Hi, my name is Jeana and I’m a gadget hoarder. I MUST have the latest tablet, smartphone, speaker, and accessory. I’m making efforts to get healthier and more active so my new fascination are gadgets that track your activity like the Jawbone Up. As everyone knows, I also travel at least 2-3 times a month and it can definitely have a huge impact on my ability to exercise, eat right or get a good night’s sleep. I’ve found that I really do need to be proactive about making sure I do all three and like most, I am motivated by data and results.
Enter the Jawbone Up (yay!). While it might sound like a procedure you’d get at the orthodontist’s office, its not. The Jawbone Up is a stylish bracelet, available in 8 different colors, made with medical-grade, hypoallergenic TPU rubber, that tracks activities like sleep, exercise, meals and more.
Style meets function in this water resistant bracelet, which I can wear 24/7 since it’s no match for showers. Its small size makes it blend in with bracelets/accessories, and weighing in at only .08 ounces its easy to forget you’re even wearing it (thank goodness it can handle showers). I wore it during a recent trip to Bermuda and have to say that I loved that I never “forgot” to put it on. I really did wear it 24/7. In my sleep, in the shower, on the beach, at dinner – everywhere.
Jawbone wanted to make the Up small and light, so it would track everything you do, every hour of the day or night, but in designing a small, lightweight tracker, they were unable to include a digital readout. At first this bothered me, but all you have to do is plug it into your phone and you can see your current data. And in all honesty, I always have my phone on me so doing this whenever I am curious, is really not much of an inconvenience.
When I want to track my activity, or enter my meals, I have to enter it on my iPhone app (whereas on similar devices you can see your current progress steps/distance/calories on a digital readout). On the plus side, there are some fun features on the Jawbone Up app like using the barcode scanner to scan/enter what you’re eating, or taking a photo of your meal to log the calories. Battery life seemed true to the estimate (about 10 days).
Note: you can only enter data through the iOS app or Android app, you can’t access data on a computer.
I can say though that the app is gorgeous, with beautiful displays of my data. Through the app you can view sleep habits on your sleep chart, log your moods, or increase/decrease your goals, like changing the daily steps from 10,000 to 15,000.
And a super Cool feature, that other devices don’t currently offer, is that it can suggest the length of a power nap, based on your sleep patterns and set an alarm for the optimal time. I find this to be a crucial feature while on my whirlwind press trips where free time is limited and I am often sleep deprived.
I also like that in addition to calculating calories I’ve burned, it also shows my daily activity levels by amount of time I was active, the longest period of activity, and when I was idle the longest. Plus, you can set the band to buzz you if you’ve been idle for X amount of time, which is great on days when I find myself glued to the computer working!
This looks like it could be a really useful app. I would never use it because I just run until I don’t feel like a cow anymore or until my legs start to hurt, usually around 8 miles. I don’t really care how many steps that is. Also, I don’t think I want to be reminded of how little I sleep at night. lol. I think I’ll send this info over to my sister though.
that is amazing! ii would like keeping track of how many steps i take a day
Wow – everything is being tracked. I am sure it is a wonderful innovation but I do not want anyone much less a device to tell me what a cough potato I am.
RT @SurfnSunshine: Keeping Track Of My Traveling Lifestyle With The @Jawbone Up #VZWBUZZ http://t.co/24OHKorzzY