jawbone up

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Jawbone doesn’t say “I quit” with their activty-tracking wristband they launched a year ago. The UP had all kinds of technical problems, enough so that a formal refund policy program was put into place. Jawbone promises after a great deal of research and testing that the second generation UP will stay up.

[ new ] Generation two is more waterproof, one of the reasons why the first band couldn’t hold a battery charge. There’s a much-improved mobile software that offers more comprehensive data-tracking experience. You now have a Trends tab that allows side-by-side comparisons of personal metrics. When in a mood there’s a Moods tab and more detailed food logging, with a bar-code scanner for scanning food items.

[ features ] Up tracks your motion using the same MotionX technology found in the Nike+ package. It can track your steps, for everyday walking, or it can watch your route via GPS if you’re a runner. The app will tell you your steps, distance, calories, pace, and intensity level among other information. During the day, you can set the wristband to vibrate on your wrist to give you a reminder to move around if you’ve been inactive for too long.

The wristband also serves as a comprehensive sleep tracking product much like the popular Sleep Cycle apps available on the App Store. Putting the wristband in Sleep Mode will automatically track the hours you slept, what stages you were in, what time you were awake, and it’ll score your overall sleep quality. Like the iPhone sleep apps, Up will wake you up when it thinks the time is best, but it cleverly uses the vibration feature from before to wake you up quietly. [ jawbone ]