VLC is the best free, open-source media player for the Mac. With it, you can play nearly any media file, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, WMV, and much more. It has a number of customizable features so you can create your ideal viewing situation or set up your music listening experience the way you want. It does support DVD and Blu-ray.

For monitoring your activity and health, a fitness tracker is a small and convenient device that can change the way you track your wellness. Whether you’re looking for a simple step counter, a sleep tracker, or a versatile smart watch, you should consider your needs carefully when shopping for a fitness tracker.Fitness trackers vary greatly in their designs and tracking features. Some models include a display screen for quick updates on your activity, and others will vibrate to notify you when you have achieved a goal or when you need to move around a bit. You should also consider which stats you are looking to track; common measurements include heart rate, sleep patterns, steps, and distance. You should also look into the smartphone app that pairs with a particular fitness tracker to see if it meets your needs.While fitness trackers aren’t a guaranteed way to improve fitness, they do help you keep an eye on your overall performance.

Continue reading to learn more about the features and statistics offered by fitness trackers. As fitness trackers have evolved, they’ve become stylish pieces of tech. You can wear a tracker that looks like a typical wristwatch. Or, you can opt for the common wristband design, which is available in numerous colors.Some designs offer display screens; others do not. If you plan to wear your tracker all day — including at work — consider a stylish design that fits with your business attire. Both of the Fitbit trackers in our product list look great; the Alta bands are available in a number of appealing colors for work and play. Don't want a normal fitness tracker but would like an advanced version?

Here it is: this tracker comes with a touch screen, and besides normal functions like showing time and step tracking, it get you calls, music and text messages from your phone when connected to bluetooth. During our test, it showed great accuracy. However, it’s functions required a big screen and battery, making it quite bulky: it looks like a smartwatch like those of Apple or Samsung, but a fraction of the price with still an impressive stable of functions.

This water-resistant activity tracker not only tracks your movement but also tracks your sleep. You can sync data to phone or even share it with an app, though that may take a while. And the syncing process which by default happens automatically once an hour would eat up battery life. We also notices the number tracked being a little off.

So we suggest to set the sync to limit when using it. Some other drawbacks are the icons displayed on screen might be hard to recognize, and we found it impossible to view the activities directly on the watch itself.

Plus, the app isn’t entirely intuitive. If you use a smartphone app now to track your exercise routine, understand that a fitness tracker device works a little differently. A tracker measures certain aspects of your movement. It then pairs with an app to determine whether you’re meeting your goals. Fitness trackers can track some interesting aspects of your movement, including the following —.

Steps: This is often the most basic type of information a fitness tracker will measure. Xcom 2 best weapons. You can use it to gauge exactly how much you move throughout the day. Heart rate: Many fitness trackers measure your heart rate during periods of exercise as well as rest. One way to gauge an improving fitness level is by an improved heart rate at rest. Sleep: If you aren’t sleeping well, your overall health will suffer. Some fitness trackers have the ability to determine how well you sleep by measuring your movements during the night. Overall workouts: Unless a fitness tracker has a GPS chip built into it, it won’t be as effective at tracking some workouts.

You need GPS capability to determine how far you ran or biked, for instance. The fitness tracker’s app enters the picture here, as it can track many types of workouts successfully. Much of a fitness tracker’s data collection occurs courtesy of its motion-sensing components. For example, here’s a look at how a tracker uses motion-sensing technology to monitor your sleep: a three-axis accelerometer determines which direction you’re moving, and a gyroscope measures the rotation of the fitness tracker. Using these technologies, the tracker measures your wrist movement during sleep, judging the frequency and force behind the moves.

Software in the app then determines whether you’re moving often enough during the night to cause you to sleep poorly. Because fitness trackers are such simple devices, they can’t analyze your exercise results on their own. Instead, these units rely on a smartphone app to show you your activity results. If at all possible, you will want to look at the app before you pick a fitness tracker.

Make sure it has all of the features you need. And make sure it will work with your iOS or Android smartphone before you buy it, as some apps are limited to one type of smartphone operating system.The fitness tracker will make a wireless connection with the app at various points during the day. It will then upload any tracking data it has collected. Make sure the app can track your favorite types of exercise.

If you’re a swimmer, the app should be able to time your laps and measure distance. If you’re a runner, you may want it to take notes about the type of weather you encountered on a particular run.And, of course, the more data the fitness tracker can send to the app related to your favorite exercise, the better.

You don’t want to spend a lot of time entering your own information. After all, that's the point of wearing the fitness tracker: it measures and records your activity for you.

Fitness trackers can start as low as $15. Just don’t expect these basic models to generate a huge amount of data. You might receive information about steps taken and calories burned with these inexpensive trackers, and some can even measure the quality of your sleep. However, you’re not likely to find a fitness tracker with a touch screen display among low-end units. These inexpensive trackers typically use LED indicator lights instead.The Polar FT4 falls inside this price bracket. Specifically, this tracker monitors heart rate but not steps taken. The unit’s “Smart Calorie” feature helps the wearer track calories burned.

Q: Why doesn’t the fitness tracker tell me if my exercise routine is working?A: Fitness trackers aren’t sophisticated enough to measure results from specific exercise routines. Most of them track heart rate and the amount of time spent moving.

They typically cannot tell you if you are becoming more efficient in your daily exercise routine. Pairing the tracker with a good app can help you judge your success in an exercise program.Q: Will the fitness tracker provide data on my running pace and distance?A: Only certain fitness trackers offer such advanced metrics. Inexpensive models like the Fitbit Alta don’t have a built-in GPS, for example, leaving them unable to track distance.Q: How accurate are the calorie burn counts on a fitness tracker?A: Again, it depends on the model you have. Basic, inexpensive models that don’t have a lot of features often won’t be precise in tracking calorie burning. For example, lack of precision is a fairly common complaint with the inexpensive Withings Go — although most owners say their counts are “close enough” to be satisfactory.Generally, the more statistics a particular fitness tracker collects and measures, the more accurately it will measure calorie burn.Q: What is the biggest benefit of a fitness tracker?A: A fitness tracker helps you set simple goals and measure your progress toward them. You may want to take 8,000 steps per day, for example. Nearly all tracker units can help you figure out how close you come to this goal each day.If you have a more complex goal, such as preparing for a half-marathon, you’ll probably need a high-end fitness tracker paired with a smartphone app that specializes in running.