The Apple Watch could soon be sold discounted or free to Aetna’s 23 million members, as a way to improve health outcomes and lower insurance costs, according to a CNBC report. Apple held a series of meetings with Aetna executives and hospital chief medical information officers, discussing the possibility of a plan that included the […]
Tag Archives: fitness
Nokia rebrands all Withings products a year after acquisition
Nokia has rebranded all Withings products and will be retiring the brand, a year after acquiring the French health-tech company for $191 million. The three wearables, Go, Steel, and Steel HR, will remain part of Nokia’s portfolio. Go is a simple E-Ink activity and sleep tracker with one year charge, available for $50. Steel does […]
Check out Michael Kors’ fitness and fashion wearable mashup
Fitness and Activity trackers are on the rise, and now that the functionality has been figured out, many companies are looking to incorporate better designs that are more attractive and less sporty looking. With new competitors entering the market, smartwatches are beginning to be offered as fashionable accessories, rather than just basic health gadgets. […]
NBA bans teams from using wearable data in contract negotiations
NBA teams will not be allowed to use a player’s wearable data in contract negotiations or transactions, according to a bargaining agreement between the league and the National Basketball Players Association. The agreement ensures that wearable data will only be used for tactical purposes and an arbitrator will be able to impose fines of up […]
Jawbone to end consumer sales, pivot to medical industry
Jawbone might pivot to the medical industry as it exits the consumer market, according to people close to the company. It has already sold all its assets for the Jambox speaker business, and has heavily reduced its customer support staff. The private company is apparently talking to several investors about a new funding round, aimed […]
Consumers want to work out with — not for — their wearables
Most wearables come with some form of fitness and health tracking, some make it the primary reason to purchase the device. Fitbit, Jawbone, and Garmin have sold millions of devices to health conscious consumers, but after a few months, a good chunk of these devices can be found gathering dust in cupboards or on eBay […]
CES 2017: What wearables can we expect at this year’s big event?
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 is on the horizon and ahead of the ReadWrite team heading to Vegas, we are getting ready for another week of announcements and insights into the future of wearables. CES has always been a great event to launch new products, as seen last year with the Under Armour Healthbox, […]
Do fitness wearables need an affordability upgrade?
According to a recent Gartner survey, almost a third of fitness tracker or smartwatch owners end up ditching them. The survey studied about 9,000 users from the U.S., Australia and the U.K. Reasons for the dropped tech use vary from wearables breaking, to just becoming bored of them. “Dropout from device usage is a serious […]
Halo Wearables see hydration tracking as future of wearable market
Halo Wearables, a wearable fitness startup, wants to bring hydration tracking into the mainstream with Halo Edge, the company’s first wearable. Instead of monitoring heart-rate and step-count, Halo Wearables believes tracking hydration will prove more useful for athletes. See Also: Fitbit buys Pebble as wearables consolidation continues “Hydration for us is another element which has […]
Check out the latest fitness tracker in a pair of glasses
Google Glass failed to win consumers, partly because of the design that made the augmented eyewear stand out in a crowd. VSP Global’s innovation lab, The Shop, which built custom frames for Glass, wants to approach eyewear tech from a different angle. The Shop has partnered with the University of Southern California (USC) Center for […]
Report says Rio athletes want more out of their wearables
Wearables are becoming commonplace in practice games and training, but have received a lukewarm response from athletes, unhappy with the lack of advice or instructions. Athletes see the advantages of using wearables, according to a report from Lux Research, but want to see wearable providers take more of an active role on the advice side. […]
Is Apple launching a fitness tracker alongside Watch 2?
Apple might enter into the fitness tracker market in 2017, according to new rumor from Economic Daily News, who suggest the company has been working on a health device for two years. The wearable is aimed at people that want more fitness and health data from their device. It includes heart-rate and blood sugar level […]
Germans couldn’t be bothered with your fitness tracker
In Germany, almost half of the people that own a fitness tracker have stopped using it and more than 85 percent said they have no interest in purchasing a fitness tracker. It is dire news for the wearable market, of which fitness trackers make up more than half. Fitbit, the industry leader, sells more fitness trackers […]
Philips launches ecosystem of connected health wearables
Philips unveiled a suite of new connected health devices on Monday, in a move to bolster its position in the personal healthcare market. The firm said all four devices have been built “with leading doctors and psychologists,” according and connect to the company’s HealthSuite app. See Also: Digital trust could be the key to ensure […]
Love my health wearable, hate its sickly battery
Wearables owners in the U.S. can be split into two camps: fitness tracker and smartwatch owners, the former slightly more popular due to Fitbit’s hold on the market. So it’s no surprise to see health functionality as one of the most important reasons for owning or wanting to own a wearable in a survey conducted […]
Microsoft wearables pack cyclists’ suitcase of courage
Microsoft has been working with a number of cyclists in the recent Amgen Tour of California — an eight-day cycling race that crosses the state — to provide detailed analytics on how a large amount of exercise affects the body. Cyclists wore Microsoft’s own fitness wearable, the Band 2, to track heart-rate, peak speed, and […]
IoT could soon be calling BS on your gym workout
The Internet of Things (IoT) may be coming to your gym workout, with a new app dedicated to bringing all equipment online and monitoring the status, popularity, and potential issues in real-time. Life Fitness, an industry leader in gym equipment, has built an app for gym owners, called LFconnect Protect. This should, according to Life […]
Big data billionaire questions role of wearables in healthcare
Big data billionaire Mike Lynch, who sold his company Autonomy to HP for $11.7 billion in 2011, questioned the role of wearables in healthcare, specifically pointing to a growing trend of Fitbit or Apple Watch owners showing doctors useless information from their wearables. “What the hell is a GP supposed to do [with that data]?” […]
America trumps Europe in fitness wearables
A new report confirms that Americans really love their gadgetry, buying almost twice the number of smartwatches and fitness wearables than Western Europeans. An article by Warc.com cites a recent report by research firm Kantar Worldpanel that broke down wearable buying patterns in the U.S. compared to Europeans. The report found that an average of […]
Wearables not just for your wrist: Xmetrics CEO
Today, most wearables fit onto your wrist and provide a wide range of information. But Andrea Rinaldo, CEO of wearables firm Xmetrics, believes that single-function wearables attached to different parts of the body are the future of the industry. In an interview with Wareable, Rinaldo said “it is very important that the subject is the […]