STACK #192 Oct 2020

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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The fitness industry is notorious for fads with a short shelf life. Whether it’s a new exercise regime championed by a celebrity or the latest must-have superfood, trends sweep across the globe with ardent adoption only to be swiftly discarded when the next evolution in the fitness cycle arrives. The humble fitness tracker could conceivably have been another craze casualty. Its popularity in the early part of the last decade was unprecedented, with the magic number of 10,000 daily steps becoming a fervent obsession with large parts of the population. However, savvy tech companies were quick to expand the range of features beyond a simple electronic pedometer, extending the concept to encompass health and wellbeing features. Over the last four years the popularity of wearable technology has grown exponentially, but with so many options on the market, what’s the right device for you? Wear with All Words Bec Summer & Adam Colby

Samsung GalaxyWatch 3 What it does: This stunning looking watch combines the classic look of an elegant timepiece with all the depth and functionality that you’d expect from a premium smartwatch. Available in both 41mm and 45mm, Galaxy Watch 3 features a touch AMOLED screen, a sleek rotating bezel for app navigation, and scratchproof Gorilla Glass for whatever workout you throw at it. The suite of health features is almost mind-boggling. Along with heartbeat monitoring, the Watch 3 tracks stress, heart health, blood oxygen levels and reviews sleep performance. For runners, real-time advanced data provides analysis on foot contact time, asymmetry, flight time, and helps reduce injury. The smartwatch can track 40 different types of exercise and, for the ultimate training regime, 120 videos can be accessed through the Samsung Health app on a Galaxy smartphone. Own a Samsung smart TV? Throw the Galaxy Buds Live into your ears and stream the workout through the DeX app directly onto the big screen – a good example of deeper integration within the Samsung ecosystem. With the LTE version, you can leave your phone at home and stream music, answer notifications and make calls. Is it for me? If you want a fantastic looking smartwatch packed full of health and fitness tracking features, you’ve found it. Compatible with iOS and Android.

Fitbit Inspire 2 What it does: The all-new 2020 Fitbit line-up begins with the Inspire 2. It may be entry level, but it’s not short on features, with step count, calorie burn, sleep and heart rate monitoring included. The 24/7 heart rate feature doesn’t just track your exercises, it’s constantly monitoring to provide accurate resting heart rate, sleep stage assessment, and a more detailed estimate of calories burned over time. Is it for me? An excellent entry point to fitness trackers and beyond, with a free one-year Ftibit Premium trial, offering exercises and guidance to get the best from your Inspire 2. Compatible with iOS and Android.

Keeping Count Today we take monitoring our pulse for granted, with a wearable strapped to our wrists displaying the information at a tilt of the arm during a workout. Health assessment using the pulse was first used thousands of years ago by Ancient Indian and Chinese civilisations. However, the

contemporary method of counting the beats of a heart to 60 seconds owes a lot to a certain Sir John Floyer, who in 1707 published a book outlining his invention known as the pulse-watch. The idea came from his need for a portable device so he could observe his patients. He developed a pocket watch with a second hand, and although he wasn’t the first person to do that, Sir John Floyer’s pulse-watch had a stop mechanism. His methods would reinforce the practice for doctors to time pulse rate.

36 OCTOBER 2020

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