A Month With Jawbone UP
My foray into exercising more
“Athletic” is not a word I - or anyone else for that matter - would use to describe myself. Several weeks ago I decided it was about time to change that and took it upon myself to start exercising. I took up running and used Nike’s Running app as a means to track my activity and have a general overview on my iPhone. That worked fine at first but the nerd inside me kept wanting something more. Enter Jawbone UP*.
The device itself is like a bracelet that you wear around your wrist. It’s slick, even subtle in a way, and modern looking. It took a couple of days to get used to it just being there (confession: I haven’t worn a watch since highschool) but now I don’t even think about it. It’s water-proof so you don’t have to take it off when you take a shower - or a swim now that Summer is here - and so far has proven durable. I did expect it to be a tad thinner on top but in no way I would say it’s bulky. I have no trouble walking, running or showering with it but if you’re the type that rests your palm on a laptop for typing you’ll find that wearing UP is rather inconvenient.
UP comes in five colors and three sizes. It’s important to choose the right size for your wrist if you want the device to stay in place. I wanted to get the black one but it was out of stock at the time so I went with blue instead. I like it. I, also, love the wavy texture on the rubber band - it has kind of a special feel to it. The wristband itself has no clasp: there’s two ends, one with a button that’s used for the operation of some of the features I’ll talk about later and the other is a cap which holds the 3.5mm jack for syncing and charging.
Aesthetically speaking I find UP to be a very pleasing device with a unique design that you can seamlessly integrate in your everyday life without drawing too much attention.
One thing I hear people complaining is the lack of wireless syncing. Right now, in order to actually view what UP has recorded you have to plug it in your iPhone and use this nice looking app. It’s tedious, yes, especially since you are advised to sync your UP at least twice a day. It’s not very elegant but I imagine future iterations will eventually provide that. I would also like to see a web app, a place online to view, edit or share my data (social is an area where UP has fallen behind: no integration with Facebook or Twitter whatsoever except for finding friends).
So, what can UP do exactly? UP can track your daily activity 24/7: steps, distance, calories burned, active time and activity intensity. It also monitors your sleep and tells you how many hours you slept (light and deep) and how many times you woke up. You have to manually tell the device that you are in “sleep mode” by pressing and holding the button. Here’s the catch: if you take too long to fall asleep and you turn around a lot in bed then UP might translate this movement into steps and if it counts more than 250 steps it exits sleep mode automatically. This is not mentioned anywhere on the manual as far as I can tell but I came upon it by chance on the official forums when one time UP didn’t record any sleep. It also supports food & drink tracking but honestly I haven’t really gotten much into it and I doubt I’ll ever will.
There are also two specific features I love: stopwatch and smart alarms. Stopwatch is really simple: if you want to time an activity you use stopwatch mode by pressing and holding the button. You can later edit this data on your iPhone and provide further information such as intensity and workout type. Conceptually, it’s simple. But it can be improved. I would like, for instance, to be able to set a vibration every 10 minutes. So, if I want to go for a 30-minute run I can count three buzzes and know exactly when to stop.
Smart alarms is also a great feature. Say you have set a 7am alarm. Because the device tracks your sleep cycle it can choose to wake you up at a more appropriate time in your light sleep - up to 30 minutes earlier. And it works!
In addition to these UP also features a Power Nap mode and an Idle alert that you can set to remind you to move when you’ve been inactive for too long.
Lastly, I want to emphasize the advertised 10-day battery life. It’s some what true. At first I hit the 10-day mark easily but lately is closer to 8 or 9 days. However, as far as I know this beats anything else out there, hands down! You may think it’s trivial and of no importance but this is absolutely crucial, a - dare I say - mandatory feature for this product category. If it weren’t for the manual syncing you would practically forget it was in your hand all the time.
As far as suggestions go I would like future versions of UP to come equipped with GPS and have a map display on my runs/activity although that would probably raise several privacy concerns and affect battery life. It’s not something I currently miss to be honest but it would be nice to have.
Furthermore, features like weight tracking are simple enough to be added via a software update. Especially, since UP already tracks calories burned and can simultaneously track your food intake weight goals would be a great addition.
So, the question here is this: how accurate is this data and what can you do with them? Obviously, they are not very accurate although I haven’t conducted any scientific comparisons. But in hindsight that’s not really the point. The point is to have an overview of your daily activity. This is where setting goals comes into play: you can set for example 8 hours of sleep and 10000 steps per day. To me this is all the motivation I need: beating myself. Reviews are complaining that gadgets like UP fail to take advantage of the data they collect and present you with suggestions and/or solutions to make you better. I never understood this. While the app itself does offer various health tips, albeit broad, the truth is that it’s only up to you to stop sitting all day and exercise some more. Personally, by setting goals I’ve become more energetic and eager to exercise. I now almost always take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator in the subway, I prefer to walk short distances etc.
The latest update to the app introduced the UP Platform which “complements your UP experience and connects to your favorite apps”. Basically, you can use apps like Runkeeper to track a run and that run will show up in your UP. I haven’t really found any use for it, so I don’t have anything to say really. It seems though that this is a huge bet for the company and I hope that many more apps integrate this into their own platforms.
UP is front and foremost a gadget. A beautiful gadget. You should not expect it to magically make you better but it will prove a useful aid if you are determined to lead a healthier life. Of course, there is plenty of room for improvements, both ergonomically and feature-wise. But, this is only the beginning in wearable devices and I’m confident the future holds many surprises. I, for one, can’t wait for it!
But, what about the competition? I haven’t tried any other devices to be honest but if you’re in a dilemma all I can say is that Jawbone’s UP will certainly give you a run for it’s money. In the coming months I suspect this type of wearable health tracking devices will be ubiquitous and the competition will be vigorous.
* I also considered Nike’s Fuelband but I wanted something more subtle, elegant and with better overall aesthetics. Unfortunately, Fitbit’s Flex was not released until several days after I had already made my decision but I reckon I would still go with UP.
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