Nike and Adidas announce new non-competing wearable devices

This week we saw two of the major fitness gear companies, Nike and Adidas, announce new wearable tech products. The products are not in competition with each other though as one is focused simply on tracking daily activity while the other is designed for the active runner who wants to track and record specific workouts.

(Image: Adidas)

Adidas revealed their new GPS runner watch at the GigaOM Mobilize conference in San Francisco yesterday. Despite many of the articles you may have seen discussing this product, this is not a competitor in the smartwatch category so do not compare it to the Pebble, Galaxy Gear, Sony Smartwatch, iWatch, or any other such device.

The Adidas Smart Run is a competitor to Garmin GPS watches, the new TomTom devices (my review of the TomTom Multi-Sport will be live early next week), Suunto GPS watches, and other $200 to $400 watches designed for the active runner.

The new Adidas Smart Run actually looks very similar to the Motorola MOTOACTV that continues to be my favorite running watch. Like the MOTOACTV, the Adidas Smart Run is powered by Android, has a touch display, and is the only other running watch I have seen that supports music playback over Bluetooth.

Of course the watch has an integrated GPS receiver that helps track your route, speed, pace, and much more. A couple unique features include a heart rate monitor from the wrist rather than requiring a band around your chest and WiFi sync to the Adidas miCoach platform.

The color touch screen is 1.45 inches and has a resolution of 184 x 184 pixels. It weighs in at 2.8 ounces. The 410 mAh rechargeable battery powers the watch for four hours while in training mode with 1 second updates, eight hours in marathon mode with 5 second update intervals, and 14 days while in casual watch only mode.

It comes with 4GB of integrated storage, 3GB of which is available to store your music. For comparison, my two-year old MOTOACTV has 16GB of available storage. It's pretty amazing to me how advanced the MOTOACTV was and that no one has yet matched its capabilities.

While listening to music via a Bluetooth headset is supported, Adidas is focused on promoting the ability for the watch to provide training coach input via the display or audio playback. Coaching appears as animations on the watch, through vibrations to alert users of tips and guide them through interval training, and audio feedback.

There are still many details remaining to be revealed, such as how the data synced to the miCoach platform can be accessed and possibly shared, if there is any connectivity with a smartphone, and how the watch is charged up. It will be available starting November 1 for $399, which is competitive to other high end GPS running watches that offer similar functionality.

(Image: Nike)

I was one of the first to buy a Nike Fuelband and thoroughly enjoyed the hardware design. However, it is a locked down ecosystem and after Nike promised and then reneged on the Android compatibility I gave away my Fuelband.

Earlier this week, Nike revealed they are launching a 2nd generation Fuelband, the Nike+ Fuelband SE. This new version is still restricted just to iOS connectivity and the captured data is given as Nike Fuel with no ability to export to services such as Runkeeper, Endomondo, and a number of other focused services. Fitbit and Jawbone focus on connectivity with other specialized services while Nike uses their own proprietary measurements and maintains a closed ecosystem.

The new Fuelband SE sells for the same $149 and comes in a variety of colors; black, green, pink, and orange. It is water resistant and hopefully Nike fixed the problem with the back band screws rusting due to sweat and normal daily wear. I had to have mine replaced after just a couple months and gave my replacement away before the screws rusted up again.

Nike added sleep tracking capability, found in other products like the Fitbit line and Jawbone UP. The Nike+ Fuelband SE is likely even a better piece of hardware than the current Fuelband and is a nice solution for those who are satisfied with the Nike Fuel metric system.

Two rechargeable batteries power the Fuelband SE for up to four days of usage. The display shows you your fitness status and the time on the 100 small LEDs. There are 20 color LEDs too that show you status and rewards. Nike provides feedback in the form of rewards, achievements, milestones, and more in order to attempt to motivate you to achieve your goals.

Again, the Nike+ Fuelband SE is not a smartwatch competitor. It competes with the Fitbit line, Jawbone UP, and Withings Pulse daily life activity tracker products. It is the most expensive of the bunch and with only iOS compatibility I will be taking a closer look at the newly announced Fitbit Force instead. That new Fitbit will include phone call notifications and starts to blur the line between the smartwatch and life activity trackers.

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Microsoft Update Skype to new Kindle Fire, 7 iOS devices tablets

Overview: Microsoft is releasing new versions of Skype for Android tablets, including new lighting fires, as well as for 7 iOS devices.

Microsoft has updated Skype for Android and iOS in recent days, with support fire HD & HDX, comes to new Kindle tablet as well as current support for Apple device running iOS7.

Skype for Android version 4.4 is for Android tablets of all kinds. The biggest change, according to an October 8 blog entry, is that tablet users "will now see a new interface that puts first, talks showing their recent calls and chat." The post added that the new update benefits version 4.0 "total rewrite" for phone users.

Microsoft post notes with "good network conditions," Tablet Android users can get up to four times the video resolution of previous versions. Users of Kindle fire HD and HDX will still be able to make use of accelerated by hardware HD-quality video, they said that Microsoft executives. Non-Kindle fire users can get the update 4.4 from today in the game shop. Fire Kindle users will be able to get the update "more later this month".

On 7 October, the Skype team released version 4.13 Skype for iPhone and iPad. The new version offers a "fresh" look for iOS 7, in addition to improvements in accessilbilty, audio and video call, according to a blog post. The update is available on the App Store starting Monday.

Mary Jo has covered the technology industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and websites and is a frequent guest on radio and TV, podcasts, talking about all things related to Microsoft. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: how Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the era post Gates (John Wiley & sons, 2008).

US sides with Apple; some Samsung Android devices banned

Summary: The US wouldn't uphold a ban on the import of some older versions of Apple iPhone and iPad, but it had no such qualms about banning some older Samsung Android smartphones and tablets from the US market.

The Apple/Samsung patent war keeps grinding on. In the latest battle, Samsung's request that it be allowed to continue to ship some older Android devices to the US market was rejected by the Obama administration.

In the latest legal battle between Samsung Android and Apple iOS, Apple emerged the winner.

As reported by Bloomberg, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement, “After carefully weighing policy considerations, including the impact on consumers and competition, advice from agencies, and information from interested parties, I have decided to allow the import ban to proceed."

The banned devices are those that have been found to violate two of Apple's patents. These are:

US Patent No. 7,479,949, aka the ’949 patent; affects claims 1, 4-6, 10, and 17-20): Concerns touch commands on touch-screen devices. US Patent No. 7,912,501, aka the ’501 patent; affects claims 1-4 and 8): Concerns input and output detection for microphone and headphone jacks.

It's not clear which Samsung smartphones and tablets will be banned. Newer Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Note 3 or Note 10.1, will not be banned.

Normally, the executive branch of government doesn't veto decisions by the US International Trade Commission (ITC). However, in a rare move, the government had vetoed the ITC's ban of some older iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G, and iPad 2 3G devices following Apple's loss to Samsung in another patent infringement suit.

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Topics: Mobility, Android, Apple, Legal, Samsung, Smartphones, Tablets

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge PC operating system. SJVN covers networking, Linux, open source, and operating systems.

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Microsoft ups app-roaming limits for Windows 8 to 81 devices

Summary: Microsoft is removing the Microsoft-imposed five-device app-installation limit for Windows 8 and 8.1 devices. Starting next month, the new upper limit is 81 devices.

Microsoft is increasing the number of Windows 8 and 8.1 devices on which users can install Windows Store apps from 5 to 81. (And no, that's not a typo.)

The new app-roaming limit takes effect on October 9 and applies to Windows Store/Metro Style apps associated with a single Microsoft account, according to a new Microsoft "Windows App Builder" blog post on September 27.

Microsoft officials told developers attending its Build conference in June that the company was planning to make a change to the 5-device limit, based on feedback.

"Developers that decide to have the app enforce a constraint around the number of devices must disclose that constraint to Windows Store customers and set expectations appropriately," according to the new blog post.

I'm not exactly sure why the new limit is 81. (I mean that particular number; I'm not questioning whether 81 is sufficient.) I've got a question in to Microsoft about that.

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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