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The Jawbone Up is a popular fitness tracker — a wristband that tracks your sleep and step count, with a companion app that allows you to log additional exercise and keep a food diary if you want. It will hit Australian stores in April.
(Credit: Jawbone)
It’s been out in the US for a while, with an “improved” version released last November — it’s a full redesign addressing the issues that affected its former incarnation.
Jawbone Up might seem like a simple device — a single band with just one button and no display — but it’s remarkably complex. Water resistant and shockproof, the Up is designed to be worn constantly, always collecting activity and rest data. Plug the Up into your phone via, of all things, the headphone jack and it syncs that data with the app, which is available for both iOS and Android.
The battery is reportedly able to handle ten days of use with an 80 minute charge and can store up to three months of data without needing to sync, not that you’re likely to find yourself in a scenario where that happens.
From there, the Jawbone app can parse the collected data for you in a variety of ways, giving you a deeper look at your sleep, diet, and exercise patterns. You’ll even get Insights — nuggets of info that the Up service has collated from your data, such as the fact you may walk more in warmer countries (if you’re a traveller) or that you may sleep faster after a workout.
There’s a few other excellent features, such as a smart alarm that wakes you (via vibrating on your wrist) when your sleep cycle is shallowest, avoiding that “alarm shock” wake up from a deep sleep. Similarly, the Power Nap function detects when you actually go to sleep, and will wake you between 25 and 45 minutes later when your sleep cycle is optimal.
The Jawbone Up will be AU$149.95, and in addition to regular retailers, will be available from Apple Stores, as well as selected Telstra and Optus stores. Initially, the colours available will be mint, blue and black, with a wider selection coming later.
We’ll have a review of the Jawbone Up in the near future.
