That looks like an awesome piece of equipment.
Polar’s got some good products (I swear by their strap HRMs), but their software has a history of just plain sucking. The PolarFlow software looks from screenshots like they’re moving in the right direction, how well does it function? Does it integrate with other websites/apps like MFP, Endomondo, IFTTT or sparkpeople? What about the Apple/Google fitness programs?
I’d like to be in control of my “personal fitness device.” From what I’ve seen of these devices, the user has very little control over their data. You are at best getting aggregate data from the information the company collects. Want to see data in realtime? Nope. Want aggregate data updated hourly, that’s a $50 fee.
Is anyone making a truly open device for people who value their privacy?
I would wear one…but I’m afraid every time I pee, the toilet would start talking to the toaster and rat me out to the fitness band about eating healthy and I’d get a shock for the brownie it told the cookie jar about.
It does look awesome, but there’s a price difference between the charge hr and the polar watch of $400.
I was a dedicated Fitbit user up until Apple released their HealthKit API. That was the point at which Fitbit made it clear that they wanted to keep your health data locked up, and wouldn’t allow it to be shared to Apple’s Health app (or Google’s equivalent).
I’ve since switched to Jawbone’s Up24 band, and I’m quite happy.
Many providers already do that. Some people where I work are participating in one such discount program. After they signed up, they discovered that there is more to getting the discount than just getting a physical and wearing a monitor. Participating in outdoor events, etc. Are they getting a discount for participating, or am I paying a premium for my privacy?
If you think insurance prices are high now, wait until all major providers have jumped on the Fitbit bandwagon. It will be almost impossible to get insurance unless you are feeding them a steady stream of data, or at least it will be so astronomically expensive that only the one-percenters can afford it. And insurance prices will continue to rise, anyway.
Quite the contrary! If they become mandatory, you weren’t ready.
Starting an insurance company which doesn’t require them could be quite profitable. Otherwise, expatriate to a country which forbids strong-arming people for their data.
I was at a client last year where the company had instituted a competition among workers to get them to exercise more. One guy who didn’t look like he had got off the couch in a decade was winning the number of steps in a day award consistently and everyone was impressed that he was making such a positive effort.
Unfortunately it turned out he was giving his pedometer to his son to carry during his cross-country running squad training after school.
Metrics will always be gamed.
You can also get all your steps in while waiting in the queue to pay at Trader Joe’s - or is that only a New York thing? I can never shop there because I won’t wait 45 minutes to pay.
That’s what exact change is for! There have been times when I’ve been too pressed for time and needed to simply compute the amount, count it, and just leave it for them. “Sorry! Here’s the list and cash! Got to go! Byeee!” Sometimes people have freaked a bit about it, but it’s not like they won’t have time to enter it later. Naturally, this has only been for food, knowing that I would not need a receipt.
I am a bit tired of the ‘move to another country’ argument. For most people, it isn’t a possibility. I’d prefer we fight the system which would create such a regime, but we aren’t a giant corporation with millions of dollars to spend…
I wasn’t suggesting to move anywhere, but expatriate by seceding. The you can offer better better protections and more diverse kinds of incorporation. Even getting a small percentage of the population to secede makes the game more interesting.
“I really dig the Charge HR. I have more data!” Do you now? Or do they? I have an older Fitbit Ultra which I specifically purchased because someone had hacked together a way to extract raw data before it gets sent to Fitbit.com.
To get going quickly of course, I just hooked it up and made a fitbit.com account. Months later - oops, the Fitbit API requires you to sign up for an expensive monthly developer plan and that is the only way to get raw data back.
Their “free” level data analysis tools are good enough for most people I guess. And you can pay $50/yr for a membership level which gets you better analysis… too much IMHO… and still no raw data access.
“free” gets quotes because you are agreeing to their TOS, and whatever security they decide to give your data… I notice they don’t support 2FA.
In addition to the privacy issues, Fitbit is effectively taking data from a device you ostensibly “own” but don’t control and keeping your data away from you so you can’t get at it, or build your own analysis tools.
This complaint can be cut/pasted for most of the fitness trackers of course. While I’m excited about the idea of a fitness tracker overall, the whole thing leaves me feeling a little ill.
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