AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas summers can be deadly. In 2023, deaths caused by dehydration soared to record numbers. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 334 people died that year from heat-related causes, like dehydration. The previous year, that number reached 306.

Engineers at the University of Texas are looking to help address this and other medical issues through high tech wearables.

“It’s really cool to be able to work on, basically, like at the cutting edge of wearable devices,” said Hyonyoung Shin, a Ph.D. student with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin.

Think Apple Watches but instead of counting steps, they are monitoring the water in your body or taking pictures of your heart.

Shin is part of a team working on an e-tattoo. This paper-thin electronic device is a sticky pad that attaches to a small heart monitor. The monitor takes various readings of the heart. Shin is working on using AI to interpret data from the device, which can then feed information to patients and doctors via a smart phone.

“You can even get like blood pressure from just this sensor,” Shin said about the sensor.

The latest from the lab is a wearable sensor that detects dehydration. Previously, doctors typically tested hydration levels using blood or urine samples. The new device can provide data instantly and non-invasively.

“Our body overall is composed of 70% of water,” said Professor Nanshu Lu with the Cockrell School of Engineering. Lu leads the wearable team, but also is the Carol Cockrell Curran Chair in Engineering.

The hydration sensor is a thin ribbon strip that wraps around the bicep. The team chose this muscle because it is large and muscles have a lot of water in them.

The sensor passes an electrical charge through the muscle. If the charge passes easily through the muscle, that means it is full of water. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. If there is little water in the muscle, due to dehydration, then electricity passes poorly through the muscle.

Similar technology has been used in the past to test hydration levels, but that technology passed the current through the whole body and not just one muscle.

“What we found is [passing the current through the bicep has] a 99% correlation with the full body,” Lu said.

Placing the device around the wrist isn’t viable due to the smaller muscles in that area. Skin and bone don’t contain as much water as a muscle does.

Lu said the technology is still in the early phases. They plan to test how diets might affect the conductivity. This includes testing something like creatine, a bodybuilding supplement, that assists in hydrating muscles.

A small Bluetooth device on the sensor beams the results back to a phone.

Companies have already shown interest in the tech, but Lu says they’re still in the development phase. Next, they would like to test the technology out with local partners like UT Athletics.

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• New Google Pixel Watch 4 renders have emerged
• The watch apparently comes with a revamped charging system
• We should see it launched on August 20

There’s a very good chance we’ll see the Pixel Watch 4 at the launch event that Google has scheduled for Wednesday, August 20. And ahead of time we’ve got some unofficial renders of the device, which show several color options and a weird new charging system.

All of this comes from the team at Android Headlines, and if these renders turn out to be accurate, then the look of the wearable is going to be very similar to the Pixel Watch 3. The familiar circular design is on show, with a selection of bands.

2. Comcast’s New Streaming Store Features A Cast Of Hundreds

Comcast launched something called SteamStore this week, which is essentially its version of Amazon’s Channels store, or, more directly, Verizon’s +play: a way for customers to add streaming services from a convenient hub and to also purchase bundles of their most watched services.

It is, depending on your POV, either an admission that streaming is the future or a way to meet your customers where they are. Either way you look at it though, it’s a smart move, one that is likely to be appreciated by the mass of Xfinity subscribers who are not in the Early Adopter cohort.

But that’s not what is interesting to me about the announcement.

What’s interesting is that there are 450 apps in the offering, including some 100 niche subscription services who clearly have enough runway for Comcast to include them in its offering.

That is a lot of niche subscription services.

Why It Matters

I suspect many of them are low-priced enough that their subscribers don’t bother to cancel, either because they want to support that type of content, forget they have that particular $3.99/month subscription or keep thinking they’ll find the time to watch something on there.

That said, they all also likely have passionate and sizeable fan bases who turn to Reddit and Discord to discuss the content and the overall direction of the service. They are part of what we’ve been calling “Feudal Media”–small unconnected islands of content, each with its own culture, in-jokes and celebrities.

Now what’s notable here is that there are over 100 of these services. Not 10 or 15, but 100. That’s a lot of little bubbles.

Comcast’s plan makes a lot of sense in that people generally like bundles, or the smaller and simpler bundles offered around streaming, anyway..

It’s one less thing to worry about.

Plus they get a single interface, with all the services they subscribe to included, which is much better experience than the industry seems to realize—if there’s one complaint I hear most often, it’s that it is far too difficult to find anything in streaming, even if you go in knowing what you want to watch. 

And that if you don’t, going back and forth from app to app to see what they recommend is way too much effort.

Hence the bundle and the popularity of companies like Bango and MyBundle.

One more note on Comcast’s SteamStore: many of the bundles on offer—take the $15/month StreamSaver, for instance— feature the ad-supported versions of the apps that are being bundled, in this case, Peacock and Netflix. 

This is notable in that it is a thinly veiled secret that the big SVOD apps are all struggling to build up their ad-supported subscriber base in the US.

The “why” on that is not much of a mystery: the price gap between ad-free and ad-supported remains relatively small—maybe $10/month. And many of their new subs go in thinking they’ll only subscribe for three months or so—just long enough to watch whatever series got them to subscribe in the first place—and so $30 to watch it without ads is not that big a deal.

Especially given that “watch all your favorite shows without ads” has been Netflix’s main selling proposition for the past decade and it’s a hard behavior to change.

So there’s that and the fact that there are people who’d happily pay large sums of money to avoid ads, and I wonder whether the greater savings provided by this type of bundling will lead to a noticeable bump in the size of their ad-supported audiences.

Let’s just say I am skeptical.

What You Need To Do About It

If you are Comcast, well done. This is a smart move and given that you do own a goodly share of the broadband market in the US, giving your customers what they want is a wise decision.

If you are one of the streaming services looking to grow your ad-supported subscriber base, remember that word-of-mouth is still a powerful driver, and so making the experience a good one is key. That means resisting the urge to jam more ads into every break and making sure the same three ads don’t run all the time either.

Something to keep in mind.

If you are an Xfinity subscriber, this is definitely something worth checking out especially if you’ve been looking for a more unified interface.

You’re welcome.

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Amazfit Helio Strap is available now for $99.
• As a smartwatch alternative, the strap offers virtually all the same health tracking features via the robust Zepp app, with over a week of battery life.
• The fabric strap isn’t made of exceedingly high quality materials, but luckily can be easily replaced.

Amazfit, makers of such smartwatches as the Bip 5 and the new Balance 2, recently released its Helio Strap, a fitness tracker that has all the core functions of a smartwatch, but in an ultra-minimal form: no watch face, no decorative elements (and no subscription). 

The strap is about as simple as you can get — just a solid black band with the tracking component below it. Unlike other popular straps like the Whoop 4.0 (or new 5.0), there’s no buckle, making the whole thing incredibly light at just 20 grams without the strap. 

Also: I swapped my Apple Watch Ultra for this big-screen Garmin that’s easier to read

This results in a device that’s not only affordable at $99, but also extremely battery efficient — lasting over 10 days on one charge for normal use and up to 25 days in battery saver mode. 

I’ve been wearing the Helio strap for the past month now, and one of the main reasons why it works so well is because the app that Amazfit’s smartwatches work with — Zepp, for Android and iOS — is good enough to carry, providing all the useful health and fitness metrics you could want, including workout tracking, heart health, and sleep stats. 

Also: The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the premium smartwatch I prefer (especially at $150 off)

The lack of a watchface also eliminates the inherent distraction of looking at it in the middle of a workout — something I find myself constantly doing any time I wear a smartwatch. By relegating everything to the app, you can put your phone away and not worry about checking it until afterwards.

The app also has its share of unique metrics intended to provide deeper insights into health behavior. For example, the BioCharge feature generates a number for you in the morning (a score out of 100) that tells you what kind of shape you’re in for the coming day, with the score changing as you progress through the day. 

This number is generated from the quality of sleep you got, what kind of day you had yesterday, your resting heart rate, your activity level, and your stress. For example, if you had a stressful day previously and didn’t sleep well, your BioCharge will start out low, putting you at 60 at the start of the day. A great night of rest, however, and you might start the day out at 100.

The app mentions that it needs at least seven days of data to project an accurate assessment, and I found this to be more or less accurate, not just with BioCharge but also with sleep data and PAI, Zepp’s other proprietary health score. 

Also: Why Whoop’s policy change has fans fuming – and what it’s doing about it

PAI, or “personal activity indicator,” awards you points every day based on your cardiorespiratory measurements. The intent is to get a weekly score of 100 or greater. This can be hard to do, as the better shape you’re in, the fewer points your workouts generate, pushing you to work harder. 

The algorithm here is successful not in that it gives you absolutely perfect data, but because it’s so good at pushing you with just the right amount of what’s realistically achievable. If you’re someone who just needs a nudge to keep your fitness in check, this metric alone is a good way to keep tabs on your activity level for the week.  

The app also gives you the option to track what you eat by snapping photos of your food and letting the AI break down caloric values based on the photo. My first thought when hearing this was, ok, a photo of an apple it can do, but what about something more complicated?

So, I put it to the test. I made a big salad with a handful of ingredients, and snapped a photo. After a few seconds, the AI broke down the contents of the salad with surprising accuracy, even spotting the few pickled jalapenos that were thoroughly mixed in. 

Also: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 vs Pixel Watch 3: Which Android smartwatch should you buy?

Personally, I don’t need to track my food this way since I’m already aware of my current macros, but if this is something you’re looking for, I found it to be very easy and surprisingly accurate. 

Even if it’s not to the letter (it can identify food very well, but it can’t always accurately determine volume or portions) the ball park number can be incredibly helpful, showing you if there’s an imbalance in your fat, protein, or carb macros. 

Other features in the app include a plethora of sleep insight stats, including sleep apnea risk, stress, skin temperature, exertion load, steps, weight, and BMI, and support for dozens of training modes.

I’m talking a lot about the app here because ultimately, that’s what matters most to the Helio strap, as a window into fitness tracking through Zepp. Of course, you don’t have to use the strap as a standalone device; in fact, Amazfit’s current marketing positions it as a complementary component to the Balance 2, its latest smartwatch. 

Since both devices access the same app, swapping between them ideally provides a seamless tracking experience, allowing one to pick up where the other one left off. (Plus, if you can’t sleep with a watch on, the Helio strap is a legit alternative.)

Also: Finally, a budget smartwatch that’s just as durable as my Garmin (and it’s on sale)

Lastly, I’ll mention that the Helio strap works just fine without a subscription, but if you want deeper insights and access to more personalized metrics, you can subscribe to Zepp’s Aura Premium. 

This part of the app resembles the VIP lounge, with weekly reports, monthly health analyses, sleep assessments, and a host of audio and guided mediation features. 

As for things Amazfit could improve, one of the most obvious is the strap’s physical form, which, to be expected, is pretty basic. My continual wear after a few weeks resulted in some slight fraying of the fabric band around the velcro end, and I’d imagine after a certain amount of sweaty workouts, you’ll want to replace it anyway.

ZDNET’s buying advice

If you’re interested in fitness tracking but want something minimal or only want to wear a device during workouts, the Amazfit Helio Strap is a solid option. At $99, it comes with the full suite of features in the Zepp app, which is the real secret sauce here.

I actually like the look of the ultra-minimal black strap, and it couldn’t be more distraction-free. If you want a smartwatch, but also like the idea of the strap for certain activities, you can get both the Balance 2 and Helio strap in a bundle deal for $379.