Hands-on review: Sony Smart B-Trainer

By Gareth Beavis

If there’s something runners like, it’s more toys to play with when pootling around the streets and fields of the world.

With that in mind, the new Sony Smart B Trainer prototype (B stands for Beat, apparently) offers a lot of new things to play with – well, it offers the same things most will be used to, but packages them in a more interesting way.

The B Trainer is a headset that looks a lot like the W Series, Sony’s head-based Walkman that did nothing more than shoving music into your skull. The new device is much more advanced, packing in GPS, heart rate monitor and (likely) 16GB of space for your music.

But that’s only the basic specs. What’s impressive is the B Trainer is able to listen to different training plans (such as fat burn or cardio workout) and coach you to get to those levels. Based on your speed and heart rate, it will recommend when to speed up and slow down, which means real time feedback when you need it.

This isn’t a new trick, with Adidas MiCoach doing such a thing for years and already assimilating the ability into the SmartRun …read more

Source: techradar.com – Phones