Today, Amazon announced a new service called Halo, along with the Halo Band. The company is getting into the health tracking market, and you can sign up to be one of the first to try it out. You'll get six months of the new Halo service and the fitness tracker for $64.99.
Amazon says that the Halo Band is designed to be distraction-free, not including a screen or bombarding you with notifications. It's simply a band and a sensor, and it's made to be comfortable while still being water-resistant. You'll get a choice of silicone or fabric, and it comes in three colors. The device will get up to a week of battery life.
"Despite the rise in digital health services and devices over the last decade, we have not seen a corresponding improvement in population health in the U.S. We are using Amazon’s deep expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer customers a new way to discover, adopt, and maintain personalized wellness habits," said Dr. Maulik Majmudar, Principal Medical Officer, Amazon Halo. "Health is much more than just the number of steps you take in a day or how many hours you sleep. Amazon Halo combines the latest medical science, highly accurate data via the Halo Band sensors, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to offer a more comprehensive approach to improving your health and wellness."
The Amazon Halo service focuses on five key areas: Activity, Sleep, Body, Tone, and Labs. Starting with Activity, the idea is to give you points based on the quality of your movement, rather than just counting steps. For the Sleep department, Amazon boasted an array of categories it tracks your sleep with, but there's nothing to indicate that it provides insights into ways that you can improve your sleep. The Body category measures body fat, promising to be twice as accurate as many at-home scales.
Perhaps more interesting is the Tone category, which actually analyzes the tone of your voice. It's going to let you know how you sound to others, helping with positivity and wellness. Finally, Labs is exactly what it sounds like, with challenges, experiments, workouts, and so on.
The Halo Band comes with a Black fabric band with an Onyx sensor, a Blush fabric band with a Rose Gold sensor, or a Winter fabric band with a Silver sensor. The bands are replaceable, and there's a variety of extra ones that you can purchase if you want to swap them out. While Halo is available at an early price of $64.99 for six months, it's going to be $99.99 at some point. After the first six months, it's $3.99 a month (remember, that six-month price includes the Halo Band). You can sign up for early access here.
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