LG's New Year's resolution is fitness - Lifeband Touch and Heart Rate Earphones announced

LG announced a pair of fitness accessories which seemingly do everything, short of spotting you on the bench-press, Those are the Lifeband Touch wrist-band, and Heart Rate Earphones. They connect wirelessly to each other, and to Android & iOS smartphones running wellness apps, such as LG's own LG Fitness, or MyFitnessPal, Runkeeper, and MapMyFitness.

The Lifeband Touch, as indicated by its name, boasts a touch OLED display to show time, biometric data, notifications, and music controls for your smartphone. The built-in accelerometer and altimeter measure distance, speed, number of steps taken, calories consumed and other stats. The screen automatically turns on and off when you rotate your wrist, thanks to an inbuilt motion sensing algorithm. According to LG, the wrist-band is "lightweight and simple to use".

The LG Heart Rate Earphones wield a different kind of magic. They feature PerformTek sensor technology which measures the blood flow into the external part of your ear. From this, the earphones derive your heart rate and maximal oxygen consumption. LG has employed a "flexible ear piece design" to make the buds comfortable, and a clip-on Bluetooth "medallion" handles data between the earphones, smartphone and Lifeband Touch.

LG Lifeband Touch

Although the wrist-band and earphones are conceived as fitness accessories, LG claim they are suitable for everyday situations as well. Indeed, the Lifeband Touch seems to provide much of the functionality of a smart-watch, sans apps and camera, while being a completely different example of a wearable device. As for the earphones, well, who can downplay the advantages of a truly comfortable pair of 'buds?

Both products will be available in the US in the first half of 2014, while other markets should receive them later. Overall, LG's first foray (technically second, but last year's LG Smart Activity Tracker never made it to the market) looks promising. Though we can't help, but wonder - where is the rumored LG smart-watch? Interestingly, the South Koreans haven't been the only ones to opt for an arm-band, instead of outing a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony SmartWatch. The Idol X+ by Alcatel was rumored to feature a smart-watch companion, but its announcement yielded a Bluetooth-wristband instead. Perhaps the success of the Nike Fuel Band among the sport crowd has made the smart wrist-band a safer bet, compared to the, so far, lukewarm sales of smart-watches.

source: LG