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FitBit: Self-Tracking 2.0 (scienceroll.com)
18 points by yarapavan on Oct 18, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments



I was very excited about this, however they only ship within the US at this stage.

Startup founders, remember that there is a world full of customers outside of the US.


I just got mine a couple days ago. It's a fantastic piece of hardware. Haven't used it enough yet to really know how well it works.


manually entering calories consumed turned my interest into a definite no. there's no point amassing only half of the equation, and i really can't see myself entering the food i eat on a consistent basis. (this from someone who tracks every hour of the day.) at the very least, it would be neat if i could use it to take a picture of the food before i eat it to at least remind myself at the end of the day what to record.

alternatively or additionally, it would be neat if it could prick my finger and record my blood sugar level, as diabetics do every 2 hrs.

most lifetracking mechanisms seem very foolish to me, especially when "lifetracking" actually means recording my internet use and socializing behavior. however, fitbit is really on to something with collecting data that is only useful if consistently obtained, and then it is quite useful. if i knew exactly how many calories i was consuming and expending i feel like i could tweak my lifestyle in a significantly positive way. whereas now, i'm not sure which activities and foods are really having an effect.

edit: more precise sleep recording would also be cool. that tends to be the most hazy event blocks on my completely filled calendar.

also, i'd need something to record swimming, since salamander wrestling and underwater hockey consume much of my time.


I got around this problem by planning my meals well in advance. I stick to the plan around 90% of the time, which means that my shopping list is easy to generate and my unplanned eating is easy to keep track of.


I'm curious, how were you hoping they'd track calories in?


This looks really interesting. Anyone have any experience with this, or something similar? A couple of questions come to mind

1. How dependable is the data using this device? 2. Is the website a walled garden, or can I get the data out to consume in my own way?

Anyone?

[Update - The FAQ page on their site [http://www.fitbit.com/faq] answered the second question. It seems they will have APIs to fetch most of your data]




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