ET Recommendations: Gadget, app and game

ENRG ActiWear

Get it for: Rs 2,999
A brand normally known for smart lighting and small CE products in India, ENRG (pronounced energy) has launched a new wearable fitness band called ActiWear. It's a sweat-proof band that tracks your activity and comes with an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touchscreen in a removable core.

The core and OLED touchscreen has a direct USB port for charging. You get two wrist strap sizes in the box. There's no secondary loop on the clasp — if the edge of the band catches on the edge of something, it is likely to get undone and fall off.

The OLED touchscreen is bright and easy to view in direct sunlight. It shows you the time, battery status, connectivity, date, number of steps walked and calories burned. When connected to the phone, it can also alert you of incoming calls and show notifications from Facebook, SMS, Twitter, WhatsApp and Skype. However, there is no option to configure email notifications.

The screen shuts off automatically after a few seconds to save battery life. To light it up, you can use a flick gesture on your wrist or a screen tap.

ENRG doesn’t have their own app for data sync and the band works with an app called Zeroner (available for iOS and Android). The app had no issues pairing with the band over Bluetooth and once connected, it syncs and shows you number of steps, calories, distance and sleep patterns in an easy-tounderstand interface. You can set daily goals as well as configure which apps are allowed to send notifications. If you need a gentle prod now and then, you can set a sedentary alarm — the band will remind you to get up and move after a specified time of inactivity. The sleep monitor function also works great and displays your deep sleep and light sleep time as well as sleep and wake up time to help you understand your sleep patterns.

The battery life is impressive too — with daily use, ActiWear lasted for about six days on a single charge. At this price, the ENRG ActiWear is one of the better fitness bands with a display screen. -Karan Bajaj

Traffic Rider

Game for Android & iOS

Get it for: Free

From the creators of the popular Traffic Racer game comes the equally addictive Traffic Rider. In this version, you're on two wheels instead of four. The premise is as simple as before: to race down the roads (different scenarios, weather patterns are available) while avoiding the traffic and other obstacles. You have three basic controls — steering (tilting your device left-right), brake and acceleration. Since you're on a bike, it does lean into turns and this, combined with the first-person view, adds some realism. The graphics are fairly simple and sometimes even blocky, but the game does have recognisable scooters and motorcycle brands that you can ride. The game is free but there are some ads now and then. If you prefer not to pay anything, progress will be slow because you’ll have to keep playing to earn money/gold to upgrade your bike or unlock other bikes to ride. You’ll also have to keep playing to progress through experience levels: certain tracks/scenarios are only available past a certain level. Overall a fun game that is quite easy to master. -Hitesh Raj Bhagat

Experience.Me

App for Android

Get it for: Free

Dropped calls and poor network issues are common complaints. Calling the customer care requires spending between 5 and 10 minutes while going through the IVR menu and explaining your issues. With Experience.Me app by RedMango Analytics, you can now test your cell network and report any issues in seconds instead of minutes. Once installed, the app runs in the background with a single notification in the drop-down notification bar. Whenever you have a call drop or data connectivity issue, a pop-up will ask you to submit a complaint. The complaint will be sent to the operator via RedMango. It also has a built-in test to check the signal strength, data speed, web page loading time, YouTube experience and Google Maps experience. You can head to their website (www.mobileindia.me) to view reports created using data from multiple users plus mobile service quality ratings for operators in different circles. Overall, a useful app to keep an eye on your network service provider's performance and quickly file complaints for network issues. — Karan Bajaj