Jawbone UP Fitness Bracelet: why is this a thing, how does it change to a new one and why will I buy it again
Prior to this year, I sincerely believed that fitness bracelets are a whim. Well, what, sorry, fool will give almost 4,500 rubles for a piece of electronics that will hang on your hand for 24 hours and build some kind of graphics? Who needs it? I am an engineer with a higher technical education (as well as a sedentary lifestyle and an emerging stomach), which I do not know about myself? However, now, after 7.5 months of use, I very little imagine life without a bracelet. Moreover, not just a fitness bracelet, namely, Jawbone UP .
A couple of months ago, ivansychev described an older model Jawbone UP24 with wireless sync. I would like to write exactly about the long-term personal experience of using the bracelet, about why he does not have an alternative, about how to “repair” it (I specifically take this word in quotes) and why it should be bought in the States.
The first and most important thing you need to know about the Jawbone UP bracelet and fitness bracelets in general - they are not for athletes . Once again: neither professional athletes nor active sports fans need them. The main audience of these gadgets - people who want to move more and feel better. Looking ahead, I can say that having made 12,000 steps a day (and this is really a bit), I automatically got into 20% of the most active users. This means that the remaining 80% move less. And to make them move is the purpose of the bracelet.
')
Now back, sorry to me. My wife, as befits a favorite companion of the IT person, also reads computer publications. Therefore, when on thematic resources began to make all sorts of tops gifts for the new year, chose a bracelet Jawbone Up. Actually, the choice was between Fitbit and Jawbone, but UP offered a smart alarm clock, and she bought it.
Bought in the states (as it turned out in the future, the most reasonable choice). Delivered through Shopozz (then still in the zone ru), because the timing was important and it was important not to screw it up with New Year's gifts. And since they combined several packages into one at once, it turned out that I did not know anything about the purchase. The package arrived about 10 days in advance, which was very cool for a provincial city, even a millionth. After that, the gift safely migrated under the Christmas tree, where it was found on January 1st. Since then, I have not taken it off.
My travel kit
What is a Jawbone UP: a small bracelet, filled in rubber. On the one hand, it has aneon button for switching modes and a status indicator, on the other, a cap with a cap for charging and synchronization. You can lose the cap once, but more on that later.
What a bracelet can do: the first thing they write about most often is the count of the steps taken in a day. According to WHO recommendations, a person should walk about 10 thousand steps daily. In total, if you walk at least an hour a day, you can easily complete this task. Before buying a bracelet, I sincerely believed that somewhere so much and walk. As it turned out - nothing like that. Therefore, if I did not get the daily rate, I would be happy to fulfill my wife's evening request to go for milk. Let me explain why with pleasure - the fact is that this is gamification, i.e. giving important things a playful form, makes you persistently do what you are reluctant to do. A classic example is character pumping in some RPG. It seems like boring, but doing with interest. So it is here.
Every day, you merge the data from the bracelet into the phone and the corporate application draws you beautiful statistics. Here, in fact, lies three ambushes:
First: I have purchased a version of Jawbone Up, which is synchronized through the microphone jack. Those. You need to remove the bracelet every day, stick it into the headphone jack and synchronize. At the time of purchase, the UP24 model already existed, synchronizing over the air under Android, but in December last year, the application worked only on iOS. Therefore, we bought a simple UP. For this reason, it is impossible to quickly find out whether you have passed the required kilometers or not. You need to synchronize again manually. But my bracelet lives for three days longer than UP24.
Ambush two: the Android application works worse than under iOS. Firstly, it is not so beautiful (I know, so-so argument). Secondly, even now, when UP24 is synchronized over the air with Android, a small number of models with Android 4.3 are supported (see the full list here ). Even when synchronizing on headphones, there are slightly more problems than with iOS. Many Android for some reason resets the sound level in the application, and because of this, the bracelet is not detected. It is treated by simply adding sound to the maximum, but it is a bit annoying.
Therefore, iOS and the UP24 version will be preferable to someone.
Ambush three: the statistics does not work without the Internet. Those. the data, before being displayed on the screen, fly away to the cloud and only then, from there, are displayed on the screen.
In addition to counting steps, the bracelet has a function of reminding you about immobility. You set a period of immobility, after which the bracelet vibrates and reminds you that it would be nice to stretch your legs. Very, you know, useful. I set the timer for 45 minutes and, although I did not move more than 5 minutes at every break, at the end of the day I was not tired as much as before.
In some sections of the application can not make screenshots. Neither standard nor through ADB. So I had to take pictures "in the old manner"
This is with regard to steps and movements in general. As you can see, so far nothing unique and what competitors would not know how, including the new Android Wear watch. And now, for the sake of what I would not trade this bracelet for anything else. It…
Sleep
For a start, quote from Bash:
I have a similar situation. When I leave for work, my wife and son are still asleep. Therefore, the version with the usual sound alarm is not an option at all. Here a vibrating alarm built into the bracelet saves. But the usual built-in alarm clock would not be a killer feature, if not for the main feature, which the competitors do not have. The fact is that Jawbone UP is able to determine the phases of sleep and wake up precisely when your brain switches from the phase of deep sleep to the phase of the lung. It is at this moment that it is easy and pleasant to get up, unlike the “better shoot” feeling when you wake up in the deep sleep phase.
I first tried this method when I used the Sleep As Android application. I put the phone under the pillow and woke up easily in the right phase. That was until I waved my phone on the floor in a dream, as a result of which I smashed the screen to hell (but I slept ). Then, further experiments had to be abandoned, but I made positive conclusions.
Now, when I had a jawbone Up, it became comfortable to get up again. Since it is not always possible to get enough sleep with a small child, it became very important to get up rested. It is also important when you need to go somewhere on a business trip early in the morning: even if you slept only 4-5 hours, but you woke up with a cucumber, and while your zombie colleagues are trying to figure something out, you are energizing. Of course, fatigue will catch up with you in a few hours, but, as a rule, they are enough to get to the airport, get through to control, sit down in an airplane and quietly fall asleep in a chair. Colleagues, as a rule, only just disperse their consciousness with coffee and other drinks, as a result of which they cannot sleep in an airplane.
The second useful feature of the bracelet is the “restorative sleep” function. Imagine that you have 30-40 minutes to "pokemarit". In this case, it is also important to wake up in the right phase. I used to use daytime sleep at the weekend to have time to sleep off before work. And it seems like you sleep for two hours, but you don't always feel cheerful. With the advent of the bracelet, I began to sleep for 30-40 minutes, to receive the same charge of vivacity as from a two-hour sleep, while still having time to do some things of my own. Actually, I just write these lines at the moment when I would have slept before. Moreover, I am sure that when I woke up, I would be crying that I did not sleep much again.
Third: with a bracelet, I reduced the consumption of alcohol. It even became clear that if you bang a bottle of beer in the evening, then you fall asleep, of course, faster, but then the whole night the brain cannot fall into the deep sleep phase and rest. As a result, in the morning "like a light hangover," which is actually explained precisely by the fact that the body did not rest.
Here is an example: on the left I “relaxed” with a beer before bedtime. Total deep sleep: 1.5 hours. And it seems like I slept for a long time (8 hours), but I did not feel myself rested. And on the right, an early rise and departure to the airport. Total sleep: 5.5 hours, deep - 3 hours. Feels relaxed much better than in the first case.
A similar situation is observed during periods of a brain storm, when the brain cannot disconnect from the solution of the problem and stupidly tries to work even at night. So now I try to switch to something else a couple of hours before bedtime. For example, read. As a result, it was because of the alarm that I got hooked on Jawbone Up, and I can’t change it to something else. And sometimes you want to change, because ...
He, the infection, breaks down
At the moment I broke two bracelets. Well, how broke. First I stupidly burned two months later, sticking it into the charger from the tablet. As a result, the battery began to hold a maximum of an hour or two. The manual says that you can charge from any USB port and says nothing about amperage. As it turned out, chargers from tablets and USB3.0 ports for it are disastrous. So only warm-tube USB from a computer with 0.5A. And no more than 60-80 minutes. And it is advisable not to put the battery below 10-15% of the charge.
While I corresponded with the support that, by the way, almost instantly suggests a replacement and the most difficult in communication is to convince to send a replacement to Russia, I tried two classic ways of resuscitation.
- Soft Reset: we connect the bracelet to the charger, hold down the mode-switching button, connect to the computer via USB. After the bracelet starts to flash indicators, stop pressing the button, synchronize with the phone;
- Hard Reset: press the button 10 times. On the tenth press, the button is not released and hold for 15 seconds. At the end of this period, the LED will blink happily. After that, synchronize with the phone.
These standard methods did not help me. The sensations were such that the bracelet simply could not get the normal status from the battery. After a long search, I came across an English-speaking council, which I had never come across before. If you enter the bracelet settings menu (I have the upper left corner in the application), then poke into the name of the bracelet, and then into the recalibration button, the battery status improves slightly.
At least for about a week a bracelet could live at night and wake me up with a vibration. Then he died again and did not react to the calibration. By the way, I disassembled it and I can show it from the inside. This thickening is the brain and the battery.
In the second case, I most likely fell off the train going to the button. So, even despite the nonsense of breakdowns, due to the fact that the bracelet is embedded in rubber, it, alas, is not repairable. Therefore, any solution to the problems is only software.
In the meantime, I managed to convince support that, except in Russia, I cannot get this bracelet anywhere. They agreed with me, and sent a replacement. The new UP flew in 15 days, was a copy of the old, but it had a slightly different pattern on the button. I can not say whether this is more a new revision or an old one, but the second bracelet lasted 5 months. In the end, he stopped pressing the button to go to sleep, and then the indicators went out completely. But the bracelet continues to wake me in the right phase and synchronize with the phone. True, I wear it now only at night, because, I repeat, I can not imagine the rise without him.
Support again almost instantly offered a replacement. The only thing is that in the light of political reasons, she completely refused to send the bracelet to Russia. So I used Shopozz as usual. I'm not sure that such an exchange is possible when buying in Russia (besides, as I wrote above, since Jawbone UP has a cap that is easy to lose, the first replacement of the cap from the bracelet is free. But again, as you understand, not with us) .
Conclusion
My new bracelet is now going through customs. Until the end of the year I am not very worried about his safety, as if something happens, I can exchange it under the guarantee. And what I will do next is a big question, because I don’t see any obvious competitors to Jawbone UP. On the other hand, the performance of the bracelet is, after all, as lucky. My friend's first bracelet has been working for more than a year and a half. A few months ago, he presented UP24 to his girlfriend, and now they are competing in a pair - who will spend the day more (in the application there is an opportunity to team up and monitor each other's progress). Both have no complaints about work. By the way, they also showed me funny recipes for the bracelet on the IFFTT. For example, automatically turn on HUE lights when you wake up. Or automatic switching on the coffee maker and making coffee if you slept for less than 5 hours. This, I think, is very, very cool. So highly and highly recommend.
PS I thank Shopozz for posting this text on my blog.
PPS Jawbone's competitor, Fitbit bracelets, has a program for issuing new bracelets if you suddenly lost your old one. So this again to the question of where to buy.
A couple of months ago, ivansychev described an older model Jawbone UP24 with wireless sync. I would like to write exactly about the long-term personal experience of using the bracelet, about why he does not have an alternative, about how to “repair” it (I specifically take this word in quotes) and why it should be bought in the States.
The first and most important thing you need to know about the Jawbone UP bracelet and fitness bracelets in general - they are not for athletes . Once again: neither professional athletes nor active sports fans need them. The main audience of these gadgets - people who want to move more and feel better. Looking ahead, I can say that having made 12,000 steps a day (and this is really a bit), I automatically got into 20% of the most active users. This means that the remaining 80% move less. And to make them move is the purpose of the bracelet.
')
Now back, sorry to me. My wife, as befits a favorite companion of the IT person, also reads computer publications. Therefore, when on thematic resources began to make all sorts of tops gifts for the new year, chose a bracelet Jawbone Up. Actually, the choice was between Fitbit and Jawbone, but UP offered a smart alarm clock, and she bought it.
Bought in the states (as it turned out in the future, the most reasonable choice). Delivered through Shopozz (then still in the zone ru), because the timing was important and it was important not to screw it up with New Year's gifts. And since they combined several packages into one at once, it turned out that I did not know anything about the purchase. The package arrived about 10 days in advance, which was very cool for a provincial city, even a millionth. After that, the gift safely migrated under the Christmas tree, where it was found on January 1st. Since then, I have not taken it off.
My travel kit
What is a Jawbone UP: a small bracelet, filled in rubber. On the one hand, it has a
What a bracelet can do: the first thing they write about most often is the count of the steps taken in a day. According to WHO recommendations, a person should walk about 10 thousand steps daily. In total, if you walk at least an hour a day, you can easily complete this task. Before buying a bracelet, I sincerely believed that somewhere so much and walk. As it turned out - nothing like that. Therefore, if I did not get the daily rate, I would be happy to fulfill my wife's evening request to go for milk. Let me explain why with pleasure - the fact is that this is gamification, i.e. giving important things a playful form, makes you persistently do what you are reluctant to do. A classic example is character pumping in some RPG. It seems like boring, but doing with interest. So it is here.
Every day, you merge the data from the bracelet into the phone and the corporate application draws you beautiful statistics. Here, in fact, lies three ambushes:
First: I have purchased a version of Jawbone Up, which is synchronized through the microphone jack. Those. You need to remove the bracelet every day, stick it into the headphone jack and synchronize. At the time of purchase, the UP24 model already existed, synchronizing over the air under Android, but in December last year, the application worked only on iOS. Therefore, we bought a simple UP. For this reason, it is impossible to quickly find out whether you have passed the required kilometers or not. You need to synchronize again manually. But my bracelet lives for three days longer than UP24.
Ambush two: the Android application works worse than under iOS. Firstly, it is not so beautiful (I know, so-so argument). Secondly, even now, when UP24 is synchronized over the air with Android, a small number of models with Android 4.3 are supported (see the full list here ). Even when synchronizing on headphones, there are slightly more problems than with iOS. Many Android for some reason resets the sound level in the application, and because of this, the bracelet is not detected. It is treated by simply adding sound to the maximum, but it is a bit annoying.
Therefore, iOS and the UP24 version will be preferable to someone.
Ambush three: the statistics does not work without the Internet. Those. the data, before being displayed on the screen, fly away to the cloud and only then, from there, are displayed on the screen.
In addition to counting steps, the bracelet has a function of reminding you about immobility. You set a period of immobility, after which the bracelet vibrates and reminds you that it would be nice to stretch your legs. Very, you know, useful. I set the timer for 45 minutes and, although I did not move more than 5 minutes at every break, at the end of the day I was not tired as much as before.
In some sections of the application can not make screenshots. Neither standard nor through ADB. So I had to take pictures "in the old manner"
This is with regard to steps and movements in general. As you can see, so far nothing unique and what competitors would not know how, including the new Android Wear watch. And now, for the sake of what I would not trade this bracelet for anything else. It…
Sleep
For a start, quote from Bash:
KWIer: and I play games every day ... really, basically the same: stealth mission “How to get out of work in the morning without waking my wife and children” ... and in hard mode: just one attempt, without saving and downloads .: x)
I have a similar situation. When I leave for work, my wife and son are still asleep. Therefore, the version with the usual sound alarm is not an option at all. Here a vibrating alarm built into the bracelet saves. But the usual built-in alarm clock would not be a killer feature, if not for the main feature, which the competitors do not have. The fact is that Jawbone UP is able to determine the phases of sleep and wake up precisely when your brain switches from the phase of deep sleep to the phase of the lung. It is at this moment that it is easy and pleasant to get up, unlike the “better shoot” feeling when you wake up in the deep sleep phase.
I first tried this method when I used the Sleep As Android application. I put the phone under the pillow and woke up easily in the right phase. That was until I waved my phone on the floor in a dream, as a result of which I smashed the screen to hell (
Now, when I had a jawbone Up, it became comfortable to get up again. Since it is not always possible to get enough sleep with a small child, it became very important to get up rested. It is also important when you need to go somewhere on a business trip early in the morning: even if you slept only 4-5 hours, but you woke up with a cucumber, and while your zombie colleagues are trying to figure something out, you are energizing. Of course, fatigue will catch up with you in a few hours, but, as a rule, they are enough to get to the airport, get through to control, sit down in an airplane and quietly fall asleep in a chair. Colleagues, as a rule, only just disperse their consciousness with coffee and other drinks, as a result of which they cannot sleep in an airplane.
The second useful feature of the bracelet is the “restorative sleep” function. Imagine that you have 30-40 minutes to "pokemarit". In this case, it is also important to wake up in the right phase. I used to use daytime sleep at the weekend to have time to sleep off before work. And it seems like you sleep for two hours, but you don't always feel cheerful. With the advent of the bracelet, I began to sleep for 30-40 minutes, to receive the same charge of vivacity as from a two-hour sleep, while still having time to do some things of my own. Actually, I just write these lines at the moment when I would have slept before. Moreover, I am sure that when I woke up, I would be crying that I did not sleep much again.
Third: with a bracelet, I reduced the consumption of alcohol. It even became clear that if you bang a bottle of beer in the evening, then you fall asleep, of course, faster, but then the whole night the brain cannot fall into the deep sleep phase and rest. As a result, in the morning "like a light hangover," which is actually explained precisely by the fact that the body did not rest.
Here is an example: on the left I “relaxed” with a beer before bedtime. Total deep sleep: 1.5 hours. And it seems like I slept for a long time (8 hours), but I did not feel myself rested. And on the right, an early rise and departure to the airport. Total sleep: 5.5 hours, deep - 3 hours. Feels relaxed much better than in the first case.
A similar situation is observed during periods of a brain storm, when the brain cannot disconnect from the solution of the problem and stupidly tries to work even at night. So now I try to switch to something else a couple of hours before bedtime. For example, read. As a result, it was because of the alarm that I got hooked on Jawbone Up, and I can’t change it to something else. And sometimes you want to change, because ...
He, the infection, breaks down
At the moment I broke two bracelets. Well, how broke. First I stupidly burned two months later, sticking it into the charger from the tablet. As a result, the battery began to hold a maximum of an hour or two. The manual says that you can charge from any USB port and says nothing about amperage. As it turned out, chargers from tablets and USB3.0 ports for it are disastrous. So only warm-tube USB from a computer with 0.5A. And no more than 60-80 minutes. And it is advisable not to put the battery below 10-15% of the charge.
While I corresponded with the support that, by the way, almost instantly suggests a replacement and the most difficult in communication is to convince to send a replacement to Russia, I tried two classic ways of resuscitation.
- Soft Reset: we connect the bracelet to the charger, hold down the mode-switching button, connect to the computer via USB. After the bracelet starts to flash indicators, stop pressing the button, synchronize with the phone;
- Hard Reset: press the button 10 times. On the tenth press, the button is not released and hold for 15 seconds. At the end of this period, the LED will blink happily. After that, synchronize with the phone.
These standard methods did not help me. The sensations were such that the bracelet simply could not get the normal status from the battery. After a long search, I came across an English-speaking council, which I had never come across before. If you enter the bracelet settings menu (I have the upper left corner in the application), then poke into the name of the bracelet, and then into the recalibration button, the battery status improves slightly.
At least for about a week a bracelet could live at night and wake me up with a vibration. Then he died again and did not react to the calibration. By the way, I disassembled it and I can show it from the inside. This thickening is the brain and the battery.
In the second case, I most likely fell off the train going to the button. So, even despite the nonsense of breakdowns, due to the fact that the bracelet is embedded in rubber, it, alas, is not repairable. Therefore, any solution to the problems is only software.
In the meantime, I managed to convince support that, except in Russia, I cannot get this bracelet anywhere. They agreed with me, and sent a replacement. The new UP flew in 15 days, was a copy of the old, but it had a slightly different pattern on the button. I can not say whether this is more a new revision or an old one, but the second bracelet lasted 5 months. In the end, he stopped pressing the button to go to sleep, and then the indicators went out completely. But the bracelet continues to wake me in the right phase and synchronize with the phone. True, I wear it now only at night, because, I repeat, I can not imagine the rise without him.
Support again almost instantly offered a replacement. The only thing is that in the light of political reasons, she completely refused to send the bracelet to Russia. So I used Shopozz as usual. I'm not sure that such an exchange is possible when buying in Russia (besides, as I wrote above, since Jawbone UP has a cap that is easy to lose, the first replacement of the cap from the bracelet is free. But again, as you understand, not with us) .
Conclusion
My new bracelet is now going through customs. Until the end of the year I am not very worried about his safety, as if something happens, I can exchange it under the guarantee. And what I will do next is a big question, because I don’t see any obvious competitors to Jawbone UP. On the other hand, the performance of the bracelet is, after all, as lucky. My friend's first bracelet has been working for more than a year and a half. A few months ago, he presented UP24 to his girlfriend, and now they are competing in a pair - who will spend the day more (in the application there is an opportunity to team up and monitor each other's progress). Both have no complaints about work. By the way, they also showed me funny recipes for the bracelet on the IFFTT. For example, automatically turn on HUE lights when you wake up. Or automatic switching on the coffee maker and making coffee if you slept for less than 5 hours. This, I think, is very, very cool. So highly and highly recommend.
PS I thank Shopozz for posting this text on my blog.
PPS Jawbone's competitor, Fitbit bracelets, has a program for issuing new bracelets if you suddenly lost your old one. So this again to the question of where to buy.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/233785/
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