Personally, I’ve been holding off a new phone purchase for a particular desired feature: Bluetooth v4.0, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Upon reading the official iPhone 4S spec sheet, Bluetooth v4.0 finally gets its smartphone debut; A feature that as of this writing, no other smartphone on the market has.

To be fair and practical, the Bluetooth v4.0 spec of iPhone 4S doesn’t have much of a use at the moment. That will soon change thanks to the most anticipated v4.0 feature, BLE, for its power and cost saving advantages. Furthermore, Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) says that the v4.0 spec will be in several model phones by the end of 2011, and a spec of most phones by the end of 2012.

If we had a bunch of BLE sensor appliances waiting to be used, then I’d overlook the modest upgrades and immediately jump on the iPhone 4S. But of course, most of the BLE appliances are in development “holding patterns”, waiting for their all-important host devices. I want to be prepared for the oncoming flood of these BLE appliances by having a Bluetooth v4.0 host device, however at this point in time I see no need to jump on the first phone offering the spec unless that phone WOW’s me. The iPhone 4S doesn’t do that, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, Apple stated at yesterday’s iPhone 4S announcement that the iPhone 4 sales represents more than half of all iPhones ever sold. I don’t have immediate numbers but I know the total iPhones in circulation surpasses 100 million. The point here being: The iPhone 4S should continue to sell extremely well and ultimately arm millions of new smartphone owners with Bluetooth v4.0 possibilities.

What I hope to find out soon is how the iPhone 4S’s new BT specs support legacy devices. If you’re new to this, before this latest iPhone Apple blocked specific profiles of existing Bluetooth generations. Blocks which kept users from being able to use popular mHealth BT appliances, such as heart rate monitors, blood pressure cuffs, weight scales, etc. The only clues I have to go on at this point from my sources say that legacy BT support will be in place throughout the transition from previous generations to BT v4.0.

That said, all iPhone generations are capable of supporting currently available mHealth BT sensor appliances but have that functionality switched off within the iOS firmware. Why? I have no idea. But I’m hoping the new v4.0 BT specs of the iPhone 4S change Apple’s serial Bluetooth connectivity policies.

There was a time when it was called Nokia Sports Tracker Beta and its core dev team was affectionately known as the Sports Tracker Dudes. Ah, the memories! None finer for me than winning the grand prize in the n79 Active Edition Draw a Heart contest. But the Sports Tracker Dudes split from Nokia early last year, forming their own company in Sports Tracking Technologies OY in Finland. Shortly after that, the Nokia Beta Labs Sports Tracker project was archived, and with it so were my hopes for a better Nokia. I realized that this one little app was the only thing keeping me from switching mobile brands for the past year running. Yet with exciting things happening in Android and iPhone, especially on the sports technology arena, the seemingly then-dormant Sports Tracker dev team gave me no reason to remain brand-loyal to Nokia. Silly as it sounds now, I went shopping for a non-Nokia mobile when I saw evidence that the Sports Tracker Dudes had iPhones and Androids, themselves. (clues via Twitter and Facebook update clients) That was a full year ago, folks. Since then we’ve seen Sports Tracker come back to life and Nokia run itself aground. Now that Nokia are abandoning Symbian for Windows, it makes sense to the future of Sports Tracker that this new platform(s) announcement be made.

Is it too late? Well certainly not. But I think the Sports Tracker Dudes missed out on cashing in big for their pioneering efforts. I’ve been tracking the sports app startups and a few have received fairly large investment sums recently, most notably Endomondo’s $800K. Still, the Sports Tracker Dudes have several thousands of loyal users in the Symbian world and many more who moved on to iPhones and Androids that I’m sure will give them a go again once on their respective platforms.

In their brief announcement they said, “The apps come packed with all the great tracking features you guys love, plus some exciting additional features enabled by the new platforms”. Additional features enabled by the new platforms? Technically speaking there is only one feature I can think of that is additional to today’s Sports Tracker on Symbian and that’s ANT+. iPhone has it via plugin accessories and Android is beginning to see it in some Sony Ericsson models. Aside from ANT+, there’s really nothing new the platforms bring to talk about besides better user interfaces and experiences. Yes, I’m biting my tongue here but I cannot think of what the Sports Tracker Dudes would call “exciting additional features” based on the technical understanding I have of the current platforms. If anything, the new platforms present a few challenges:

• The iPhone, for example, wont be able to use the Polar WearLink+ BT HRM that was originally designed for use with (then-Nokia’s) Sports Tracker. For one reason or another, Apple have decided to block the types of BT connections that today’s Polar WearLink+ uses. Which brings me back to ANT+ speculation.
• On the other hand, besides a minor ANT+ debut, not every Android model has a stellar Bluetooth and/or GPS antenna track record.

It seems logical to guess that Zephyr’s HxM and BioHarness will not be made compatible with new Sports Tracker Android app. Remember, the Polar WearLink+ BT HRM was originally made exclusive for Nokia’s Sports Tracker and I’ve always thought of it as their honeypot. I welcome any corrections here but I thought the Sports Tracker Dudes got a portion from every sale of the Polar WearLink+ BT hrm. Regardless, if they have an interest in Polar then Zephyr is clearly out of the picture for Sports Tracker Android. Too bad, Zephyr make much more useful BT monitors, hands-down.

The elephant in the room for me is the name, Sports Tracker. Sure, many of us know who began using it first. But it’s not about that. SportsTrackLive.com’s Sports Tracker has been around since 2008 and Endomondo’s Sports Tracker has been around since 2007-2008. Legally speaking, I don’t know if any of these guys have a trademark going on Sports Tracker but I think the former-Nokia Sports Tracker might have a tough time keeping the name across platforms.

What I hope to see from Sports Tracker: There’s plenty of room for improvement when you look through the current sports tracker apps. That said, the now-Symbian Sports Tracker will have to pick up its development pace to match that of the current standouts. Updates from the top apps are frequent and strong. Several devs are giving great attention to making their apps compete with the traditional monitors from Polar, Garmin, Suunto, and the like. Features like intervals and training plans are gaining appreciation, while maximizing the advantages a mobile computer provides. Connectivity being a major point, the ideal sports app would bring in multiple types of data from a variety of sensors.

Good luck to the original Sports Tracker team and congratulations for continuing their pursuits of better health for everybody!

Here’s an excerpt via NFL.com on the E39:
New to NFL Network’s Combine coverage this year is the UA E39, an Under Armour compression shirt fitted with electronic sensors that track the body’s natural motion and biometric signals, which are then sent to a tiny device on the front of the shirt. This device tracks and keeps all of the athlete’s critical data, including breathing rate, heart rate, horse power and G force generated. The UA E39 will give NFL general managers, coaches and scouts an unprecedented look at the athletes during their evaluations.

What I can tell you is that the E39 is a collaborative project between Under Armour and Zephyr Technology. Under Armour is supplying specially engineered compression shirts that accommodate wireless sensors provided by Zephyr Technology. Each one of these scientific setups will be worn by prospective NFL recruits as they go through the arduous testing of the NFL Combine. You’ll be able to see that data Live.

The details of the E39′s capabilities will sound familiar to you if you’ve read my Zephyr BioHarness review, where I demonstrated it capturing and remotely displaying variables such as heart rate, breath rate, skin temperature, ECG and activity levels. However, this is a brand new product from Zephyr, based on the technology found in the BioHarness and better suited for athletic applications. The details of this new device will be announced very soon.

Pretty exciting stuff to be able to see the correlating physiological data of each athlete as they go through the most famous physical fitness tests on the planet! Stay tuned, I’ll have a lot more on the E39 to announce very soon!

Here’s a video with Under Armour trainer Todd Durkin as he goes through some of the ways the E39 will be applied during the Combine:

Official E39 press release from February 24, 2011: UNDER ARMOUR POWERS NFL COMBINE WITH ZEPHYR TECHNOLOGY (PDF)

Edit: Some folks have emailed me about the pricing of the E39. Well, Under Armour is planning a retail version for 2012 with no clues now as to its price. There are currently 150 E39 units being used for this initial research phase, used in the NFL Combine and other sports technology projects. The concept is a solid one with years of research contributed by Zephyr’s FDA approved BioHarness used by US special forces, US pro sport teams, Chilean miner rescue effort and numerous academic studies. (case studies available at Zephyr’s web site) The E39 concept compression shirt from Under Armour uses Zephyr’s next generation BioHarness sensor module which will be made separately available very soon. Until that availability is officially announced, all I can say is that we can expect a competitive price below that of the current BioHarness ($710). Please read my BioHarness review for all its capabilities.

Scotty from Star Trek comes to mind.

Immediately after I picked up my access badge, I walked through the barely finished labyrinths that make up the hopes and dreams of some, and the no-expenses-spared standard-operating-procedure of the big guys. This event is only four days long, but the elaborate “booths” looked like permanent installments. Plaster and paint is fresh everywhere. Electricians busy trying to extend even further past the one-point-twenty-one-jiggawats needed, and that’s just for France’s showcase.

I’m in an special exhibit outside the eight halls of the mobile spectrum that is MWC2011, called “The Embedded Mobile House”. I just received my mission, too: Demonstrate the mHealth solutions of Zephyr’s BioHarness, namely remote vitals monitoring, by riding a stationary bike from 9-5 every day of MWC. Barcelona’s tap water is very unpalatable, so I’m going to need some big ol’ jugs of water and pray my padded shorts hold up.

I may not be able to write much until this congress is over as I have events to attend every night here on out. But I plan to attempt Tweeting about my demo, my Qualcomm partner neighbors and those of you visiting me at the Embedded Mobile House in MWC’s main Courtyard.

Please follow me on Twitter @RunningDigital, but especially follow @ZephyrAnywhere and @Qualcomm_Health for more details and instructions as we will be giving away the BioHarnesses I’m so excited about. No, not the sweat-soaked one I’m using, brand new ones. Again, follow all of us in this paragraph for the important details and your chance to win some remarkably innovative mHealth tech, which is all wrapped up in BioHarness.

Root for me to last all four days on the bike and good luck winning your own BioHarness!

Hours before the exhibit is ready. See my ride?

The invitation to MWC came about largely in part to you, my readers. The Zephyr HxM and BioHarness product reviews have been extremely popular, with several hundred of you now equipped with heart rate monitoring mobiles. As a result, folks at Zephyr and I have had some rather excellent international conference calls (thanks Skype), discussing the wireless health and fitness industry (my passion) and how to best maximize the usefulness of wireless bio sensors and remote monitoring possibilities. Eventually, this dialogue resulted in my decision to represent Zephyr at this year’s MWC, and I couldn’t be happier in doing so.

I’ll be available to chat on every scale about Zephyr’s products and services, of course, but I’m also there to engage the topics of mHealth and mWellness which represent a critical theme of this year’s MWC. The mobile phone sports trackers that I talk about here on my site are examples of the mHealth concept, however they’re only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the full potential and healthcare solutions for all populations.

At the same time, I’m looking forward to discussing wireless health in endurance sports, training advice and how to analyze and assess your fitness data.

If you’d like to request an appointment with me at this year’s MWC, you can do so in person at the event or by introducing yourself through the contact information tab of this site.

See you there!

//David Hroncheck

Since I was allowed to keep my LiveView test unit in anticipation of this new firmware release, I’ll be updating tonight and will report my findings with an edit to this post.

This news comes from a post by Rikard Skogberg at Sony Ericsson’s Product Blog. Quoting:

Here are some of the highlights of the update:

• Improved stability in the phone application (latest update available on Android Market as of minutes ago)
• Improved plug-in handling and limit of number of installed plug-ins raised to 30.
• Connection stability improved – most identified reasons for random disconnects should be fixed now.
• There were some cases of random reboots reported, and all those reported crashes have now been resolved.
• Compatibility with competitor phones is greatly improved, both in regards to stability and to battery life time.
• Automatic reconnect when coming back in range improved.

Rikard also points out that over 30 different LiveView plugins are now available.

Most of us know how to use one and personally, I use a heart rate monitor to train in specific zones to maximize workout efficiency and recovery. So it’s “Improving performance” for me.

Looking forward to your comments and thanks for participating!

//David

Zephyr Technology’s HxM heart rate and cadence sensor has been an important tool in my arsenal for several months now. It consistently provides the quality data I need and it proves mHealth (Mobile Health concept) works well in Android. Zephyr’s available HxM SDK is being used by more and more developers to add the HxM’s unique functionality into their apps, allowing developers to incorporate the HxM how they see fit while giving consumers the flexibility to use the HxM with any mobile/app combination they want. In fact, no two apps or consumers may use the HxM is exactly the same manner. One dev may decide that only heart rate data is enough, while another includes heart rate stats to a caloric expenditure algorithm. Not every app takes advantage of the HxM’s cadence data, yet some use it to approximate indoor training distances or stride efficiency. It’s all up to the dev how the data gets used for their particular application package, with end-users ultimately benefiting from a range of apps to choose from to suit their needs. Zephyr’s use of standard Bluetooth here is also an asset, considering Bluetooth’s global ubiquity and giving mHealth its widest reach.

While the HxM is one of the best and most versatile sports accessories to own, Zephyr’s flagship product, named BioHarness, sets a new benchmark in the mHealth concept. Referred to as a “lab on a strap”, it provides a wireless link to several critical points of physiological interest. Heart rate, skin temperature, breath rate and posture simultaneously stream over Bluetooth to remote monitoring systems, used for everything from personal fitness tracking in controlled environments, to the tracking of entire first-responder teams in hazardous ones.

For example, in Chile recently where trapped miners captured the world’s attention while awaiting an incredibly sophisticated rescue operation, Zephyr Technology was called upon to monitor the miners’ vitals using BioHarnesses. Each miner took turns wearing one of several monitors throughout the rescue which provided real-time physiological data to tactical teams on the surface. Medical evaluations and responses were subsequently made and better dispensing of medical prescription down to the miners became possible. This was an awesome validation for the BioHarness thanks to its precision, adaptability and perhaps most importantly, mobility. Fortunately, all the miners surfaced in good condition with one emerging fit enough to run in the New York City Marathon just a few days later.

When I asked Zephyr if I could test a BioHarness for a RunningDigital review, I had planned to cover it with a similar approach as the HxM review I wrote back in June. You know, open the box, rate the quality of the hardware, try it out, take some pictures, make some app recommendations and write it up. Since then, Zephyr supplied me with BioHarness case-studies, abstracts, validation articles and news media to pour over while I awaited delivery of a test unit here in Sweden. What I discovered was that this is one of the most thoughtfully engineered and researched mobile products available today. What’s more, the BioHarness works without compromise over a broad spectrum of application, providing data in the field only possible before with static equipment in a lab. Remote vitals monitoring; Remember that.

I’ve now been using the BioHarness every day for a month and can say what’s most forward in my mind is: I need to buy this test unit, period. In a single word: Fantastic. Indeed if you’re thinking of adopting, or already have, the concept of mHealth into your fitness or safety-monitoring ecosystems, and especially if you own an Android device, Zephyr’s BioHarness completes the picture in a way no other product or combination thereof can. With it you can extract data previously possible only in labs to analyze and prove your training plan.

Wearing the BioHarness is comfortable for extended periods of time if required. The sensor module is understandably larger than any I’ve seen before but it’s well placed and completely unobtrusive. Like the HxM, the BioHarness contains a rechargeable power supply that seems to last forever. I kept mine topped off between uses, but a two hour trail run only saw a 12% drop in battery level determined via a mobile application graphic. Nearly all of the monitoring I’ve done thus far has been with SportsTrackLive.com’s SportsTracker Pro Android app. Zephyr also offers a nearly complete (Beta) Android app of their own called OmniSense. With it you can monitor up to seven BioHarness-wearing subjects within Bluetooth range. My BioHarness works better than any other soft strap heart rate monitor I’ve previously owned, exceeding my expectations throughout form and function. I really don’t want to perform a single workout again without it, so… I will begin publishing a series of BioHarness followup posts. Next week I’ll share my visit to Bosön, a professional sports complex of the Swedish Sports Confederation and training home to our national teams and athletes. In other words, I had access to all the traditional physiological monitoring equipment needed to test the precision of the BioHarness against.

Wrapping up this segment, there simply isn’t anything on the market that can do what the BioHarness does. It goes beyond any other heart rate monitor, offering what amounts to a portable physical statistics lab. For athletes, rescue personell or homebound patients, the BioHarness provides solutions never seen before and makes a brilliant case for the future of mHealth.

*The folks at Zephyr have issued a special 5% discount code for readers of RunningDigital. Copy and paste RunningDigitalBHBT into the appropriate field when ordering. Click here to order.

If you’re using an Android or iPhone sports tracking app with voice cues, then you know the built in text to speech (TTS) engine sounds a bit dull and robotic. Enter SVOX Classic Text To Speech (TTS) Engine, available in the Android Market and App Store. SVOX’s HQ voices are an enormous improvement over the stock TTS engines and are served up in 25 languages, some with more than one to choose from. Once installed and set up properly with your particular voice of choice, any application which uses TTS (sports tracking, navigation, ebook reader, etc.) will suddenly sound better, almost to the point of natural.

I’m using SportsTrackLive’s SportsTracker Pro for my daily running and no other Android sport-tracking app has as many convenient audio cue options. However, the more I rely upon current stats being fed to my head through earbuds, the more weary I grow of the characterless, female voice of Android. The standard voice isn’t all that bad, but it’s just boring enough so that you consider limiting it’s use over time. Until I discovered what SVOX had to offer, I didn’t realize I had the option to change my Android’s voice so easily. There’s no hacking involved at all.

Begin by installing the SVOX Classic app (free), open it and check out the voice samples before you download them. Once you chosen your narrator’s voice, proceed into Settings>Voice input & output>Text-to-speech settings, scroll down and tick Svox Classic TTS’s box. Then tweak your Svox settings and scroll back up to Default Engine and tick Svox Classic TTS. Eh, though I’d like one, I don’t have an iPhone so no instructions here. It should be equally as simple as Android’s setup is.

I’ve chosen a couple voice cues from SportsTracker Pro and recorded the outputs using stock Android and SVOX Classic TTS engines. Both samples use a UK female voice. (All SVOX voices cost between $2 and $3.)

If you run into any installation problems, leave a comment and I’ll try to help. Have fun!

Pico TTS sample SVOX Classic TTS sample

QR for Svox at AppBrain.com

Before I proceed I want to applaud the innovative effort that LiveView is. I think a device like this has good potential that requires further development from SonyEricsson, and ideally from other manufacturers. LiveView is an early-adopter product and there’s no mistaking it, feeling entirely like a market tester with hints of compromise on many facets of my user experience. Here’s my take:

Hardware
While LiveView is certainly not a toy, if you compare it’s basic look, construction and UI to any Android 2.1+ device, then it sort of feels like one.

The hard key actions are not solid and don’t feel like they’re made to last. To power the unit on and off, as well a waking it from sleep mode (which happens in seconds), you need to press the left hard key. To fire off each notification’s functions, you need to press the left hard key. I mention these basic user moves because you will need them every single time you want to get use out of the module. With that in mind they should be easier to press, larger, softer and should definitely be water resistant. Instead, the hard keys were a bit of pain to constantly have to fuss with and I got no sense that this is a device I would want to use where moisture was a factor. Again, with the approach that I’m using it with a sports tracking app.

The screen should be larger and with better resolution. As it is, it’s just okay. Everything is clearly visible, all the way down to the minuscule text within the Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds. However, for a device that’s presumably going to keep me from checking my mobile as often, then I shouldn’t be reminded that I’m staring into a compromise. It’s a tiny screen that doesn’t need to be much larger than it is, given what it does. But a larger screen with better resolution would make this feel more like a part of a user experience enhancement, rather than a reminder that I’m too lazy to grab my mobile that remains within 10 meters of the module.

Accessory wise, the included wrist band is nothing more than a temporary solution while you shop for a better one. The module comes with a clip attached for fixing to anything from clothing to the book you’re reading. You can remove this clip and pop the module into an included watch frame, fixing it to appropriately sized third-party watch bands you can get at malls using two spring pins, also included.

Software

LiveView becomes functional with your Android 2.1+up device with two apps available in the Android Marketplace; LiveView and LiveWare. The LiveView app provides connectivity options to the module and the LiveWare app brings search and support for compatible plug ins. Out of the box, you get support for these notifications: Incoming/Missed calls, Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, RSS and Text msg. You can set up polling frequency and exactly which notifications you want to see and disabling those you don’t. Twitter and Facebook messages are shown one at a time and you have to scroll down to see most messages in full, as well as to activate a “send to phone” command where your Twitter or Facebook app on your mobile is launched, taking you directly to that message. For most Twitter/Facebook users this seems totally impractical unless you choose to see only direct messages. None of the LiveView’s notifications are searchable and you only see messages that arrive from the time you connect, i.e. there is no call and message history to find. Again, each time you receive a notification, you have to wake the screen, select the service and open it.

SportyPal Pro Integration

I don’t want to do a review of the app at this time, rather focusing on the SportyPal Pro LiveView notifications. However, I will say that this new app version works nicely; Reliable functionality, pleasing graphics and competitive feature-set. Zephyr’s HxM integration was a cinch to set up and performed well. Moving on to what gets displayed on the LiveView, you get a set of screens to scroll over, including one screen for heart rate stats. The problems I had with this experience were: To see SportyPal Pro stats you have to wake the screen, choose the plugins folder, choose SportyPal Pro, then cross-scroll to your desired stat. This means you’ll be making a lot of button presses on your run. This is not the accessory I’ve been wishing for to complete my sports tracking experience.

Overall impressions

Many mobile phone sport trackers, like myself, have talked about this idea of adding a watch accessory for convenient access to running stats for a while now. The idea being that our mobiles are far more capable computers than traditional wrist-top monitors, offering access to maps and navigation, real-time uploading, media for entertainment (I’m addicted to audio books), voice cues and the important lifeline in case trouble arises. Moreover, the ecosystems of mobile sport tracking are modular, with each component interchangeable and transferrable. That said, our mobiles aren’t so good in bright sunlight, access to functions can be awkward and can’t be worn in a way for easy access to stats. Traditional monitors are still the best choice for the elite athlete who needs immediate access to raw data. The LiveView idea potentially bridges this gap between traditional monitor and sports app and, again, I’m happy to see SonyEricsson’s attempt here. Unfortunately, this first-generation of LiveView has quite a few problems.

Bugs

If you’re planning on purchasing LiveView, note that the Android development community is showing interest in it as well. From app devs planning to add their own LiveView plugins soon, to creative hackers looking to do entirely new things with it. For now, there seems to be more problems than solutions. Most importantly, the connection between phone and LiveView seems to fail with regularity. Sometimes reconnecting is as simple as a press of the right hard key, other times a hard reset of the module is required (hold left hard key down for 20 seconds).

Final thoughts

LiveView probably isn’t the sport tracking solution I thought it might be. For that, I think we need an always-on option for the screen with a focus remaining on sport tracker stats. We also need the SportyPal plugin to at least provide starting and stopping of the parent app, ideally with a lap marker command. I’m not sure what SportyPal is planning to charge for this app version, but they should consider to keep it free while in beta (currently on 30 day trail). Out of the box, the only feature I found in LiveView that seemed practical was remote media player control. The rest of LiveView’s features makes me question why I wouldn’t just go to my phone in the first place.

Not recommended for sports use. Software updates and new, innovative plugins will be key factors in LiveView’s survival. SonyEricsson and other mobile manufacturers should explore this idea further. There are millions of casual athletes using their mobile phones with sport tracking apps right now.

*I planned on adding a followup video but I’m having LiveView connection issues. I’ll add that video to this post if I can get it working again. In case you missed it from my last post, here’s my LiveView first look.