Smartwatch capabilities improving

TODAY’S wearables do more than just monitor health.

THE  array of wearables is ­expanding, with some activity bands adding smartwatch functionality and some smartwatches monitoring your steps.

The wearables market is brimming with new devices compared with a year ago. Established specialist health band makers Fitbit and Jawbone now compete with cheaper wearables, free health apps and evolving smartwatches that also count steps, stairs climbed, distances and heart rate.

To survive, Jawbone and Fitbit have to offer premium products that do this better than cheaper ­rivals. That involves not only a premium device, but also a one-stop shop for analysing data, setting and achieving health goals, and offering encouragement.

At the other end of the wristwear market, smartwatches are rapidly expanding their capability, and some count steps and stairs climbed, and measure heart rate. The Fitbit Charge and Sony SmartBand Talk bookend that market.

Fitbit Charge

FITBIT has returned. It has survived the costly recall of its previous premium wristband, Fitbit Force.

Its replacement, the Charge, looks strikingly like Force but hopefully wearers won’t develop skin rashes like a reported 9900 Force wearers. I’m happy to report that I am rash-free at this time.

But I had teething issues with Charge. I found securing the two-pronged clasp to the wristband on my arm awkward and the band slipped off a couple of times. I also had trouble with Bluetooth pairing initially. Now it works a treat.

The Charge concentrates on activity metrics. Pressing its single button displays, in succession, the date/time, steps, distance travelled, calories burned and flights of stairs. You can vary the order of these on the display, and even omit some readings.

The Charge also displays smartphone call notifications, its only concession to the march of smartwatches. You can set silent, vibrating alarms.

You don’t have to tell it when you’re going to sleep or wake. It senses this automatically, so you won’t miss out on consistent nightly readings. The Charge breaks sleeping into deeper and restless sleep, and time awake.

Fitbit’s app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone amasses the Charge’s daily readings and presents them graphically, so you can see the trends and take action to improve your performance.

You can share your activity readings with friends and compete to amass the most steps in a day, the week or weekend.

You enter other data manually, such as glasses of water, or use compatible apps. I counted 37 apps that feed data into Fitbit’s ecosystem, such as personal training app Endomondo and food-tracking app MyFitnessPal.

They didn’t include some apps I use. For example, I use Withings WiFi scales, a rival to the Aria scales that Fitbit sells. Luckily, Fitbit and Withings talk to each other through the IFTTT (if this then that) service, so I can automatically feed my weight readings into the Fitbit app.

You can obtain benchmark reports which compare your measurements with the general population, but you pay $59.95 annually for this. It should be free.

One clever act of encouragement is an arrangement with Walgreens in the US. You can sync your Fitbit app at Walgreens and earn points for walking, running and tracking your weight and get rewards. Woolies and Coles should consider this. Given the Charge is a premium product, it should be waterproof, but it isn’t. It can survive sweating, but unlike rival Jawbone, you can’t wear it in the shower.

Overall the Charge and its app offer a complete health and ­activity monitoring package, and it is available now. But nowadays there are numerous cheaper alternatives for activity monitoring if you don’t need the bells and whistles. And the Charge doesn’t add much to what the Force offered.

You might wish to wait for early next year when Fitbit releases the Charge HR, with a heart rate monitor and new clasp, and Surge, a smartwatch with Fitbit’s activity monitoring built in. It’s waterproof to five atmospheres.

Sony SmartBank Talk

At last, a real Dick Tracy watch with a microphone and speaker. Sony’s SmartBand Talk lets you place calls with your voice, then take them on your watch — provided it stays within Bluetooth range of your phone.

The 60s TV cartoon series depicting crime-busting detective Dick Tracy included a walkie-talkie smartwatch and now it’s a reality.

You can ask the watch to call a phone contact at, say, home, ask it the date, time, to read your latest text messages, to tell you today’s or tomorrow’s weather, and your next calendar event. You can ask it to wake you at 6am and an alarm will be set, or ask how much battery is left.

I found the call feature worked most of the time, but not all the time, typically when the Bluetooth connection dropped. Voice recognition is reasonably accurate.

But the SmartBand’s voice recognition party tricks are limited. Ask it the weather for next week, and it tells you it only provides today’s and tomorrow’s. Ask it questions such as “What’s the capital of Australia”, and the response is “try again”. This is not Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s ­Cortana.

The watch has an extremely clear, 288x128 pixel 1.4-inch curved ePaper display that’s like an e-book reader’s. It’s monochrome and easy to read outdoors in the sunshine. But the display is pitch black if you want to see the time in the dark.

The ePaper display saves on battery, which is just as well. After a day and a half’s use I had less than 30 per cent of juice left, but I had bombarded the SmartBand with voice requests.

We’re going to see more ePaper devices from Sony. It is investing into ePaper watch faces, bands and even bow ties as part of its “fashion entertainments” project.

The smartband has an accelerometer and altimeter, so it can count steps and the distance you walk and run. Your performance statistics can be automatically squirrelled to Lifelog, an app that diarises your activities. You’re limited to a short list of compatible apps that you can load. They include an on-off switch for your phone’s media player, voice control, calendar, a favourite call, and a smart camera app that lets you stand away from your phone and take a selfie. You can load nine at a time.

The watch has two buttons: one to select apps and end calls, while the other controls volume. Overall the SmartBand Talk is a futuristic, fun device. But its voice recognition capabilities need broadening, as does its app selection.

The SmartBand Talk is IP68 rated, so it is dust and water resistant. It’s available though Sony or on a plan through Telstra.

Whether you choose a Fitbit Charge or SmartBand Talk depends on your need.

If you are mainly concerned about health and fitness, the Charge is the obvious choice. If you want smartphone function­ality on your wrist, the SmartBand Talk is for you.

Fitbit Charge
Rating: 7.5/10
Price: $149.95

Sony SmartBand Talk
Rating: 7.5/10
Price: $199