The exercise band/pedometer/calorie-counter market is growing and growing, and Jawbone’s first foray into the market created quite a stir. Much is the pity it was for the wrong reasons. Due to design faults, Jawbone, better known for their speakers and headsets, recalled the first model after a short time on the market. Their new and improved version of the UP is finally ready for release. When paired with the appropriate app, it’s capable of collecting personal data such as sleep patterns, food intake and calories burned (including the ability to scan in food barcodes), and it gives you an insight into your daily habits and how to improve them.
Available in 8 colours, the water resistant wrist band is meant to be worn 24/7 . Currently there’s only an iOS app available, with an Android version coming soon. Pricing is $129.99 from Jawbone’s store and estimated shipping is December 18, 2012.
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The 2nd gen UP bands are also available at Apple B&M stores. I saw some last week.
It sounds like an interesting product… Has it been successful in getting people to exercise?
I do my exercises everyday and made it into a habit. Is there any social network type thinky on the app? Sometimes that can help people stay focused on their goals…
I was an original adopter of the first UP buying it from the company pre-release. After it broke it took me 10 MONTHS and multiple broken “4 to 6 week and you will get your refund” promises to finally get my refund. I opted for the store credit but what they did not tell me was that the credit was, “…One-time use credit good for only one transaction. Unused portion of credit will be forfeited. Valid for 6 months. Excludes limited edition and other selected products. Cannot be combined with other offers or promotions.”
So while any Joe can now get $50 off a Jambox, not me, and I bought the original UP pre-release from the company.
Buyer beware!
You might want to wait a year to see if the new UP really works and then buy from a big store with a strong return policy so if it breaks you will not have to deal with Jawbone directly.
I am an owner of both the first and second generation UP band. The first generation band definitely had numerous issues and I personally went through about 10 of them until they offered the second band that I received free of cost. Visually the UP 2 band looks the same but the internals have been re-done and I have yet to have any issues that I experienced from the first but time will tell if it is actually stable. In response to Bob’s question the app does have a social portion integrated into it and the band/app does help motivate you to work out knowing exactly what you have done and how much more you have to go, we’ll see how long the motivation last’s for. Jawbone’s customer support can go either way depending on who you are speaking with, I have had both horrible experiences with them as well as pleasant but I will say they can do a much better job on the customer service side.