Polar finally has a fitness tracker that can monitor your heart

As the optical heart-rate monitoring has improved, the technology has increasingly become a must-have feature for most serious fitness trackers. One notable holdout from this club was Polar, probably because it made a name for itself in chest-worn heart rate straps and, as such, had a little more to lose than other firms. With the launch of the A360, however, the company has finally decided to embrace the world of “strapless monitoring,” although it’s gone to great pains to say that its version is much better than everyone else’s.

The first thing you’ll notice about the A360 is that it’s the prettiest barebones fitness tracker that has popped up recently. With a rectangular color LCD display that’s taller than it is wide, you’ll be put in mind of Huawei’s TalkBand B2 or the second-generation Microsoft Band. The device will display the time, as well as all of your vital statistics vertically, which sets it apart from a large proportion of fitness trackers and smartwatches on the market. The statistics that the device can track is, perhaps surprisingly, a little limited, since it’ll only monitor your daily activity, steps, calories, workouts and sleep.

Polar promises that the A360 will last for two weeks on a charge as both a general activity tracker and with an hour-long fitness session every day. One of the ways that it can offer two-week life is by not adding continuous heart-rate monitoring to the device, and it’ll only watch your heart during workouts. Another absentee from the spec list is GPS, although it’d be a stretch to see a watch with that sort of tech for this little cash. On the upside, the firm is pledging that the A260 has Jawbone-style smart coaching to make suggestions that’ll benefit the user’s overall health and wellbeing. It’ll also come with the usual Polar tweaks, including access to the Flow app, smartphone notifications and the option to use a chest strap, should you want to.

At first blush, there’s plenty to like about the A360, since it can pull double duty as a barebones fitness tracker and as a smartwatch. Although, there is a risk that by trying to do too many things at once, it’ll struggle to do any of them very well. Then there’s the fact, as we’ve said, the unit will only check your heart rate when you’re exercising, meaning that all-day devices like the Basis Band and Sony SmartBand 2 are better for the heart-conscious amongst you.

The price, too, could be problematic, since its priced for $199 / €199 — roughly the twice the price of the Loop 2. Unfortunately, you could get a similar setup from the A300 and a chest strap, since that pairing would only set you back $179.95. Sure, it’s more cumbersome to carry around two devices instead of one, but since they do almost the same job, it’s a fair comparison to make.

If you’re not deterred, you can grab one of these when it launches in November with a choice of white or black silicone bands. Those looking for something more colorful can wait a little longer for pink, green and blue wristbands to come on sale “shortly afterward.” Naturally, we’ll get one of these in for testing as soon as we can so that we can tell you straight if it’s better to just buy a $199 Android Wear device and deal with the shorter battery life.

EE launches the kid-friendly Robin tablet with 4G connectivity and a £129 price tag

The UK carrier, EE, has just launched a new 7-inch tablet called the Robin, featuring 4G connectivity and aimed at the kids section of the market. The Robin could well find its way to a few Christmas stockings this year in the UK, so let’s see what it brings to the table.

You aren’t going to top of the range specifications on the Robin, and that’s ok, it isn’t meant to compete against the likes of the Galaxy Tab S 2, or even EE’s own Harrier tablet.

Specifications: 

• Android 5.1 Lollipop (with child-friendly Kurio OS overlay)
• 7-Inch LCD (1024 x 600)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core processor @ 1.1GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage (3GB usable)
• MicroSD card support (up to 32GB)
• 2MP Rear camera
• VGA front camera
• 4G Connectivity
• 2,820mAh battery

The Robin has a bump and knock-friendly casing, and of course, comes with 4G connectivity, handy for those long car trips. Parental controls come courtesy of the Kurio OS overlay, with web and app filtering, as well as the ability to set individual profiles. Much like Amazon’s Kids Edition Fire Tablet, you can set the amount of time that a child can use the tablet for, even going so far as to block access to games and videos while leaving the educational apps accessible.

The EE Robin comes with over 40 pre-loaded educational apps, eBooks, and games (which explains why there is only 3GB of usable space in the internal memory). EE has also thrown in free access to Hopster, a media streaming service for children, that includes content such as Postman Pat and Paddington Bear, among many others.

The EE Robin launches on October 23 (this Friday), and can be purchased for £129 off-contract, or on a 4G plan from £13 monthly.

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Ultimate Ears Bluetooth speaker update lets friends share DJ duty

Ultimate Ears has been redefining its lineup of Bluetooth speakers lately, waterproofing them and fine-tuning their innards so they all have the same tech at their core. As part of this unification, the company’s pushing a new over-the-air firmware update around 1PM ET that adds the Boom 2’s tap control functionality to Megaboom speakers. That’s not all: An app update for iOS and Android is also rolling out with a new feature called Block Party. It takes the multi-user playback feature (which, to be honest, I’ve rarely had much success with before) and gives it an easy-to-use visual interface. Up to three users (including the host), can connect to a UE Roll, Boom 2 or Megaboom speaker and jump in with their own tunes. To keep potential mayhem in check, the primary user can moderate that input by playing, pausing, skipping to the next track or removing a user entirely from the DJ roster. If a spot opens up, anyone with a Bluetooth connection can hop in and join the party, playing their own jams or letting the host skip through their playlist. It’s yet another step forward for UE’s speaker line, but there are a few inherent limitations to this new feature.

Outside of the Boom 2, which shipped with the feature on board, only the Megaboom will be receiving the tap control update, leaving the lower-priced UE Roll out of the fun. When holding the cylindrical speakers in your hand vertically, a single tap or pat on the top will pause or play the music. A double-tap skips ahead to the next track in your playlist. It’s accelerometer-driven, so when the speakers are lying on their sides or standing up on their own, the tap controls don’t work.

As for Block Party, the main attraction to this update, it’s entirely controlled through the app. The primary user who connects to one of UE’s latest speakers simply needs to swipe left to access the Block Party section. Once activated, they’ll automatically occupy the top spot, leaving two open spaces for anyone in the area with a Bluetooth device to connect. The speakers serve as a hub for all the connections, which then feeds them to the app. Anyone who snags an open slot can immediately start playing music, superseding whatever’s playing at the time. You’ll want to keep this feature under wraps unless you trust everyone’s tact and taste as far as keeping the vibe flowing. The app owner can control speaker volume via the plus and minus icons (or the speaker’s physical buttons), and pause, play or skip to the next track in any of the guest DJs’ queues. They won’t be able to scrub through the tracks, though, so it’s either start to finish or straight on to the next tune. The DJ-in-charge can also delete people from the roster, but as long as there’s an open slot, there aren’t any tools to kick backseat DJs off for keeps.

Overall, this new Block Party feature works solidly and takes the guesswork out of multi-user connections. As long as everyone who earned a slot shows some respect (and restraint), the ability to jump in at any time could be a positive and social experience. People can play from their own music collection or through streaming services like Spotify and Rhapsody, too. One drawback we’ve found with Block Party (although a queueing feature would be nice) is the lack of Double Up functionality while sharing DJ duty. Apparently, Bluetooth limitations ensure that your Block Party will issue from a single speaker and will be less likely to disturb the neighbors — at least the ones who weren’t invited.

1Password switches data formats for stronger security

1Password has decided to switch its default file format as a response to a post by Microsoft software engineer Dale Myers, explaining its current one’s vulnerabilities. Myers has examined his 1PasswordAnywhere’s .agilekeychain file recently and found that its metadata isn’t encrypted. That means the sites you use with the password aggregator and even their precise login locations are stored in plain text. 1PasswordAnywhere is the program’s feature that gives you a way to access your saved passwords without having to install the software itself.

Myers explained that if anyone gets access to that file, they’d be able to tell which sites you’ve signed up for exactly, find out the bank accounts you have, as well as discover which software licenses you bought. They can then employ other tactics from there, such as reset passwords or call up banks pretending to be you. In addition, Google indexes the keychains people put on their websites for easy access; Myers was able to discover someone’s job and family details just by doing a simple search based on his keychain.

This “password anywhere” feature automatically stores data using the company’s older Agile Keychain format. The team explained in their response that since that format was introduced with the program in 2008 back when devices were much simpler, they decided not to encrypt its metadata for performance purposes. The company has released a newer and safer format called OPVault since then, and that’s what will now become default option. If you can give up 1PasswordAnywhere for the sake of additional security, you can follow the company’s instructions on how to migrate your log-ins right here. In case you can wait a bit longer, though, the process will become much easier: once 1Password is done making OPVault the default, it’ll launch a simple migration tool you can use for the switch.

[Image credit: Ervins Strauhmanis/Flickr]

Source: AgileBits, Dale Myers