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Samsung Unveils Gear Fit 2 Activity Tracker and IconX Wireless Earbuds (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the time-to-hit-the-gym dept.

An anonymous reader writes: At its New York City event today, Samsung unveiled two new wearables: an updated Gear Fit 2 activity tracker and IconX wireless earbuds. The Fit 2 features a thinner design than its predecessor, a curvier 1.5" Super AMOLED display, built-in heart-rate monitor, GPS, 4GB of built-in storage, and auto multi-sport and sleep tracking. Samsung promises three to four days of use on a single charge, and they are offering it in two sizes to appeal to male and female users. It's priced at $179, with in-store availability on June 10th. The IconX is Samsung's first truly wireless Bluetooth earbuds, featuring a built-in heart-rate monitor, and the ability to track one's distance and speed. The earbuds feature 4GB of storage, similar to the Fit 2, and are priced at $199 with a Q3 release date. Samsung notes that fitness bands comprise more than 50 percent of the wrist-worn device market, which is a way for the company to justify releasing new devoted fitness devices in addition to smartwatches.

25 comments

  1. only TWO sizes? by turkeydance · · Score: 0

    male and female? oh, the indignation.

    1. Re:only TWO sizes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      somewhere in MA, trigglypuff trigged...

    2. Re:only TWO sizes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      male and female? oh, the indignation.

      I guess size does matter.

  2. "Devoted" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The word you want is "dedicated."

  3. Re: Attention SLASHDORT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your poohole smells of my cock. How come? Was it you from the other side of the glory hole?

  4. Hell ya by AndyKron · · Score: 3, Funny

    Golly yes. I want to pay that kind of money so Samsung can track me wherever I go.

    1. Re:Hell ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ironic, isn't it? "We" pay big bucks these days for hardware and software that enables countless of unknown parties to track us. We entrust these devices and applications with our darkest secrets without any prior knowledge who has access to them.

      And from a purely technical standpoint, Gear Fit and all similar accessories must be the most uninteresting product category there is today. There's no pull in these products; I have to think *really hard* to come up with actual useful and/or fun scenarios where I could utilize them and I honestly haven't come up with any yet.

      We're living in a time of technological recession. We've gotten so accustomed to recycling old ideas that we've essentially gotten out of shit to recycle. Now the big trend is to combine all kinds of stupid services as one "new" service and call it a product, reminiscent of the whole 2008 collateralized debt obligations and mortage-backed securities fiasco. You can't make gold by combining shit. Or as Wallstreet proved, you can if you're willing to fuck with all the stakeholders in the most corrupt way imaginable. But even those funtimes eventually came to an end, and it'll be at least a few years before they can go at it again.

  5. Will the wristband... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

    show you ads too?

    1. Re:Will the wristband... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not yet, for now they just sell the user id, health and location data to advertisement companies. You can not get everything at once.

  6. It's a cool idea, but how well does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep in mind that Fitbit has been sued for significant inaccuracy in their heart rate monitors in similar devices. It's actually pretty hard to accurately measure heart rate with such devices, so I'm skeptical of this performing any better. In many respects, a smartphone is just as accurate as any of these devices for measuring overall activity. In my experience, Fitbit tracking isn't particularly accurate, especially in terms of heart rate and ascending flights of stairs. Neither are such things particularly effective as motivational tools. It's a cool idea but I don't really see the value.

  7. Re: Attention SLASHDORT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    plz die k thx

  8. Gear Fits II by Donwulff · · Score: 1

    Who is going to want to buy Gear Fit 2 after the treatment the first version got?

  9. Re:Attention SLASHDORT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ideological idiot.

  10. LOL by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    Samsung. Activity tracker. 'Nuff said.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  11. Wearable? by fermion · · Score: 2
    Why is not connecting the two earbuds with a cord innovative. The only benifit I can see is to Samsung who are going to have increased when people lose one. Are you going to have to buy these in pairs or will they sell replacement singles. Will they sell the replacement case that you need to recharge. It is not like you can just plug a USB cable into the headset like with every other case. No, you need to put the earbuds in the charger every hour.

    I appreciate how much power they packed into these earbuds, From an engineering point of view I think they are probably very well designed. They can independently track activity and play music, so they are kind of cool. If this were 20 years ago where we left the house without a phone if would be really useful. But today we are more likely to leave our wallets home that our phones when we go out and play.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:Wearable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is not connecting the two earbuds with a cord innovative....

      From TFA
      '...Samsung says that the headphones will last about an hour and a half when streaming music from your phone, or just over three and a half hours when playing music stored on their 4GB of internal memory.'

      Looks like the innovation being that they'll be replacing corded devices which last as long as the battery on your phone (for my iphone 3 that's approx 20 hours, for my Samsung mini II that's about 18 hours) and which are cheap to replace (my current in-ear headphones cost me $11, I can replace them within hours of any cable or plug 'mishaps') with these nonsensical devices which will at best give me 3 1/2 hours stored music (at what format and bitrate?), and the extremely risible 1 hour streaming from my phone (which would barely cover my morning commute to work).

      The only benifit I can see is to Samsung who are going to have increased when people lose one. Are you going to have to buy these in pairs or will they sell replacement singles. Will they sell the replacement case that you need to recharge. It is not like you can just plug a USB cable into the headset like with every other case. No, you need to put the earbuds in the charger every hour.

      Bingo, we have a winner...

      I appreciate how much power they packed into these earbuds, From an engineering point of view I think they are probably very well designed. They can independently track activity and play music, so they are kind of cool. If this were 20 years ago where we left the house without a phone if would be really useful. But today we are more likely to leave our wallets home that our phones when we go out and play.

      Yes, I'm impressed with the engineering involved, but not so much with the engineers. At some point, they really need to turn round to the imagineers and product conceptualisers who come up with these concepts and just say 'sure, we could design and build this, but it's such an asinine concept we're not bloody well going to.'

    2. Re:Wearable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      '...Samsung says that the headphones will last about an hour and a half when streaming music from your phone, or just over three and a half hours when playing music stored on their 4GB of internal memory.'

      This is actually brilliant. Think about it- what kind of people hang the most outrageous things off their ears, and change them on a daily basis, if not sooner?
      Call these accessories something like Samsung Earrings, or Ssearings for short. Each one, concealing another Li-ion cell, adds a few hours of play time to the earbuds they hang off of, and they are disposable, not rechargeable. When one dies, throw out the pair and clip on a new pair. Available in the latest fashion styles and colors!
      This is not outrageous; look at all the optional watchbands available for Smart Watches, for Dumb People...

  12. Fit 2? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I'm gonna throw my Fit 1 in the garbage and give them another $200! And next year when the Fit 3 comes out I am gonna throw the Fit 2 out! Yeehaw!

    1. Re:Fit 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually just bought a fit 1 yesterday, price dropped to 99 dollars. I knew about the fit 2 coming out, but I love it so far, total steal at 99.

      I just wanted something that would keep track of my steps, sleep, activity, and push notifications from my phone so I don't have to carry the phone around the house. It cannot independently track me, it needs my phone and I can disable GPS on it. Accuracy? Doesn't have to be spot on as long as on average it isn't far off from itself. Meaning if its off 10% today, id like it to stay around 10% off. I am only competing against myself.

  13. Samsung...Tracker... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From the department of redundancy department.

    I don't think Samsung manufactures anything that isn't constantly tracking you, anymore. In the prophetic words of Alice in Chains, "I Stay Away."

  14. With all the fitness gear, WHY by Provocateur · · Score: 1

    With all the fitness gear, why is the universe still expanding?

    Yup, the universe is making me look FAT

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    1. Re:With all the fitness gear, WHY by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      Yup, the universe is making me look FAT

      Yea, it's the universe doing that... not the doughnuts, doritos and mountain dew.... ;-)

    2. Re:With all the fitness gear, WHY by CycleFreak · · Score: 1

      The Universe is updated. It now makes you look FAT32.