Fitbit Adds Multi-Device Support and Extensive Bike-Tracking Analytics

[CrzyP]

Looks like the multi-tracker support also includes the motion processor on the iPhone 5s/6.

 

[Ries]

No Healthkit support is actually a good thing at this point. There is really nothing beneficial about a device supporting Healthkit. I think when Healthkit was first announced, we had high hopes. But Apple has yet to provide a compelling reason to use it.

You are missing the point with healthkit, it's a "standardised" data exchange for iOS. It so app developers don't have to code against multiple API's and get agreements from company X to interface. All "devices" / "Apps" feed data into healhkit and extract the data they need them selves.

I.E.: If Fitbit puts weight, resting calories, workout, sleep data into healthkit. myfitnesspal then can extract those information and count it against your daily calorie allowance.

Fitbit doesn't support healthkit for one simple reason, they don't want to loose costumers. If company X comes with a supreme fitness tracker, the costumer can switch and still have their data history. Right now you're locked into fitbit for good.

 

[Stella]

I looked into the Surge - but read too many reports saying they had spikes in HRM data.. so became too unreliable to give an overall average.

As an owner of a Fitbit Surge since it's early launch last year, I've been mostly satisfied with it. Contrary to what others say, the heartrate monitor has been reliable, even during exercise. The only issue I have is that I have to press two buttons to reach notifications, when it should have been accessable from the watch face.

Despite my experience, I'm getting an Apple Watch next month and handing the Surge down to a family member. I will definitely miss the sleep tracking though.

 

[anthorumor]

That's going to be the Apple Watch 2. Apple's media event for 2016 announcing the new watch will have the tag line "It's better this time"

Or "Last time we should of had these features"

Or "It's about time."

 

[lewisd25]

I looked into the Surge - but read too many reports saying they had spikes in HRM data.. so became too unreliable to give an overall average.

I have yet to see that. Fitbit had a firmware update weeks ago which may have fixed HRM issues, but I have yet to see anything negative.

 

[ignar]

I find the Health app clunky and unusable. The Fitbit app is much better in terms of UI I think.

It doesn't matter. Healthkit is important since it's one central data repository from/to which data can flow. Healthkit presentation is poor, but there are and will be 3rd party apps that will handle that nicely. On the other hand, Fitbit is proprietary and once I stop using it, data will not be usable. That said, there are a number of apps that write Fitbit data to Healthkit, but I much prefer Fitbit officially supports Healthkit.

 

[MacrumoursUser]

I find the Health app clunky and unusable. The Fitbit app is much better in terms of UI I think.

The fewer app i need the better and even when i need them i can open Health app and just look up data without any ******** on a stick.

 

[furi0usbee]

How about Garmin Edge 500?
Nothing worn on a wrist is biking friendly.
In addition, there are cases with strings that you can tie to your jersey for smartphones.

I don't believe that to be true. This watch (Surge) has GPS. Same thing my iPhone bike app used. By not using my iPhone's GPS, I won't be wasting a battery on less than a bike ride. This watch will do everything my old bike computer did, and with the iPhone app available, will let me see all my status like my biking app. Seems the best of both worlds to me.

 

[skellener]

I've been waiting for a device specifically for biking. Clunky bike computers suck and I don't want to carry my iPhone, as I've dropped it. I'll look more into this.

I was looking into the Garmin Fenix 3 myself.

 

[unplugme71]

Without any type of ANT support I can't take this seriously to analyse bike usage.

GPS to gather speed data is unreliable depending on the environment - i.e., heavily wooded areas, or large built up areas - with tall buildings. When your stopped, the GPS will still record that you are moving even if 0.5 km/h, which will screw up the overall speeds.

The heart rate monitor on this device isn't actually great either.

I'd rather use dedicated speed / cadence devices that fit on to the bike. Much more reliable.

Agree, fitbit doesn't get the biking thing for us cyclist.

I wear a HR band around my chest and have a cadence meter communicating to my phone over BT and also log GPS from my iPhone. The combination of all these gives me real-time data of my HR, oxygen level, speed, elevation, cadence, distance, direction, est calories burned, duration, time to next way point, voice feedback, music playback, and so much more.

Fitbit isn't great at anything to be honest. It can't even count steps accurately. When I had it before I immediately returned it, it counted 2k steps driving to work and several flights climbed. It went back in the box on my way home from work.

My iPhone counts steps much more accurately given that my phone is not attached to me when driving in a vehicle and the bumps in the road don't count as steps.

 

[CrzyP]

As some have mentioned, HealthKit is more of a hub or bridge between other health and fitness related apps. I am somewhat disappointed that FitBit is not planning to utilize it, but I use MyFitnessPal as a FitBit to HealthKit bridge. I'm a casual runner and biker, so the cool, expensive fitness gadgets don't appeal to me all that much. I use the Nike Running app to track my runs, and Strava to track my bike rides. Both those apps write data to HealthKit and then MFP reads them. Because my FitBit account is linked to MFP, my exercise information gets transferred to my FitBit account. If I update my weight in MFP, it will be updated everywhere, except Nike. So after some trial and error with it, I have HealthKit and the apps all working well together. Just waiting for Nike to update their app to read weight.

 

[jjk454ss]

Looks like the multi-tracker support also includes the motion processor on the iPhone 5s/6.

Kind of an old post, sorry. But this is kind of what I am looking for. I'm wondering if I buy an Apple Watch, can I wear the Apple Watch part of the day, the Fitbit the rest of the day, and have an accurate count of my total daily steps? I assume if it will use the motion processor in the phone that it could/would work with the Apple Watch.

 

[Ontwerp73]

Want to share this:

I'm a runner and cyclist and used to have a Tomtom cardio multi sport.worked great but:
No live data and connection issues...
Want to buy a surge but there is also no live data possible to mainstream sport aps like strava, endomodo or runkeepr..

So my best setup is : bike
Phone+ mio fuse (btle+ant+, for hr data only in ant+ mode endomodo or wahoo fitness) + dual speed/cadence speed (also btle+ant+) and a jay bird bluebuds Bluetooth headset (best sport set with best battery! Using for 2 yrs) Using a quad lock case for my phone (glued lock system to bike case holder) .works great! Best of both worlds. Only downside is battery life when using gps. Using Sony z3 which is capable of ant+ And has a great battery life

 

[kdarling]

Had Apple said anything about pairing multiple Apple Watches to a single iPhone? I'd like to get a sport for exercise, stainless for work and social. Stainless will probably wait for version 2.

Not yet. Hopefully soon. I can tell you that it's a quite useful feature:

Being able to use multiple watches with one phone, was a great upgrade that Android Wear got fairly recently.

I always wear watches 24/7. Right now, I switch every day or so between a Moto 360 with SS link band, and an LG Watch R with stitched leather band. One charges while the other is on my wrist, and both are sync'd to the same phone.