

Jawbone UP Review - shawnwall
http://shawnwall.tumblr.com/post/12432034722/jawbone-up-review

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dcreemer
For a slightly cheaper approach (assuming you already have an iPhone): I have
been successfully and pleasantly using "Lose It!" [1] to track all of my food
and exercise for about five months now. So far I've lost 20 lbs and 2% body
fat. For sleep tracking, I am using Sleep Cycle [2] to measure sleep hours and
(most importantly to me) wake me up at a good time. Nike+ [3] on my iPhone
tracks my running times, route, distance, etc. Total cost $2.98 (plus an
iPhone of course).

I've been amazed at how easy it's been to get into reasonable shape by
changing only one thing: consistently collecting the right data.

[1] <http://www.loseit.com/>

[2] <http://mdlabs.se/sleepcycle/>

[3] <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nike-gps/id387771637?mt=8>

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dekz
Will Sleep cycle pick up my partners movements and wake me up at an
inopportune time?

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nosignal
I used it, and I just kept it on my side of the bed, it worked fine. I guess
it depends on your mattress, but unless your partner is shifting around enough
to wake you I'd say it'd be fine.

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parshap
This device looks great! The software looks like it could use some work,
though. Does anyone know if the data is exportable?

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dreeves
I'm also eager to learn the answer to this, or what kind of options there are
to access the data programmatically.

(The answer is relevant to my own startup, <http://beeminder.com> which is a
goal-tracking and anti-akrasia service -- you pledge money to force yourself
to keep your data points on a "yellow brick road" to your goal. It works
especially well when you can automate the data collection with devices like
this.)

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joeconway
Do your users actually pay you $5 for every time they leave their 'yellow
zone'? I'd be much more inclined to do this if it were a much smaller amount
of money and donated to a charity of my choice instead

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dreeves
They totally do! (Ok, our revenue is just a trickle --
<http://beeminder.com/meta/paid> \-- but it seems like a steady trickle since
launching so we're feeling very hopeful!)

We've had a lot of discussions -- for example,
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/7z1/antiakrasia_tool_like_stickkcom_...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/7z1/antiakrasia_tool_like_stickkcom_for_data_nerds/508q)
\-- about the charity question. We do hope to offer that at some point but
we're not considering it a core feature just yet.

Here's something from our FAQ about this:

Q: You make money from people failing at their goals?

A: Yes, but we make you fail _less_! We force you to toe the line at least for
a while so that when/if you do fall off your yellow brick road then the
motivation it provided up until that point still seems worth it. Everything
we've worked on in building Beeminder has been with the objective of making
people succeed and we'd have to be very myopic for it to be otherwise.

It's very important to us that no one ever lose on a technicality. We want to
make money by making you more awesome, and we're convinced that's what's
happening. But don't take our word for it. Try it and see. The first attempt
is free: <http://beeminder.com/money>

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rkudeshi
I know the FitBit has a dedicated charger that you have to use every few days
to recharge the device...what about this? Or is it like those watches that can
power themselves through kinetic motion?

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buro9
Charges via USB cable:
[http://eu.jawbone.com/epages/Jawbone.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=Ca...](http://eu.jawbone.com/epages/Jawbone.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=Categories/Store&Locale=en_GB)

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nosignal
What's stopping these things from including a heart rate monitor as well? Do
we just not have the sensors, or are they just not as cheap as a simple
accelerometer? I'd be much more interested in the exercise tracking if it did
something besides "steps". Most devices have the same issue as far as I know.
If I'm doing an oly lifting workout I don't do very many steps but I sure do a
lot of work. I'd love to be able to quantify that.

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marcamillion
This looks very interesting. I been wanting something like this forever. After
watching the way the WakeMate has evolved (or not), I might be inclined to try
this.

Thanks for this review!

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xbryanx
I love the idea, but think I will stick with the FitBit, simply because I hate
wearing anything around my wrists. Especially since I am typing at a keyboard
so much of the day.

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dreeves
I'd love to find something that could be worn as a necklace (even in the
shower). My partner had a fitbit that died when it ended up going through the
laundry.

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callmeed
I'm curious: there are at least 3 or 4 such products (Up, WakeMate, etc.) ...
do any of them have patents?

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coldnose
Only the WakeMate and all other non-UP devices are covered by patents. Evil,
baby-raping patents.

The good people at Jawbone respect the integrity of babies' orifices, and
would never dare to file a patent.

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kkwok
How effective is its alarm?

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jordanmessina
I got mine yesterday and used it last night for the first time as an alarm. It
worked as advertised and since it's around the wrist it's really effective at
waking you up.

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fionabunny
How does the sleep tracking actually work? How can I verify the measurements?

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shawnwall
I obviously can't say for sure how it works as I'm just an end user, but I can
say you tell the device you are going to sleep and when you wake up. In
between, it is obviously sensing your movement using the accelerometer, etc.
My guess would be if you fidget around while you sleep this would be
considered a light sleep.

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theDoug
I would suspect this to be true- Fitbit works in the same way. Sleep is an
activity like any other so periods of movement above the threshold are seen as
interruptions.

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jc4p
Holy bright yellow background, batman!

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Flam
My eyes literally hurt now.

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jc4p
I was very interested in the article but inverse color mode just made it worse
so I had to open up Chrome's inspector and change the CSS before I continued
reading.

