The news that Fossil no longer provides support for Misfit smartwatches and hybrid watches comes as a source of frustration for customers still using these devices. Users have turned to social media platforms in order to vent their frustration with the decision and look for alternative solutions to the problem.

Fossil acquired Misfit about 8 years ago. It purchased the business in order to gain access to its workforce and intellectual property.

Following the acquisition, Fossil made the decision to stop producing products under the Misfit brand. This has resulted in the current predicament with the smartphone software. Misfit watches were popular for their simple design and ease of use. They allow users to avoid the complications associated with Wear OS. The last Misfit watch released was back in August 2019, the Misfit Vapor X.

Misfit smartphone app support discontinued

Due to the fact that support has been discontinued, the Misfit app has been taken down from the app store. You are fine if you still have the software installed on your smartphone.

However, if you are switching phones you will not be able to set the app up. It means that they you will not be able to perform even vital operations like setting the time, rendering your timepiece worthless and causing technological trash. A workaround, of course, would be to transfer all your software and data from your old phone to your new one.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

According to Fossil, goods are taken off the market for a variety of reasons. This includes changing customer preferences, advancements in technology, and when the product has reached its full maturity. On the other hand, many users say that these reasons do not apply to hybrid watches. After all, they are designed to blend ancient technology with the capabilities of modern watches as evidenced by their traditional watch-hands.

A discount on new purchase – but is this enough?

In response to users’ complaints, Fossil has provided a discount of thirty percent on new watches. But doesn’t this go far enough? Some users have pointed out that this discount is actually only five percent. That’s considering the discount of twenty-five percent that you’d get if you sign up to Fossil’s email distribution list.

Even though people are finding this scenario to be extremely aggravating, from a business point of view, it is not completely unexpected. Maintaining an app is costly, and with a dead brand, there are no workers to continue producing necessary upgrades and adjustments to comply with app store standards.

In spite of this reasoning, many people who use Misfit watches feel cheated by Fossil’s decision to stop supporting the brand. It has left some of them with timepieces that they cannot use and no acceptable alternatives.

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We don’t often write about health and fitness smartphone apps unless they come directly from a wearables manufacturer. However, the ONVY app has potential to be very useful.

Essential reading: Best fitness trackers and health gadgets

This is because it solves a problem many wearable tech enthusiasts have. The apps from different brands are typically not designed to speak to each other.

ONVY HealthTech is currently developing a health management smartphone app with more than 320 wearable integrations. This includes integrations from Apple Health, Fitbit, Garmin, Polar, Misfit, Withings, Strava, Google Fit and more. The company’s aim is to empower their users to manage and optimize their physical and mental fitness with a holistic approach. 

The app has recently been made public in Beta and is available in all international iOS app stores. You can download, install and test it for free on: https://lnkd.in/d66RDpDT.

It’s not a finished product.

As this is still work in progress, the features will develop over time. So, it’s not a finished product.

Currently you are able to link all your accounts and the information will be pulled at regular intervals. It syncs in one direction – from your different apps to OMNY. I’ve had no issues with connecting my Garmin, Withings and Apple Health accounts.

For now, the home screen shows a Balance Score, Recovery, Activity, Mindfulness and Stress. Each of these is rated on a scale from 0 to 100. The info is designed to help you balance your physical and mental strain on a data-driven basis. So your ideal daily sweet spot for each of the main categories is shown “in the zone”.

I really like the way the app is designed and think it has quite a bit of potential. Something that seamlessly consolidates your data from different wearable accounts is sorely needed. Particulary for wearable tech geaks such as myself.

The company says it has a pretty exciting feature roadmap and new functionality will drop over the next few months. In time, you will get personalized recommendations and access to advanced health & performance programs. The AI Health Coach will help you to optimally balance physical and mental strain on a data-driven basis. The software will guide you to peak health & performance without damaging effects of stress or overload. At least, that’s the idea.

ONVY Health Tech are looking for early user feedback on the Beta app. As an incentive, they will give away 3 months for free for their premium features when they are launched in the 2nd half of 2022. This is an early access offer for the first 250 users that download the app.

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The wearable maker is one of the pioneers in the fitness band and smartwatch space. Devices such as the Misfit Shine, Misfit Ray and Misfit Phase provided a sign of the things to come.

About five years ago, the company was acquired for a cool $260 million by Fossil Group. Since then we’ve seen a few new watches. This includes the Misfit Vapor range and Misfit Path.

However, the last timepiece launched by the outfit was the Misfit Vapor X – that was some two years ago. Look at their social media accounts and you’ll notice there has been almost no activity since then.

The company wouldn’t be the first to drop out of the wearable tech race. That’s certainly what we suspected was going on when the Misfit website disappeared over a month ago. But today it is back.

A change in direction for Misfit?

The revamped website comes packing an all new logo – you can see it below. You can still purchase a few of the old products. Click on one of the images and that will take you through to a purchase link. We didn’t spot that initially and thought the company had discontinued its range of smartwatches.

The site says:

“Get on our list and be the first to learn when we’re about drop something awesome. Fair warning, things might get weird.”

There’s an accompanying video which introduces something called Misfit Makers. It also refers to “shaking things up”, “growing, changing and evolving”.

So what’s going on?

The website describes the company is becoming a new platform for creativity. This includes “pop culture conversation” and collaboration with famous artists. It also mentions watches. So clearly the outfit intends to continue manufacturing wearables. But they will be of a different kind.

Instead of mass producing watches, it looks like Misfit will focus on churning out limited edition timepieces, and tech accessories. A place for creators and collectors alike.

If this ends up being the new direction – it makes sense. Over a decade ago when Misfit was starting out there was very little competition in the wearables space. The same cannot be said of the situation today.

Which makes it increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. The sensor tech is becoming cheaper and more easily accessible by the day. We now have huge companies such as Apple, Samsung and Google in the game, plus there’s a plethora of low cost devices from Asia. It’s no wonder Swiss watch makers are struggling to make a profit.

We’ve not see a new wearable from Misfit for some two years now. But don’t be surprised if in the months ahead they start dropping artsy limited edition timepieces. Maybe, lots of them. Misfit is under the Fossil Group umbrella now so has the cash and technical expertise to focus on carving a niche for their products.

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Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

Before starting, it is important to give a brief overview of what IFTTT can do. Created some ten years ago, this is a free web-based service that people use to create chains of simple conditional statements, called applets. An applet is triggered by changes that occur within other web services. IFTTT users create about 20 million “recipes” each and every day.

For example, if you were to have your Fitbit on in the morning, your smart home could sense that you are waking up and automatically get the coffee machine running, all without you lifting a finger. Or how about automatically turning on the lights in your room when you wake up? Perhaps you would like a notification to go to bed early when your Fitbit notices low sleep levels? Or our favorite – get an insulting phone call if your daily step goal is not achieved by 10:30PM! 

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. You can check out Fitbit’s page on IFTTT. There are numerous triggers and actions to choose from.

But don’t worry if you don’t have a Fitbit. A range of devices are supported. Here are a few more ideas to get you started:

Apple Watch – Yes, you can connect the most popular smartwatch in the world to IFTTT. How about waking up to a new Apple Watch face every day? Or getting a rain alert on your watch.

Moodo – Scents have an amazing effect on your brain and are a powerful way to start and end your day. Soothing lavender and chamomile help you relax and fall asleep, while scents like citrus energize you in the morning and eucalyptus boosts productivity. Jump-start your day by asking your assistant to use your smart home fragrance diffuser “when you wake up in the morning.”

Withings Sleep – This is a sleep sensing and home automation pad that slides under your mattress. How about choosing – “Adjust the room temperature to be optimal for sleeping when I get into bed.” Or even better – “Mute my phone when I get into bed”.

Pavlok – Pavlok assists you in breaking bad habits through sending you a sensation in the form of a zap, vibration or beep – “If I don’t hit my goals on my Fitbit for steps, zap me!” Ouch… That should get you moving!

Strava – The social network for athletes! Turn on Applets to automatically track your activities – “Sync weight measurements to Strava.”

Apple Health – The iPhones’s Health app consolidates health data from a variety of apps to track progress in one place – “Automatically sync your weight from your Withings scales” or “Automatically sync your sleep readings from Fitbit”.

Misfit – This wearable tracks your sleep while also inspiring you to live a healthier, more active life – “Track your activity in Google Calendar.” If you are the owner of the Mistfit Flash, you can use it as a smart button. A single, double, triple or long press can all be used to run different Applets.

Air by Propeller – Propeller designs products to help improve asthma control – “Get a Facebook message when asthma conditions in your area change.”

Beeminder – The daily encourager. This tool helps you to progress towards your goals by sending you specific reminders – “Force yourself to go to the gym.”

You don’t need to be a tech junkie to create your own IFTTT recipe or download an applet. To get started, head over to the IFTTT website and do an applet search for your health gizmo. Then simply follow instructions on how to integrate it with your smart home.

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Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

It’s less than a year since Misfit Vapor 2 was announced and we already have its successor. Vapor X does not look all too dissimilar, but it has been re-engineered with an ultra-light case made of an aluminium alloy and additional pushers for function customisation. The whole thing weights just 43 grams. The strap has also undergone a revamp. It now has a better fit and breathable ridges for additional comfort.

Unlike its predecessor which came in two sizes, Vapor X is only available in a 42 mm diameter option. This comes with a gorgeous 1.19″ AMOLED display with 328 pixels per inch resolution.

Misfit has now added Vapor X to the select group of Wear OS watches sporting Qualcomm’s latest 3100 chip. The processor is yet to be fully utilised but it allows for low-power modes, sports watch-focused tweaks and improved always-on watch faces.

Little else has changed under the hood, which is not necessarily a bad thing as there’s already plenty to sink your teeth into. The watch comes with an accelerometer, altimeter, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor, GPS, NFC, ambient light and microphone.

Just like the previous version, Vapor X keeps going around a day between charges. Needless to say this is not all that great. But now there’s a new battery saver mode that will bump this up by an additional 2 days. Rapid charging makes an appearance once again. This allows the smartwatch to almost be completely refuelled within an hour.

Misfit has opted to ship Vapor X with some new applications pre-installed. This includes the global streaming service Spotify, along with an app to predict and prevent heart disease – Cardiogram.

You can buy Vapor X in a number of different colour-ways. They all retail for $279. However, if you’re quick you can pick up the watch only today at an introductory price of $199.99.

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Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

Which? tested 118 fitness trackers, sports watches and smartwatches across 8 brands for accuracy. The tests were conducted between May 2016 and February 2018 so do not include the newest devices. The results showed marked differences not only across brands, but also across devices belonging to the same brand.

Topping the list of wearables you might want to avoid if you’re training for the marathon is the Garmin Vivosmart 4. The popular device might be great at tracking basic activity and sleep, but it will have you running 37 miles before saying you’re at the finish line. That’s 41.5% more than the actual marathon distance or an extra 11 miles!

The Samsung Gear S2, Misfit Ray and Amazfit Bip did not fare much better. All three overestimated the distance by more than 30%. The only real surprise on this list is Amazfit Bip considering it has a built-in GPS chip which should help with accuracy.

The eight Apple watches tested performed relatively well, but the Series 3 watch was widest off the mark clocking the full marathon distance at just 22.8 miles. Oddly enough, the Series 1 watch was only 1% off the target! Go figure.

Here are the rankings of the least accurate wearables for each brand.

Inaccuracy may not present a problem over short distances, but it could leave marathon runners gasping for breath miles away from the finish line. If they don’t choose their wearable carefully, some athletes would not cross the finish line while others would end up running much further than they need to.

It might look something like this in an actual race!

While the Vivosmart 4 performed worst of the lot, Garmin does have several models which are very accurate. For example, the Vivoactive 3 was 100% on the mark when calculating the marathon distance.

“The Vivosmart 4 is an all-round smart fitness activity tracker used to monitor wellness, health and fitness for a range of activities,” a Garmin spokesman said in response to the research.

“As the Vivosmart 4 does not incorporate GPS, our recommendation for someone who is running long distances such as a marathon, would be to choose a tracking device such as our Forerunner range which is dedicated to running and incorporates GPS.”

As Garmin quite rightly suggests, the best way to resolve this is to purchase a quality running watch with built in GPS. This adds bucks to the purchase price, but it helps quite a bit when it comes to accuracy.

“Running a marathon is no mean feat, so runners who are putting in the months of training beforehand will want to know their fitness tracker is trustworthy, and not jeopardising their finish times,” said Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services.

“Our tests have found a number of models from big-name brands that can’t be trusted when it comes to measuring distance, so before you buy, make sure you do your research to find a model that you can rely on.”

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Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

A listing for the device appeared on Best Buy earlier today confirming the price and earlier leaked specs. Last week the watch showed up on Dutch online retailer called coolblue.nl and US retailer Nordstrom.

There are two different iterations to choose from – a 46 mm and a 41 mm variant. This makes the wearable a more viable option for people of all wrist sizes.

Both versions feature a round, full-touch AMOLED display (resolutions 454×454 on the 46mm and 390×390 on the 41mm), the usual fitness tracking sensors including an improved heart-rate sensor, 3 ATM water-resistance, 4 GB of on-board storage for music and apps, built-in GPS and NFC for payments on the go. The last two are pretty much the most important upgrades from the original version.

Battery life is hovering around 24 hour mark, the same as the previous generation. This is perhaps explained by the fact that Vapor 2 is another watch that comes with the old Snapdragon 2100 chip. Qualcomm has launched its new 3100 chip last month, which is said to give Wear OS watches a battery boost.

All in all, the device represents a healthy upgrade over last year’s model. Poor battery life and the old chip are a little disappointing, though.

The watch is available on Amazon (check price) with delivery scheduled for the end of this month. Coincidently, this is the exact same day of the launch of the first generation device last year.

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Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

If you’ve been holding out for a Misfit’s smartwatch, you may be better off waiting a bit longer. Vapor 2 seems to be in for an imminent landing.

Misfit’s first smartwatch was launched on October 31st last year. It came with a plethora of sensors, on-board storage for music and a full-touch, 1.39-inch circular AMOLED screen.

Details of the next generation device were published by a Dutch online retailer called coolblue.nl. At the time of writing the posting is still up. The device is set to benefit from a larger display the second time around, made possible by thinner bezels. The screen is 1.42 inches with a resolution of 454 x 454. The width of the device is 46mm and thickness 13mm (versus 44mm and 13.5mm on the original Vapor).

Its possible the larger display real-estate will come at the expense of the touch bezel as the manual makes no reference of this feature. Yes, the manual has been leaked, too!

Nordstrom, a retailer in the US lists another model. This one is only 41mm wide and 12mm thick and sports a 390 x 390 display. Its likely the larger model is meant for men and smaller for women.

In terms of other specs, the watch will benefit from similar upgrades to other Gen 4 devices in the Fossil Group. This includes built-in GPS and NFC for Google Pay. Misfit had planned on including built-in GPS in the first generation watch, but ultimately decided to drop it in favor of Connected GPS.

The device will also inherit the accelerometer, altimeter, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor, microphone, offline storage for music and 5 ATM water-resistance of the first generation device.

Battery life has not seen much of an improvement. The Wear OS device will run up to 2 days between charges, pretty much the same as the previous generation. Its possible the watch will use the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, although this has not been confirmed yet. Considering the battery life is unchanged and that this has passed through the FCC in June, perhaps not.

There will be a choice between several case options including black, rose gold and silver. Straps will come in leather, rubber, and metal link.

Prices should range between €230 and €250 depending on the model. Seeing that retailers are already starting to prepare listings, we are expecting Misfit Vapor 2 to land by the end of this month. A pre-holiday sales launch would make sense.

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Many smartwatches are too cumbersome for those with smaller wrists and it is this market segment that Misfit is catering to. Featuring a stainless steel case with matte finishing, Path is the company’s third and smallest hybrid yet.

Announced at CES 2018, the timepiece has a 3-axis accelerometer to deliver info on steps, calories burned, distance traveled, as well as both sleep duration and quality. The accompanying smartphone app allows you to set goals, create smart alarms and movement reminders. There is no heart rate tracking, don’t look for it, its not there. This is more about covering fitness tracking basics.

Path does have smart watch functionality, though. When connected to your smartphone it delivers call, text, email, and app vibration notifications. A physical button on the side acts as a remote control for photo capture, music controls and rings your phone if you happen to mislay it. And yes, in case you were wondering, the watch even tells the time!

Essential reading: CES 2018, catch up on all the essential news here

The 50 meters water resistance means you do not need to worry about take it off in the shower or when going swimming. You can forget about recharging too, as it operates on a replaceable battery that lasts up to six months.

Coming across very much as a traditional analog watch, Path comes in Stainless Steel, Rose Tone, Gold Tone, and Stainless Steel with Gold Tone Accent. There is lots of rooms for customizing as the 16mm straps are interchangeable.

Prices start at $149.99, with delivery expected sometime this Spring.

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We caught a glimpse of it at IFA in Berlin earlier this year and walked away suitably impressed. Already known for its stylish range of wearables, Command brings together the best of both worlds. A clean, modern and unobtrusive look on the outside, and latest high tech smarts on the inside.

Last year, Misfit added Phase to its stable of wearables, its first analogue watch. Command is a much smarter looking timepiece. Fossil has acquired the company some two years ago, and its influence is becoming increasingly evident. The new hybrid actually resembles other pieces in Fossil’s collection, particularly the Skagen Hagen Connected.

Essential reading: Top hybrid watches, the best of both worlds

You would hardly know this is a high tech device just by looking at it. And this is what Misfit is looking to achieve. A watch that seamlessly blends into your life. Command comes with a stanless steel case with matte finishing. To customize it to your taste, there is a wide range of 20mm strap options to choose from.

Mind you, the device will only provide the basics when it comes to tracking your fitness. With a built-in accelerometer, you will just get info on your steps, distance, calories and sleep. Don’t look for a heart rate monitor, its not there.

There is also some smartwatch functionality. This includes notifications for messages, reminders, calendar appointments, a smart button function which can be set up through the Link App and more. You can also create smart alarms, create movement reminders and control other connected smart devices.

Whereas the Phase used color coding to indicate what type of information is on display, Connect adds a small sub-dial with little icons letting you know what you are looking at. It is perhaps not very intuitive at first, but you do need to be creative to figure out a way of displaying notifications on a watch without a digital screen.

Command features a non-charging battery that lasts up to one year, the longest battery life on a Misfit device to date. Its swim-proof up to 50 meters, too, so you don’t have to worry about taking it off in the water.

Misfit Command is available on the company’s website. It starts at $150 and you get Black Steel, Black Copper, Navy Blue, and Stainless Steel options to choose from. You can also pick it up on Amazon (check price).

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