The smartwatch is made for kids, but as an adult, I found myself wanting one to motivate me to be more active. What would a smartwatch look like if Nintendo, Google, and came together to build it? According to Google, it’d look like the new Fitbit Ace LTE launching on June 5 in the Google online store and on Amazon. “Two-thirds of [hundreds of parents included in beta testing] have said their kids are exercising more,” Anil Sabharwal, Google Vice President, GM Health and Wearables, tells during a product briefing last week.
“We’ve solved a couple of really important problems, and we’ve done it in a really responsible way.” To be clear: Nintendo has nothing to do with the Fitbit Ace LTE. The $230 Android-powered smartwatch is made for kids (7+), but Sabharwal, who has two young children of his own within the demographic, tells me everything from the band mechanism to the software interface was inspired by Nintendo.
.. and .
One look at the Fitbit Ace LTE, and I could immediately see similarities between the device’s “Eejie” avatars and those from Nintendo’s and Miis, the avatars that everybody was obsessed with on the Wii console. Some of the mini-games that wearers play on the smartwatch, like the kart racing game Pollo 13 Space Race, which then unlock a new level or area by making them walk steps or get their heart rate up (through whatever means such as playing basketball or doing jumping jacks or riding a bike), even resemble Nintendo games like . Whil.