UPDATED 14:00 EDT / OCTOBER 18 2013

Internet of Things Review: Fitness Bands and Phablets

The Internet of Things keeps getting bigger. Jumping into the fray, sportswear giant Nike is launching a new iteration of its popular fitness band to make it easier for users to check their progress throughout the day. Unveiled during a sold-out company event on Tuesday, the Nike+ FuelBand SE is available in three new colors: yellow, pink and red. More notably, the band introduces support for Bluetooth 4.0 to let you track sessions and see Fuel points earned in real time. The Nike+ platform has also been updated to more accurately track different types of activities, a major improvement that gives the company a temporary edge in what is becoming a fiercely competitive market.

While Nike is focusing on wearable gadgets, Microsoft is working to strengthen its presence in the phablet space. To this end, the software titan is rolling out a new version of Windows Phone that includes several quality of life improvements and some notable graphical changes. Windows Phone Update 3 sports a phablet-optimized start menu that adds an extra row of tiles for devices with screens as large as six inches. The platform also features support for the Qualcomm 8974 quad-core chip and 1080p displays, a “driving mode” that notifies callers if the user is too busy to respond immediately, and improved options for people with visual impairments.

Microsoft’s hardware ambitions extend beyond phablets to the much more lucrative tablet market. The newly launched Windows 8.1 introduces performance enhancements, customizable Live Tiles, and a new version of Mail that is usable on both tablets and desktops. Taken together, the many small changes added with Windows 8.1 amount to a significant upgrade that addresses a good portion of the criticism attracted by Microsoft’s flagship operating system since launch.


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