Jawbone

Welcome to the Wireless World, Jawbone UP24!

2013-11-20 by QTOOTH

It finally happened, the Jawbone UP Fitness Band has joined the world of wireless devices. This is a great move and many might say about time. There were some wrinkles when the UP first came on the market, but we have to give credit where credit is due: The Jawbone UP was one of the very first health tracking devices on the mass market.

Officially called the Jawbone UP24, this new version is touting Bluetooth connectivity. Besides a change in texture, it is almost identical in appearance to the original versions.

As can be expected, adding Bluetooth to the device results in a little bit of a shorter battery life between charges. Originally the UP claimed 10 days per charge, which we found fairly accurate. The UP24 promises to last around 7 days. It will be good to test this out over time. With all things wireless, batteries can be drained more or less depending on how strong the signal needs to be. Environmental conditions and distance to the connecting device may cause this to vary.

Despite the Jawbone UP24 now communicating wirelessly, it has retained a headphone jack style plug for connecting to its charger. However, it is now a 2.5mm instead of a 3.5mm. That’s fine, but it is interesting to note that it still has an end cap that might get lost during charging. Since all data is only transmitted wirelessly and not through the headphone jack like on previous models, it would’ve been interesting if they opted for a wireless charger. Not only would it be easier to do, but they would be able to truly make the UP24 waterproof. Currently the device is only water resistant.

There is a social component to using the Jawbone UP24 where users can track and compare their progress with friends, teammates, and others. However, the info that is traded is relatively minimal, and there is no way to tell if the person you are competing against is in the same demographic as you, such as sex, weight, height, age, etc… But perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Besides, in this world of over-sharing nd lack of privacy, maybe there is a line there that needs to be drawn.

In general, I feel myself wanting to call the Jawbone UP24 a wellness tracker more than a fitness tracker. Lack of a display for immediate feedback and the fact that it doesn’t connect to a scale for real-time weight, BMI and body fat percentage puts its information at a distance from those who are truly trying to get fit by staying… well, active.

However, there are a few things that the Jawbone UP24 really gets right. It has its own highly functional app that does an amazing job with logging your dietary intake and then making suggestions for better food and beverage choices. It even has a bar code scanning function that allows instant nutritional information on many pre-packaged food products.

And after all that exercise and food, who wouldn’t need a nap? The sleep log functions measure the length and quality of your sleep, providing plenty of detailed stats. The Jawbone UP24 will tell you how many times you woke during the night, how much light or deep slumber you had, and how quickly you were able to reach your REM (dream) state.

Unfortunately, the UP24 has launched as an iOS-only device. For those lucky enough to be on an Apple iOS device, the selection of 3rd party apps is truly deep. However they are promising that Android support should be soon to follow. Like many app creators, Jawbone blames the delay on the difficulty the variety of Android devices that are on the market, as well as the fact that the adoption rate of the latest Android OS is hit or miss and can vary greatly depending on both the manufacturer and the telecom platform. Let’s hope it’s not far behind, because this is a really fun device and it would be great to see more people benefit from its use.

Available for $149.99 directly from Jawbone, it should be available at other major retail outlets after November 19th. We’ll try to keep you posted and will list Amazon links below (the current links are for the original hardwired version).

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Logitech UE Boombox Review: The Bluetooth Wireless Speaker by Which Others are Judged?

2013-08-23 by QTOOTH

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The Logitech UE Boombox

Straight up, no-frills. It just works. There’s a reason why this Bluetooth wireless speaker is often used as the reference point by which other products on the market are judged.

So just what does the “UE” in the name Logitech UE Boombox mean? Logitech purchased the company Ultimate Ears (UE) a while back and it is through this collaboration that they were able to start turning out some great audio products.

The $250 Logitech UE Boombox has been designed from the ground up to support four internal drivers and four custom tuned passive drivers. Apparently its appearance was inspired by the legendary designer Dieter Rams from Braun and by Jonathan Ive of Apple fame. Who knew? It definitely exhibits a certain elegance, a logical layout to the controls, and simplicity of use.

Construction

Constructed of brushed aluminum and featuring a sculpted handle, the Logitech UE Boombox is definitely made to be ready-to-go. The stainless steel grill and the rubber feet should help make this portable speaker fairly ding resistant, but in general you might be better served to put it in a backpack, bag, or some type of carrying case. Some competitors supply their wireless speakers with some type of protection. It would’ve been nice if Logitech did too. Or at least made one available.

Hooking It Up

The Logitech UE Boombox is made to play music by connecting to a music source such as a phone, mp3 player, or similar device. It does this ether wirelessly through a Bluetooth connection or wired directly using a 3.5mm cable. Pairing a Bluetooth-enabled device is pretty straight forward and similar to most wireless speakers on the market. First, make sure your other device, be it a phone, computer, mp3 player, etc…, is in its discovery mode, then press the large Bluetooth connect at the top of the side control panel. They should find each other pretty easily.

Setting the Controls

The controls are very easy to navigate and most people may never need to read the instructions to get what they need out of this device. The control buttons are arranged vertically on the side panels at each end of the boombox. On the left side panel and starting from the top is the Bluetooth Pairing button, then the power switch, then 3.5mm auxiliary input jack to connect external devices, and at the bottom is the power port. The specifications for the rechargeable battery claim a 6-hour lifespan and we found that to be the case. On the right side panel, there are two large volume buttons with clearly marked positive and negative symbols to indicate which one does what function.

A really great feature of this wireless boombox is the fact that it can pair with up to three devices at a time. This means you could connect it to your phone, tablet and computer at the same time and easily switch between each one. Logitech suggests using this feature with friends so that each of you can take turns playing disk jockey from their own device. Hey, why not?

So, How Does the Logitech UE Boombox Sound?

Since Logitech and Ultimate Ears worked together to sculpt the sound of the Boombox the results are far louder than might be imagined for its size. It achieves this by both active speakers and specially tuned porting. The Logitech UE Boombox has a pair of half-inch tweeters that produce a very smooth, detailed treble response. Two 3-inch woofers deliver a tight, full-throated mid range. These feed four, custom-tuned 2.75-inch passive radiators coupled with the rubber casing surrounding them to deliver deeply resonant yet defined bass. It easily competes with Bluetooth speakers like the Bose SoundLink 2 and the Jawbone BigJambox.

Even though the audio is compressed due to the nature of the Bluetooth wireless specification, and this is true for all Bluetooth wireless speakers, the Logitech UE Boombox did a great job in all of the tests we put it through, jamming with everything from hip hop, classical, rock and more. The sound was clear, even when pushing the upper limits of its volume capabilities. And that’s saying a lot, cause this baby gets LOUD.

Conclusion

So, does it do as well as the Bose SoundLink 2, the reigning top of the heap for this type of device? Not quite, bit since the Bose is pretty much $299 no matter who you buy it from, and the $249 Logitech can often be found for $199, for something that is 2/3rds the price the Logitech UE Boombox comes incredibly close. And that is why the Logitech UE Boombox gets used as the reference point by which to compare the competition. The value versus quality make it undeniable.

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Jawbone ERA – Is It Really The Best? – Review

2013-08-13 by QTOOTH

We’re very hard on Bluetooth headsets here at QTOOTH and the Jawbone ERA is no exception. Here’s our take on one of the most universally praised headsets on the market.

The Jawbone ERA Bluetooth Headset, manufactured by the Aliph company who are also the makers of the Jawbone Up, was introduced as an update from their popular and successful Jawbone Icon. It was meant to have superior audio and to improve on the fit and comfort of its predecessor. Unfortunately in our opinion it didn’t quite do either. Please keep in mind that we have owned several of both models and have used them extensively. It is from this experience that we are drawing our opinions.

First up is the audio quality. The audio fidelity on this might be just fine… except that it is not nearly loud enough. This lack of volume is true for either the user or for the person on the other end of the call. The ERA uses what is known as “adaptive volume” control. That means that the audio level should automatically increase or decrease depending on the volume level of the wearer’s environment. We’re fine with that if the it actually did a good job of matching, or competing with, the surrounding noise. We found that it is lacking in this department. It would be great if there was some way to manually set a base volume level from which the adaptive circuitry could then make its adjustments. Instead the user is stuck with whatever volume the circuit decides it should be. It just didn’t do its job to our satisfaction. We much prefer the quick and easier manual controls that were on the Jawbone Icon.

Second, the positioning of the Voice Activity Sensor is far more finicky than the Jawbone Icon. The Voice Activity Sensor, or VAS (see diagram below), rests on your cheek and turns on the microphones by detecting when you are speaking by the vibrations that are conducted through your jawbone (hence the name).

We’ve found that even small variations on where the VAS is placed means the difference between a normal sounding voice when we speak versus the ERA switching to its conduction mode which essentially makes us sound like a robot. The conduction mode means that the normal microphones are shut off and all audio is picked up only through the vibrations of the voice that are transmitted through the body. FYI: Conduction is the same technology being used for both transmitting and receiving audio with the Google Glass project. It is another of Google’s many feature missteps with Glass’ introduction. Bone conduction just can’t replace normal hearing fidelity experienced by the human ear. However it must be said that bone conduction technology is an absolute miracle when it comes to hearing aids and helping those with hearing loss. Once again, the Voice Activity Sensor feature was far more forgiving and workable in the Jawbone Icon.

Third, we must take issue with Jawbone advertising these as having HD (high definition) audio. HD audio means something very specific and these headsets do not met the criteria. The Jawbone ERA uses the A2DP audio protocol for Bluetooth which is limited to 320 kbit/s for mono and 512 kbit/s for stereo. This means that it is impossible for these headsets to transfer audio information at the rate required to deliver HD audio which is specified as 1,411.2 kbit/s (CD quality) or up to 6.144 Mbit/s (Dolby Digital Plus) or even 18 Mbit/ s. True, there are some “lossless” formats that can be in the 400 – 1,411 kbit/s like FLAC but they are not standards accepted by the industry as being HD. Now that said, 320 kbit/s isn’t bad. In fact, that’s considered to be on the high end for the MP3 format. You know, the quality at which iTunes and similar services decide they can charge you about a dollar extra per track? So, yes, it is good quality audio for the format but to call it HD is very misleading.

And finally, the last thing we want bring up is how they came so close to turning the world of Bluetooth headsets on its ear, so to speak, by the inclusion of motion sensors. Right now they are using this circuitry for a “shake to pair” and “tap-to-answer” functions. Although we find these features fun, they are a bit gimmicky. It would’ve been so cool if it could be used for controlling a cursor, for instance, or for controlling any other type of device by motions of the head. This could also be incredibly enabling for those with motor issues, think quadriplegics or amputees for example. Jawbone says they have plans in the works for a pedometer that utilizes this circuitry and for releasing the API so that other people can develop apps for it, but it’s been close to two years or so and still no word. Maybe they were too busy developing and re-developing their UP Fitness Band. It uses similar electronics and had flaws upon its initial entry into the market. This just seems like a missed opportunity when it comes to the Jawbone ERA.

So, now that we’ve taken Aliph to task for their Jawbone ERA, please know that we are still fans and think that their Jawbone Icon is still one of the very best on the market. There is strong competition from the likes of Plantronics, Jabra, Blue Ant, Motorola and Bose, but Jawbone’s got game. We just look forward to seeing where they might be able to take it next. And if you are going to buy, you might want to go for the Jawbone Icon.

For more details, check out the videos at the bottom of this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GPYwxvqW7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUjKai_fccM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpN22N3lIaQ

Fitbit Flex vs Jawbone Up

2013-07-06 by QTOOTH

Fitbit Flex vs. Jawbone Up

The race to be the best in wearable fitness technology is heating up. Check out this comparison of the Fitbit Flex vs Jawbone Up:

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