While heart-rate monitoring has long been a viewed as a good way to take a snapshot of a person’s current level of fitness, most endurance athletes know that measuring their VO2 max can be even more enlightening. Measuring an athlete’s VO2 max usually requires him or her to work out in a lab while wearing a special oxygen mask designed to track performance. Most of us don’t have access to that kind of equipment, however, making it difficult to track our own breathing levels while exercising. But a new wearable is looking to change that by tracking both heart rate and oxygen intake in one easy-to-use device.
The SweetzPot Flow launched on Kickstarter on Tuesday, February 27, and promises to revolutionize the way athletes track their performance. The device comes in the form of a chest strap, which can be worn while running, cycling, rowing, or just about any other type of aerobic activity. The Flow is able to track oxygen intake — measured in liters per minute — to help athletes better understand their rhythms and patterns of breathing while exercising, allowing them to set and maintain their pace while building speed and stamina over time.
The fitness tracker is compatible with both Strava and Garmin Connect, but will also ship with its own iOS and Android app as well. When activated, the Flow can map running and cycling routes, and will monitor speed, distance, and duration, too. It will even graph heart rates throughout a workout and show breathing patterns, including when the athlete inhales, how long they hold their breath, and when they exhale as well.
SweetzPot CEO Havard Bjor tells Digital Trends, “We have developed this product over a long time with the intention of making a great consumer product for measuring breathing. The company’s vision is not dependent on the success of the upcoming Kickstarter, and we will launch it independently of the success of the campaign.”
That is good news for athletes looking for this kind of device, as crowdfunding campaigns can sometimes be a risky proposition. The Flow is expected to ship in the third quarter of 2018 for $299.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.