Sony may have announced the existence its next fitness wearable by prematurely uploading the wearable’s companion app to the Play Store.
On Thursday, Xperia Blog found a new “SmartBand 2” app on Google’s app marketplace and subsequently published an article on it. Sony has since taken down the app, but not before several publications were able to download it and take a look inside.
According to the websites that had a chance to use the app, there’s definitely a new SmartBand on the way, and it will feature several improvements over its predecessor. The most significant new feature is an added heart rate sensor. Once inside the app, there’s apparently a dialogue that says, “SmartBand measures your pulse at an even rate throughout the day,” and a BPM counter that helps verify the existence of a heart rate monitor.
Image of the new Sony Smartband 2
The app suggests that the SmartBand 2 will be able to perform a variety of other tracking functions. Like its predecessor, it will be able to track things like steps taken and sleep cycles. It will also able to forward incoming notifications from the wearer’s smartphone, and be able to function like an alarm clock. Lastly, there’s a dedicated button that takes a snapsnot the data the band is currently collecting. As The Verge notes, whether this is a useful feature is up in the air, but it certainly helps differentiate the SmartBand 2 from other fitness trackers on the market.
The app suggests that the band is optimized to work best with one of Sony’s own smartphones, but those that managed to download the app before it was pulled said it worked just fine with their non-Sony Android devices.
Unfortunately, the one important piece of information the software doesn’t allude to is a release date. However, with an app seemingly ready, an official announcement can’t be far off. Stay tuned.
[source]Xperia Blog[/source][via]The Verge[/via]
