8 ms·

Jawbone UP3 Activity Tracker

38 points by usaphp 12y ago

kolev 12y ago
Bold claims... but Microsoft Band or Basis Peak seem more advanced.
- iM8t 12y ago
  Basis Peak does look much more advanced, but I wouldn't say that it has many more features that other bands don't have. In my opinion, the bigest factor for it is the design (both site and product). It just looks a little less futuristic and as something that regular people could actually use on a day-to-day basis.
  - Void_ 12y ago
    Yeah, from all these devices, this one seems the most fit for 24/7 wear, if you want to track sleep. Also it looks like just a bracelet, so you can wear it on right hand, and still wear a watch.
- Andrenid 12y ago
  Yeah I'm not sure how they can have this on the front page: > The world's most advanced tracker. > The most advanced activity tracker known to man When it obviously has less features than some of the competition. Eg no GPS for one.
gregr401 12y ago
Wait, it does NFC based payments as well? Huh? Details are buried in the FAQs, mentions it supports AMEX only. There are some duplicate FAQs as well, wonder if that was not ready for prime time (though NFC is listed under the available sensors).
- borski 12y ago
  Where?
- anthonys 12y ago
  I saw that too. They must have been trying to save that one for later!
rtpg 12y ago
I'm still so confused as to why any of these pedometers cost so much. I'm really interested in picking one up, but the price is pretty prohibitive for something whose value-add I can't really judge ahead of time
- wwwhizz 12y ago
  Multiple reasons: - Because they can. People are willing to pay this much for this product. - It takes a lot of research and development costs, which have to be included - You also buy a (lifetime?) service that tracks and stores your data
- zphds 12y ago
  I ended up buying a pebble instead for this reason. Has a pedometer in addition to customisable watch faces and apps. Also, a great conversation starter :).
- frankdenbow 12y ago
  They also announced the UP Move which is $50 http://jawbone.com/store/buy/upmove http://jawbone.com/store/buy/upmove
bobbles 12y ago
"Coming Soon" Snore Does anyone think people will care enough to 'check' when they can get one? just announce a date, and if you can't announce a date, don't announce it...
- rickyc091 12y ago
  The marketing was probably put out in response to the Microsoft Band. I've been looking to replace my Jawbone band for quite a bit of time now, but I was waiting to see what Jawbone would release. If they didn't release any news, I would have definitely jumped on to the Microsoft Band. Not announcing a date also works to their benefit since news outlets will put out another PSA when they announce the date.
dguaraglia 12y ago
The "See full list of compatible devices" link leads to a page that doesn't list the device... so basically I'm still wondering what devices it'll be compatible with.
- dguaraglia 12y ago
  This comment was downvoted for some reason. I don't know who I offended by providing an unbiased, informative comment that could've saved some marketing critter a headache down the road, but whatever.
BinaryIdiot 12y ago
Every time I think I'm going to try a Jawbone product that isn't a headset I look at reviews and see far too many people complaining about how horrible their software is. Is their software really this bad and if so are they ever going to fix it?
- jdoss 12y ago
  Their software is pretty awful but over time it has gotten some what better with my UP24. My biggest issue is the battery drain it causes on Android Devices. Why it is uploading at random, who knows. Why not be able to set times on when it uploads? I really don't need to know my current progress unless I open the app.
- abbot2 12y ago
  I've been using Jawbone 24, and after it broke down (button stopped working) decided to switch to Fitbit Flex (thought, software will be better). I've been using both devices with Android phone. Its terrible for either of them. In fact, Fitbit one has even more critical quirks than Jawbone (e.g. unreliable alarm synchronization). Hardware is great for both devices. Software is just pure disaster.
- rickyc091 12y ago
  Jawbone has always been more of a hardware company to me. The issue with the software is that it's not up to par with competitor's software. FitBit, Withings, Garmin all have amazing web dashboards along with a mobile app. Jawbone? Mobile app only... I don't foresee them improving their software in this sense since they've mostly bought companies thus far to fix their software. The food tracker software is a lot better than when it first started. People have been asking Jawbone to make a web interface for years now, and to date it's still not available. Basically they are focused on product, design and big data. That's where the money is at anyways.
- lepht 12y ago
  I own the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit Flex, and Jawbone UP24, and actually choose to use the Jawbone because of the software. I prefer the UI for food tracking, and find that the "smart insights" stuff is great on the Jawbone, showing correlations between mood/activity/sleep/food, etc.
Void_ 12y ago
Are there any other heart-rate monitoring devices? So far I've counted 4: - Microsoft Band / $200 (available) - Basis Peak / $200 (November) - Jawbone UP3 / $180 (soon.. probably before Christmas) - Apple Watch / $350 (2015..)
- chatman 12y ago
  Ordering the Microsoft Band. Period. That's the best!
  - Void_ 12y ago
    Have you tried it on? From the reviews it doesn't seem to be very comfortable.
    - nilkn 12y ago
      Agreed. It seems to have everything, but at the cost of being very bulky and uncomfortable. At first I thought the Microsoft Band was going to be an iPod moment for Microsoft, but I really don't think so anymore. After trying on a Moto 360 at a Best Buy, I realized how much more comfortable it is for all-day usage. Frankly the technology is just not there right now for a true smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrid.
- bergie 12y ago
  Quite a few of the Android Wear devices do this as well...
- lhl 12y ago
  The Fitbit Surge is coming out early 2015. Many Android Wear devices have optical HR (although accuracy is usually low). There's also the Adidas Smart Run, TomTom Cardio, and Mio Fuse/Alpha 2 on the sports world size. (they all use a Mio sensor AFAIK) These are just the standalone optical HR sensor devices off the top of my head, there are tons of ANT+/BT Smart accessory devices.
- andrewjkerr 12y ago
  My Moto360 monitors heart-rate and I'm fairly certain other Android Wear devices do too.
chatman 12y ago
> "Our built in accelerator accurately counts your steps no matter where you go..." No GPS makes it an inferior device than Microsoft Band.
lhl 12y ago
One thing to note is that while Jawbone has a nice API[1] and summary data export, there isn't a way to access device/raw data. There does appear to be some reversing of undocumented API calls that provide some better resolution, although I don't know how up to date that is: http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/ http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/ [1] https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints
- nythrowa 12y ago
  If you sign into the Jawbone website you can download .csv files for each year you had the device.
  - lhl 12y ago
    Summary, not detailed data, however. Did a bit more looking into it and here's an updated post on the reversed api: https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api-updates/ https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api-updates/
ajolly 12y ago
I wish one of the new activity monitors would give me HRV data, not just heart rate.
- TomAnthony 12y ago
  What does HRV (heart rate variability) data allow you learn? I'm guessing medical insights of some sort, but what exactly?
  - gadders 12y ago
    Recovery from previous sessions - http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart-rate-variability-training http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart-rate-variability-trai...
charlie_vill 12y ago
I've always been a fan of Jawbone for it's design centric approach. Their UP and UP24 are both eye catchening and intriguing. But I'm afraid their new UP3 is a bit dissapointing, not to mention the price tag. Perhaps they rushed development to catch up with other players entering the market? Am I the only one here? It's pretty terrible. Also, the puffery: The most advanced activity tracker known to man, UP3™ is packed with state-of-the-art sensors that give you the full picture of your health. Someone in the marketing department should go back to the basics, we are now much more educated consumers and we don't fall for these cute bold statements anymore. Plus let's face it, we'll soon be inbetween an Apple Watch or Moto 360, especially when these reach the $200-$250 price range in a couple of years. Thinking out loud here.
CmonDev 12y ago
Does not even support Windows Phone. Too little too late.
- theg2 12y ago
  I've looked at Jawbone for 2 years but their lack of Windows Phone support will prevent me from ever buying one.
charlie_vill 12y ago
I think this paints a better picture of the product: http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3 http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3
thanatropism 12y ago
I have a Jawbone UP, the first iteration that requires you to plug into your phone audio jack to sync. That itself isn't a problem. It's probably part of the recipe for awesome, week-plus battery lives. But the band itself, while fitting fine on my wrist when brand new, started to degrade quickly. To be clear: the electronics are fine. The rubber enclosure seems to have expanded up to the point where the button was completely covered by it. Upon "folding" the end so one could access the button, the rubber continued to extend, etc. Finally, maybe eight months in, the button snapped out. I can't use a lot of the functions of the band now, such as exercise/run tracking; I can't even tell it _when_ I'm going to bed, although the app still auto-discovers when I was sleeping. When the band starts to vibrate (unless it's my half-hour inactivity buzz), you can either stick with it for two solid minutes or plug it into the app. The main reason I still wear it is that the motion-aware/light sleep estimate-cognizant wake-up alarm is the only way to live. It's the snooze button rebooted: rather than waking up to hit a button and then enjoying some more light sleep, the band will just wake you up when you're already semi-awake. TL;DR: this band broke down very soon after purchase but even as it does a fraction of its original functions it's really really cool.
- lepht 12y ago
  I own the UP24, which uses bluetooth and still manages a full two week battery life (with the latest firmware.) I had the exact same experience with the 24 and the rubber enclosure warping. It's very disappointing that Jawbone has such hardware quality issues, as I vastly prefer its software to that of my FuelBand and Fitbit.
- robert_tweed 12y ago
  > plug into your phone audio jack to sync Wait a sec, are you saying it uses a software modem to communicate over the audio jack, or am I misunderstanding? That seems oddly cool, if true.
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    Hmmm, can we call that a modem? Maybe? Anyway it seems similar to all those credit card readers. https://squareup.com/reader https://squareup.com/reader
dcalacci 12y ago
The thing that sets Jawbone apart from other health wearables companies is how much Jawbone has embraced the idea of providing insights to its customers. The next iteration of these devices (Basis Peak, Jawbone up3, whatever fitbit comes up with) will no longer be just about quantifying your physical life. With more data comes an increased ability to make inferences about your behavioral patterns, and that's going to be the killer feature of the future. The first company that actively tries to answer how to instigate real behavioral change in its users through notifications, insights, and other motivational tools will be the first to make fitness wearables ubiquitous devices. Of course, the band has to be actually _wearable_, too. Jawbone is doing both of these things, faster than the competition. Basis is _just_ starting to try and do insight work, after years of perfecting their sensor infrastructure. Fitbit is a toy in comparison, and afaik they haven't even touched doing inference work on small individual user data. The insights I get from Jawbone now suck, but they're doing those with _just my steps and sleep_. Who knows what will become apparent with my heart rate and automatic activity identification.
- kolanos 12y ago
  As a former Basis engineer, we were doing "insights" almost three years ago. In terms of biometrics, I don't think anyone comes close to Basis.

38 points by usaphp 12y ago

kolev 12y ago

Bold claims... but Microsoft Band or Basis Peak seem more advanced.

iM8t 12y ago
Basis Peak does look much more advanced, but I wouldn't say that it has many more features that other bands don't have. In my opinion, the bigest factor for it is the design (both site and product). It just looks a little less futuristic and as something that regular people could actually use on a day-to-day basis.
- Void_ 12y ago
  Yeah, from all these devices, this one seems the most fit for 24/7 wear, if you want to track sleep. Also it looks like just a bracelet, so you can wear it on right hand, and still wear a watch.
Andrenid 12y ago
Yeah I'm not sure how they can have this on the front page: > The world's most advanced tracker. > The most advanced activity tracker known to man When it obviously has less features than some of the competition. Eg no GPS for one.

gregr401 12y ago

Wait, it does NFC based payments as well? Huh? Details are buried in the FAQs, mentions it supports AMEX only. There are some duplicate FAQs as well, wonder if that was not ready for prime time (though NFC is listed under the available sensors).

borski 12y ago
Where?
anthonys 12y ago
I saw that too. They must have been trying to save that one for later!

rtpg 12y ago

I'm still so confused as to why any of these pedometers cost so much. I'm really interested in picking one up, but the price is pretty prohibitive for something whose value-add I can't really judge ahead of time

wwwhizz 12y ago
Multiple reasons: - Because they can. People are willing to pay this much for this product. - It takes a lot of research and development costs, which have to be included - You also buy a (lifetime?) service that tracks and stores your data
zphds 12y ago
I ended up buying a pebble instead for this reason. Has a pedometer in addition to customisable watch faces and apps. Also, a great conversation starter :).
frankdenbow 12y ago
They also announced the UP Move which is $50 http://jawbone.com/store/buy/upmove http://jawbone.com/store/buy/upmove

bobbles 12y ago

"Coming Soon" Snore Does anyone think people will care enough to 'check' when they can get one? just announce a date, and if you can't announce a date, don't announce it...

rickyc091 12y ago
The marketing was probably put out in response to the Microsoft Band. I've been looking to replace my Jawbone band for quite a bit of time now, but I was waiting to see what Jawbone would release. If they didn't release any news, I would have definitely jumped on to the Microsoft Band. Not announcing a date also works to their benefit since news outlets will put out another PSA when they announce the date.

dguaraglia 12y ago

The "See full list of compatible devices" link leads to a page that doesn't list the device... so basically I'm still wondering what devices it'll be compatible with.

dguaraglia 12y ago
This comment was downvoted for some reason. I don't know who I offended by providing an unbiased, informative comment that could've saved some marketing critter a headache down the road, but whatever.

BinaryIdiot 12y ago

Every time I think I'm going to try a Jawbone product that isn't a headset I look at reviews and see far too many people complaining about how horrible their software is. Is their software really this bad and if so are they ever going to fix it?

jdoss 12y ago
Their software is pretty awful but over time it has gotten some what better with my UP24. My biggest issue is the battery drain it causes on Android Devices. Why it is uploading at random, who knows. Why not be able to set times on when it uploads? I really don't need to know my current progress unless I open the app.
abbot2 12y ago
I've been using Jawbone 24, and after it broke down (button stopped working) decided to switch to Fitbit Flex (thought, software will be better). I've been using both devices with Android phone. Its terrible for either of them. In fact, Fitbit one has even more critical quirks than Jawbone (e.g. unreliable alarm synchronization). Hardware is great for both devices. Software is just pure disaster.
rickyc091 12y ago
Jawbone has always been more of a hardware company to me. The issue with the software is that it's not up to par with competitor's software. FitBit, Withings, Garmin all have amazing web dashboards along with a mobile app. Jawbone? Mobile app only... I don't foresee them improving their software in this sense since they've mostly bought companies thus far to fix their software. The food tracker software is a lot better than when it first started. People have been asking Jawbone to make a web interface for years now, and to date it's still not available. Basically they are focused on product, design and big data. That's where the money is at anyways.
lepht 12y ago
I own the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit Flex, and Jawbone UP24, and actually choose to use the Jawbone because of the software. I prefer the UI for food tracking, and find that the "smart insights" stuff is great on the Jawbone, showing correlations between mood/activity/sleep/food, etc.

Void_ 12y ago

Are there any other heart-rate monitoring devices? So far I've counted 4: - Microsoft Band / $200 (available) - Basis Peak / $200 (November) - Jawbone UP3 / $180 (soon.. probably before Christmas) - Apple Watch / $350 (2015..)

chatman 12y ago
Ordering the Microsoft Band. Period. That's the best!
- Void_ 12y ago
  Have you tried it on? From the reviews it doesn't seem to be very comfortable.
  - nilkn 12y ago
    Agreed. It seems to have everything, but at the cost of being very bulky and uncomfortable. At first I thought the Microsoft Band was going to be an iPod moment for Microsoft, but I really don't think so anymore. After trying on a Moto 360 at a Best Buy, I realized how much more comfortable it is for all-day usage. Frankly the technology is just not there right now for a true smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrid.
bergie 12y ago
Quite a few of the Android Wear devices do this as well...
lhl 12y ago
The Fitbit Surge is coming out early 2015. Many Android Wear devices have optical HR (although accuracy is usually low). There's also the Adidas Smart Run, TomTom Cardio, and Mio Fuse/Alpha 2 on the sports world size. (they all use a Mio sensor AFAIK) These are just the standalone optical HR sensor devices off the top of my head, there are tons of ANT+/BT Smart accessory devices.
andrewjkerr 12y ago
My Moto360 monitors heart-rate and I'm fairly certain other Android Wear devices do too.

chatman 12y ago

> "Our built in accelerator accurately counts your steps no matter where you go..." No GPS makes it an inferior device than Microsoft Band.

lhl 12y ago

One thing to note is that while Jawbone has a nice API[1] and summary data export, there isn't a way to access device/raw data. There does appear to be some reversing of undocumented API calls that provide some better resolution, although I don't know how up to date that is: http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/ http://eric-blue.com/projects/up-api/ [1] https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints https://jawbone.com/up/developer/endpoints

nythrowa 12y ago
If you sign into the Jawbone website you can download .csv files for each year you had the device.
- lhl 12y ago
  Summary, not detailed data, however. Did a bit more looking into it and here's an updated post on the reversed api: https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api-updates/ https://niklaslindblad.se/2013/07/jawbone-up-api-updates/

ajolly 12y ago

I wish one of the new activity monitors would give me HRV data, not just heart rate.

TomAnthony 12y ago
What does HRV (heart rate variability) data allow you learn? I'm guessing medical insights of some sort, but what exactly?
- gadders 12y ago
  Recovery from previous sessions - http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart-rate-variability-training http://www.t-nation.com/training/heart-rate-variability-trai...

charlie_vill 12y ago

I've always been a fan of Jawbone for it's design centric approach. Their UP and UP24 are both eye catchening and intriguing. But I'm afraid their new UP3 is a bit dissapointing, not to mention the price tag. Perhaps they rushed development to catch up with other players entering the market? Am I the only one here? It's pretty terrible. Also, the puffery: The most advanced activity tracker known to man, UP3™ is packed with state-of-the-art sensors that give you the full picture of your health. Someone in the marketing department should go back to the basics, we are now much more educated consumers and we don't fall for these cute bold statements anymore. Plus let's face it, we'll soon be inbetween an Apple Watch or Moto 360, especially when these reach the $200-$250 price range in a couple of years. Thinking out loud here.

CmonDev 12y ago

Does not even support Windows Phone. Too little too late.

theg2 12y ago
I've looked at Jawbone for 2 years but their lack of Windows Phone support will prevent me from ever buying one.

charlie_vill 12y ago

I think this paints a better picture of the product: http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3 http://www.fuseproject.com/work/jawbone/up3

thanatropism 12y ago

I have a Jawbone UP, the first iteration that requires you to plug into your phone audio jack to sync. That itself isn't a problem. It's probably part of the recipe for awesome, week-plus battery lives. But the band itself, while fitting fine on my wrist when brand new, started to degrade quickly. To be clear: the electronics are fine. The rubber enclosure seems to have expanded up to the point where the button was completely covered by it. Upon "folding" the end so one could access the button, the rubber continued to extend, etc. Finally, maybe eight months in, the button snapped out. I can't use a lot of the functions of the band now, such as exercise/run tracking; I can't even tell it _when_ I'm going to bed, although the app still auto-discovers when I was sleeping. When the band starts to vibrate (unless it's my half-hour inactivity buzz), you can either stick with it for two solid minutes or plug it into the app. The main reason I still wear it is that the motion-aware/light sleep estimate-cognizant wake-up alarm is the only way to live. It's the snooze button rebooted: rather than waking up to hit a button and then enjoying some more light sleep, the band will just wake you up when you're already semi-awake. TL;DR: this band broke down very soon after purchase but even as it does a fraction of its original functions it's really really cool.

lepht 12y ago
I own the UP24, which uses bluetooth and still manages a full two week battery life (with the latest firmware.) I had the exact same experience with the 24 and the rubber enclosure warping. It's very disappointing that Jawbone has such hardware quality issues, as I vastly prefer its software to that of my FuelBand and Fitbit.
robert_tweed 12y ago
> plug into your phone audio jack to sync Wait a sec, are you saying it uses a software modem to communicate over the audio jack, or am I misunderstanding? That seems oddly cool, if true.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Hmmm, can we call that a modem? Maybe? Anyway it seems similar to all those credit card readers. https://squareup.com/reader https://squareup.com/reader

dcalacci 12y ago

The thing that sets Jawbone apart from other health wearables companies is how much Jawbone has embraced the idea of providing insights to its customers. The next iteration of these devices (Basis Peak, Jawbone up3, whatever fitbit comes up with) will no longer be just about quantifying your physical life. With more data comes an increased ability to make inferences about your behavioral patterns, and that's going to be the killer feature of the future. The first company that actively tries to answer how to instigate real behavioral change in its users through notifications, insights, and other motivational tools will be the first to make fitness wearables ubiquitous devices. Of course, the band has to be actually _wearable_, too. Jawbone is doing both of these things, faster than the competition. Basis is _just_ starting to try and do insight work, after years of perfecting their sensor infrastructure. Fitbit is a toy in comparison, and afaik they haven't even touched doing inference work on small individual user data. The insights I get from Jawbone now suck, but they're doing those with _just my steps and sleep_. Who knows what will become apparent with my heart rate and automatic activity identification.

kolanos 12y ago
As a former Basis engineer, we were doing "insights" almost three years ago. In terms of biometrics, I don't think anyone comes close to Basis.