Galaxy Gear Fit hands-on review: Sammy's fitness armband

Today we tried out the Galaxy S5 with the Gear Fit from Samsung, which is a hybrid between a fitness armband and a smartwatch. I used the Gear Fit for an entire day and even went jogging with it. At the end, I was quite happy, but I still wouldn’t buy it. Why not? Read on to find out.

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In comparison to the Galaxy Gear 2, the Gear Fit is significantly smaller and lighter, but I still wouldn’t describe it as jewelry by any means. The design is subtle and modern, and would please both men and women, as it is black (ours was, but you can get other colored band) and intended as a sport accessory.

What worked

Mostly it worked the way I would have imagined. The connection between smartphone (in our case the Galaxy S5) and the Gear Fit worked smoothly, notifications were displayed without any lags, and when you read them on the Gear Fit and swipe them away, they return to the S5. The distance up to which the Bluetooth connection works is around 20 meters, which also functioned without a drop in connection.

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Even operating the music player via Gear Fit worked well and was actually quite practical. For example, if you are jogging along and want to change a song or adjust the volume, you can do this easily on the small display on your wrist. There is also a search option in case you have forgotten the smartphone somewhere, that I found wasn’t very helpful. A search mode for the Gear Fit would be more practical.

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While connected to the Samsung Fitness app, S Health, data is transferred to the Gear Fit, however the steps aren’t synced with the numbers on the S5, so you will always have two different values.

What didn’t work

So far so good I thought, but unfortunately things went downhill from there. This starts off with the fact that you can only really use it when it is connected to the smartphone. The step counter works with without the S5 as well as the heart-rate sensor, but otherwise the Gear Fit isn’t more than a watch without a smartphone. To measure distance for example, you’ll need the smartphone’s GPS function. All of these facts make it therefore impractical when it comes to actually doing sports. Why would one wear a fitness watch if you need to schlep a smartphone anyways?

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One of the features that should theoretically be quite useful turned out to be really unreliable during the test: the display should automatically turn on and show the time when you lift your wrist. In practice this worked every one out of three times. The same happened with the heart rate monitor as well: when doing sports and  sweating as one normally would, the area of skin under the band will start getting moist, which sadly messes up the sensor data. These two functions that would actually make life a lot easier do the opposite: they really get on the nerves!

Bottom Line

I like the concept behind the fitness armband: I’m no number or stats freak, but I like to be able to monitor my workout performance. The maximum and average speeds, the number of steps I’ve taken and the amount of burned calories as well as the distance I’ve run are things I've calculated using RunKeeper and with Gear Fit, switching to Samsung S Health ecosystem was an easy step. On the other hand though, the fact that most of its functions require to have the smartphone with you proved to be a bit annoying. For a gadget that costs 199.99 USD, I would expect more.

Apparently you don't even need a Samsung phone to be able to use it, even non-Samsung phones can use the Gear Fit.

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iOS App Driving Curve Is A Fitness Tracker For Your Car

iOS app Driving Curve is an easy way to track your driving performance without having to fiddle with additional devices.

Some high-profile driving apps, like Automatic, a Y Combinator alum and Techstars-backed Dash, offer their own hardware to connect with smartphones. Other use a Bluetooth-enabled on-board devices (OBD), which plugs into an adapter under the steering wheel.

Driving Curve, on the other hand, is meant as simple alternative for people who are curious about their driving performance, but don’t want to deal with an OBD or a more complicated set of features just yet.

“All you need is a smartphone, which dramatically lowers the entry barrier and grows our user base quickly,” says Tim Huang, who founded the app along with Duoyuan Chen. “We focus on quantified human behavior rather than machine behavior.”

To use the app, you simply press its start button just before you start driving. It tracks your speed based on data from GPS satellites and the iPhone’s motion sensors.

When you arrive at your destination, stop the app and it automatically analyzes and records information about your acceleration, braking speed, fuel usage, and route distance.

Driving Curve is currently part of the TMI incubator program in Taipei, Taiwan. Other notable startups there include interactive toy company Roam and Wander, which recently joined 500 Startups, and Codementor, a Techstars Seattle pick.

Driving Curve’s founders are still working on a monetization model, but they say that the popularity of smartphones will allow them to collect data that can be useful for a wide range of companies.

There are other driving apps out there that don’t use an OBD, like MotorMate by Confused.com and Aviva Drive, are both meant to help drivers get discounts on their car insurance.

While Driving Curve could potentially be used by insurers, taxi companies, and delivery services to make sure their drivers are following traffic laws, the app is mainly meant as a self-diagnostic tool with a gaming element.

You can collect points and badges for safe driving and compare your performance with other users. If you drive poorly, the app will dish out insults, like telling you that you drive like a bank robber, before giving you tips on how to improve your performance.

Since I live in a city and don’t own a car, I tested Driving Curve while taking cabs in Taipei and Seoul and found that it captures speed and distance traveled accurately. One of my rides got a “speed ninja” warning, even though the driver wasn’t going particularly fast. He did have to stop frequently because of rush hour traffic, however, which can wear out brakes.

The disadvantage of Driving Curve is that you have to be connected to the Internet for its GPS check-ins. On the other hand, it is fun and easy to use and I can see the appeal for people who don’t want to fiddle with another device in addition to their smartphone. It’s also great for backseat drivers (like me) who take taxis or ride-sharing services frequently and want to make sure that their drivers are not only driving safely, but also taking the most efficient routes.

Human Adds M7 Support And A Daily Timeline To Its Fitness App

Health tracking app Human just added a few new features to its latest update. First, the app now supports Apple’s M7 fitness chipset if you have an iPhone 5s, while retaining compatibility with iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. The company also added a new daily summary to keep track of all your activities.

With the new activity recap, Human now competes directly with more traditional activity apps, such as RunKeeper or Runtastic. At heart, the app remains a sort of smarter Fitbit for busy people.

Human is a passive iOS app designed to help you stay healthy. The goal is to move for 30 minutes every day and to keep up with this simple habit. The company calls this the ‘Daily 30′.

And it seems to be quite effective. While the company first saw that regular users moved 10 minutes more on average, people are increasingly affected by Human push notifications, recaps and badges. Now, regular users move 75 percent more on average after six weeks of usage (average users move around 40 minutes per day when they sign up to Human).

The app now tracks 2 million activities per week. It could probably represent anything between 10,000 and 100,000 daily active users. Yet, a major challenge is coming up. Apple is interested in this space — rumor has it that Apple will add a Healthbook app in iOS 8 and take advantage of the M7. While not impossible, it’s always harder to compete with a first-party app.

Human can count on its well-thought-out design. But there are still users who move less than 30 minutes a day. For these users, the company is trying to find new ways to motivate them. You’ll see that in upcoming updates.