Don't look now ladies and gents, the holidays are coming! One of the many perks of working on Nudge is that our product gets better every single time our partners launch new and improved products.
And this holiday season, brand new fitness tracking wearables are high on lots of holiday gift lists! That means a whole host of new wearables that share data seamlessly with the Nudge App!
Because our current stock of integrations features Jawbone and Fitbit, let's start with a quick tour of their latest releases and what they can do.
New From Jawbone
The Jawbone UP3 ($179.99) and UPmove ($49.99)
The newest generation of fitness trackers from Jawbone include two new options on different ends of the spectrum. The UP3, which they (humbly) call “the most advanced fitness tracker known to man", and the UPmove, a new entry-level device for those looking for a simpler, lower cost wearable.
The UP3 is pretty damn slick to be perfectly honest. Fully released and available for purchase in time for the Christmas season, much like good ol’ Saint Nick, it sees you when you’re sleeping, and knows when you’re awake. Automatically sensing when you fall asleep is a welcome upgrade in this new generation of wearable gadgets. In fact, it uses a combination of sensors to map when you’re in light, deep and REM sleep as well. The new heart rate tracking capabilities help enhance the ability of the UP3 to map your calorie burn in detail, as well as keep an eye on your resting heart rate and in-activity peaks.
But where the UP3 really seeks to differentiate is in the activity tracking arena. The “Advanced Activity Tracking” maps the activities you tag yourself at first as runs, pick-up basketball, whatever, and over time it learns the ability to recognize those specific activities and label them for you. Jawbone has also introduced its “Smart Coach” in the mobile app experience, which seeks to learn about you and provide actionable feedback for how you can improve as you go. Providing the most passive tracking experience possible and going beyond to provide actionable insights on top of that is a big deal in this space, and Jawbone has really put a stake down here to show us how they want to stand out.
The UPmove is an interesting new entry into the Jawbone fitness cannon. It’s a low cost simple movement and sleep tracking device that can be either clipped on to your clothing or popped into a simple wristband. If your familiar with the wearables market, you can’t help but think of this offering as a virtual dead ringer for the MisFit Flash, (another low cost, entry level tracker available for sale soon), with the core difference in experience being the Jawbone software vs. the Misfit software.
New From Fitbit
The Fitbit Charge ($129.95) ChargeHR ($149.95) and the Fitbit Surge ($249.95)
The Fitbit Charge is the only of this new generation of fitness trackers currently available for purchase with the ChargeHR and Surge still slated for an “early 2015” launch. The Charge offers some nice updates from your old Fitbit Flex, highlighted by the inclusion of a small display which can show the time, or daily stats like steps. Another nice addition is the inclusion of on screen Caller ID when the device is paired with your smartphone. You’ll also be happy to hear that three little taps are no longer required to switch this device into sleep tracking mode. Instead, this is tracked automatically, which is a major upgrade from the previous generation. Even with the additional functionality, you can expect a full 7 days of battery life.
The ChargeHR adds a couple of small but important improvements to the regular Charge. The ChargeHR, as the name suggests, includes heart rate monitoring capabilities like the UP3. This comes at the cost of some battery life, with this device holding about 5 days of charge. This upgrade also features an adjustable watch-style band, which I can personally attest is a significant improvement over the previous clasp design which I found a bit fragile. That alone may be worth the extra $20 in my book.
The Surge is a whole new animal for the Fitbit family of products, a full-on fitness watch loaded with great features for someone looking to take their performance to another level. Take everything from the Charge and add to it built in GPS so you can map your runs, rides, hikes or however you get after it. You can also track details like elevation change and split times, which are musts for any serious athlete. You can also pair with your smartphone to get call and text notifications, and even take your music with you and control your playlists right from your wrist. Fitbit claims the battery will last 7+ days, so the extra space behind the watch face (and $250) will buy you new sensors, plus a little extra battery life.
It’s exciting to see all these new wearables moving the market forward and bring new and better tracking capabilities to health and fitness hubs like the Nudge App. In fact, let’s leave it there - the conclusion of this story is that all of these great fitness trackers come out of the box (hopefully a gift wrapped one) ready to sync seamlessly with your Nudge App. And if you’re working with a health professional, we can pass that data, curated for professional insights, along to their Nudge Coach platform.
