If you’re a fan of Jawbone’s JAMBOX series of bluetooth speakers, you’ll know the company currently only has two options available: the original JAMBOX and the its party-starter BIG JAMBOX. For those looking for a pocket-friendly option, Jawbone has just announced an even smaller version of its JAMBOX bluetooth speakers, called Mini JAMBOX. (more…)
Jawbone Debuts JAMBOX Mini With Same Battery Life As Original original content from Ubergizmo. 
     |
First came the JAMBOX, Jawbone‘s play on the portable Bluetooth speaker, all the way back in 2010. Then the JAMBOX got supersized, as the BIG JAMBOX, for those times when more music meant more fun. Finally, we have the new baby of the bunch, the Jawbone MINI JAMBOX, a sleeker version of the original intended […]
If you look at the brand-new Jawbone Mini Jambox head-on, you may be wondering what makes it “Mini.” Once you see it from the side or from the top, it’ll all be clear. The smaller, destined-to-be-popular Bluetooth speaker from Jawbone …
| |
For all the gazillions of wireless speakers out there, Jawbone’s Jambox is almost certainly the best-known. Last year the company introduced a Big Jambox
| |
When Jawbone came out with the Jambox back in 2010, the sales pitch was simple: here was a really loud Bluetooth speaker that was small enough to stuff inside a backpack when you wanted to have a dance party at the beach. (Okay, we’re paraphrasing a little bit.) Three years later, though, “small enough to stuff in a backpack” isn’t quite small enough. What about small enough to fit inside a suit pocket? Or a purse? That’s the promise of the Mini Jambox, a $180 speaker announced today that’s — you guessed it — even tinier than the original.
If the idea of another Jambox seems redundant (as it did to us at first), Travis Bogard, VP of Product Management and Strategy, says you should think of it like a camera: “It’s kind of like ‘the best camera is the one you have with you.” The idea is that you’ll carry the Mini Jambox at all times, in the event you’re, say, hanging out with a friend and decide to watch a movie together on a tablet. But if you mainly want something for home use, the Big Jambox will be the better choice. That leaves the original Jambox in a strange place: Bogard expects you’ll use that at home too, even if you do occasionally trot it out for picnics in the park. You just wouldn’t keep it on your person at all times; it’s a little too large for that.%Gallery-slideshow76460%%Gallery-slideshow76564%
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
There are almost as many ways to monitor your fitness these days, as there are ways to get fit. While most hardware trackers come with their own solution to present your (hard-earned) data, some users prefer to keep it elsewhere. If that happens to be MapMyFitness, then good news — there’s full two-way sync for Jawbone UP, as well as Nike FuelBand support. Jawbone’s UP has had API hooks with MapMyFitness for a while, but now workouts etc. can be pushed in either direction, so all those steps can be viewed online (though not your sleep, or manually logged workouts). It’s a similar story with FuelBand, while the Nike+ app and watch have played nice with the services, the wearable was notably absent — until now. Set up is easy, just head to the import section of your account and link them up. Sadly, so easy, you won’t earn any fuel points.
It seems a week doesn’t go by without finding out about a malfunctioning Jawbone Up band. The wearable step tracking bracelet measures how much you move each day and how well you sleep.
It was relaunched late last year in the US, and came to Asia in March.
I have five people on my Up friends list (all with new bands less than two months old), and already four of them are facing issues. Some are saying their LED lights have stopped working, and one of their bands is not being able to track sleep anymore.
My own band coughed and died just two weeks after I purchased it from an Apple store in Hong Kong. It stopped being able to retain a charge, and its purported ten-day battery would go flat within half a day.
A Japanese user I met this week saw I was wearing one, and informed me that his stopped working as well after about a month.
This is not good.
The Up is currently in its second generation. The first was a fiasco. Shortly after a triumphant launch in 2011, users complained that the band wasn’t holding a charge, and the company was forced to issue a global refund.
It came back a year later, full of promise, but these anecdotal stories of woe keep popping up.
When I went to return my band, one of the sales staff at the International Finance Centre (IFC) Apple store in Hong Kong informed me that the store was running dry on supplies because it had sent back a large batch of devices back to Jawbone. This was prompted by numerous customer returns, she said.
A user in Singapore, Kimberly Mah, had a band that had battery issues as well. She wrote to Jawbone, but was informed that the company would not ship a replacement “due to international shipping regulations”. Jawbone said she should check with the retailer she bought the band from.
But when she went to the Challenger outlet at Funan Centre, the retailer was completely out of stock, saying new bands wouldn’t come in for at least another month. Could this be signs of technical issues with production at Jawbone?
A survey of the numerous PC stores at Funan Centre also showed that each had just one or two bands on the shelf, potentially indicating a supply issue. The Apple Singapore online store lists an 8- to 10-week wait for new bands, as well. Jawbone has a lot resting on this new product — it’s raised about $210 million so far from venture firms, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer joined its board a little over a month ago.
At the top of the supply chain, the company who brings in the bands to Singapore, Digital Hub, couldn’t help with a replacement either, because they too were out of stock.
Jawbone’s response to all of this is that it’s a supply problem due to the bands selling like hotcakes. “It’s one of our fastest-selling products in Jawbone history… we are working to keep up with the incredible demand,” said a spokesperson.
On any new technical issues, she simply said that the band is “entirely new, inside and out” with regard to its redesign after the first generation, and pointed me to the testing processes they put the bands through before they’re sent out of the warehouse.
One can only hope these claims hold true.
We suppose even if you did buy a custom Jambox speaker done up in Red Sox colors, you wouldn’t necessarily cop to it in the comments. As it turns out, though, you wouldn’t be alone: more than 70 percent of the people who purchase a Jambox on Jawbone.com choose their own colors for the cap and speaker grille. Given that, Jawbone’s decided to do the same thing with the Big Jambox, which you could previously only buy in the stock colors. As with the smaller model, there are over 100 possible combinations, including some permutations only a sports fan could love. As always, too, the personalization has absolutely no bearing on the price: the MSRP for the Big Jambox is still $300.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
Source: Jawbone
What does $110 million get you these days? Of course, you will end up with plenty of fast cars, large mansions, and for a company like Jawbone, it would mean acquiring another entity known as BodyMedia for that particular amount of dough. Just in case Jawbone sounds familiar to you, that is because they are the developer of Bluetooth headsets in addition to other kinds of wearable technology. Having picked up BodyMedia, a fitness monitoring company that is based in Pittsburgh for a reported $110 million, this acquisition clearly shows that Jawbone wants to force their way into the health and wellness arena.
BodyMedia is a company that was founded more than 15 years ago, and proved to be one of the very first companies to work on wearable body monitors which will help gauge physiological data, narrowing down on fitness. All data will be captured using its 24/7 on-body monitors, and it has been used by consumers as well as care providers to monitor behavioral changes in addition to weight control and the promotion of an active lifestyle. Jawbone’s acquisition would see them pick up BodyMedia’s 87 patents, which might come in handy in the long run. It would be interesting to see what else Jawbone will come up with sometime down the road.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Uploads How To Use Glass Video Tutorial, April 2013 Canon 5D Mark III Firmware Update Released, 
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
