One of our biggest complaints about Fitbit products for years is the fact that you’ll need to pay the $10 monthly fee to see your historical data. For example, you could only see up to seven days’ worth of your breathing rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variation, and just 90 days of everything else if you didn’t shell out. It was one of the biggest drawbacks of devices like the Pixel Watch, especially when you consider that competing products from Apple and Samsung don’t lock your own data behind a paywall. Today, Google announced that it’s making “more of the insightful data from Fitbit’s Health Metrics Dashboard available without a subscription to all of its users.”
This includes breathing rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, oxygen saturation and resting heart rate. “Now, even without a Premium subscription, users will now be able to see 30-day and 90-day views of their data to track trends over time,” the company said in a statement. To be clear, more-basic metrics like step count, miles traveled, calories burned and heart rate have always been free, while the information listed above were presented in the Health Metrics dashboard as daily, weekly, monthly or 90-day summaries.
While there is still a 90-day limit to how far back you can see your historical activity for those metrics, this at least brings Fitbit products closer to the competition. The company does have industry-leading health and sleep-tracking features, including the ability to see how much time you spend in zones like REM, deep and light sleep throughout the night. As of now, information like those sleep stages are not locked behind Premium, although Sleep Profile, Guided Sleep Programs, Snore Detect and additional insights around what’s impacting your Sleep Score are.
It’s good that Fitbit no longer paywalls your Sleep Stages, since Apple recently added the same feature to watchOS, while Samsung has offered it for years. And both competitors grant this, along with other sleep metrics and guidance, to their users without charging extra.
Update (at 4pm ET): This article was updated to confirm that Sleep Stages is not a Premium feature, while spelling out which sleep-related features are.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fitbit-wont-make-you-pay-for-your-own-weekly-health-data-anymore-170008009.html?src=rss
This week, our hosts are joined by UK Bureau Chief Mat Smith to dive into the most interesting devices that were announced at Mobile World Congress, which has been happening this week in Barcelona. Are foldables getting more interesting, or are they going to become as stale as regular smartphones have become? Also, just how fast is too fast when it comes to charging? Then, we go over Cherlynn’s review of the Galaxy S23+ and why Microsoft bringing Bing AI to the Windows 11 taskbar isn’t what it seems.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
What’s cool at Mobile World Congress with UK bureau chief Mat Smith – 1:22
Hands on with the Oppo Find N2 Flip – 6:44
Motorola’s Rizr is a concept phone with a rolling screen – 21:09
Samsung Galaxy S23+ review: solid, but not outstanding – 31:17
Microsoft brings Bing AI to the Windows 11 taskbar…sort of – 32:43
Meta says it plans to release AR glasses in 2027 – 34:51
US House panel gives Biden the power to ban TikTok – 38:00
Working on – 41:17
Pop culture picks – 42:57
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Mat Smith
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-mwc-2023-most-interesting-phones-foldables-rollables-fast-charging-133021266.html?src=rss
What a wild week chock full of news all over tech! Microsoft and Google both unveiled their AI products for the masses, with Microsoft holding a whole event this week to show off the new Edge and Bing. Google also had an event in Paris and unveiled the first Android 14 developer preview, while OnePlus launched its first-ever tablet alongside a new phone. Cherlynn is joined this week by guest co-host Sam Rutherford to tear into the week’s onslaught of news, and check in to see how we feel about Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra while reviewing it.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Microsoft’s AI event unveils Bing and Edge with OpenAI collaboration – 1:46
Google unveils Bard chatbot, its ChatGPT competitor – 23:48
Mat Smith’s OnePlus 11 review – 29:18
Also coming from OnePlus: a tablet, earbuds and a keyboard – 37:41
Sam Rutherford’s Galaxy S23 Ultra review – 44:38
AI-generated Seinfeld show “Nothing, Forever” banned from Twitch – 55:58
Android 14 developer preview is available now – 58:16
What is even happening with Twitter’s API access? – 1:02:26
Working on – 1:08:08
Pop culture picks – 1:09:06
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh
Microsoft’s set to make an AI-related announcement today at 1pm ET, but it will not be streaming the keynote to the public. Not to worry, though, we’re here at the event in Redmond and will be liveblogging all the news the company is sharing today. After Google unveiled its ChatGPT rival Bard yesterday, Microsoft revealed it had been planning today’s event all along, without disclosing many details beyond telling us to expect information about “exciting projects.” Thanks to a tweet from OpenAI’s Sam Altman, though, we can at least guess that generative AI is on the agenda, if not the star of the show. We’ll be starting this liveblog around 12:30pm ET, with myself (Cherlynn Low) on text and our head of video Brian Oh taking pictures. See you soon!