Motorola Mobility has launched MOTOACTV, the company's first music and fitness device. Designed to help you reach your fitness goals by tracking, syncing and recording your workout data and customizing your music, the Blutetooth-enabled MOTOACTV logs time, distance traveled and calories burned and has an inbuilt heart rate monitor, accelerometer and a GPS which records a map of your routes.
The 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.37 inches (46mm x 46mm x 9.6 mm) square MOTOACTV straps to the wrist or arm or can be mounted on a bike and sports a 1.6-inch full color touch screen that is sweat proof, rain and scratch resistant, and adapts to indoor and outdoor lighting. And it weighs in at a feathery 35grams.
The battery is specced at up to five hours for outdoor workouts, 10 for indoor and nearly two weeks on standby, while the device supports Bluetooth® 4.0 and ANT+ wireless connectivity.
Once the workout is done, the device can automatically sync with your computer so you can track your progress over a selected period of time. Like similar systems from Nike and Sports Tracker data can also be uploaded to the MOTOACTV site where you can use planning tools, receive tips on how to achieve better fitness and compete with your friends online - a potentially fine motivation tool to lose those extra pounds.
The MOTOACTV also also designed to "customize" your workout music. While I've been making "gym workout" song files on my iPod for years, the difference here is the MOTOACTV takes note of the songs that push you harder by measuring your performance against your music and automatically collates them. So next time you need some inspiration beats to really up the ante, all those tracks are there in one place without the need to scroll through to find specific songs or playlists.
Or if your own songs are outliving their welcome, you can switch to FM radio and you can also sync the device to Android smartphones to receive incoming calls and texts.
The MOTOACTV will set you back US$249 for the 8GB model and $299 for 16GB version. While this does seem a little pricey given that there are smartphone apps that will do many of the same things - we can see how this this dedicated device might well be attractive to the fitness junkies and athletes among us.
It's available from November 6, 2011 in the States with Europe and Latin America to follow in early 2012.
Motorola is also releasing a pair of sports headphones to go with the MOTACTV - the wireless SF700 and wired SF500. You'll need to fork out a further US$149 and $99 respectively for these.