Lifx Z Wi-Fi LED Light Strip Starter Kit Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
The Lifx Z color-changing light strip.
Lifx
Lifx has been pitching the appeal of color-changing smart lights for years, but their family of connected LEDs has always lacked a light strip that you can stick up beneath cabinets, behind entertainment centers, or in other hard-to-light spots in your home.
Today, that changes with the introduction of the Lifx Z, a color-changing smart strip that’ll work alongside the rest of the Lifx lineup. A starter kit that includes the base plug and a 2-meter strip will sell for $90 (£70/AU$120), with additional one-meter strips selling for $30 a piece (£25/AU$40).
You’ll be able to connect up to 10 meters’ worth of strips to a single base station, with plugs available for outlets in your specific part of the world. Once you’ve snapped everything together and stuck the strips where you want them, you’ll use the Lifx app on your Android, iOS, or Windows device to pair them directly with your home’s Wi-Fi network.
From there, you’ll be able to control the color and brightness of the strips from your phone, or with Alexa voice commands on the Amazon Echo smart speaker. You’ll also be able to trigger the strips using the free online automation service IFTTT.
Lifx Z seems designed for direct competition with the Philips Hue and Osram Lightify, both of which offer their own comparably priced plays on smart, color-changing light strips. Both alternatives require gateway devices to connect with your router, though, and that might help Lifx Z set itself apart, since it connects directly with your home network over Wi-Fi.
Preorders for Lifx Z start on October 1st, alongside a new line of “Lifx Plus” smart bulbs that use infrared light to help night vision cameras see more clearly. All of it is expected to ship out in November.
Lifx Plus Wi-Fi LED Smart Bulb Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
A Lifx Plus on the porch helps this night vision camera see a man outside the window it couldn’t see otherwise.
Lifx
Connected, color-changing light bulbs are a fun way to smarten up your home’s lighting, but the new Lifx Plus wants to smarten up your home’s security cameras, too. Its trick? Invisible infrared light that shines out into the darkness when the bulbs are turned off. You can’t see that infrared light, but night-vision cameras can, which makes it easier for them to see what goes bump in the night.
It’s a pretty clever idea. Night vision cameras from names like Arlo, Nest, Canary and iSmartAlarm see in the dark by emitting their own pool of infrared light, but they can’t see things in places that infrared light can’t reach. With the Lifx Plus, you can effectively give those kinds of cameras a boost by lighting up dark spots in and outside of your home.
Each Lifx Plus bulb will cost $80 (£60/AU$105) when it ships out this November, with multipacks available at a discount. It’s available as both a standard A19-shaped bulb and as a BR30-shaped floodlight that you can use outdoors.
At $80 each, the Lifx Plus costs $20 more than than the previous-gen Lifx Color 1000. That might be tough to swallow, given that these bulbs were expensive to begin with, but still, 20 bucks extra feels more or less fair for the novel addition of night-vision assistance.
The Lifx Plus smart bulb, available as both a standard A19 bulb and a BR30-shaped floodlight you can use outdoors.
Lifx
Beyond the new infrared trickery, the Lifx Plus bulbs will function just like existing Lifx bulbs, complete with full color controls and a full spectrum of white light settings, too. They still use built-in Wi-Fi radios to sync directly with your home network, so you still won’t need a hub to use them. Once they’re screwed in, turned on and synced up, you control them using the Lifx app on Android, iOS or Windows devices. You can also control them using Alexa voice commands on the Amazon Echo smart speaker or with automation recipes on the free online service IFTTT.
Each Lifx Plus bulb draws 11 watts and puts out 1,100 lumens at peak brightness. That puts them right on par with 75-watt incandescent bulbs, and also makes them a touch brighter than the Lifx Color 1000. We’ll be sure to compare the two when we test the Lifx Plus out in the coming weeks.
More connected color-changers
- Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance LED
- Misfit Bolt LED
- Osram Lightify LED
Of course, with nothing new beyond the infrared light, there’s really no reason to upgrade to Lifx Plus if you don’t use cameras in your home. To that end, Lifx will continue selling the Color 1000 LED, with discounts planned for the month of October.
We’ll also be sure to take a look at how Lifx Plus stacks up against Philips Hue, its main color-changing competitor. Lifx has long enjoyed a color accuracy advantage over Hue, with noticeably better greens and blues dating back to generation one. However, Philips recently answered back with a new and improved, third-gen Hue bulb that puts out better, richer colors across the spectrum, along with lower prices for last year’s second-gen bulbs.
Preorders for the Lifx Plus start on October 1, along with a new $90 “Lifx Z” light strip starter kit (£70/AU$120). The A19-shaped bulb comes with your choice of Edison-style screw-in base or a bayonet-style base designed for homes in the UK.
Fitbit Flex 2 review – CNET
The Good The Flex 2 is slim and swim-proof, can track basic fitness data and supports a variety of accessories, including pendants.
The Bad It lacks a display and the more advanced features of other Fitbit trackers. Lacks heart rate tracking. The LED lights can be confusing; battery life should be better.
The Bottom Line The Fitbit Flex 2 doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of other trackers, but it’s finally swim-proof, and it does the basics and it does them well.
At last, there’s a Fitbit that’s swim-proof!
But in exchange for that long-overdue swim-friendliness, other features are lost. There’s no heart rate tracking, and it doesn’t have a display. Are you okay with that compromise?
The Flex 2 looks, in many ways, like the perfect slim tracker from Fitbit that we’d wanted for a while: It’s like Fitbit’s version of the Jawbone Up2. It’s $100 (£80, AU$130) and will begin shipping in early October. It comes with a rubber strap in both large and small sizes, but the beauty of the Flex 2 is its customization.
You can pop out the tracker and pop it into a different color wristband, a metal bangle or even a necklace. It’s the most versatile Fitbit, and much like the older Flex, it comes with a variety of fashion-branded accessories from Tory Burch and others. It’s an overdue upgrade, and the water resistance and swim racking on the Flex 2 might be reason enough to get it for some.
I do like the Flex 2. It’s the tracker to get if you want something that can be both discreet and stylish. It’s a sleeker tracker than the bulkier Fitbit Alta released earlier this year. It’s priced well. But yes, there are sacrifices to be made.
Swim-proof (finally!)
The Flex 2 is the first Fitbit you can wear in the shower and while swimming. It’s waterproof down to 50 meters (about 164 feet) and can be used in both fresh water and salt water. I love not having to take the tracker off when it’s time to shower, which also means I am less likely to forget it on my dresser.
Like the Charge 2, the Flex 2 can also automatically recognize and record workouts. This includes walking, running, biking, aerobic exercise and others. Due to the new swim-proof design, it’s also the only Fitbit that can track swimming. Now that Fitbits are effectively automatic trackers, it’s a little easier to swallow the fact that this doesn’t have a display.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
It’s all about accessories
The Flex 2 is 30 percent smaller than its predecessor, the Fitbit Flex. It’s slim and discreet, which is what appeals to me, and it could even be worn next to a traditional watch (if you have the wrist room). My only complaint is with the strap. It’s secure and never fell off my wrist, but you have to swap out the two-prong connector when switching to a new strap, which was actually pretty difficult.
Besides the two different-sized bands in the box, there are a variety of accessory straps in multiple colors and designs. There are rubber ones, leather ones, and gold and silver bangles and pendants. The accessories start at $15 (£10, AU$20) for rubber straps, all the way to $100 (£75, AU$130) for the gold bangle.
View full gallery
The Fitbit Flex 2 pod and necklace (left) and Misfit Shine pod and necklace (right)
Sarah Tew/CNET
A quick poll of my female colleagues found that these designs, mainly the pendant, were appealing, especially compared with the nearest fitness-accessory equivalent, the Misfit Shine necklace (pictured above). One colleague complained that the bangle was “lacking pizzazz” and another said the Fitbit pendant was a little “too long,” but both liked these options better than the rubber strap.
Everyone agreed that having these accessory options is a good thing. They help keep the Flex 2’s design fresh, and help it not feel like a fitness tracker. While some complained about them being too expensive, most agreed they would make nice gifts.
In addition to the bangles and pendants mentioned above, Fitbit said we can expect more luxurious bands from designers like Tory Burch and Vera Wang.
Garmin Vivofit Jr Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Garmin
Garmin is entering new territory with its first fitness tracker designed for kids.
The company on Thursday announced the Vivofit Jr, a swim-proof fitness tracker with one year of battery life. The tracker is a child-size version of the Vivofit 3, and can measure steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep. Other features include an always-on and sunlight-readable display and a move bar to remind kids when they have been sitting for too long.
The tracker is also compatible with a task management app that parents can use to assign chores and responsibilities and give kids recognition for completing certain tasks, such as making their bed or setting the table. You can also set a timer from the app that will count down on the tracker, which could come in handy for limiting television watching or as a study timer.
The Vivofit Jr is designed for kids ages four to nine. The one-piece band is available in black, broken-lava, digi-camo, purple-strike and “real flower” band patterns and fits wrists up to 145 millimeters (5.7 inches). Garmin is offering larger bands for wrists between 146 to 170 millimeters (up to 6.7 inches), but you can also use accessory bands from the Vivofit 3.
The Vivofit Jr is available now from Garmin and at Target and Best Buy for $80 (£80, AU$130). It will arrive at Toys R Us, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart and additional retailers later this fall.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers to tackle…
See full gallery
1 – 4 of 12
Next
Prev
AIVAnet 