If you haven’t heard of it, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Quantified Self, a growing trend that seeks to utilize technology to give us better insight into our health, mood, and state of mind. The purpose of technologies like this isn’t to dictate how you live, but to better make you aware of your unique characteristics and nutritional needs. No two persons are built the same, and technology always finds ways to highlight facets we tend to overlook.
The UP launched late last night with much fanfare from an excited Twitter fan-base, an excellent introductory post from The Verge, and shortly after Kara Swisher, whom published an interview with its creators. Shaky cam! The UP certainly isn’t the newest contestant in the field; The Fitbit is a trick pedometer that nudges wearers to be more active, while Basis is a customizable watch module that tracks everything from body temperature to perspiration. Practical for many, Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale and Blood Pressure Monitor quantify and automate data metrics we’re already used to looking at. Websites like Fitocracy aim to gamify our health, creating social challenges that open up avenues of online collaboration and motivation with peers. Being healthy is a big avenue of interest for new startups and consumer alike.
UP lies somewhere in the middle, and is the first health offering from a company known for their prowess in Bluetooth and lifestyle accessories. They make the JAMBOX which we’re big fans of, and many of their videos were produced by Adam Lisagor, who we’re also big fans of. Jawbone is tastefully hip, and you can’t help but admire a company that can turn headsets into jewelry.
Such was the goal with the UP band and app, a hardware and smartphone app combination that integrates into your lifestyle. The bracelet hugs your wrist, occasionally notifying you to stretch your legs when you’ve been distracted by the sedentary lifestyle of office work or television, and the smartphone app tracks what you’ve been eating and relays information gathered about well you’ve slept or how active you’ve generally been. Waterproof, sweat proof, and wearable 24/7, UP is designed to be as unobtrusive as your smartphone, a daily companion that you don’t think about taking with you. With gadgets like the Fitbit, you risk losing the health pedometer in your pants pocket or the washing machine. The UP is simple: you just wear it.
Unlike most health products, the UP is exceptionally fashionable. Designed in part by Yves Béhar, it was recognized that something you wear all day should be attractive, reasonable, and materially comfortable. UP excels in all three categories. It’s jewelry you want to show off, whose interface was reduced to a single button at one end of the band, and is made of soft hypoallergenic rubber and not plastic. Like the JAMBOX, the UP is a product that will just feel good in the hands — it’s something to be excited about for its industrial design alone. “In fact, comfort will improve over time, as the spring steel core conforms to the wrist as it is being used.” Incredible. You can read about all the design intentions on the fuseproject blog.
The UP’s areas of focus revolve around your activity, your sleep, and what you eat. Throughout the day, the UP will remind you to get up and take a breath of fresh air, based upon your preferences about how often you want to be bothered. The UP can be programmed to notify you only during certain hours of the day, and you can set specific intervals for how often you want an Activity Reminder. Behavior would seem to replicate the ideologies of the Pomodoro Technique, where bursts of work, concentration, and focus are broken up by breaks to keep you motivated. And in Jawbone’s case, they want to keep you healthy.
The nutritional aspect on the software side is what I’m most curious about, as it seems like a compelling way to push wearers towards healthier diets without being strictly numbers based. Instead of counting calories or requiring you to enter other numerical data, you simply take a picture of what you’re eating. Later, UP will ask you how feel, making you better aware of what foods or how they’re prepared have an effect on your body. While it’s obvious that a greasy cheeseburger is no good, it’s the things like biscuits, bagels, breads, sides, and other items you don’t think about that could be having a negative impact. Food affects everything from your mood to your well being, and while eating healthy is generally a goal, taking a picture and following up on based on your body’s response is a swell idea. The presumption is that your body reacts positively to healthy food choices, and thus calorie counting isn’t needed.
Lastly, UP is designed to help put your quality of sleep into detail, allowing for the discovery of what’s causing a bad nights rest, or helping you get more sleep from a sleep deprived lifestyle. UP measures your nocturnal movements to quantify this data, and helps you gently wake up in the morning. UP doesn’t wake you up automatically, but rather allows you to set a general time when you’d like to be woken up. In that period, the UP will determine when it’s best to start waking you based on your sleep cycle. This way, the Smart Alarm’s approach won’t unintentionally wake you up in the middle of the night. Another benefit is that you don’t have to disturb your sleeping partner with a blaring alarm, as the UP band gently vibrates on your wrist. This feature alone will appeal to many.
All of this data about you, by default kept private, can be shared in ways that allow you to compete with friends, coworkers, and family in Jawbone’s UP community. You and a friend can compare data (like how many steps you’ve walked today) and give each other the push to live healthier. Online challenges via the app help you meet goals and subtly nudge you towards new, healthier habits and eating choices.
The band itself, to be worn 24/7, lasts for ten days on battery and only requires a couple hours to fully charge. Like an iPod shuffle, the UP charges via a TRRS connector (a 3.5 mm plug) that jacks into the headphone port of your iPhone, iPad, or 4th gen iPod touch. UP will be available for Android later, but initially it’s an iOS only launch. GPS functionality can be best taken advantage of with an iPhone, and will be limited with iPods and non–3G iPads. Similar to Nike+, you can track a run thanks to the combination of GPS in your smartphone and Motion X accelerometers in the band (which Jawbone acknowledges as a Motion X engine).
The UP is initially available for pre-order in Black, Blue, Silver, and Red, and will soon be available in White, Dark Red, and Brown for $99. The UP comes in three sizes: Small for 14 - 15.50 cm, Medium for 15.50 - 18 cm, and Large for 18 - 20 cm wide wrists, weighing 19, 21, and 23 grams respectively. On Sunday in the United States, you’ll be able to find UP in stores at AT&T, Apple retail stores, Best Buy, and Target. Jawbone says that it will be available internationally soon. (It looks like AT&T stores will have limited edition cardboard packing vs. jewel cases thanks to some early pictures from HalfPeeledApple.)
Between new Kindles, a new iPhone 4S, and the UP, we think this holiday season has offered up a ton of great gadgets that fits into all of our lifestyles. I’m especially looking forward to the UP, as Jawbone is challenging traditional thoughts on health monitoring with not a fitness device, but a health accessory that compliments your personal attire while offering simple advice on how to make subtle health changes that will add up to something genuinely more positive over time. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on one, and can’t wait to share our experience with it soon. To learn more, we recommend you check out the UP band at Jawbone.com.
