if you’re already aware of the amount of sleep you get, what your exercise habits are, and the meals that you eat, the jawbone UP may be an unnecessary purchase.
the one thing it does well is make you aware. however, it’s a pain in the ass to constantly keep it current.
you can’t add past meals. so, if you don’t log your meal at the moment you start eating, it doesn’t get tracked.
also, you can’t add past sleep. so, if you don’t put it into sleep mode, it doesn’t track your night’s sleep. i will say, that on the nights that i put it into sleep mode, it did a great job of recognizing my sleep cycle and woke me up during a period of light sleep, just as advertised.
but, right now, i don’t see how it provides any long-term value. it doesn’t make recommendations. it only makes you aware.
you can add friends and create a “team”, which allows you to track all your habits, and compare them to your friends. i feel like jawbone tried to put a gamification layer on top of your daily health habits in an effort to make you compete to be healthier.
eventually, people will get tired of games and need something useful and helpful. however, i’m unsure of jawbone’s long-term plan as to what they’re gonna do with all the data they’ve collected from each user.
i would love to be notified, and given personalized recommendations, of ways that i can be a better person, or feel healthier, based on my past habits. i would love if the jawbone UP found holes in my schedule and told me the best times to schedule a workout. i would love if i got a push notification saying that i’ve average 6 hours of sleep for the past 5 nights and should make a plan to get a full night of sleep soon. i would love if it told me when i might be prone to having an unhealthy snack and that i should opt for baby carrots instead of a cookie.
until jawbone figures out how i can input data easier, and how all of that data can be useful on a long-term basis, it’s more of a hassle than helpful.
