Apple Watch is nice 1st Take, however Health/Fitness Gadgets want Work

I've conjointly seen the "Shut Up and Take My Money" culture seem quite one or two of times. Fittingly, that culture comes from a "Futurama" episode that parodied the iPhone, however I digress.

I'm not here to fawn over or to bury the freshly proclaimed Apple Watch (interestingly, not referred to as "iWatch"), that shows nice potential as a mobile health/digital health—choose your buzzword—tool. it's a intrinsical heart-rate detector, which implies no additional carrying a separate chest strap. It, consistent with Associate in Nursing Apple video, has the options of Associate in Nursing "all-day fitness hunter." Associate in Nursing measuring system measures movement, whereas Associate in Nursing "Activity" app captures varied metrics, as well as calories burned, daily exercise time and variety of times the user stands up throughout the day, all "with the goal of serving to you sit less, move additional and acquire some exercise."

uncaptionedA separate app tracks workouts and shares with Apple's Fitness and Health apps already offered for iPhone. there is not a full ton new here, as there square measure dozens of fitness trackers on the market already. I've shared my thoughts on the HealthKit platform and connected Health app, therefore I will not pile on currently.

What i will be able to say, however, is that I see one major flaw: you have got to possess Associate in Nursing iPhone five or higher to attach the Apple Watch to the web. i am unsure whether or not it's Associate in Nursing oversight or a promoting ploy, but to me, it severely limits the marketplace for this slick, elegantly designed new product, significantly on condition that Google's automaton continues to place Apple iOS in its rear-view mirror in terms of smartphone market share.

It conjointly remembers the failing BlackBerry PlayBook pill, that solely had e-mail capability—you understand, BlackBerry's historical strength—when bound to a BlackBerry smartphone by Bluetooth. i do not assume the Apple Watch property issue is as huge of a slip-up because the PlayBook's, however it implies that this LG G2 owner will not be shopping for Associate in Nursing Apple Watch anytime shortly.

This isn't a unambiguously Apple drawback, though. Samsung Gear smartwatches need to be bound to automaton smartphones. In a way, it add up, as a result of those that like gadgets ne'er go anyplace while not their smartphones. however i am still looking forward to somebody to plant a cellular contribute a smartwatch, significantly one for fitness enthusiasts.

That would are available handy for the numerous triathletes i do know, most of whom have advanced smartphones. They religiously wear their Garmin GPS watches as a result of they can not take their phones within the water. I've conjointly seen smartphones shut themselves off on extremely popular days on my bike and on frigid nights of outside hockey.

Nike is that the latest to leap into school incubation with its Greek deity+ Accelerator, for serving to the most recent health-related startups.

Accelerators square measure the new business faculties, a minimum of within the school startup world. These programs, which generally involve alittle quantity of funding and mentorship and connections in exchange for alittle quantity of equity, have exploded in quality.

The 10 week program, which is able to settle for 10 corporations, can begin in March 2013 in Portland, Ore. The program can conclude with demo days at Greek deity headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. and Silicon Valley. Greek deity is providing the workplace area, technical support and access to Nike's arthropod genus. TechStars, that is organizing the program, has abundant expertise within the space, having launched its own program in a very variety of cities further as serving to others build their own accelerators.

For Nike, the program offers it access to new entrepreneurs and technology during this area. the corporate has been pushing technology in health and fitness with its Nike+ running app and a lot of recently its Nike+ Fuel Band, that records and measures people's daily activity.

Mentors within the program embody Stefan Olander, Nike’s vp of digital sport; David Cohen, founder and chief executive officer of TechStars; Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of Foursquare; and quantified-self guru Tim Ferriss.