21–30 of 57 posts
I had such a negative experience with their jambox, when I was shopping for fitness trackers I wrote them off immediately. Personal devices are a market where quality really matters, and people have long memories for a bad purchase.
I have the slight impression that the fad is wearing out on fitness trackers It most likely will be replaced by "in watch" features or just left in a drawer
I see it as some combined effect that is manifested in GoPro/FitBit stock (i.e. tanking). The reality is that the average person doesn't do any amount of extreme activity such that the step counters provides any additional value. But the lifestyle aspects shown in the ads convinces people that getting one will change their lives.
No trackers and no speakers, what's the left of their business? Nothing?
For Jawbone, Fitbit et al. the hardware has been commoditized, the software has limited utility and the whole 10,000 steps a day seems like a fad. It's incredibly hard to maintain users once the honeymoon period ends. Personally, I'm long on UA, but I still have some lingering doubts about their acquisitions with ConnectedFitness and the their Healthbox or whatever. I'm a pretty competitive triathlete and all of my g…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use my phone as a cycling computer and only need a $50 heart-rate monitor to make it as fully featured as I need.
Sorry for the offtopic, but can you explain a bit more about your setup? Which phone app do you use while cycling? Android or iOS?
I have the slight impression that the fad is wearing out on fitness trackers It most likely will be replaced by "in watch" features or just left in a drawer
I wouldn't necessarily say that the fad has ended. I would say that since fitness trackers were introduced several years ago, early adopters were quick to realize the limitations of them. However with marketing/advertisements, they became more widely visible and available to the main market. A new pool of consumers opened up but came to the same realization of the poor quality and commoditization of step counters/fit…
There is no fad here. These companies are attempting to lay down the pipes for the upcoming sensor and IoT revolutions.
Personal anecdote: I had three Jawbone fitness trackers that stopped working within months. Granted, two of them were replaced by Jawbone, but after a third I stopped bothering. The bracelet design was thin and elegant as opposed to the bulky Fitbits. Inside, jawbone bracelets had several very small PCBs arranged in a row, connected by wires, with a protection layer of epoxy glue or something. The whole construction…
For Jawbone, Fitbit et al. the hardware has been commoditized, the software has limited utility and the whole 10,000 steps a day seems like a fad. It's incredibly hard to maintain users once the honeymoon period ends. Personally, I'm long on UA, but I still have some lingering doubts about their acquisitions with ConnectedFitness and the their Healthbox or whatever. I'm a pretty competitive triathlete and all of my g…
Wondering about the 10k steps. I'm not hitting it everyday, but I feel that if I consistently did, I'd be a fit person with enough activity to be healthy from that angle. How's that a fad? Is there any research showing otherwise?
Of course getting out and walking is good for your health. Keep it up!
I used a FitBit One for many years until I washed it recently and it died. Honestly, I never really looked at the data unless I expected it to be anomalous, even though I religiously carried it with me at all times. I bike 8-10 hours a week, so a few steps aren't really making a health difference for me.
The big thing that annoyed me about FitBit is that Apple has a reasonably useful thing for collecting all your health information on your iPhone, but FitBit refuses to participate (no doubt because it would cost software engineering time and reduce the number of "premium" subscribers).
All-day heart-rate tracking would be interesting, but I already wear a watch and I'm not going to wear a second one. (And I doubt you'll talk me out of wearing my Speedmaster. Maybe Patek makes a fitness-tracking watch :P)
Everything sleep-tracking related has terrible reviews, from my research. I would love to know exactly how much time I spend in bed, but nothing will collect the data for me without buggy apps and overcomplicated made-up analysis and whatnot ("you spend 3.7 minutes in REM" uh huh.)
I'm strongly considering just putting a pressure sensor under one of my bed's legs, connecting it to some WiFi-enabled resistance reader, and using that. It's surprising to me that nobody makes a product in this space that does one thing and does it well. I am also surprised that people like wearing things to bed. Like I'll remember to do that.
For biking, I think I already own every gadget there is. I've seen that there are now muscle oxygenation sensors (presumably for measuring when you're riding at lactate threshold), but the reviews say the devices basically just return random numbers and you might as well use a power meter and do an FTP test every couple months (which is good, but some days I feel like I can ride at my FTP forever, so I wonder how accurate these 20 minute tests are).
All in all it seems like people are interested in collecting data about themselves, so companies are racing to build devices to fill the gap with random numbers :P
Does anyone know if there is a comparable sleep tracking device?