The $12 Fitness Band Is Worth It
I don’t use a fitness tracker, but these days they are a dime a dozen and they all pretty much do the same thing: Monitor your calorie burn, step count and sleep quality. Pivotal Living’s Life Tracker 1 doesn’t do much more than that, but its big distinguishing factor is that it costs only $12 a year to use. It’s basically the equivalent of a subsidized phone — instead of long-term service fees, you pay far less for the hardware than you normally would. (A similar Fitbit or Nike FuelBand costs $100.)
So the tracker itself is free, with a $12 annual subscription to access Pivotal Living’s app, which will be available on iOS or Android. But just because it’s so cheap doesn’t mean it’s poor quality.
This small wristband does track your steps with its three-axis accelerometer, distance traveled, calories burned, active minutes and sleep. You can see the time and scroll through your data on the device’s OLED screen by pushing a small button on the top of the tracker.
There’s even a vibrating alarm you can set to wake you up in the morning. The battery life is about five to seven days, and a full charge only takes an hour.
Unfortunately, the band is not completely waterproof. It won’t stop working in a light rain shower, but if you take a shower or swim in it, you might be in trouble.
As far as the app goes, it allows you to set goals and track your daily hydration and weight. There also is a social platform that allows you to create and join teams with friends or like-minded users. It also allows you to message friends and/or team members and share your activity data with them.
You can preorder the Life Tracker 1 from Pivotal Living’s website (pivotalliving.com), and it’s expected to ship in early December.
The nice thing is, if you decide to use the tracker for another year, you pay out another $12 and Pivotal will give you a whole new upgraded band or, of course, you can continue to use your existing band. If you decide you don’t like it, you don’t have to give back the band. There are no hidden charges and no plans to increase the price.
What a great, very affordable Christmas present to consider.
Click Chick’s Mobile App of the Week: Mobizen
Mobizen is another app I discovered at the recent Super Mobility Week show a couple months ago. It allows you to use your mobile device from anywhere with a browser, whether it’s from Wi-Fi, 3G/LTE or USB cable.
It’s a great way to put all the content that matters from your mobile device and display it on your computer without having to do any complicated file transfers. You also can stream content without having to download it or transfer it from your device.
Some of the features include the ability to record anything on your phone’s screen (games, video, apps, etc.); notifications will be shown on your computer; multimedia streaming (video and photos) can be viewed on your computer; access call logs; access message history; change your smartphone settings; manage contacts; and of course, drag and drop, where you easily can transfer files to and from your computer. Best of all Mobizen is free from the Google Play Store or iTunes Store.
clickchick@outlook.com
