E-commerce company Amazon entered the wearable fitness tracker market with a new paid subscription service called Amazon Halo.
The company will offer a Halo wristband that will connect to an app on a user’s smartphone through Bluetooth. The wristband contains sensors that monitor physical health and mental wellbeing.
“Health is much more than just the number of steps you take in a day or how many hours you sleep,” said Maulik Majmudar, a cardiologist and principal medical officer at Amazon Halo.
“Amazon Halo combines the latest medical science, highly accurate data via the band sensors and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to offer a more comprehensive approach to improving your health and wellness.”
Unlike other smartwatches and fitness trackers, Amazon’s Halo band does not have a screen. However, it does contain an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart-rate monitor, two microphones and a button to turn the microphones on or off.
The microphones are not for communicating with other people but for capturing a user's emotional state from the tone of their voice.
The tone is analysed using machine learning technology to detect levels of energy and positivity, the company said.
“Using tone to reflect on your interactions can help build connections or identify patterns so you can consciously make improvements,” said Mr Majmudar.
For example, results may reveal that a difficult work call led to less positivity in family discussions, an indication of the impact of stress on well-being, he said.
Another features uses a smartphone camera to capture a 3D scan of a user’s body and then compute the level of fat.
The market for fitness trackers is growing at a compound rate of 15.2 per cent per year, according to research published earlier this month by Fortune Business Insights. It projects that the size of the market will grow to about $92 billion (Dh337.9bn) by 2027, up from $30.41bn last year.
Several layers of privacy and security are built into the Amazon’s service to keep the data of users safe and under their control, the company said.
“Health data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud and customers can download or delete their data at any time directly from the app. Body-scan images are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing, so only the customer sees them,” Amazon said.
The company said Amazon Halo was launched as an invite-only, early-access programme in the US, at a price of $64.99 for the device, which includes a membership fee for six months.
After that, the band will cost $99.99 and the membership, which is needed to gain access to more advanced features, will cost $3.99 a month. The service will then be introduced in other markets gradually, the company said.
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
MATCH INFO
England 2
Cahill (3'), Kane (39')
Nigeria 1
Iwobi (47')
Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
