As I’m sure you’ll be aware, wearable technology is a big thing at the moment with market growing rapidly, manufactures are keen to make sure they can take a slice of it.
One of those manufactures is Sony, who is certainly not new to the market and has already released a number of fitness bands. Last year the company released the SWR10 SmartBand, a device which allowed users to record their fitness goals amongst other general activities. Now, according to the folk over at Xperia Blog, a new updated SmartBand has recently passed through the FCC’s testing, and as with most devices that have to be FCC certified, it has been published to their website to view.
The information available online suggests the main (and perhaps only) new feature of the new SWR12 SmartBand is the inclusion of a heart rate monitor; it will periodically monitor your heart rate to check activity and stress levels, this information will be passed back to companion app which is installed on your phone.
Sony’s SmartBand is slightly different to its competitors, while the vast majority focus purely on your fitness regime, the SmartBand actually collects other information; such as how long you sleep and along with the LifeLog app used by the SmartBand, it will also capture information about how you socialise with friends online as well as log other activities you do on your phone like listening to music, playing games or watching videos.
Based on the illustrations from the FCC website, the SWR12 SmartBand looks to be incredibly similar to its predecessor, while it’s possible there might be some more features implemented into the new device; it’s more than likely an incremental update and nothing more.
Obviously at the moment there is no information to confirm when it will be available, or for how much. It’s probably safe to say it will be a similar price to its predecessor when originally released (around the £70 mark).