Up by Jawbone

First off, the UP by Jawbone is quite new and very difficult to get hold of. Amazon are quoting almost a month for most colours and sizes. If you check the Apple Store, they are quoting 24 hours on some of them. Maybe worth a look!

In the UK, they are available in Onyx, Mint Green and Blue. Other colours are available overseas, so you could import a nice red one maybe? Sizes come in Small, Medium and Large: Make sure you check the website and check the size!

The big difference between the UP and the Nike+ FuelBand is that the latter is bluetooth and connects to the iPhone app with a push of a button. To sync the UP you need to load the app up, remove the cover and plug the 3.5mm jack into the iPhone’s headphone socket. Also charging it can be a pain, you need to use the (supplied) 3.5mm to USB charging lead, where the FuelBand can be plugged straight into USB.

Apart from that, the UP is much lighter than the Nike Wristband, yet lacking a clock. There is one button on the UP, at the moment I can see that this is to tell you what mode it is in, and to swap between in bed or up out of bed!

The app is great and looks a little daunting at first, there is a lot of things to look at and so many different notifications popping up on your screen. First thing you need to do is set up an account with Jawbone, then enter your vital stats. You can lie about your weight, but the closer you are to the truth the more accurate it will be in the future.

The App, asks you for your mood on a daily basis, it will also let you add what you have eaten. You can scan your food from the barcode on the packets, take pictures of the food. Or just add them by manually typing it in.

Plugging the UP in syncs many things, you can also set up a few optional sections including an Smart Alarm clock which will wake you when it thinks is the correct time and your body has had enough. A power nap function that lets you have a light sleep but then will vibrate if it thinks you are going into a deeper nap. You can even set it to vibrate if you have been idle for too long.

So the clock thing, its a shame it doesn’t tell the time also but I’ve got enough gadgetry around me to do this. The app recommends that you sync the device to your smartphone twice a day, each time you connect it the Application will tell you how many steps you’ve added and also the amount of sleep you’ve had.

The information about your sleep is fascinating, well it is to me anyway. The first night I used this function, I pressed the button on the wristband until the moon appeared and did what I would normally do. Had a few dreams in the night, woke up in the morning and switched the band back into daytime. The program easily showed me that out of 7hrs 48mins of sleep, 3 hrs and 59mins was light sleep and the rest I was in a deep sleep.

It can also tell you if you woke in the night, how long it took you to get to sleep and how long you were in bed for. Amazing stuff.

In daytime mode it explains how many steps you have achieved, idle times, calories burnt and longest active time. I was really impressed with this information. Along with the info, as I previously mentioned, you can add your mood that particular day. It will then draw up a pattern over time and show you the difference in activity depending how you feel.

Other functions the app and the bands add include being part of a team, you can then share the results with your team members which as research has shown, can increase activity. The app will also let you log workouts manually.

So far I am very impressed with this product and yes, I can see the Nike+ FuelBand heading to the gadget box in the attic. I will write and publish further reviews of this product and let my readers know how I get on with it.