Microsoft Adaptive Mouse hands-on: Inclusively designed, infinitely customizable

The Xbox Adaptive Controller was Microsoft’s first real attempt at making accessible hardware. And while it was very well-received, it didn’t really impact non-gamers. Today, the company is launching a new product with a much wider audience: a mouse. The Microsoft Adaptive Mouse kit actually consists of a mouse, attachable tail, hub and button. They’re modular and highly customizable, offering a wide variety of ways for people with different needs to interact with their laptops, tablets or phones.

At the heart of the new Adaptive Mouse kit is, well, the mouse. Because you can insert this into different attachments, it’s sometimes referred to as the core. It’s a tiny square, approximately two inches (50mm) wide, and about as thick as my finger. There’s a scroll wheel between the left and right buttons, and on the underside you’ll find an optical sensor and triggers for Bluetooth and ejecting the back bumper.

I’ll get to the removable piece in a bit but at this point in the demo I was already enamored with the mouse, which I found really easy to use. As someone who suffers from shoulder and neck pain due to a home office setup that’s not ergonomically ideal, I loved the idea of a low-profile mouse that I didn’t have to strain to use.

At the conference table in Microsoft’s new Inclusive Tech Lab, I placed the mouse under my palm and dragged it around. Since it’s so small, I could move it more easily than a traditional mouse by pushing it with my fingers, instead of using my upper arm or forearm. Being able to lay my fingers mostly flat also felt less strenuous on my nerves. I barely had to lift a finger to use it.

Of course, I’m not a professionally trained ergonomist, and there are other issues like elbow angle and table height to take into consideration. I’ll also need to spend more time using the Adaptive mouse to see its long term effects. But the best part about the new kit isn’t the shape of the core, it’s that you can easily customize it to suit your needs.

The second part of the Adaptive Mouse kit is the tail. You can insert the core to this piece, after removing the bumper, and get a larger, more traditional-looking mouse with a curved shape. There’s not much to explain here, except the fact that the thumb support on the bottom is reversible for left-handed or right-handed use.

This is important. You won’t have to go and buy a separate device if you’re left-handed, which would create an othering experience that often happens with assistive tech.

The Adaptive kit becomes a lot more useful with the Hub and Button. The Hub is a rectangular block that’s basically a dock with ports and buttons on it. Along the back are five 3.5mm jacks, while three USB-C ports sit in front, next to a sync button. On the top are a round Bluetooth key and a square button for toggling through up to three profiles. These are shaped differently for easy recognition by touch, and don’t require much force to press.

The Microsoft Adaptive Hub held in mid-air with its top surface in view.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The Hub serves as a bridge between various assistive tech switches, and devices like your laptop and phone. Your PC, tablet or phone will recognize these input methods as it would a typical mouse or keyboard.

Possibly the most intriguing component of the Adaptive Mouse kit is the new Button, which you’ll also need to connect to your device via the Hub. Like the core, it’s a 50mm square, but it has eight buttons laid out in a circle. Using a PC, you can program these to perform any task you want. There’s a wide variety of possibilities here: You can map them to scroll up or down, open apps, or enter keyboard shortcuts.

The Button can also handle sequential tasks, so you can have the first push open an app, then have the second tap of the same button enter a phrase, and a third send an email, for example.

At the demo, director of accessible accessories Gabi Michel showed me how to record a sequence of actions. We decided that the macro I wanted to program is to enter the words “I agree to the embargo, please share more” and hit send. In the (non-final) Windows software, Michel started a new macro, named it “Embargo agreement” and chose to record an action. She entered the sentence, inserted a pause (which tells the system to wait for a subsequent button push), then hit the Control and Enter keys on her keyboard, which would send the email in Outlook.

Three Microsoft Adaptive Buttons and an Adaptive Hub on top of them, held in mid-air by two hands with colorful nails. The Buttons have different toppers. From left to right, they are the eight-directional d-pad, the dual button and a joystick.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Some of the commands you can program require the relevant app to be open first, so in this case I’d have to be on Outlook before starting the macro. You can also set things like Alt-Tab or more complicated Adobe keyboard shortcuts that require several buttons to be pressed at once. As someone who frequently uses Photoshop’s Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S shortcut to save images for the web, I can already see the benefits of mapping this combination to one key.

The beauty of the Adaptive Button, though, lies in its customizability. You can twist off the wheel on the top surface and replace it with a joystick or a setup with two semicircles, which Microsoft calls a dual button. With these, people who have limited mobility can hit bigger targets to trigger their macros. The joystick, for example, can be pushed with an elbow or a head, and the eight buttons underneath can be programmed correspondingly.

With the dual button, for instance, the top four inputs can be mapped to one action, while the bottom four can perform another. This is how lead industrial designer for the Adaptive accessories John Helmes has a Button set up for his daughter, who has cerebral palsy. For her, pushing the top and bottom halves trigger up and down scrolling, which is helpful since she doesn’t have the dexterity for a scroll wheel.

The d-pad, dual button and joystick are toppers that Microsoft will offer at launch, but it’s teamed up with 3D printing service Shapeways to give people additional options. At the demo, I saw various designs, including one that looked like a Dyson bladeless fan.

Three Microsoft Adaptive Buttons in a row. The first doesn't have a topper and its eight inputs are exposed. The one in the middle has a red D-pad topper, while the one on the right has a big purple joystick topper in the shape of a Dyson bladeless fan.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The 3D-printed pieces don’t just work with the Button — you can create them for the mouse core, too. Hermes said his daughter, who has involuntary movements and light spasms in her hands, uses one with deeper finger grooves on it and a stiffer, grippier texture. This helps to keep her fingers on the buttons.

Michel also showed me some other pieces, like an extended palm rest for the core, covers for scroll wheels and tails with higher arches. Whatever shape might suit you better, it seems as if there is a way to 3D print an attachment that would make the mouse easier to use.

Microsoft may have created its new Adaptive Mouse kit with the disability community in mind, but as is often the case with inclusive design, products that are made to solve problems for a small community can have benefits for a larger population. The Button can make interacting with a phone or laptop easier for people with limited mobility, but it can also simplify the workflow for so many others. Video editors could map common actions to specific buttons, for example, while I would love to actually have a one-button embargo agreement shortcut.

A hand holding the Microsoft Adaptive Mouse in mid-air with its bumper removed.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

I applaud Microsoft’s thoughtfulness here, but I still have lingering questions. The Adaptive Mouse, Hub and Button will be available this fall, but many details – including price – are still unclear. Too often, assistive technology is prohibitively priced, and it would be disappointing if Microsoft charged too much of a premium. With the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which launched for $99, it’s more expensive than the Xbox Wireless Controller ($50-$60) but notably cheaper than the premium Elite Controller ($170). 

Without knowing the exact price of the Adaptive Mouse kit and the 3D printed pieces, it’s hard to tell how much of an impact it will have. But I do think Microsoft’s continued development of products for people with disabilities is laudable, and will hopefully spur on the rest of the industry. Because fostering more competition and driving prices down will benefit not only the disability community but all of us as well.

Update (at 12:29pm ET): This article previously misstated that the Hub would support Braille display input. It won’t — assistive tech switches that would draw power from the Hub aren’t supported. This story has been corrected to remove that reference.

Inside Microsoft’s new Inclusive Tech Lab

On the north campus of Microsoft’s 500-acre headquarters, anticipation is quietly mounting. The company is gearing up to launch its new Inclusive Tech Lab, which sits in Building 86 — one of 125 buildings in its Redmond, Washington grounds. This 2,000-square-foot room used to be a reception area, with a set of doors leading to the offices within and another pair facing the rest of the world. It only seems fitting, considering what Microsoft envisions this lab to be: a place to welcome members of the disability community, the tech industry and its own designers. Importantly, it’s close to key personnel in Microsoft’s product teams. Across the street is building 88, where you’ll find chief product officer Panos Panay’s office, while down the road is the Hardware Lab in building 87.

On a recent visit to the Inclusive Tech Lab, I met a few members of the team (and Panay briefly dropped in via video chat) ahead of the launch. They were eager to welcome the world into the carefully designed room. “This is an embassy for people with disabilities,” accessibility program manager Solomon Romney said, “it is the connection between the community and our product making teams.”

The new Inclusive Tech Lab is the successor to an earlier version on the West campus that the Xbox team opened in 2017, when it was developing the Adaptive Controller. But that wasn’t a dedicated space. Senior director of hardware accessibility Kris Hunter described it as a “grassroots effort.”

“Some of the team members came together, we built IKEA furniture over the weekend,” she said. “It was just this passion project.” Though that was initially imagined to be an incubator for the Xbox team to work with designers and engineers, it evolved beyond gaming. Over the years, the lab in Studio B on the west campus hosted about 7,000 people, including clothing designers, members of congress and even competitors like Nintendo and PlayStation.

Three people inside the gaming section of Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab. One of them is using a wheelchair, and all three are using Xbox controllers.
Microsoft

When Hunter was transferred from Xbox to the devices team, she was asked to replicate that experience — this time with a designated space. “Panos came through one day and said, ‘There’s a space over at 86, I think it would be perfect for you guys to show and expand your thinking here,’” she said.

The space at 86 is an open-plan square that’s reminiscent of a child’s playroom. It’s bright and airy, with colorful toys and a giant fiber-optic jellyfish hanging from the ceiling in one corner. The lab is sectioned off into six general areas, including the welcome desk, a sensory stimulation corner, a demo classroom, a faux conference room and a “work and play” area. These are meant to simulate environments in which people use technology, to help product designers and members of the disability community have a basis for discussion and sharing experiences.

For that to be a conducive and welcoming environment for their guests, the Inclusive Tech Lab team had to take many different needs into consideration when designing the space, quite literally, from the ground up.

To start with, the floor of the room is divided into sections with visually distinct patterns and different tactile surfaces like wood and carpet, which makes them easier to tell apart by people using canes. Microsoft’s team was also careful to make sure the borders between them were flat to avoid potential trip hazards. “It took about 12 different attempts to come in and re-level the floor perfectly,” Romney said.

A shot of the floors at Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab, with a light wood section, gray carpet section and dark carpet section in the frame. The areas are separated by a light gray stone tile.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The lab’s ceilings have felt baffles, and the room uses felt walls that “help suck sound so that we have much clearer audio in here,” Romney explained. “For people who have limited hearing, it’s much easier to hear what’s being said.” It also provides a more comfortable environment for individuals with neurodiversity who might feel overstimulated in a large echoey space.

The light system, which can be controlled by a wall panel or via an app that Romney ran on a Surface Duo, offers dimming and color settings. “This is designed specifically to assist with sensitivities in neurodiverse individuals as well. If there are particular colors that are more soothing or others to be avoided, we can do that in real time,” he said.

He also highlighted the double motorized doors leading into the room. Both doors open automatically when you push a button or wave your hand in front of a nearby motion sensor. “That is the only place in Microsoft that you’re going to find that. It’s something we have been working on for months and months to make that a reality,” Romney said. He pointed out that although some other doors may be ADA-width, people with wheelchairs can still have a hard time fitting through them if they’re carrying bags or bulky items.

The team also made an effort to ensure the bathrooms nearest to the lab could cater to the needs of people with disabilities. Around the corner from the lab is a gender-neutral bathroom that is not only wheelchair-accessible, but also contains the first adult-sized powered changing table on the campus. Romney mentioned that this was a priority after previously encountering cases where visitors had to resort to being changed on the floors of bathrooms. “It was undignified and it was unsanitary,” he said.

The right side of Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab, where there are colorful pieces of furniture scattered across three sections. On the right is a pseudo jellyfish fixture hanging from the ceiling.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Bearing in mind people who may be moving around with walking aids or reaching out to objects for support, the Inclusive Tech Lab team chose furniture that would not topple over easily. None of the chairs or tables have wheels, although some of the heavier storage benches do. That’s in part because, as Romney explained, the lab is “a living space” that would evolve and adapt as needs arise. The team might move closets around or re-designate the sections, for instance.

For now, though, the six areas in the lab reflect the way our lives are today. The work and play area, specifically, is set up to show a home office, kitchen table and living room. Along the back wall is a desk with a Surface Studio, showing Windows accessibility features for people with low vision. On the kitchen table, the team has laid out not only a Surface Laptop Studio connected to a Braille display and audio scales, but also a mug with a “Say When” sensor that provides audible alerts to prevent overfilling.

“What we showcase here is the best that Microsoft has to offer alongside the best that our partners have to offer,” Romney said. “We rely on a lot of other people to help fill out that ecosystem of accessibility.” Both he and Hunter reiterated that “accessibility is not a competition.” When she was telling me about bringing Nintendo and PlayStation to the lab in Studio B, Hunter said, “we believe that a rising tide floats all boats.”

To the right of the faux dining area is a hypothetical living room, with a couch and a large TV. Here, the team has provided the Xbox Adaptive Controller and setups for one-handed Halo and no-hand Forza. Gaming is the team’s heritage, Romney said, and since the new lab is twice the size of its predecessor, they haven’t had to reduce the footprint of the gaming area at all.

In the classroom space, three tables have been set up facing a Surface Hub. Each desk features different devices with assistive tech built in, including Microsoft’s Surface Adaptive Kit that was released last year. There’s also a Surface Laptop SE with a JCPal keyboard skin that brought increased visibility and tactility to its buttons. In the front row, there are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices like a Surface Go 3 in a Targus case with speech-generating software as well as a computer with a Tobii eye-detecting sensor connected.

The faux classroom inside Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab. Three tables are set up facing a Surface Hub and each table has assistive devices on it.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

But the gadgets themselves aren’t the only area of focus. The Inclusive Tech Lab team is aware that it’s set up an “idealized version of a classroom,” clarifying that desks like the ones they’ve chosen aren’t available in all learning institutions. The team has deliberately designed its space this way to “show what is possible when we normalize assistive technology,” Romney explained.

“A lot of times, not just in school but in the workplace as well, when your technology looks so different from everyone else’s, that can be really off-putting,” he added.

That principle applies to the conference room portion of the lab as well, although Romney acknowledged this is an area that is likely to evolve as the team learns more about remote work. Right now, it consists of a long oval table with six chairs set up around it with a screen on a wall behind one end.

Contemplating a hybrid workplace also involves thinking about telepresence robots. For members of the team who live in other countries, the Inclusive Tech Lab also has a robot with a screen and wheels to allow them to “visit.” This helps them “have a physical presence in the space when we’re doing things like inclusive design sprints so that they don’t feel left out,” Romney said.

Finally, in the back left corner of the room, anchored around a giant fiber-optic jellyfish suspended from the ceiling, is the Sensory corner. It’s basically a section that Romney said has “a lot of additional sensory options” like lights, colors, textures and sound for “individuals who need extra stimulation to transition between tasks or focus or to re-center.” Here, the team has placed bean bag chairs with piles of colorful plush toys on them, a pair of approximately six-foot-tall bubbling lava lamps against a wall and a soft green bench with cushions in metallic hues on it. A soft, low-pile rug in Minecraft green spreads across most of this section, for people who might want a soft surface to crawl or lay on.

The sensory space inside Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab, with a faux jellyfish suspended from the ceiling. There are green beanbags and chairs in this corner, with piles of colorful plush toys and cushions on them. In the back, along the wall, are a pair of bubbling lamps.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The main attraction of this corner, and arguably of the whole lab, is the “jellyfish.” It’s really a domed light fixture with 300 strands of slightly wavy color-changing fiber optics dangling from it in a ring. When Hunter turned down the room’s lights and Romney fired up the so-called tentacles, I got inside the jellyfish and played with the soft, wispy wires.

I’m not one for extra sensory stimulation — if anything I prefer reduced or hypostimulation — but I could see how the experience might be calming for some. The team had set up a makeshift version of this in the old lab, using a hula hoop as the base for the light cables. “We found in the old lab [that] the tactility of touching the strands and the changing lights [gives] a very soothing element to the jellyfish,” Romney said.

Like I said though, hyperstimulation is not for everyone, and the Inclusive Tech Lab team is aware of that. “This is one of the areas that’s probably going to change the most,” Romney said. “This is an area that is new in our understanding, at Microsoft, of how neurodiversity and hardware interact.” But, Romney assured me, the jellyfish would remain.

With this particular section, the team is exploring transitional spaces. Hunter explained that one use for sensory rooms is for children who need a place, before entering a classroom, where they can get calm or get ready to learn. It’s not just for kids, either. People who are neurodiverse or have anxiety could potentially benefit from such transitional spaces, and the team wants to learn more about how to thoughtfully implement them.

Two people in the classroom section of Microsoft's new Inclusive Tech Lab, both holding laptops in their hands.
Microsoft

To best understand how Microsoft will use its new Inclusive Tech Lab to engage the community, we can look back to what it did in the past. Hunter said that at the old facility in Studio B, the company not only hosted Nintendo and Playstation, but also brought in industry leaders to discuss topics like inclusive clothing, as well as members of Congress to look into building inclusive voting machines. “We believe everyone wins when we can do this as a community,” she said.

That’s one of many, many mantras that members of the team repeated during my time with them. I kept hearing variations of the saying “Solve for the one and extend to the many,” for example, or “Nothing about us without us.” The latter refers to the importance of including and engaging members of the disability community when creating products for them. This is clearly something that’s important to the Inclusive Tech Lab team, who are spread out across Microsoft’s hardware, accessories, Azure and Windows departments. The company also employs people with disabilities and involves them in the design process.

Romney is looking forward to opening the lab. “I imagine I am just going to get swamped with requests,” he said. The challenge, ultimately, is getting the word out. “We have decades of features in Windows, but people don’t know about them,” Romney said. He added that thinking about what conferences to go to, who to reach out to is part of the solution. One of the reasons the new lab is in building 86, he said, was to be closer to the tours conducted in building 87 and potentially be a stop on them to help spread awareness to visitors.

“We believe accessibility isn’t a one and done,” Hunter said. Of all the sayings I heard the lab team repeat, this struck me as the one to leave with. The responsibility of making inclusive design an industry standard doesn’t and shouldn’t lie with Microsoft alone. More companies need to be proactive and persistent in making sure their products don’t leave people out. A dedicated Inclusive Tech Lab may not be the approach for all businesses, but the determined mentality I saw (and in this case manifested as a physical space) is something they should all strive to emulate.

Engadget Podcast: Elon Musk basically owns Twitter now. What happens next?

This week, our hosts are joined by senior editor Karissa Bell and Yahoo Finance’s Tech Editor Dan Howley to break down Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. How did we get here, who supports this, what is left before Elon Musk officially owns Twitter (if regulatory approvals go through) and will our lives really be impacted? Then, guest cohost Sam Rutherford and Cherlynn talk about Google’s all-but-confirmed Pixel Watch and Android 13 before ranting about Motorola.

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

  • Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion: How, and more importantly, why? – 1:43

  • The Android 13 public beta is now live – 26:02

  • Dear Motorola, stop with the endless rehashes! – 39:15

  • Working on – 46:06

  • Pop culture picks – 50:04

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Guests: Karissa Bell and Dan Howley
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

Apple had a huge quarter, but revenue growth is slowing

All eyes are on Apple today, after a tumultuous series of earnings reports dropped this week. Google parent company Alphabet missed revenue expectations, while Meta (formerly Facebook) recorded a higher profit than expected this quarter. Apple just released its results and the company has performed respectably in its second quarter of the fiscal year 2022. This was its best March quarter yet, with revenues of $97.3 billion — a 9 percent jump from the same period last year. On today’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the results were “better than we anticipated.” That said, it’s still a drop from its results last quarter, where it broke all-time records with revenues of $123.9 billion. 

Apple also hit a new all-time high on its revenue from Services, which includes things like subscriptions to TV+, Music and Fitness+. With its strong showing on the awards circuit recently, it’s hardly a surprise that TV+ is drawing in subscribers. Apple doesn’t break down how much it makes specifically from each individual service, so it’s hard to say just how much impact shows like Coda or Ted Lasso have had. Notably, Coda‘s winning of Best Picture at the Academy Awards makes Apple TV the first streaming service to win in that category.

The rest of the company’s products continued to do well too, with revenues from Mac, iPhone and “Wearables, Home and Accessories” all having increased year over year. On the call, Cook highlighted the new Mac Studio and Studio Display that were launched in March, as well as the iPhone SE and the M1-powered iPad Air. CFO Luca Maestri also said on the earnings call that the last seven quarters have been “the best seven quarters ever for Mac.” Interestingly, the one segment that faltered was iPad, raking in about $7.6 billion compared to around $7.8 billion the same time last year. That type of up-and-down performance is pretty typical for iPads, though. 

The wearables category was the most eye-catching, with Apple making $19.8 billion this quarter from sales of things like AirPods and watches, compared to $16.9 billion this time last year. That’s more than it made from Macs, which came in at $10.4 billion this quarter (up from $9.1 billion last year). Maestri said on the call that “our wearables business has doubled in three years and is nearly the size of a Fortune 100 business.” If you’re keeping track, that means the Services category made Apple almost twice as much money as Macs, which is the next closest category (aside from iPhones, which came in at about $50.5 billion).

Apple Studio Display
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Maestri attributed some of the Services earnings to a few things. The company’s “install base has continued to grow, reaching an all-time high across each geographic segment,” he said. Paid subscriptions also increased, with more than 825 million paying subscribers across the services on Apple now. Of that number, 165 million signed up in the last 12 months, Maestri added later in the call.

Global supply constraints were a big point of focus on the question-and-answer portion of the call, and when asked about the long lead time on Mac products, Cook cited COVID-related disruptions in China and the ongoing silicon shortage as contributing to the issue. “We’re not really forecasting when we can be out of the silicon shortage,” he said, adding “I think the COVID piece of it — I hope it is a transitory kind of issue and so I would hope that it would get better over time.”

Android 13 beta hands-on: Just small tweaks for now

The public Android 13 beta is here, and it’s our first chance to look at what might be coming in Google’s OS update. We’ve already learned a bit about what the company will be focusing on improving for the next version, and a lot of it sounds like back…

The Fiture mirror wants to improve your at-home workout form

Maybe the pandemic made you rethink your gym membership, or maybe you just don’t like working out in the presence of other people. Thankfully, there’s a slew of gadgets and connected equipment that can help you exercise well at home. Without proper form guidance, though, you risk using the wrong muscles for some actions or worse, you could end up hurting yourself. That’s why more recent devices like the Tempo Move or the Peloton Guide purport to watch while you exercise and teach you better form. A new smart mirror launching today promises to offer “real-time feedback through form correction as well as pacing, timing and movement feedback” through its “Motion Engine technology.” The company is called Fiture (future of fitness, get it?) and the $1,495 interactive mirror is just the beginning of its offerings.

Like the NordicTrack Vault Complete and the Lululemon-owned Mirror, the Fiture has a screen embedded inside a reflective surface. In fact, the Fiture and the Mirror both have a 43-inch display, though the former stands 12 inches taller at 68 inches. It’s also slightly wider and thicker than Lululemon’s gadget, yet surprisingly weighs 10 pounds less. At just 60 pounds, Fiture’s offering was easy enough for me to lift and move over short distances (but that’s just me flexing).

At a recent demo event, I tried out some workouts on the Fiture mirror. About 200 to 400 workouts will be available at launch, with sessions ranging from 5 to 60 minutes in length. They span categories like strength, HIIT, yoga, boxing, pilates, barre, cardio sculpt and stretching for cooldowns. You’ll need to pay a $39 monthly fee to use the device and these classes, which is similar to what Lululemon and Peloton charge with their hardware. Though Peloton allows for up to 20 user profiles, Lululemon only supports up to six, and requires a “one-year minimum commitment.” Meanwhile, Fiture lets you have up to seven users on one membership and you can subscribe month-to-month.

The Fiture interactive workout mirror showing a summary page, with a woman holding a camera in the reflection.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

My personal gripes about buying hardware with mandatory subscriptions aside, I can understand charging a recurring fee for services that push out new content all the time, and Fiture said it will be adding new videos every week and that live classes are in the works.

I’m more intrigued by the ability to customize workouts. Through the companion app, you can select one of three preset durations (5, 10 or 15 minutes), the type of activity (HIIT or Strength) and the difficulty level. The system generates a set of moves, like squats, hip hinges, lunges, presses or raises — all of which you can edit by tweaking the duration of each set or number of reps. You can also add any number of exercises from Fiture’s extensive library of movements, and when you’re done, stream your custom class to the mirror.

The custom workouts won’t have a trainer walking you through the entire session like the pre-recorded ones, but I love the idea of being able to create my own targeted sets or supersets. More importantly, the device will still count your reps and monitor your form while you do those.

This is the highlight of the Fiture system. It has an onboard camera on the bottom third, and it blends so well into the looking glass that I can only see the sensor at extreme angles. The company includes a cap that magnetically attaches to the mirror so you can cover up the camera when not in use. Using 4K video captured from the camera and its “Motion Engine” algorithms, the device not only counts your reps, but it can also judge your pace. According to Fiture, if you’re flying through your reps, you should consider using heavier weights. If you’re moving too slowly through a motion, you should try something lighter.

A picture of the Fiture connected fitness mirror with a rack of colorful dumbbells in view.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

At the demo, I did about a dozen upright rows, front and lateral raises with a pair of 8-pound barbells (which is lighter than my usual 10 to 15 pounds). In the beginning of the set, I sped through the reps, and my pace was reflected onscreen, at about eye level. I slowed down a little, and hit what Fiture deemed to be the optimal pace. Reps performed at that speed notched a higher score, but every move contributed to my total for the workout.

I tried another session that involved an Arnold overhead press and noticed that some of my reps weren’t being counted. Helpfully, a diagram popped up at the bottom right of the screen, telling me to straighten my arms when overhead. Once I started paying attention to that part of the move, the system started counting my reps again.

Fiture also offers timed sets instead of specific numbers of reps. Another session had me sitting in a chair pose for a minute, and the mirror only started counting the seconds when it determined I had sunk low enough and had my arms raised high enough. When I gave up at about 58 seconds and stood up, it stopped counting.

A woman holding dumbbells in the middle of a bent-over row, poised in front of the Fiture interactive mirror leaning against a wall.
Fiture

The mirror can also detect exercises performed on the floor, like hip thrusts, planks and mountain climbers. I blazed through about 20 hip thrusts, and Fiture counted every single one. I did struggle with keeping an eye on the onscreen trainer when doing alternate side bird-dogs, but that’s a problem with following any workout video with floorwork.

At the end of every workout, you’ll see a summary of calories burned, time spent and also your position on the app’s leaderboard. Fiture will also suggest a follow-up video that’s usually stretching for a cooldown. You can raise your hand and hold it up for a few seconds to automatically start the recommended activity, which is pretty convenient. I tried this out a few times and the camera was quite accurate at noticing when I had my arm up.

Because the Fiture isn’t touch-enabled, you’ll mostly interact with it via the companion app, the onboard volume and power buttons or by gestures. Voice control is coming, the company said, and it’ll offer options for you to pause a workout, for example. At the moment, though, after you launch a video from your phone, the app will become a remote control for the mirror, showing controls for play, pause, volume, skipping sections and fast-forwarding or rewinding in 15-second increments.

I didn’t get to test this out at the demo, but Fiture also comes with a heart rate tracker that you can strap on to see your cardio performance on the screen. You can also connect your own Bluetooth-enabled heart rate or fitness tracker, like the Apple Watch, and see your pulse on the display. For now, Fiture doesn’t offer videos that make use of that information for tailored workouts based on your real-time cardio performance, but the company said it’s looking into that option.

A person seated in front of a Fiture interactive workout mirror on a yoga mat, performing a seated spinal twist.
Fiture

Based on my brief time with the Fiture mirror, I have to say the system seems sound — my glutes were sore the next day. In parts of the brightly lit event space, the onscreen video was slightly difficult to see, particularly when sunlight was streaming directly onto the surface. But in pretty much every other part of the indoor space, the display was crisp and easy to read. The background music and trainer’s voice in the workouts were also loud enough to hear.

In the fitness mirror space, Fiture is a fairly elegant option. Though it doesn’t come with equipment like resistance bands or weights (you’ll have to use your own or rely on bodyweight workouts), its motion detection and form guidance are built into the device. That’s different from the Lululemon Mirror, which, outside of live classes, requires additional connected weights to count reps and offer feedback. The Tempo Move also requires you to use its custom color-coded barbells and plates before it can effectively count your reps.

Best of all, for someone like me who lives in a tiny studio, the Fiture’s small footprint is extremely appealing. It’s also one of the best-looking smart mirrors around, and comes in five colors. But before you spend $1,500 on the Fiture mirror, I’d recommend waiting till we can do a bit more testing in the real world to see if it’s worth the big bucks.

Engadget Podcast: We love the Playdate and BTS dance lessons on Apple Fitness+

This week, Cherlynn is joined by guest co-host Jessica Conditt to take a closer look at the Playdate — the cute little gaming console with a crank. The two go on to rave about Samsung’s new Pokémon-themed Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Apple’s BTS dance lessons on Fitness+, before questioning why anyone would want electric chopsticks that make food taste saltier.

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

Subscribe!

Topics

  • The Playdate is an adorable indie game machine – 1:28

  • Samsung’s Pokemon-themed Galaxy Z Flip 3 is delightful – 17:48

  • Apple Fitness+: Now featuring BTS dance workouts – 20:11

  • Netflix announces that it lost subscribers for the first time in a decade – 26:53

  • There’s going to be a Netflix series based on “Exploding Kittens” – 33:04

  • WhatsApp is testing an option to hide its “last seen” feature – 37:57

  • Researchers in Japan invented electric chopsticks to make food taste saltier – 40:56

  • Working on – 45:33

  • Pop culture picks – 48:30

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Jessica Conditt
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

BTS dance lessons are coming to Apple Fitness+

Get ready for a Dynamite workout. Apple has a few updates for Fitness+ timed with International Dance Day, which is coming up on April 29th, and arguably the most interesting are the new Dance workouts set to Korean pop sensation BTS’ music. Through its existing relationship with BTS, Apple will be teaching users the actual choreography from videos for songs like “Dynamite,” “Mic Drop” and, very aptly, “Permission to Dance.” 

The first of the BTS dance workouts will arrive next week, but Apple is also bringing new content to its Artist Spotlight series. In addition to music from BTS, Fitness+ is also getting playlists from ABBA and Queen. Every Monday over the next four weeks, there will be new workouts featuring each artist across categories like Strength, HIIT, Treadmill, Cycling, Yoga, Pilates and Dance. 

There will be new dance workouts featuring music from other musicians too, including sessions led by trainer Jhon Gonzalez set to genres like cumbia, tango and Indian pop. While the Fitness+ team generally comes up with their own choreography, for the BTS videos they will be teaching the band’s own smooth-like-Butter moves. 

Those who work hard enough and shed some Blood, Sweat and Tears (okay, hopefully no blood) on April 29th will be eligible to earn limited-edition awards and animated Messages stickers. You’ll have to be On the workout for at least 20 minutes, and Fitness+ will highlight six sessions of that duration to help you Go get those rewards.

On April 25, which by the way is the perfect date for a Spring Day, Apple will also release a new collection of workouts to ease beginners into dancing with three 20-minute guides. There will also be three 30-minute options that focus more on performance, and span categories like 80’s classics, Latin music and hip hop. That last one is great for Hip Hop Lovers.

If BTS is your Idol, this news is probably Dope. Or Fire. Apple may add more workouts based on the band’s music so Stay tuned for more. And if BTS or dance are not your thing, then Life Goes On.

Engadget Podcast: Nintendo Switch Sports and Elon Musk’s ongoing Twitter affair

This week, Cherlynn and guest co-host Sam Rutherford discuss the new Nintendo Switch Sports games, a coincidental week of beauty gadget coverage and the ongoing saga of Elon Musk trying to own Twitter. We also go over Activision Blizzard’s new Chief Diversity Officer and Meta laying claim to almost half of all digital asset sales in its virtual world.

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

Subscribe!

Topics

  • Nintendo Switch Sports – 1:53

  • Checking out the Theraface Pro and PMD Personal Microderm Classic – 14:56

  • Elon Musk isn’t done with Twitter, might be trying to buy the company – 23:59

  • Blizzard has hired a Chief Diversity Officer to help sort out its whole mess – 36:31

  • Meta wants a 47.5% cut on all items sold in the Metaverse – 40:45

  • Vivo’s X Fold has a fingerprint reader on both screens – 44:28

  • Sonos bought a startup that makes speakers powered by light – 48:53

  • Working on – 53:52

  • Pop culture picks – 55:14

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien