[section_title title=Introduction & Closer Look]
- Brand:Â Misfit
- Model:Â Shine
- RRP: £110/$120
Introduction
It’s inevitable, 2014 will be the year of the wearable tech. Towards the end of 2013 there were already dozens of products on the market which could be worn or attached to your body, from the likes of the notorious Google Glass, to numerous fitness and personal health tracking devices – in fact we took a look at a personal heartrate monitor not too long ago. With the recent passing of CES over in Las Vegas it was confirmed by many companies announcing portable devices that could be worn – with Intel announcing a personal computer that was the size of a badge, to Razer announcing a smartwatch/wristband, both of which got a huge amount of attention.
The hype in the wearable tech is no doubt linked to the increase of smartphone technology and falling prices of the hardware. With the latest low power Bluetooth version release (4.0), the amount of wireless devices that sync with your smartphone has shot up due to the drastically reduced power consumption level. It is without surprise that companies like Misfit Wearables, have jumped at the opportunity to create sophisticated yet slick and premium looking products like the Shine, which will be our focus today.
The Misfit Shine is a very sleek device that can be worn around your neck, wrist, belt or even attach it to your shoe, for it to then act as a glorified pedometer, tracking your movement and working out how much exercise you are getting and if you should be doing any more, all track-able via the Misfit Shine App, which is free to download from the iOS App Store or Google Play.
First Look
Straight away you can tell the Misfit Shine is aimed more premium end of the fitness tracking devices – even before you’ve taken it out of the box it is apparent.
The device itself isn’t much larger than a 50p piece and made from aircraft grade aluminium, with a dark grey, sandblasted cover, which is very smooth to the touch. It’s about 5mm thick – not much bigger than the CR2032 battery it runs on, and it’s fully waterproof so would be ideal for swimming.
The Shine features a groove around the circumference and has 12 darker spots on the face – just like you would see on a watch. These subsequently light up when the device is activated, which will tell you the time and how much of your goal you have accomplished.
The Shine has been designed so it can be worn in many different ways, from acting as a pendulum on a necklace, clipped on to your belt or even worn as a watch using either the supplied strap or you can purchase a proper leather strap from the store.
