Fitbit making exercise even more of a game
Fitbit wants to help you exercise more by making you think you’re hiking famous trails instead of strolling around your neighborhood.
The new motivational feature, called Adventures, will be available to all Fitbit users through a free app update Monday.
The feature tracks the distance you’ve walked or run and maps it against actual trails, starting with three at Yosemite National Park in California. The Fitbit app will unlock badge-like images of trail landmarks — say, a scenic waterfall at mile 5 — as you progress. Other rewards include “fun facts” and health tips along the way. Fitbit will add other destinations, including the ability to “run” the course of the New York City Marathon.
One of Fitbit’s most popular features has been its ability to let friends and family compare steps they’ve taken throughout the day. Fitbit says those who participate in such challenges tend to take 30 percent more steps. The company says Adventures is designed to offer similar challenges even if people haven’t assembled real-life groups.
The feature might help some users stick with step tracking and other fitness measures after the novelty wears off. People who keep using their Fitbits are more likely to tell their friends about them, and to upgrade to more advanced models themselves, analysts say.
Fitbit, the market leader in wearable devices, is also updating two older devices, the 2013 Flex and the 2014 Charge. Besides tracking steps and sleep, the Flex 2 and the Charge 2 will remind people to take moving breaks throughout the day. That’s coming to the Fitbit Blaze, too, through a software update.
The Charge 2 will have a heartrate monitor, a feature previously limited to the HR edition of the Charge. It will guide users to take deep-breathing breaks. One new feature promises a quick snapshot of cardiovascular fitness based on a metric known as VO2 max. While this typically requires running on a treadmill with an oxygen mask, Fitbit estimates it using running speed and heart rate instead.
Meanwhile, the Flex 2 will be the first Fitbit with sufficient water resistance for use during swimming.
The Charge 2 is expected to ship in September for $150, while the Flex 2 will come in October for $100.
Banks led the stock NEW YORK — market higher Monday as investors anticipate that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates this year from their historically low levels. That could help banks recover from a long slump by making lending more profitable.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 107.59 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,502.99. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 11.34 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,180.38. The Nasdaq composite edged up 13.41 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,232.33.
Major U.S. banks posted solid gains as traders bet that the Fed was likely to nudge interest rates higher in December or even at its next policy meeting in September. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told a conference last week that the case for raising rates was strengthening, given improvements in the economy.
Raising interest rates from their rock-bottom levels, where they have been since the 2008 financial crisis, could be a good thing not only for markets but for savers, said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer of Cabot Wealth Management in Salem, Mass.
“We’re running out of excuses not to raise interest rates,” Lutts said. “We’re the wealthiest economy on the planet, and everybody who has a bank account is earning virtually zero on those balances today. There’s a lot of spending power that may be released in the economy” if savers earn more on their bank accounts, Lutts said.
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, rose $1.05, or 2.2 percent, to $49.56 and JPMorgan Chase gained 73 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $66.95. Banks are still one of the worst-performing sectors in the market this year. The financial sector of the S&P 500 has gained just 1.8 percent in 2016.
Herbalife added $2.80, or 4.6 percent, to $63.30 after Carl Icahn said late Friday he had bought an additional 2.3 million shares in the supplements and weight-loss products company, and that he never gave an order to sell his $1 billion stake. A Wall Street Journal report earlier Friday said that the investment bank Jefferies had been looking for buyers for Icahn’s position.
Overseas, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.4 percent and Germany’s DAX fell 0.4 percent. The London Stock Exchange was closed for a summer bank holiday. Earlier in Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.3 percent and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent.