Before I start today’s article I want to thank those of you who responded about the Google Photos features I talked about last month. I am glad to you found a lot of useful information from them, it was my pleasure.
Today, one of my readers wrote to ask me about a specific Christmas present they were considering for a friend. As an avid reader, they recalled that I had once said that I wore a Fitbit watch. Wow, I didn’t even remember that I wrote about those before. But sure enough, I mention it in one sentence earlier this year.
First off, I am a geek and I love to get my hands on any new tech that I am able to. So yes, I do have a Fitbit. For the uninitiated, a Fitbit, Inc. is a company based in San Francisco. It produces wireless-enabled technology that you wear, wearable-technology. They measure all sorts of information about you, the wearer. There are many competitors of which I will talk about two. Many are quite expensive but I will talk about the two I have owned which are on the low end of the price spectrum. I have owned a Moto 360 (obviously sold by Motorola connected to my Android phone). I really liked my Moto 360; however, it had a short lifespan of only about 18-24 months. Of course, thrifty me bought a used one. You get what you pay for. At the time I bought it they sold new for about $300.
According to a Counterpoint Research, 2017, Apple sells the #1 most popular smartwatches (48%) with Fitbit in as #2 (21%). The others were spread below including Fossil, Xiaomi and Garmin. Of course, further in the article is states that in 2018 other report I read that Fitbit is in third place behind Apple and Xiaomi. So whatever, the top sellers are doing well.
So what does my Fitbit Versa do? Yes, they have several different models with names like Ionic, Charge 3, Blaze and more. One of the things I like about the Fitbit Versa is the ability to see it in almost any lighting situations. Whether in the pitch black of night or in bright sunlight I can read it. This is not a quality shared by some smartwatches. I get weather updates every 15-20 minutes for the area my phone is in. So yes, it does communicate and gets most of its information from my Android phone. Yes, it works with Apple watches too.
It measures how many steps/miles I walk during the day. And one of the things that I think it neat; although, I wonder about the accuracy is it keeps track of my sleep if I wear it at night. It shows how long I slept and how long I spend in each stage of sleep. The reason I doubt it is that I have no memory of being awake 37 minutes last night for a minute here and a minute there.
They do much more but I would say if you want to give or receive a smartwatch Fitbit is one of the more affordable brands with all the “cool” stuff.
