Say you like the idea of a gadget that can track you steps… but you don’t really want to have one strapped to your wrist or clipped to your clothing all day. Misfit’s latest activity tracker isn’t meant to be worn all day… just when you’re listening to music (or podcasts, or whatever).

The Misfit Specter is basically a set of Bluetooth earbuds attached to a small puck with a Bluetooth radio and motion sensors. You can listen to music for up to 10 hours at a time, and if you take the Misfit Specter for a run it will count your steps and sync them with your phone.

specter_03

Clearly the Specter won’t measure every step you take. But if you just want to track your stats when you go for a run, this accessory could be what you need.

Oddly, the earbuds also offer sleep tracking. This was probably thrown in because the feature basically uses the same hardware as step counting, so why not include it?

But Misfit reps at CES do have one plausible explanation for why you might actually want a sleep quality monitor built into headphones: you might not wear them to bed, but maybe you’ll wear them when you fall asleep on an airplane. Misfit’s software can confirm what you probably already know: it’s hard to take a good nap when you’re cramped in the middle seat, fighting for the arm rest and struggling with limited leg room.

Misfit was recently acquired by watch maker Fossil. Neither company really has expertise in making headphones. So the company partnered with Chinese company 1More to design the earbuds themselves.

The Misfit Specter is set to launch this spring with a price somewhere between $100 and $200.

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