Up - A Wristband to Get Your Butt in Shape
Jawbone – the makers of fine bluetooth headsets – have expanded their product line to include Up. Official marketing copy is “Band + App Inspires healthy living.” Great, but what does it do? Quite a lot, actually! Thanks to a bunch of sensors inside this tiny wristband – and a simple iPhone app – it can track your activity and your sleep. It can also help track your eating habits and let you start up challenges with a friend, but I’m more interested in the first two.
Activity
Up can actually tell when you’ve been inactive for a certain period of time and buzz to remind you to get up and move around. Seeing as I sit in front of the computer all day and have tried setting little alarms to do this and failed miserably I’m excited by something that will just know when I need to get up and remind me. Added benefits of this are that it tracks a metric ton of other activity like steps, distance, intensity levels and even GPS so you can literally track how active or lazy you’ve been every day.
Sleep Cycles
Working for yourself means you don’t have to be up at any certain time. Having kids means you do. I have trouble marrying these two things together. Often. I’ve heard about sleep cycle technology for a while, but it never seemed worth it to buy some sort of dedicated equipment and have to remember to put it on, charge it, etc… Needless to say I’m very interested, though. If you don’t know - UP can actually track your deep and light sleep cycles, combine it with how long you want to sleep and wake you up at the right time in your cycle so it doesn’t feel like a truck ran over you. Because when your kids wake you up every morning…it feels like a truck ran over you. Plus it just buzzes so it’s a nice silent alarm.
Logistics
Finally – how does all this work? Well, it’s a waterproof, durable wristband that a cap pops off the end and plugs in to the headphone jack on your iPhone. Then it syncs all the data it’s collected and lets you track/share/etc… Also, it’s battery lasts for 10 days. Also, it’s only $99. I’ll be honest…I’m having trouble coming up with a reason not to get one. Combine price, ease of use, waking me up refreshed and keeping me active – it’s a win/win.
I am cheap though. But it would make a great birthday or Christmas present (hint to wife or family members). If you’re interested go check it out.
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