Jawbone activity bands – alternatives / experiences

Reviews aren’t great, but the concept is interesting. Is there anything similar which is more reliable.

Just seen the fitbit and Garmin offerings.

Bump for the dayshift

looks a bit shit to me, sorry

Average time of use is about 3 months before people stop using them. There’s often a rush of enthusiasm in the first month before interest wanes. We’ve done a chunk of research on them at work.

Obviously some go longer. The question to ask is why do you want one? Do you plan to use the information you get (and analyse with the accompanying software) to make ongoing lifestyle changes or are you just vaguely interested?

If you’re just vaguely interested, a £10 pedometer will do the job.

beej – cheers for that. I guess I’m just trying to fight against the semi-sedentary typical desk jockey lifestyle. and anything to help maintain awareness/motivation has got to be a good thing. And I like gadgets.

What phone do you have, Geoff? Lots of tracking apps, Fitbit have a iOS app, to use. Plus, you don’t have to carry an extra objet around with you.

I’m on an iPhone 5. I want it to monitor my sleep too though and map it to the previous days activities, so I’m thinking a band maybe better than a phone.

Ah. Well, here is a thread when I asked about the Fitbit One, last year:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-use-a-fitbit-oneor-similar

…there is some info on sleep apps for iOS, in case you did go that route.

For the record, my bro has the Fitbit One, and seems to get on well with it. The bands on Jawbone/Flex always seem a bit cumbersome. It’s a shame the Fitbit Flex Force got recalled, as if I was going to get one, that’s what I would have had. The thing is, ‘wearables’ like the Fitbit, Jawbone etc, are about to get stomped by Android/Apple’s next devices, so not sure if I would invest in them just yet. Well, maybe if they were half the current price.

does jawbone not work with without the band?

I had a fitbit – since traded up to a proper Garmin watch. iOS app and website etc were all good, it pushes the ‘social’ side of things as per usual (‘share on facebook’ / compete with friends and all that) but ultimately it’s relatively limited in terms of what it tracks. If you’re a PruHealth ‘Vitality’ customer (I get it though work) I think it syncs with their servers which means you can earn rewards etc on things like cinema tickets etc.

For the £40 I paid for it on eBay it was alright! Always worked, battery life was good and tech pretty seamless.

I had a fitbit. Used it mostly for monitoring sleep patterns, which was good as I could balance when to go to bed better (i.e. if I’d not had a restful night I’d go to bed earlier the following to try to get an average 9 hours)

steps and movement I was initially pretty interested in, but although it allowed me to include data into my runkeeper log (or whatever it was) what I could have really done with is it prioritising my runkeeper log and including it in the fitbit log, otherwise I ended up with runkeeper activity, plus the fitbit going nuts as whenever I rode over rough terrain.

The silent alarm was nice though.

I sold it after about 6 months.

I looked at the Garmin one and it seemed to be the best of the current crop for me, but still not able to do anything a £1-2 app on your phone can’t do.

i’ve got one of the first Nike Fuel bands and have to say I like it.

While I’m no longer a slave to ‘meeting my target’ it does if nothing else give you a nice visual indication of how active you’ve been through the day (ignoring anything where your arms stay still).

I also like the look of it, and the fact that it’s a watch

As has already been stated they don’t really do anything that can’t be done with a smart phone or other similar device but you pays your money and you takes your pick

I’ve been wearing mine for well over a year now, and while I do occasionally look at the scores etc since the group of people I knew with them diminished there’s less of a feeling of competing which is a shame. I’m toying with getting one of the mk 2’s as they do sleep tracking (in some form) and also use the LPE bluetooth which means it can stay in contact with your phone without too much of a drain on the battery (which I may or may not bother with).

Just wish it was waterproof