I rarely do this, but I am reviewing the Bozlun B15P Band on a bit of a curve. If it were priced in line with comparably equipped fitness trackers, I would not be nearly as generous as I am going to be in this review, because the band is only $32.99 on Amazon.
I am usually a big advocate for keeping notes and logs digitally. First of all, it’s far more efficient to make notes searchable, and second of all, my handwriting looks as though the evil hand from “Idle Hands” went on a bender and then started taking notes for me. But I’ve stumbled upon one very productive exception: a workout log.
So, who’s excited for Lego Batman? Apparently, Chevy is, since for a cool $48,000,000, they’re listing the all-new Lego Batmobile on their site. The whole landing site is really an excellent marriage of car and movie marketing, with lots of winks to the movies but also played as a deadpan legitimate site. My favorite is the car comparison chart, but the whole site is great! Now all we need is the release of Lego Batman…
Streaming video is where everyone wants to be, and the newest entry is a modern take on portraying a hungry zombie, desperate to return to its old life and consuming the living as a poor substitute for true life force. Yes, Apple Music is entering the video business. Oh, and Netflix has a cool new show with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant!
The cofounders of Lyft have an op-ed on Medium today suggesting that carpooling is the way to end traffic in America. They have some interesting ideas, and the plan they propose makes a great deal of sense in cities. Unfortunately, they seem to think because it might work for LA, it will work for everywhere, and that’s a terrible idea.
CES always has a few wacky gadgets that make you do a triple take, and this year Withings stepped up to the plate with their “Hair Coach” device, aka a connected hairbrush. Yes, you can now track your hair brushing, and get a full report on how dry/oily/split your hair is that day. No word on whether it also tracks your calories from brushing, however.
Misfit is determined to conquer every level of the fitness wearables market with devices that place style on the same level as function. They started with the Shine, then the Flash, and post-Fossil acquisition they’ve released the Ray and the Phase Hybrid. Now they’re looking to tackle the true smartwatch market with the $199 Vapor! Vapor appears to tick all the usual smartwatch/fitness watch boxes. It has GPS, can function as a standalone music device, tracks heart rate, and is waterproof for swimming. Where Misfit hopes to shine (no pun intended, given their flagship product) is in the style. The…
It appears that wearables aren’t as dead as suspected. That, or companies still had product in the pipeline and figured they would go ahead and release them anyway. In any case, Garmin, Casio, and Intel/New Balance have all thrown their hats into the tracking ring (wrist?)!
Chromebooks have been able to run Android apps for about a year now, but it’s been hit and miss. Not all Chromebooks have touchscreens, and even the ones with touchscreens aren’t necessarily optimized for use as an Android device as well. Samsung and Google seem determined to change that with the newly announced Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro. These look an awful lot like most touchscreen Chromebooks these days. There’s an Intel processor for the Pro and an ARM for the Plus, and the screen can be flipped 360 degrees so you can use it as a laptop, tablet, or…
There’s a big flaw in the concept of fitness wearables; they really only work for running or biking. Weightlifting, calisthenics, boxing, and other workouts just aren’t conducive to having a watch on, and it cuts out a big chunk of the fitness market. Twelve South may have a solution with their new ActionSleeve Armband for the Apple Watch.
Every year at CES, there’s a slew of technologies aimed at parenting. Some are genuinely useful, and some are more of a “well, we can, so why not?” Mattel has announced Aristotle, an Echo-like AI speaker, that falls squarely in the second category.
Fitness, especially home fitness, has evolved quite a bit in the last few years. Suspension straps, kettlebells, and just plain bodyweight workouts have become extremely popular, and it’s been fascinating to watch equipment evolve to meet these new needs. So when I stumbled across The Yoak, I had to learn more.
We see some very odd product pitches here at Gear Diary. Every once in a while, we get one that is odd all by itself, but then the marketing material just zooms it right past ludicrous speed to plaid…and that’s where the Hand Liberation folks landed with The Butt Case.
It looks like Pebble isn’t the only wearables crash in 2016. Jawbone appears to have quietly imploded, leaving their website like one of those cars on the side of the road. It looks functional, but there’s nothing inside.
Kickstarter is an interesting marketplace. On the one hand, it sometimes produces truly interesting products, but it also attracts companies who interpret Kickstarter success as an excuse to shoot for the moon (cough, Pebble, cough), as well as companies that see Kickstarter as a source of easy money, with no intention of delivering exactly as promised. Juicies cables are rapidly looking like the latter.
Just about every person who identifies as anything other than straight has their “story”. We all have that moment where the niggle in the back of our head, the one said “something is different” finally turned into a full-blown realization. It’s something I’ve personally never seen expressed well in television … until Supergirl.
Pebble, once the crown jewel of Kickstarter, has officially folded as a viable company. They have sold some assets to Fitbit, and are in the process of refunding any outstanding Kickstarter orders. This is a sad day, since Pebble was an early smartwatch pioneer, and made some excellent watches.
Back when I had time to train for long races, I used a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch. I liked it, it was great, but there’s something to be said for the simplicity of a digital watch that goes from your workout to your everyday life with ease, even if you lose the GPS capabilities.
I have been a fan of slim front pocket style wallets for some time now. Once you get used to a compact way to carry your cards and cash, it’s impossible to go back to a bulkier setup. It feels like there’s an infinite number of styles in slim wallets.
At the risk of sounding like click bait, don’t read the rest of this post until you’ve watched the video below.
Quick, what’s the most interesting innovation to go mainstream this year? You can make an argument for a number of ideas, but it’s pretty clear from the ad blitz that home automation, especially from Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home, are at the forefront of ideas that have gone from tech-y to everyday. Surprisingly, Apple appears to be letting that business slide right by them, which is an ominous sign for a so-called innovator.