Almost a year ago I described my experiences with my first iPhone heart rate monitor based on
the Wahoo solution which replaced my Suunto device. As the iPhone does not have a native ANT+ support the solution requires Wahoo ANT+ dongle that you need to attach to your iPhone to receive heart measurements from the Wahoo Heart Rate Chest Strap. At the beginning I had to experiment with different apps supporting the Wahoo device as my favorite app MapMyRun+ was very unstable. I tried RunKeeper and iSmoothRun.
the Wahoo solution which replaced my Suunto device. As the iPhone does not have a native ANT+ support the solution requires Wahoo ANT+ dongle that you need to attach to your iPhone to receive heart measurements from the Wahoo Heart Rate Chest Strap. At the beginning I had to experiment with different apps supporting the Wahoo device as my favorite app MapMyRun+ was very unstable. I tried RunKeeper and iSmoothRun.
Unfortunately after jogging in Krakow a few weeks ago I lost my Wahoo dongle and was forced to buy another one. I was just about to order a new Wahoo dongle on Amazon, for 79,95 USD, when I came across the newest Wahoo heart rate monitor, for almost the same price! I bought the Wahoo Blue HR Heart Rate Strap for iPhone 4s that was introduced in January 2012 which is based on the Smart Bluetooth 4.0 and is not only much cheaper, than the total Wahoo solution including the strap and dongle, but also much more convenient to use. It does not require a dongle anymore as it relies on the Smart Bluetooth support introduced in the iPhone 4s.
It is interesting that on the package Wahoo states that it is a "Wireless heart rate monitor for iPhone 4S and other Bluetooth Smart Ready Device" which reflects Apple leadership in adopting new wireless technology. Apple introduced the Smart Bluetooth 4.0 support in most of the new products including iPad 3 and Apple TV. About potential of this new Bluetooth technology you can read in 9to5mac
My first experience was great, I didn't have to worry anymore about the dongle that is so easy to lose. The best app seamlessly supporting my new heart rate monitor is iSmoothRun
At the moment the following smartphones are 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' (have Smart Bluetooth 4.0 built in):
iPhone 4s,
Motorola Droid RAZ
Samsung Galaxy S3
To turn one of the above smartphones into heart rate monitor you need 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' Heart Rate Chest Strap.
I found the following 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' Heart Rate Chest Straps on the market:
I advice every runner owning the iPhone 4s to buy the Wahoo Blue HR Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Chest Strap or Polar H7 Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Sensor
After just a few weeks of enjoying the Wahoo Blue HR device it stopped working and I decided to replace it with the Polar H7 Sensor. You can read more about this here.
According to a recent report from IMS Research "Bluetooth Smart is expected to be the most utilized wireless technology in sports and fitness devices shipped in 2016" and some 10.3 million Bluetooth Smart enabled consumer medical devices will ship between now and 2016.
You can expect a lot of new innovative smartphone applications enabled by smartphones with native support of Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ wireless technologies.
The total list of Bluetooth Smart products you can find here
The total list of Bluetooth Smart products you can find here
The Bluetooth modules provide a platform to quickly and safely go into production with competitive and advanced features.
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