Game in the Brain

Basis B1 Issues:

• It had a thick band and was irritating my left wrist. 
• Its band is great and durable but after a lot of physcal activity it is very irritating. It feels like it builds up a lot of heat.
•  I wish it can something that is perforated OR with a lot of bumps to allow air to circulate. 
• It did not let me interact with data. 
• Its designed to just track and not let me adjust  the data. 
• It did not graph the data in a useful way. 
• It required me to set up the sync with my Asus Zenfone 2
• I had to sync it to my laptop through the cable, and i sometimes dont get to do that exactly every week.  
• The band keeps falling off.

the Basis B1 was ok and it was great having two Hear Rate monitors. The thing is unlike the Fitbit, both the Up2 and B1 do not sync in the background. 

Fitbit Charge HR (FCHR) Battery Issues. 

The anecodotes of my wife’s office, where a lot of her bosses are using the FCHR is the battery. Her boss’ version needs to be charged everyday. I need mine charged every other day. This is probably because the more app capabilities I give it the more power it will consume. 

Currently i have no  alarms set but it is  linked to my phone to alert me when it rings. That eats up a significant amount of power. I need to really keep a handy charging kit: a power bank and  the spare charging cable we bought from Aliexpress for 2.5 usd.

• Convenient. It regularly syncs. 
• Battery life is every other day. 
• 45 mins to fully charge, but if every  other day it would be charged in 30mins. 
• Dies on the 36+ hours
• the ergonomics of FCHR leaves few rashes for me. 

The Up2 has a better battery life. 

BUT because  of skin cells clogging up its battery contact points it needs some special cleaning every time I charge it. Or else it won’t charge. Its not that bad but it requires me to repurpose a paperclip (and sharpen it a bit).  

• Needs to have the app on to sync. It can’t run in the background and I have to change the phone’s sleep settings to allow it to sync since I sync only every few days. 
• It takes about 45 mins to charge. Unlike the FCHR it can survive up to 96 hours. It dies around 120 hours. 
• Syncing can take 30-45 mins. For that time I am without my phone, good thing my most used app can run in the background (@Voice Aloud Reader). 
• The bands are barely lasting a year. The connection points needed to be strengthened with duct tape because they were tearing. I need it Tight to prevent it from loosening and falling off, but that wore out connector points. They can do with a better connection system.
• The ergonomics of UP2 does not leave rashes.

None allow to Track Injury or Sick Condition. 

I wish my fitness trackers can track my sick and injured condition. It is demoralizing to suck but it should be noted the hardships we are currently suffering.

I threw my lower back in an Airsoft game because of Farmer’s carrying my gear after being bone tired and pushing hard on my joints on Jan 4, it got better in early first week of March but I threw it out because I wanted to start on dead lifts asap. So I threw it out again in March 21 just before my birthday. 

F*CK and it would take more time, probably 3-4 months to recover and even when recovered I will have diminished upper body lifting strength. It is very demoralizing. 

Conclusion.

• I wish the other two can sync in the background. 
• They allow me to report my injuries and handicaps. Every time I work out I note soreness and pains in my fitness journal it would help if they allowed me to do that in the app and centralized it. 
• Asking for Pain level and descriptors. 
• Asking for amount of time for me to Heal or get better. Asking me how I feel. 
• The data needs to be adjustable and intractable. People don’t cheat in these reports and if I can put my activities in even if its drawing from my activity from Google Fit (Up2 app allows to only use the Phone in case something happened to the band). 
• Make it easier to allow people to input their other activities. 
• A realistic wear and tear replacement cycle. From the stories these things last for a year. so Fitness Trackers may be an annual lifestyle purchase. Maybe design a package for that, for people who want it in 3-5 year packages. 
• I pay for the app and for my next device in a year.