Misfit’s Flare is an intriguingly styled fitness tracker that costs only $60

Why it matters to you

Looking for a simple, inexpensive fitness tracker that is focused on handling the basics? Misfit’s newest product could serve your needs.

While Misfit is embarking toward exciting new territory with the Vapor, its very first fully touchscreen Android Wear-powered smartwatch, it hasn’t left behind the minimalist fitness trackers that have made it relatively well known over the last several years. To prove it, the now Fossil-owned company has just launched the Flare — an “entry-level fitness and sleep monitor” that will run for just $60.

At first glance, the newest member of Misfit’s family of wearables may be its most alien-looking yet. It features a conventional aluminum frame with a touch-sensitive crystal surface where you’d typically find a watch face, but in its place is a single pulsating LED. The frequency at which the light flashes informs you how far you’ve progressed toward your daily fitness goal, which is recorded on your iOS or Android device.

More: Misfit’s first smartwatch boasts a touch-sensitive bezel and full waterproofing

The Flare can track steps, calories burned, and distance covered, and is intended to work comfortably all day and night. To that end, it’s water resistant at up to 50 meters depth, and, like some of Misfit’s other devices, never needs charging. The tracker’s battery lasts four months, and replacements can be had for $6.

Through Misfit’s smartphone app, you can tag different activity types, from tennis to yoga, and even swimming if you opt for a $10 in-app upgrade. Wear the device to bed, and in the morning the Flare will offer insights on the quality and duration of your sleep.

Finally, the tracker is also compatible with Misfit’s Link app that can interface with connected home devices or trigger certain commands on your smartphone. You can use Link to advance a slideshow presentation, play music or take a selfie with your phone, control Logitech’s Harmony smart home hub and Misfit’s own Bolt lightbulbs, and much more.

The Flare is available now and ready to ship from Misfit’s website. It joins the $100 Ray, which we deemed the best fitness tracker you can buy if you’re looking for the most battery life, and the Flash, our favorite $25 option.

Moto C and Moto C Plus: News and rumors

Why it matters to you

If the Moto G is too rich for your blood, the Moto C might better fit your budget.

If you thought Motorola’s cheap phones couldn’t get any cheaper, guess again — the Lenovo sub-brand might have a surprise up its sleeve. Motorola is reportedly prepping two new budget handsets, the Moto C and Moto C Plus, that could be the company’s least expensive phone yet.

Here’s everything we know about the Moto C and Moto C Plus.

Design

The Moto C’s final design remains a mystery, but claimed product renders on Chinese social media in mid-April paint a hazy picture at least. The budget handset appears to take a cue from Motorola’s Moto G series, inheriting its large, circular rear camera module, curved edges, and no-frills front cover.

The Moto C seems to be made of a brushed plastic material, and has what appears to be a front-facing camera with an LED flash, three touch-sensitive navigation buttons, large screen bezels, and a six-hole cutout — presumably to accommodate a loudspeaker — around back.

More: Moto G4 review

Also visible are a 3.5mm audio jack at the top, and a volume and power button on the phone’s right edge. What appears to be missing is a fingerprint sensor, but that’s not surprising — the entry-level Moto E didn’t have one, either.

Specs and screen

The Moto C won’t blow anyone away in the specs department, but rumors suggest it’ll be competitive for the money.

According to VentureBeat, the Moto C will come in four flavors: The Moto C 3G, the Moto C 4G, and the Moto C Plus.

The Moto C 3G and 4G sports a 5-inch screen with a FWVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels), while the Moto C Plus bumps the pixel count to HD (1280 x 720 pixels). All variants of Moto C reportedly pack MediaTek processors, but in degrees: The Moto C has a quad-core 32-bit processor clocked at 1.3GHz; the Moto C 4G has a 64-bit chip clocked at 1.1GHz; and the Moto C Plus sports a 64-bit CPU clocked at 1.3GHz.

The amount of RAM and storage will reportedly vary by region. The Moto C is said to contain 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, while the Moto C Plus packs either 1GB or 2GB of RAM and either 8GB or 16GB of storage. All variants will feature a microSD card slot.

Camera and battery

According to India Today, the Moto C’s cameras will be nothing to scoff at.

The rear shooters are rumored to be 5-megapixel models — fixed-focus on the Moto C 3G and auto-focus with the Moto C 4G. The front camera on the Moto C is 2-megapixels, and the front camera on the Moto C Plus is 8-megapixels.

In what should be welcome news to nighttime photographer’s ears, both appear to have LED flash modules to brighten up dim scenes.

The Moto C is rumored to pack a fairly large battery — 2,350mAh. But the Moto C Plus’s is even bigger at 4,000mAh.

There is no word on whether it supports Motorola’s rapid-charging TurboPower, which can deliver hours of power in just 15 minutes of charging.

Pricing and availability

Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries surrounding the Moto C is its pricing and availability. As of yet, it’s unclear when Motorola will release its new budget smartphone. But if history is any indication, it could be in May — that’s when Motorola released the first-generation Moto E.

Whenever the Moto C debuts, it’s expected to come in a variety of colors. According to prolific leaker Evan Blass, the budget handset will be available in black, gold, and red.

Safe to play? Off-site doctors use robots to diagnose football concussions

Why it matters to you

With increasing concern about football-related head injuries, robots offer an effective way to keep injured players off the field.

Tackle football comes with risks like broken arms and strained muscles, but head-on collisions put football players in even more serious danger. Since concussions can be difficult to diagnose, players are sometimes allowed to carry on even though they should be off the field. And untreated head injuries have lasting consequences.

To that end, some schools keep doctors on the sidelines to diagnose head injuries. But many schools don’t have full-time athletic trainers and the nearest doctor is sometimes far from the football-loving schools in rural America. To help that issue, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern and the Mayo Clinic tried out a robotic doctor and had promising results.

Led by neurologist Bert Vargas, the team set out to test whether doctors could effectively diagnose concussions via telepresence robots compared to face-to-face observation.

More: Flexible football helmet absorbs hits like a car bumper, could put an end to concussions

“We aimed to show that observing the player remotely was just as good as being the the presence of the athlete face to face,” Vargas told Digital Trends. “We were not assessing risk so much as we were assessing whether an athlete should be removed from play after suspected concussion.”

For two seasons, the researchers had a mobile robot roam the sideline of football games at Northern Arizona University. A neurologist watched the game and players through the robot’s camera. In 11 cases when the telepresent neurologist was asked to diagnose potentially injured players, the distant neurologist’s assessment matched the one made by medical personnel who diagnosed the player in person.

Though the team’s study is not entirely new — researchers have previously used tele-concussion technology to study traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the military — it touched on a hot topic of sports safety, particularly when it comes to football-related head injuries. Although having an athletic trainer on staff may be preferred, a sideline robot could be the best bet for schools where that is not feasible.

“This technology is most valuable in communities where specialty care is difficult to access, specifically rural communities where access to a concussion specialist is difficult,” Vargas said. “Especially when state law mandates that return to play has to be decided by a physician, and access to physicians is difficult, telemedicine may help bridge gaps in care.”

A paper detailing the study was recently published in the journal Neurology.

Rachio’s second-gen smart sprinkler controller is still a must-have for homeowners

If you have a lawn, you’ll need to water it. And the Rachio connected controller will do it smarter — and save you money at the same time.

There are many shameful things that can happen to a homeowner. Your car rolling out of the garage and into your neighbor’s azalea is one. The sewer pipe getting crushed on Mother’s Day (and on a Sunday no less, and quite possibly as you’re headed out for a few days of meetings in a Miami mansion is another.

(Yes, these things might or might not have happened to me at some point. Use your best judgment.)

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One thing I’ve managed to avoid for a few years, though, is watering the grass while it’s raining out. That’s not just a Florida thing, either. Dumb timers are dumb. Smart sprinklers are better.

So a few years ago Rachio sent me one of their first-generation smart sprinkler controllers. And the original Iro has served me well. Now it’s time to update, and Rachio sent over the current generation of its controller. The second gen starts at $199 for an 8-zone model, or you can get a 16-zoner for $50 more. There’s also a $29 waterproof enclosure if you need to mount things outside.

Even in its initial form, Rachio wasn’t just a timer that you can control from your phone. It goes a good bit further. It pulls in local weather information to tell if it’s going to rain, and whether a watering cycle should be skipped. You can input soil type for more precise watering.

And ultimately it should save you from wasting water — and that means you’ll be wasting less money.

Installation will vary depending on your setup, of course. Mine’s pretty simple, though. The controller is on a wall in my garage, just within range of my wireless router. (That part’s important, of course. If you don’t have a Wifi connection in the garage, you’ll need to adjust.) From there it’s just a matter of popping off the old controller, screwing the new one into the wall, and reattaching the wires. Rachio’s quick-start guide does a good job walking you through things if needed. But really this is basic homeowner stuff.

From there you’ll setup through the app. (It’s available on Android and on iOS, of course.) That part’s been greatly improved since the first generation controller. The other major upgrade is the addition of manual controls, which was definitely needed.

After that you set zones and times and what not, and that’s that. If you need to adjust, you can do so in the app, or from the Rachio website.

Or if you’re feeling a little extra cheeky, yes, it’ll work with Amazon Alexa, as well as with the Google Assistant. (The latter is buried under More Settings -> Services and not under the higher-level Home Control.)

You can be as hands-off as you like here. I generally just let the system take care of things, at least at the start of the season. If I think the lawn needs more water, I’ll adjust. But the best part is that I don’t have to worry about watering my lawn with my own money while it’s getting a good drink for free.

And especially here in Florida, that pays for itself pretty fast.

See at Amazon

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Fitbit Alta HR review: Everything I need

The Fitbit Alta HR isn’t much of an upgrade over the original, but at $150, it’s a pretty great fitness tracker.

At this point, Fitbit isn’t new — even if you’ve never owned one, you kind of know what it does: It tracks steps, helps you log workouts, and lets you know how little sleep you’re getting, because life.

The Alta HR is the natural evolution of the company’s more fashion-forward product, the Alta, which was unveiled in early 2016 as “the stylish one”. Interchangeable bands and a sleek, vertical OLED display made it one of the most popular fitness trackers of the year, and it was the basis for the larger Charge 2, which came out towards the end of 2016.

The Alta HR takes what made the Alta great and adds a bigger battery and a heart rate monitor, which tracks all day for up to seven days. It’s not a massive change, but it’s one that has turned me from an Alta skeptic into a believer.

What’s good

The Alta HR isn’t any bigger than its predecessor; aside from the Flex 2, which is still the company’s smallest (and only truly waterproof) tracker, the Alta HR is among Fitbit’s most hideable trackers, blending into practically any situation and outfit.

The main thing I learned from the new Sleep Stages feature is that I don’t sleep enough. Thanks, Fitbit.

My review unit shipped with the black band, but there are four regular models to choose from, including black, blue/gray, coral, and fuchsia, along with two special editions that cost slightly more and fancy up the tracker itself. Because of the heart rate monitor, the unit needs to be snug-yet-comfy against the wrist, which is why Fitbit replaced the loose-fitting snap strap of the original with a traditional clasp that wears much more like a watch.

I’ve been wearing the Fitbit Alta HR for the past two weeks and have barely remembered it’s on my wrist. It doesn’t get in the way when I’m typing, nor does it irritate the skin under the heart rate sensor (though I never had that issue with old Fitbits either). Battery life has been amazing, too: I’ve only needed to charge it twice since taking it out of the box, and as of this writing, this is my 14th day wearing it, and I’m still only at 30% battery, according to the app. That seven-day uptime is actually conservative.

Fitbit’s also done a good job implementing its automatic heart rate sensing into the Alta HR; I just go about my day, attend my workouts, and let the software take care of the rest. It’s not a particularly complicated proposition, since I don’t really vary my workouts all that much, but I can see the product working out well for someone who varies his or her cardio routine on a weekly basis, since the app has become quite good at detecting various forms of activity. Manual logging is still possible, too, as is food journaling, though that isn’t a feature I’ve ever used.

Sleep Stages, an updated form of the company’s well-regarded sleep tracking system, has also been interesting, though, like the fitness data, it’s unclear how much I will learn and change from wearing the Alta HR over the long term. Sleep Stages uses a combination of movement and heart rate monitoring to determine whether you’re awake, in REM sleep, light sleep, or deep sleep.

While it’s interesting that I’m learning I only get 90 minutes of REM sleep a night, I’ more concerned with the fact that I’m only sleeping an average of five hours 30 minutes a night — and I don’t need a Fitbit to tell me that. As good a gadget as this is, it has yet to— over the course of five years or so — change my poor habits for the better. That’s something I need to undertake myself.

Fitbit’s Android app has improved a lot over the past couple of years, and it’s now not only really easy to sync — and keep synced — but I can pick up where I left off on a new phone. Bluetooth connectivity is no longer finicky (Google thankfully fixed this a few Android versions ago) and I don’t have to remember to explicitly open the app to sync it — it just works.

The new dashboard, which shows steps taken, miles or kilometers walked, calories burned, and total active minutes, is both intuitive and data-heavy, which I like, and Fitbit’s social features are still second to none. I’ve spoken to many Fitbit fans who, despite the lackluster hardware, have bought new trackers instead of leaving for Android Wear or an Apple Watch strictly because of the expansive community of friends and fellow cardioheads pushing one another to hit that 10,000 daily step goal and beyond.

What needs work

The Alta HR is still very much a fitness tracker; you can add heart rate monitoring to it and call it smarter, but at the end of the day this thing doesn’t come close to being “smart”. That’s OK — Fitbit isn’t exactly advertising smartwatch-like features, but it’s still something to keep in mind when you’re shelling out $150 for something. To that end, the Alta HR supports phone and text notifications — but only for one app — as well as basic calendar appointments, so this isn’t going to be close to what you get with a smartwatch.

I don’t really use the Alta HR to check anything but the time. I prefer to use the app.

Another thing that isn’t like a smartwatch is the OLED screen, which is hidden behind a scratch-prone piece of plastic. You physically tap — hard — against the panel to change what you see, and though there is raise-to-wake, it’s barely readable in sunlight. The screen, too, isn’t touch-responsive, so it sometimes takes a few good pecks at it to get it moving.

The order and specificity of the screens can be adjusted in the app, but, beyond checking the time, I find myself barely using the Alta HR itself to dig into my stats; I tend to open the app, which is far more useful in 99% of situations.

While the bands are replaceable, they’re not cheap — a standard rubber replacement is $30, while the leather options go for $60 and the metal for $100. After a couple of weeks with the black rubberized band, it’s grown quite dirty, and even with soap and water I’ve found it difficult to get it back to pristine. The leather bands are a bit more hardy, but they’re also not appropriate for every situation.

Should you buy one? Probably, but the Charge 2 is better

I love the Charge 2. I think it’s Fitbit’s best product ever. The Alta HR has most of that product’s DNA but lacks the larger display and side button that makes navigating the UI a bit easier. Both the Charge 2 and Alta HR are the same upfront price, $149.95, but the latter has a metal clasp option, which may appeal to some who want to dress it up a bit more.

The Alta HR isn’t leaving my wrist any time soon, but I’m not convinced it’s enough of a change to justify an upgrade from the original Alta — not unless you absolutely need heart rate monitoring — and despite the excellent battery life, it’s just not as good a product as the Charge 2, even for those looking to combine sport and fashion.

See at Fitbit

Samsung may bring its fancy 6GB Galaxy S8 to North America

The higher-storage Galaxy S8 may come to North America!

While Samsung’s native Korea tends to keep its special edition Galaxys to itself, the company is keeping open the possibility that its impressive 6GB/128GB model of the Galaxy S8 will be available in other countries.

According to Yonhap News, Samsung is mulling the idea of bringing the configuration to other markets.

Samsung Electronics said the 6GM-RAM Galaxy S8 Plus will be initially sold in South Korea, but plans to expand the sales to other countries will be considered depending on market’s demand.

This would be the first time Samsung has offered a 128GB configuration of its flagships outside of its native Korea, and could, if paired with, say, a new color, prove to be a popular choice amongst enthusiasts looking to eke the most performance and resale value from the phone. It would cost more than the regular S8, at around $1,018 at today’s exchange rate.

The standard Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Would you spend the extra two hundred dollars or so for the 6GB Galaxy S8?

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Google has completely messed up Assistant’s ‘shopping list’ feature

I don’t have Google Home or Google Express. Why make my experience worse?

Starting April 10, Google moved Assistant’s excellent shopping list feature from Keep to Express, which means that users that rely on Google Keep, like me, to track shopping items are going to have a harder time.

The gist is this: Google is pushing its Home speaker and Express delivery service to make it relatively easy for people to save a shopping list and fulfil the order in one fell swoop. That’s great, because Google Assistant is awesome for that. Until recently, asking Google Home, or Google Assistant on your phone to “add eggs to my shopping list” would automatically populate a running list in Google Keep. So far, so good, since Keep is ubiquitous, available on the web or mobile, and is saved offline in case you’re somewhere that doesn’t have internet service.

With this change, Google now saves the list to either the Google Home app, or Google Express. If you have neither, the list opens a Chrome tab, which is only accessible through a mobile browser and has no actual desktop web presence. It’s also not available offline.

For someone like me, who has access to neither Google Home nor Google Express, this change is for the worse. The kicker, too, is that using the Google search tab on your phone, either from a browser or in the “Feed,” saves your written requests to… Google Keep. Yes, the confusion is real.

Also, why won’t Google Assistant let me add pears?

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Sony is hedging its bets on VR to keep it chugging after smartphone slowdown

President Kazuo Hirai spoke to the Financial Review about the company’s plans for the post-smartphone era.

The Xperia XZ is an impressive phone, but it’s hardly enough to move the needle Sony’s stagnant smartphone business.

That doesn’t seem to concern Sony, however. In Australia this week, the company’s president, Kazuo Hirai, spoke to the Financial Review about the future of its mobile business and why it’s focusing its efforts on experimenting in other areas — particularly virtual reality.

“Unless we can communicate with each other telepathically, there’s always going to be some sort of a device and a network that is going to allow people to communicate with each other,” Hirai told the Financial Review. He continued:

A paradigm shift in how we communicate with each other occurs every 10 years or so, but if we don’t remain currently in the business then we don’t get to play or we don’t get to create the next paradigm shift of communication, we basically throw a towel in and lose all the relationships with our retailers and carriers around the world.

If we did that then whatever idea we may come up with, we’re not going to be able to bring to market quickly enough.

It sounds as if Sony has reckoned with the fact that it needs to stay in the smartphone game to remain relevant in the industry, despite its inability to directly compete against its biggest players — namely Apple and Samsung.

Hirai continued that while Sony hasn’t settled on what the “post-iPhone era” really is, it’s hedging its bets on industries like the internet of things (IoT) and virtual reality. Of the latter, Sony is confident that it’s in a particularly advantageous situation considering it’s already invested heavily in PS VR. Hirai also expects virtual reality to influence other aspects of Sony’s business, including movie and television production.

It’s important that VR is successful, not just because it helps the video game business but in fact, the tide actually lifts all the Sony boats. We stand probably to benefit more than some of the other companies that are pursuing VR because we are involved in so many different aspects that touch the VR experience and the content creation.”

In the interim, Sony is pursuing “strategic bets” through its Seed Acceleration Program (SAP), which backs ideas that could someday become a lucrative business line for the company. You can read more about that at the full article.

There are no firm global release dates for any of the experimental products Hirai mentions, however, just as there is no telling when smartphones will truly go the way of the dodo. But what’s clear is that Sony is still a strong brand name, and as long as it continues to slap its name on quality products, there’s no doubt consumers will continue to buy technology from the company in the years to come.

Best Tempered Glass Screen Protectors for LG G6

The taller the phone, the longer the screen — protect it! ,intro

Your LG G6’s screen is extra long, so there’s more to get scratched and scuffed. A tempered glass screen protector is the perfect way to keep the most important part of your phone safe and blemish-free. Here are the best you can buy.

• Yootech
• Omoton
• Spigen
• Supershieldz

Yootech

Yootech’s two-pack of tempered glass screen protectors is a great value for around $8. Yootech guarantees bubble-free installation and promises 99.9% clarity, meaning you shouldn’t notice the protector on your screen at all. It also won’t mess with touch sensitivity, which is awesome because you don’t want to have to reach your thumb all the way up your phone twice.

See at Amazon

Omoton

Omoton’s tempered glass screen protectors are always highly rated on Amazon, and that’s because they’re easy to install and reliable. And for $7 for a two-pack, you really can’t go wrong. These protectors are scratch-resistant and feature a hydrophobic and oleophobic coating to repel water and fingerprints.

See at Amazon

Spigen

Spigen, maker of fine phone cases, makes a great tempered glass screen protector for your LG G6. This is a two-pack of case-friendly tempered glass screen protectors that leave a little room around the edges so that you can, presumably, pop a Spigen case on your phone without worrying about it peeling up at the edges (other cases will still work, of course)q.

Spigen’s protectors get a lifetime replacement warrant, so if anything goes wrong, let them know and they’ll send you a new one.

See at Amazon

Supershieldz

If you’re looking for the best value, then the Supershieldz three-pack is where it’s at — only $8. These protectors also come with a hydrophobic/oleophobic coating, so water will bead and roll off and you shouldn’t have to constantly be wiping your screen with your shirt to get the fingerprints off.

See at Amazon

Got a favorite?

Tell us about it in the comments below.

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Science proves people lie for selfish reasons

How honest are you, really? Would you be open to a brain treatment that might make you act a little more truthful? I’m asking because researchers from the ever-productive University of Zurich tried an experiment to see if they could influence behavior with “transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS),” a noninvasive type of electrical pulse that apparently makes brain cells more active. The scientists targeted the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (involved with risky and moral decision making) with the tDCS to see how honest people would be when reporting dice rolls.

Before each roll, a computer would tell the participants which types of rolls would get them the most money. There were ten rolls in the “sham experiment” (where shocks weren’t administered), and maximum earning potential was around $90. So, there was incentive to lie.

“Although this prevented us from identifying individual acts of cheating with certainty, we can determine the degree of cheating with each tDCS intervention by comparing the mean percentage of reported successful die rolls against the 50% benchmark implied by fully honest reporting.”

That lead to folks reporting successful die rolls 68 percent of the time, versus the honest peoples’ 50 percent. “Subjects who claimed nine, eight and seven successful die rolls were also significantly overrepresented, suggesting that many of them cheated on some, but not all possible occasions.”

“Cheating was substantial in a control condition, but decreased dramatically when neural excitability was enhanced with tDCS,” the paper reads.

In the non-sham experiment, the electrical stimulation dropped the misreporting of facts “significantly.” Participants only reported successful die rolls 58 percent of the time. “This result corresponds to an implied cheating rate of 15 percent, a figure that is nearly 60 percent lower than that observed in the sham condition.”

The key finding here is that the only time the brain stimulation had an effect was when material motives were put up against moral ones. Selfish behavior was measured using a dictator game and an investment experiment aimed to look at someone’s affinity for risky and unclear results. There was also one designed to track how impulsive someone might be. That’s in addition to a die-rolling experiment where participants didn’t get any money themselves, but were “earning it” for an anonymous participant.

Basically, unless the lying specifically benefitted themselves, the participants were less likely to do it.

“This finding suggest that the stimulation mainly reduced cheating in participants who actually experienced a moral conflict [“to cheat or not to cheat,” basically], but did not influence the decision-making process” in people who were trying to make as much money as possible. Now we know of another use for tDCS aside from shocking away motion sickness: keeping folks honest.

Via: Eurekalert

Source: PNAS