Nunok's Blog: Jawbone Launches the Up: Will This $99 Wristband Rule Your Life?

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Jawbone Launches the Up: Will This $99 Wristband Rule Your Life?

via Mashable! by Chris Taylor on 11/2/11

If Jawbone has its way, you'll soon be wrapping this bendable, waterproof gadget around your wrist, tracking your health with it — and hardly ever taking it off.

The Up, Jawbone's first foray into devices that aren't Bluetooth headsets or speakers, goes on sale Nov. 6 for $99 at all Apple, AT&T, Target and Best Buy stores. It syncs with Jawbone's Up app for iPhone (an Android version is in the works) via an audio jack hidden under that silver cap at the end. (That's my first problem with the device — it has a small removable part. I hope Jawbone has prepared plenty of spares.) It also charges via the audio jack, which you'll need to plug into a USB connector every ten days or so.

What is the wristband tracking, exactly? In short: sleep and exercise. Much like the Lark, which we reviewed back in June, it looks for micro-movements at bedtime and can tell when you've fallen asleep. Like the Lark, it will wake you with gentle vibrations in the morning instead of music or noise, so your partner can go on sleeping. Unlike the Lark, it can track whether you're in light or deep sleep, and will wake you within a certain window of time, when your sleep is at its lightest.

The Up, which Jawbone's CEO first talked about at TED, will also track your movements throughout the day. It'll capture all the little moments of exercise you don't think you're getting, as well as your deliberate workouts. One Up product team member, for example, was surprised to note a half-hour of vigorous walking had been logged during his work day — when he was pacing back and forth during a conference call.

The Up app also encourages you to track your eating habits by taking photos of food. It won't ask you to estimate calories, but it will ask you how you feel a couple of hours after eating. Energetic? Lethargic? Regretful? Tie it together with the exercise and sleep patterns recorded by the app, and you have a comprehensive system for tracking three of your most important health statistics.

Jawbone's real intention is that you'll form social groups around the Up. The app is very much built around the concept of nudging and encouraging your friends and families in goals and mini-challenges. Surprisingly, the company has not integrated the app with Facebook and Twitter just yet, but hopes you'll do all your socializing within the app, even if that means meeting strangers within the challenge sections.

Color me a little skeptical on the social aspect; without integrating the larger networks, it seems Up may have a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't get your friends on it until they buy it, and you may not buy it until your friends are on it.

Still, I have my hot little hands on the product, and I'll be testing it over the next few days. Check back soon for our full review.