Jawbone UP Review • Hacker News Board

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#21

Post by nosignal » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 9:19 AM UTC

dekz wrote: post #17

dcreemer wrote: post #16

For a slightly cheaper approach (assuming you already have an iPhone): I have been successfully and pleasantly using "Lose It!" [1] to track all of my food and exercise for about five months now. So far I've lost 20 lbs and 2% body fat. For sleep tracking, I am using Sleep Cycle [2] to measure sleep hours and (most importantly to me) wake me up at a good time. Nike+ [3] on my iPhone tracks my running times, route, di…

Will Sleep cycle pick up my partners movements and wake me up at an inopportune time?

I used it, and I just kept it on my side of the bed, it worked fine. I guess it depends on your mattress, but unless your partner is shifting around enough to wake you I'd say it'd be fine.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#22

Post by nosignal » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 9:35 AM UTC

What's stopping these things from including a heart rate monitor as well? Do we just not have the sensors, or are they just not as cheap as a simple accelerometer? I'd be much more interested in the exercise tracking if it did something besides "steps". Most devices have the same issue as far as I know. If I'm doing an oly lifting workout I don't do very many steps but I sure do a lot of work. I'd love to be able to quantify that.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#23

Post by joeconway » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 2:18 PM UTC

dreeves wrote: post #14

parshap wrote: post #3

This device looks great! The software looks like it could use some work, though. Does anyone know if the data is exportable?

I'm also eager to learn the answer to this, or what kind of options there are to access the data programmatically. (The answer is relevant to my own startup, http://beeminder.com which is a goal-tracking and anti-akrasia service -- you pledge money to force yourself to keep your data points on a "yellow brick road" to your goal. It works especially well when you can automate the data collection with devices like this…

Do your users actually pay you $5 for every time they leave their 'yellow zone'? I'd be much more inclined to do this if it were a much smaller amount of money and donated to a charity of my choice instead

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#24

Post by jordanmessina » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 2:33 PM UTC

kkwok wrote: post #12

How effective is its alarm?

I got mine yesterday and used it last night for the first time as an alarm. It worked as advertised and since it's around the wrist it's really effective at waking you up.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#25

Post by freshrap6 » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 3:31 PM UTC

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #20

dcreemer wrote: post #16

For a slightly cheaper approach (assuming you already have an iPhone): I have been successfully and pleasantly using "Lose It!" [1] to track all of my food and exercise for about five months now. So far I've lost 20 lbs and 2% body fat. For sleep tracking, I am using Sleep Cycle [2] to measure sleep hours and (most importantly to me) wake me up at a good time. Nike+ [3] on my iPhone tracks my running times, route, di…

Excellent suggestions. I had assumed that Nike+ still required you to have Nike+ shoes, but apparently, nowadays it works with the iPhone's GPS. Downloading it now.

You can buy a pouch to hold the sensor onto non-Nike shoes. They usually are no more than a couple bucks. I'm sure there are hacks out there too.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#26

Post by dreeves » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 4:05 PM UTC

joeconway wrote: post #23

dreeves wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also eager to learn the answer to this, or what kind of options there are to access the data programmatically. (The answer is relevant to my own startup, http://beeminder.com which is a goal-tracking and anti-akrasia service -- you pledge money to force yourself to keep your data points on a "yellow brick road" to your goal. It works especially well when you can automate the data collection with devices like this…

Do your users actually pay you $5 for every time they leave their 'yellow zone'? I'd be much more inclined to do this if it were a much smaller amount of money and donated to a charity of my choice instead

They totally do! (Ok, our revenue is just a trickle -- http://beeminder.com/meta/paid -- but it seems like a steady trickle since launching so we're feeling very hopeful!)

We've had a lot of discussions -- for example, http://lesswrong.com/lw/7z1/antiakrasia_tool_like_stickkcom_... -- about the charity question. We do hope to offer that at some point but we're not considering it a core feature just yet.

Here's something from our FAQ about this:

Q: You make money from people failing at their goals?

A: Yes, but we make you fail less! We force you to toe the line at least for a while so that when/if you do fall off your yellow brick road then the motivation it provided up until that point still seems worth it. Everything we've worked on in building Beeminder has been with the objective of making people succeed and we'd have to be very myopic for it to be otherwise.

It's very important to us that no one ever lose on a technicality. We want to make money by making you more awesome, and we're convinced that's what's happening. But don't take our word for it. Try it and see. The first attempt is free: http://beeminder.com/money

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#27

Post by dcreemer » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 4:57 PM UTC

dekz wrote: post #17

dcreemer wrote: post #16

For a slightly cheaper approach (assuming you already have an iPhone): I have been successfully and pleasantly using "Lose It!" [1] to track all of my food and exercise for about five months now. So far I've lost 20 lbs and 2% body fat. For sleep tracking, I am using Sleep Cycle [2] to measure sleep hours and (most importantly to me) wake me up at a good time. Nike+ [3] on my iPhone tracks my running times, route, di…

Will Sleep cycle pick up my partners movements and wake me up at an inopportune time?

I've never had that problem, though I do have a memory-foam mattress. Sleep Cycle has always worked exactly as advertised for me.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#28

Post by dreeves » Mon, Nov 07, 2011, 6:35 PM UTC

xbryanx wrote: post #9

I love the idea, but think I will stick with the FitBit, simply because I hate wearing anything around my wrists. Especially since I am typing at a keyboard so much of the day.

I'd love to find something that could be worn as a necklace (even in the shower). My partner had a fitbit that died when it ended up going through the laundry.

Re: Jawbone UP Review

#29

Post by jc4p » Tue, Nov 08, 2011, 4:48 AM UTC

Flam wrote: post #19

jc4p wrote: post #2

Holy bright yellow background, batman!

My eyes literally hurt now.

I was very interested in the article but inverse color mode just made it worse so I had to open up Chrome's inspector and change the CSS before I continued reading.