to make our New Year’s resolutions happen! I’m giving away a FitBit Charge, an LG Tone Active BT Headset, and a CoolGear beverage infuser courtesy of my pals at AT&T! Check out the contest widget below for more details on how you can win some cool gear to get your 2016 started off right!
This is a perfect example of where we can start pushing the boundaries on consumer wearable technology.
Dexcom makes medical equipment to help manage diabetes. Patients were a small sensor, plugged into their skin, which continuously monitors their blood sugar. This is a far more convenient and accurate way to get a sense of trends and to manage health than solely relying on individual blood tests on strips.
Of course there’s always room for improvement. Dexcom’s CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) sends a Bluetooth signal to a little standalone unit, which is another little gadget to keep track of and charge. What if we could send that monitoring info to consumer devices like phones or watches to get near real-time data?
Dexcom has brought an official app to the Apple Watch which displays info and graphs, but using the same general connection protocols, a developer is working on the same connection for Android Wear watches. Unofficial Apps xDrip and NightWatch pull the info from the Dexcom unit and send it to an Android Wear watch.
Once connected, users can get updates every five minutes with their blood sugar and can see daily trends displayed as a graph.
You can check out the XDrip and NightWatch projects via Stephen Black’s page on GitHub for more info.
The BACtrack Mobile is an interesting addition to our line up of health and safety accessories. Like a fitness tracker, it gives detailed reports on your blood alcohol level, and it pairs with your phone for easy to read results while tracking your drinking over time. I took the BACtrack out for a night on the town, and here are my experiences using it!
Shop the BACtrack Mobile on Amazon.
More info on BACtrack products.
Timex took the wraps off of their new fitness focused smartwatch.
Built on a partnership with AT&T and Qualcomm, the ONE GPS+ uses the incredible screen from the Toq for low battery usage and direct sunlight view-ability.
In addition to the Mirasol display, the watch also comes with 4GB of storage and Bluetooth for music playback, GPS for location and fitness tracking, and a 3G phone connection for messaging and a pretty neat SOS feature.
For many people, exercising with a phone is becoming a necessity as that’s where all your entertainment and communications capabilities are stored. The idea that you could leave with just a watch, not worry about sweat-soaking your phone, and still have the basics covered is pretty exciting.
The ONE GPS+ is currently in pre-sale on the Timex site for $400 or $450 with a built in heart rate monitor.
Samsung isn’t know for doing “simple”, so it’s an interesting experiment watching them try to streamline the Gear experience for the Gear Fit. Let’s take a look at the build, setup, and features of Samsung’s newest fitness accessory!
I just got a brand new tuber!
Let’s go hands on with an unboxing and then see how it stacks up against the LG G2! Get ready for .5 kilograms of starch yo!
Toq owners should see a new update for the smartwatch and companion app. I normally wouldn’t write up a .1 update, but Qualcomm is quickly refining the Toq experience.
Toq software update 1.4 brings a couple new watch faces while polishing up the notifications and activity tracker. You can now see the last five text messages in the watch’s history. Also the fitness tracking has been expanded with better charts for visualizing your progress. You can also set goals for yourself in the Android app, and the watch will show you your progress.
The whole Toq experience is getting cleaner while providing more functionality, and now we’re just waiting out more 3rd party app support. We’ve already seen Toq added to the list of supported watches by Augmented SmartWatch Pro, which adds even more notification customization and support for Fitbit and Withings.
Nice little bit of progress for Qualcomm’s smartwatch tech test bed. Continue reading “Qualcomm Toq update improves fitness tracking and notifications”
Qualcomm is teaching their Toq smartwatch a new trick!
I was really happy to see this, as I wasn’t completely sure if the Toq even had an accelerometer built into, but apparently it does, and this newest software update has unlocked activity tracking. It’s SUPER beta, but let’s take a look!
Continue reading “Qualcomm Toq Update: Activity and Fitness Tracking Applet!”