Jawbone has given its life-tracking Up bracelet a second chance. The original was promising, but had a sky-high failure rate. The new band, Jawbone hopes, will fix the massive problems of the original, and deliver on its equally massive potential. More »
In life, we’re often told the best-learned lessons are those spurred by mistakes. In Jawbone’s case, its plague-ridden Up wristband from last winter turned out be a sweeping education. So much so that the Jambox-maker now refers to the launch as an accidental “beta” program; a public exercise in wearables R&D that ended in an official apology and full refunds.
Sounds extreme, but those missteps led to a ground-up reinvention for the product: the company just announced a new version of the band, which goes on sale today for $129 with necessary improvements in tow: a refined mold, reinforced water-resistance and a more robust iOS app. In advance of this v2.0 launch, we sat down with the company’s VP of Product, Travis Bogard, to find out just what went wrong with its ambitious first effort, how it got fixed and what new innovations users can look forward to this time around. So, follow along as we look back at the growing pains that spawned Up’s rebirth.
Gallery: Jawbone Up hands-on (2012)
Gallery: Jawbone Up (2012)
Filed under: Wearables
Jawbone starts over, announces a redesigned version of its Up lifestyle-tracking wristband originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In the ever-shrinking world of tech, for a company to release a jumbo-sized variant of a product is something of a novelty. Jawbone’s Big Jambox has taken a few courses of steroids, with natty design language and 15-plus hours of battery life. We were certainly fans of the unit, although its audio can get a bit on the shaky side when you turn it up to 11, but that was just in the confines of our review. What’s it been like to use this thing on a regular basis for the last six months? We’re asking you to place yourselves in the stylish shoes of designer Yves Behar and tell us what you’d have done differently.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video
How would you change Jawbone’s Big Jambox? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Yahoo‘s CEO Marissa Mayor is in talks with Jawbone in consideration of a place on the company’s board, reports AllThingsD. Jawbone is known for its high-end, classy Bluetooth gadgets, including the Jambox, which we reviewed back in 2010. It seems she’s looking at a director position, something sources say was happening before she joined Yahoo.
The talks are said to be late stage, but caution was given that the deal may not happen for numerous reasons, which were not specified. According to AllThingsD, Jawbone’s founder/CEO Hosain Rahman and Mayer both attended Standford at the same time, and are close friends. When requested, Jawbone declined commenting on the claim.
Jawbone’s products include the Bluetooth mobile speakers Jambox and the Up fitness wristband. The company specializes in “human-centered wearable technology and audio devices,” according to its website. It was winner of the 2010 IDSA Design of the Decade, and boasts its NoiseAssassin technology, which is the only military-grade noise-zapping technology in the world.
Before coming to Yahoo, Mayer was Vice President of Local, Maps, and Location Services at Google, and was recently ranked as the 14th most powerful businesswoman in America by Fortune magazine, as well as holding the title of youngest CEO of a Fortune 500. She currently sits on the board of directors of Walmart, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Sanfrancisco Museum of Modern Art.
[via AllThingsD]
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer may join Jawbone board is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.
There’s definitely more than a touch of a biological theme to proceedings this week. In fact, so much so that we thought we might well end up with enough ingredients to make our own cyborg. Or rather, a light-responding canine cyborg with a really cool voice. Yep, science and technology is working hard to make all of these things possible — albeit independently. If science ever does do the right thing, and pool its resources on such a project, you can thanks us for the tip off. This is Alt-week.
Continue reading Alt-week 9.1.12: growing bones, repairing voices, and a pair of satellites
Filed under: Misc, Science, Internet, Alt
Alt-week 9.1.12: growing bones, repairing voices, and a pair of satellites originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s hard not to like the Jawbone JAMBOX, but if you’re the kind of person who likes their tech to be customized, the new JAMBOX Remix might be just for you. With the launch of Remix, the JAMBOX is now available in over 100 different colors combinations.
JAMBOX The Remix allows users to create their own personalized Bluetooth speaker. You can choose from popular remixes, and customize them even further. Creating a remix is easy, simply select a color palette, an assortment of textured grills and you end up with 117 different color combinations. Once you’ve ordered yours, it has to be custom-assembled and will be delivered in 7 to 10 days.
JAMBOX The Remix is available for a select few (Cool Hunting has provided an early access code: 3sV513GQkvg) until August 28th, when it becomes available to everyone. It still costs $199 (USD).
[via Cool Hunting]
We’ve been given the opportunity to take a peek at Jawbone‘s newest iteration of their popular JAMBOX lineup of bluetooth mobile speakers, a custom color combination built with their new “JAMBOX The Remix” initiative. What you’ve got here is a collection of 13 different grille colors and 9 different cap colors, each of them fine tuned to look fabulous no matter what combination you make. Our choices were none other than Graphite Diamond and Red – the only colors you’re ever going to need!
Given the choice between over 100 new color combinations, black and red were a basic must-have for the artwork I’ve got in my home. It works quite well with Shepard Fairey posters, that’s for certain. While there are black color choices for both the caps and the grill here in the new Jawbone color combinator interface, it was clear that there was a perfect choice for the bright red that sat in the cap set.
Grills color choices come connected to patterns, with Dot patterns, Diamond patterns, and Hex patterns being connected to each of the 13 different shades of the rainbow (and outside the rainbow, as it were). The Graphite choice in grills is attached to Diamond, and connected to Red for caps, a perfect combination was made! We hit the order button and the JAMBOX was on its way to our review lab. Of course this device having exactly the same guts as the original JAMBOX, we needed no review, already knowing that we had a high-quality product on our hands.
Have a peek at the unboxing process above and below and let us know if you’ll be considering a brand new Jawbone JAMBOX soon now that the company is offering color combinations for no more cost than the original unit has always been. Check our original JAMBOX The Remix announcement post to see all the details involved in making one of these units yours – note that the public will not be able to access the remix interface until the 29th of this month!
Also check our JAMBOX timeline below to track our coverage since the first unit arrived at SlashGear headquarters!
Jawbone JAMBOX The Remix gets limited release and hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Everyone wants to be unique in his or her own special way, and I guess you cannot fault them considering how much harder it is to stand out from among nearly 7 billion other people here on earth. Well, even when it comes to wireless speakers, there are potential candidates that will grab your attention – and I would like to single out the Jambox from Jawbone Speaker this time around. The new Jambox will come in over 100 new custom color combinations, where you can pick from 13 grill and nine cap colors right on Jawbone.com itself. This particular experience allows folks to mix and match, and helps them be truly unique.
Travis Bogard, vice president of product management and strategy at Jawbone, said, “This is an exciting update for JAMBOX. We’re taking its iconic design and allowing our customers to use it as a canvas for personal expression. Our fans have been extremely passionate about the limited edition JAMBOX designs we’ve released to date, and this extended color palette gives our customers even more ways to share their music – and sense of style – with a JAMBOX of their own creation.” (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BIG JAMBOX: Portable Smart Wireless Speaker with Powerful Sound, LiveAudio for JAMBOX Delivers Spatial Sound ,
Starting today, Klout users and “Jawbone Insiders” can customize the color of their Jambox speaker on Jawbone’s new Jambox Remix site. Klout and the uglification of a perfectly good speaker sounds like a match made in heaven; the rest of the world will have to wait until August 28th for the privelege of mucking up their own, though. [Jambox Remix via Wired] More »
This week the #1 best selling Bluetooth speaker in the United States, the Jawbone JAMBOX, is bringing on a whole new era of customizability with JAMBOX The Remix. With this initiative comes a collection of color combinations for both the grilles and the caps for your Jawbone JAMBOX, all for the same price you’d pay for a standard single color model. You’ll be able to select from a set of 13 different grille colors and 9 different cap colors, with both user-selected combinations and “Popular Remixes” available to you right out of the gate!
As you may remember from our NVIDIA TegraZone Anniversary event, the folks at Jawbone have been creating custom color combinations for large groups for a while now. With JAMBOX The Remix, you will be able to make a custom color combination you’re own. And it’s not just colors you’re selecting, it’s grille patterns as well. Some colors come with the Dot pattern, some come with Diamond, some come with the Hex pattern, and others come with Haze.
Customers will be able to select their own color combinations via the Jawbone website through a new portal currently available only to Jawbone Insiders and Klout users from 8/21 –8/27. On the 28th – that’s a Tuesday – everyone will be able to access the ability to make their own Remix!
The selector tool is slick and entertaining in and of itself too, and combinations you make with it are able to be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and email.
For those of you not familiar with the original JAMBOX, you’ll want to see our Jawbone JAMBOX review from all the way back in November of 2010. Since then there have been some innovations and even software updates to the hardware for enhanced audio, all of this available to you in our Jawbone portal – while you’re there, don’t forget to visit the BIG JAMBOX Review as well!
Jawbone JAMBOX The Remix delivers color-friendly custom combos is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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