The Jawbone UP

For my birthday, I told Erin I really wanted a Jawbone UP. It's a high-tech health band that just launched. The UP tracks motion and exercise as well as sleep patterns using sensitive motion detection. It syncs to an app that runs on any iOS device like iPhone or iPad. You sync the UP by removing the cap and plugging it into the headphone jack. The app also allows you to track what you eat, make friends via a social aspect, and participate in health challenges. The band can also remind you to be active via a vibration if you've been passive for too long. The same vibration can be set to act as an alarm clock that wakes you up at the optimal time during your sleep cycle to leave you feeling less groggy in the morning. The thing has a rechargeable battery that lasts for 10 days and charges via an included USB cable. It's also water resistant. It costs $99.00.



I got the UP a few days ago and couldn't wait to try it out. I synced it up to my phone and started wearing it. I'd sync after walking the dog or exercising and it seemed to work pretty well. The sleep pattern tracking also seemed pretty cool, but I found that this data would not reliably sync. Some days I'd wake up and it recorded no data at all even though I had the thing in the right sleep mode. I figured this was a bug in the app and assumed they'd update it.



And then one day it wouldn't sync at all. I'd plug it in just as I had been doing, and it just gave me a sync error. I ran through the list of troubleshooting recommendations and nothing worked. I searched the Jawbone UP website forums and found many people were also having similar problems with their UP. One guy had gone through four of them and they had all failed. My UP had transformed itself into a hundred dollar rubber bracelet in just four days time.


I checked and luckily still had all my boxes and receipts. I took it back to the AT&T store where it was purchased and they gave me a full refund with no questions asked.

I have since decided that I'll just track my steps via my $12 state issued pedometer and call it good.