
Well, it's another week in the books of wearable tech, and that means it's time for And finally — your place to catch up on the lighter stories and rumours from the past seven days.
This week, we saw the Nokia Steel HR and Fossil Q Control receive announcements, while Apple rolled out GymKit and also surged above Xiaomi to once again lead the wearable tech market.
Read this: Apple and Fitbit deals this Black Friday
But for everything else you may have missed, read on. And don't forget to head to our dedicated news section for more.
Apple wants developers to get up to speed
Apple has provided a notice to app developers encouraging them to update their apps to watchOS 4, while also indicating that watchOS 1 apps won't be accepted next year.
The Cupertino giant pointed out the number of benefits involved with updating apps to watchOS 4, such as taking advantage of the built-in altimeter and new background modes for navigation and audio recording, and outlined that the deadline for Apple Watch apps to be native (i.e. built using the watchOS2 SDK or later) will be 1 April next year.
This is all part of Apple's push to have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, which naturally brings a better overall experience for Watch wearers.
Fishing smarts are coming to Casio
You like fishing? You like smartwatches? Well, listen up, because Fishbrain and Casio are teaming up to bring the local fishing maps, catch locations and social fun that have previously only been available via smartphone all the way to your wrist.
That's right, a wearable version of the Fishbrain app is now available exclusively for the Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20, meaning users can find new fishing spots, see what other users are catching with what bait and even tap into fishing forecasts with a simple glance at their wrist.
Earn money with your Garmin device
A wearable-focused wellness program, UnitedHealthcare Motion, has partnered with Garmin to allow users to earn more than $1,000 in Health Savings Account or Health Reimbursment Account credits per year. This means that participants of the program, using the likes of the Garmin Vivosmart 3, simply need to meet daily walking goals in order to collect financial incentives.
UnitedHealthcare Motion has three activity goals - which it labels frequency, intensity and tenacity - allowing users to 'earn' around $4 a day by completing one or more of the sets. The Frequency challenge forces you to complete 500 steps in 7 minutes an hour apart, at least six times per day. Intensity sees you complete 3,000 steps in 30 minutes, at least once per day, and Tenacity is the well-known 10,000 steps per day challenge. So, yeah, get walking.
Awair will now track your sleep
Awair, the company that tracks air quality in homes, has announced it will begin monitoring air quality during a user's sleep period.
Called Sleep Report, the new feature will be available through both the Awair and Glow air quality monitors, and will aim to provide insights on how to improve sleep quality. According to Awair, this is achieved by tracking temperature and CO2 levels, predominately, while also keeping an eye on levels of dust, VOCs and humidity. At the end of the night, all this is weighed up to give the user a Sleep Score based upon the quality of conditions, with tips on hand to help you improve things.
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