Saturday, March 5, 2016
History of Fitbit trackers used over four years
01/2013 - Fitbit One
2014 - Fitbit One, Fitbit Force, Fitbit Flex
2015 - Fitbit Charge, Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Surge, Fitbit Flex, and again the Fitbit One
2016 - Fitbit One, Fitbit Surge, Fitbit Blaze
Fitbit Blaze Unboxing - https://youtu.be/pwy7dbKdYrY
An Idea was Born
In 2007, the founders, Eric N. Friedman and James Park, realized that sensors and wireless technology had advanced to a point where they could bring amazing experiences to fitness and health. They embarked on a journey to create a wearable product that would change the way we move.
https://www.fitbit.com/about
The year is now 2016 and back on January 5 during the CES (Computer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada. On this same day several of my friends, co-workers, and I purchased the newly-created-fitness tracker, yet why?
What would compel an adult to purchase a device without seeing it first hand? Well, in all good politeness I cannot speak for the others in my fitness realm. I am addicted to data, okay, there, I wrote it down and that's the "first step" to realizing my problem. Data is everywhere, in everyone, about everything, and surrounds our first world environment in the United States.
No, data is more than numbers, for data provides feedback, a temperature gauge, targets, and information. Numbers mean something and nothing at all in any given moment in time. It matters not how someone else's data is in comparison to your own. Yet, if you can use your own data to improve your life and live to see your children marry, well... yeah, then that data is worth gathering, reporting, and tracking. My primary points of concerned data are:
1. Heart Rate
2. Activity
3. Lack of activity or what many call SLEEP
4. Flights of stairs
How many calories I burn daily, how many miles I move, yeah, not that vital to me. The shear numbers of steps equates daily success in my mind. Surpassing the 5,000 threshold, then 10,000, 20,000, and once 48,000, yeah, an self-realization of how much control the mind has over feet. Four years later after beginning my journal down the path of 00110111011111000 and joining the niche realm of fitness trackers the fun aspect has been overwhelming as are the learning experiences. There is a nice feeling to know one's physical output (often mental too) is measured twenty-four hours daily, 366 days in 2016. When you sleeping, walking, sitting, typing, running, swimming, or just hiking through the trees in order to find a forest, +Fitbit is along your side proving the data when you need it.
An Idea was Born
In 2007, the founders, Eric N. Friedman and James Park, realized that sensors and wireless technology had advanced to a point where they could bring amazing experiences to fitness and health. They embarked on a journey to create a wearable product that would change the way we move.
https://www.fitbit.com/about
The year is now 2016 and back on January 5 during the CES (Computer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada. On this same day several of my friends, co-workers, and I purchased the newly-created-fitness tracker, yet why?
What would compel an adult to purchase a device without seeing it first hand? Well, in all good politeness I cannot speak for the others in my fitness realm. I am addicted to data, okay, there, I wrote it down and that's the "first step" to realizing my problem. Data is everywhere, in everyone, about everything, and surrounds our first world environment in the United States.
No, data is more than numbers, for data provides feedback, a temperature gauge, targets, and information. Numbers mean something and nothing at all in any given moment in time. It matters not how someone else's data is in comparison to your own. Yet, if you can use your own data to improve your life and live to see your children marry, well... yeah, then that data is worth gathering, reporting, and tracking. My primary points of concerned data are:
1. Heart Rate
2. Activity
3. Lack of activity or what many call SLEEP
4. Flights of stairs
How many calories I burn daily, how many miles I move, yeah, not that vital to me. The shear numbers of steps equates daily success in my mind. Surpassing the 5,000 threshold, then 10,000, 20,000, and once 48,000, yeah, an self-realization of how much control the mind has over feet. Four years later after beginning my journal down the path of 00110111011111000 and joining the niche realm of fitness trackers the fun aspect has been overwhelming as are the learning experiences. There is a nice feeling to know one's physical output (often mental too) is measured twenty-four hours daily, 366 days in 2016. When you sleeping, walking, sitting, typing, running, swimming, or just hiking through the trees in order to find a forest, +Fitbit is along your side proving the data when you need it.
One-Week Review of the +Fitbit Blaze
On Friday, February 26, a brown box arrived on my doorstep. I had checked the FedEx tracking system nearly twenty-one times getting updates. I was as giddy as a nine-year old boy on Christmas Eve waiting, waiting, and waiting for the present to arrive. Yes, a present, one gets the gift of fitness for Christmas by means of coins. I received the message from FedEx - package delivered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ip0EDmaH6gThere was much chatter about this new tracker ergo, I waited the two months for it to arrive. I enjoy using it, wearing it, and the data it presents is great! How does it compare to the Surge? The Blaze is better, the screen is more sensitive, the text to easier to read, and there are more smart features. How does it compare to the Charge HR? The Blaze is a smartwatch and the Charge and Charge HR are not. For the price of $199.00 I feel it is quite the sports watch and wrist computer.
Features:
1. Time
2. Step tracking
3. Calorie tracking
4. Automatic sleep tracking
5. Automatic nap tracking
6. Altimeter lights of stairs climbed
7. Date
8. Stopwatch
9. Countdown timer
10. Alarms - up to five (no noise, just a powerful buzz when you need alerted and don't want to annoy your realm)
11. Color touchscreen and three hardware buttons
12. Switchable bands (Accessory Bands & Frames)
13. Wrist heart rate detection (PurePulse Heart Rate) - back in 2012 and 2013 everyone was still wearing the chest-straps to track their HR, well, times changes in 2014 and even more so in the past six months with augmented technology such as the PursePulse hardware & software.
- Resting Heart Rate, Fat Burn, Cardio, and Peak zones just to name a few for there is also custom zone feature built within the app
14. Bluetooth constant connection to your smartphone or computer
15. Four different watch faces
16. On-screen workouts (after each workout there is an on-screen summary of our achievements)
17. Connected GPS
18. Notifications - Cell, Text, and Calendar Alerts
19. Music Control (and volume)
20. Multi-sport activity logging without pressing any buttons
21. Connects to your Apple, Android, or Windows smartphones
22. Connects to your laptop or Surface tablet via the Fitbit USB dongle or the computer's Bluetooth
23. Water and sweat resistant
24. SmartTrack - The +Fitbit Blaze, Surge, Charge HR, Charge, and even the Flex all had a firmware update to include the smart-track technology to automatically detect your workout after 10 minutes of activity. When you sync your tracker device the activity displays nicely (both on the app and on your web-based account)
25. Activities and other data from both the Fitbit apps and their website are integrated with social media.
26. Leaderboard - if you find yourself wanting to virtually race your friends, family, or coworkers, simply chase them on the leaderboard feature. Not all fitness trackers provide the awesomeness which has developed over the past years. The Fitbit leaderboard functionality is near flawless. They do need to incorporate steps, active minutes, and other statistics so members can challenge one another with various mediums of output. I would even like to see a "sleep" filter :)
27. Challenges - back in 2015 Fitbit introduced a challenges, yeah, one of my favorite features! When you compete against someone on the leaderboard it is indirectly and they may not even care that you pass them or fall behind for they may be on holiday. A challenge among your mates allows a one-day, weekend, or five-day race to the top of the mountain - way fun and free!
28. Active Minutes - how active were you during the day? When you vacuuming the house, mowing the grass, checking the mail, and running after your kids? Your +Fitbit keeps track of it all. The other weekend I was doing construction work and tallied up 190 active minutes, burned 3,000+ calories, and over seven hours of being the fat-burning heart-rate zone.
If you have any questions about this fitness tracker or others I have reviewed, please let me know. When it comes down to the end of the day a device such as a Fitbit, Garmin, Withings, Jawbone, or Misfit, they are great if they help you stay active, sleep better, and have fun living healthy days. Of the top-five organizations you cannot go wrong purchasing a +Garmin a +Fitbit. Good luck out there for I know it is difficult balancing family, children, church, work, and personal hobbies. If you live in Utah the time is 14:36 and you still have a good six hours until bedtime - take your favorite person for a one-mile stroll and you'll feel better...
Sincerely,
Peter
No comments:
Post a Comment