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IT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED: THE MATRIX POWERWATCH


You know how I've been saying that your activity tracker should become a permanent extension of your body? Well, this one truly is. I have no idea how this thing is going to work out, but out of the box it has one big advantage over my Fitbit: it charges off my body heat.

That's right, it'll run until I'm dead and then another several years after I'm in the box. It basically takes the differences between your skin temperature and ambient temperature to generate power. That means if I go out for a walk in the freezing January temperatures, it should charge super fast - inside, less so. It's also waterproof to 50m, so I'll never need to take it off.

First impressions: out of the box, the app menu is simple enough to operate. I had it up and syncing with my phone in no time:


It comes in a few different trims - a silver, an all black and then a "Black Ops" one that I think kind of looks like a Casio G-Shock. The silver bezel was the cheapest, so I went with it not knowing how much I'd like it. I probably wish I ordered the all black as the silver looks a little two plasticy, IMHO. But, those were shipping soonest, and I'm happy to have it now since I've already been waiting 5 months. 



It's billed as a smartwatch, but really, it's just a glorified activity tracker that never requires a charge. It syncs via bluetooth through an app on your phone. I'm not sure if it'll sync with MyFitnessPal (I think I read that it wouldn't), but I'll live with using two different dashboards for nutrition and activity if I never have to charge an activity tracker again. I've tried out a real smartwatch, but having to put it back on a charger every night struck me as a colossal pain, so I sold it within a week and stuck with my Fitbit. I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come along.

I'll keep updating this post as I road test it. I'm super excited, if you couldn't tell. I've been waiting months for this baby! In fact, I just checked my order status today, and it didn't show that it had shipped. It's a Kickstarter watch that I was starting to give up hope on, but I'm so happy to finally have it. I'll still be wearing my Fitbit to check the accuracy of my steps and calories burned, and I figure I'll know within a week or two if it'll be a suitable full-time replacement. Woot! Woot!

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