How Effective are Wearable Activity Trackers? Part 1

I'm what you might call a tech-enthusiast, trying out just about any cool gadget that surfaces on the front page of TechCrunch or Engadget. I've also tried my fill of activity trackers. Fitbit, Jawbone, Sony... however all of the first releases had been utterly disappointing and end up laying around the house - it's so sad. As CES has come to a close last week, I still wasn't blown away by anything new, but overwhelmed by the amount of activity trackers that were showcased and am racking my brain to figure out why! It must be because they sell, or have the potential to sell. So who keeps purchasing these useless, glorified pedometers?

I decided to give them another try. Fitbit seems like the most popular option right now and they do have some new interesting bands on the website. First I'm going to try out the Fitbit Charge, to see if it helps increase my fitness or replaces a personal trainer in the areas of motivation. I highly doubt either of these things but I'm still going to test every feature and use it to the max.

It displays steps ...

Displays the time ...

The packaging was beautifully designed, and the advertising held such promise...

• Activity and elevation tracking
• Sleep quality
• Wireless sync with phone (caller ID - nice)
• Friendly website, although not much had changed since I had the clip-on Fitbit back in 2011

Interface set-up

Now on to the testing phase...stay tuned for more excitement here.

-XO Julia