Photo: Courtesy of Nike.
For those about to bike, we salute you. The rest of us, however, could probably use some encouragement. Help is near, though: Nike unveiled today the latest iteration of its popular activity tracker, dubbed the FuelBand SE. As with the original FuelBand, the new one counts steps taken throughout the day, and also scores you with a proprietary metric, called Fuel. You earn Fuel points — or is it dots? — by running, biking, playing sports, etc. The new SE bands are available in three colors (red, pink, or yellow on a matte black rubberized band), while the guts have gotten an upgrade, too. You used to be able to fist-pump your way to health — or so the FuelBand thought — but now the sensors are more refined and more difficult to trick. The SE will also be able to differentiate between types of activities, like spinning and rowing. It communicates with other devices using Bluetooth 4.0, which uses less energy and thus extends battery life.
The case is sealed and waterproof, and it helpfully reminds you to get up and move every hour. (Sitting, you'll recall, is killing us all.) Best of all, however, is that the new FuelBand SE has introduced sleep tracking. That might only bring it up to par with Fitbit Flex and Jawbone Up, but it's still a major improvement. The FuelBand SE hits shelves on November 6 for $149, with preordering available here. (Techcrunch)