Wired’s Adreinne So takes a look at the Fitbit Ace LTE. A Fitbit fit for your kid? An interesting option to keep kids off screens for just a little longer. Alternatively it could just be a gateway.
At $230 with a $10 subscription required feels a little steep for the 7 and up set. But, it could be a good option if you’re in the market for a pint-sized wearable.
The watch has the usual suite of sensors, like the accelerometer, optical heart rate sensor, altimeter, magnetometer, ambient light sensor, and gyroscope. But Google Research worked with experts like Lauren Sherar, a professor of physical activity at Loughborough University in the UK, to create child-specific exercise algorithms and show that movement in a graphic called the Noodle. It’s a snake character that slithers around the perimeter of the display until the child has reached the World Health Organization’s recommended 60 minutes of activity per day.
Instead of interval-based or zone-based training, the Fitbit Ace LTE has interval-based gaming. Google enlisted the efforts of independent Australian gaming studios to develop short, engaging 3D active games for the new Fitbit Arcade platform that draws on the data from the watch’s accelerometer and other sensors and engages the haptic feedback and speakers.
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