Finally, Fitbit has an activity tracking wristband of its own, the Fitbit Flex.

While Fitbit pioneered the fitness gadget industry with its tiny fitness tracking device, it has recently been overshadowed by the arrival of fitness wristbands from Nike and Jawbone. With the Flex, Fitbit has a wearable option that can track your steps, distance traveled, and sleep patterns, just like its past gadgets. (Unfortunately, it can’t track steps you’ve climbed, unlike some of the company’s latest devices.)

For Fitbit fans, the wait may have been worth it. Fitbit claims the Flex is the first health wristband to fully take advantage of Bluetooth 4.0, allowing it to synchronize wirelessly with your smartphone and computer while maintaining strong battery life. Nike’s FuelBand was touted as a Bluetooth 4.0 device, but in a teardown by Fitbit, the company found only Bluetooth 2.1 hardware (though there’s a chance that hardware could also be Bluetooth 4.0 compatible).  The Jawbone Up doesn’t offer any wireless syncing.

The Flex is also cheaper than the competition. At $99, it’s a better value than Jawbone’s $130 Up, and Nike’s $150 Fuelband. It’s the same price as the Fitbit One, the company’s latest flagship fitness tracker that clips onto your clothing.  Fitbit also offers a cheaper $60 device, the Fitbit Zip, for those who just want the basics of step counting.

When I reviewed the Jawbone Up and Fitbit One in December,  I ultimately favored the Up. Even though the One offered a superior online interface for tracking your health data, I found it easier to wear a futuristic wristband than to keep track of a tiny pedometer. (Also, I liked the Up’s geek chic.) With the Flex, Fitbit has a compelling alternative that may have me switching fitness camps.

I haven’t had a chance to see the Fitbit Flex in person yet, but I’m hoping to get some time with it later this week at CES. The Flex is available for pre-order starting today and will ship in the spring.

San Francisco-based Fitbit has raised a total of $23.4 million from Foundry Group, True Ventures, and others.

Mc10 has raised a $10 million funding round to develop its line of wearable electronics that are light and flexible enough to conform to the human body.

The company’s digital products can be placed inside or outside the body; they include sensors that chart blood pressure, brain activity, muscle function and hydration levels. Rather than making traditional electronics smaller, Mc10′s goal is to turn them into flexible systems that are invisible to users, but are constantly working to monitor the body’s core functions.

On the consumer side, where it has received the lion’s share of attention, the company competes with wearable electronics companies like Battle Sports Science and Impakt that produce tools for fitness junkies. Health and fitness is an early focus for MC10 — one of the first products that will hit the market in 2013 is a scullcap that can be worn under helmets by athletes. Developed in partnership with Reebok, it measures the impact of collisions, and will alert athletes and their supporters on the sidelines, if they need to seek medical attention.

Flexible electronics on a person’s arm.

People are increasingly obsessed with monitoring their health (this behavior is viewed in Silicon Valley as part of a budding “Quantified Self” movement), so there is a massive opportunity for the 30-person Cambridge, Mass.-based startup. From a scientific standpoint, the company has an impressive roster of advisors that include Professor George Whitesides, noted biochemist, and Dr. Marvin Slepian, a cardiologist at the University of Arizona.

Today, the company raised capital from medical device-maker Medtronic, and existing venture investors, North Bridge Venture Partners and Braemar Energy Ventures, among others. To date, the founders has received $33 million in funds.

“With a strong set of complementary capabilities, they [our investors] bring much more to MC10 than capital.  These partnerships will help MC10 accelerate time-to-market for the products we are developing in consumer, digital health and medical devices,” said David Icke, the company’s CEO in a statement.

Fitness tracking image // leungchopan, Shutterstock

One of my Twitter buddies recently joked that the ideal fitness device will be a neck collar that monitors the food going down your throat and then chokes you when you hit your calorie limit.

These devices don’t do that. But they may get you to hum the tune to “Chariots of Fire” when you exercise and motivate you to take an extra step or two. After all, they track your every move, and they won’t lie to you.

Take it from me: These are powerful motivators, and any one of them would be a good choice for you or your loved ones.

Basis Health Tracker, $199

This wristwatch health tracker from Basis Science packs a lot of technology. It uses an accelerometer to track your steps. It has a galvanic skin sensor to detect your sweat. It has an optical blood-flow sensor to track your heartbeat. It has a skin temperature sensor and an ambient room temperature sensor, so it knows if you’re hot because you are exercising or because you’re in a hot room. It also monitors when you’re sleeping and knows the best time to wake you up.

You can log onto the Basis Science website and study your stats via a cloud-based web service. The service focuses on actionable information, like reminders that you’ve been sitting in a chair for 40 minutes. The site tells you more about why it’s important to get enough sleep and allows you to drill down into the data to see patterns. With all of that data, you can learn what impact your physical activity has on your body, such as how it stirs your heart rate. Basis Science says that, due to overwhelming demand, it has stopped taking orders and will be shipping current orders in early 2013.

Striiv Smart Pedometer, $70

This second-generation device from Striiv can clip onto your clothing. It’s so small you’ll forget it’s there. The blue digital display shows the number of steps you’ve taken. It communicates with your iPhone via Bluetooth, so you can run Striiv’s iOS app to learn more about your habits. You can use the iPhone app alone to track your steps, since the phone comes with its own accelerometer. But the Striiv pedometer also has an altimeter, which can track how many stairs you climb in a day.

The pedometer tracks your steps and the app calculates how many miles you’ve walked. It also shows how many calories you’ve burned in a day, but it does not have access to your heart rate information. The app includes a fantasy-oriented role-playing game called MyLand. If you complete challenges, you earn points that you can then spend on goods in the fantasy world. Striiv says the new app can run in the background of your iOS device, and it won’t drain your battery.

On a bad day, my Striiv app step counter will tell me all of the steps I didn’t take. But on a recent trip to London, I managed to walk more than 36,000 steps in a single day. That was about seven miles and is equivalent to about 22 percent of the walking I usually do in a month. One of these days, I want to beat that all-time record. And I’ll gladly return to London to do it.

Fitbit One, $99

The folks at Fitbit are on their third device since they created the Fitbit Classic pedometer in 2008. Now the Fitbit One can track your steps, distance traveled, calories burned, stairs climbed, and your sleep. The device screen (which shows only a number) tells you how many steps you’ve moved.

The new device clips to your clothing easily. It syncs wirelessly with your smartphone via Bluetooth, or you can sync it via USB or Wi-Fi on your computer. You can look at your stats on the web. It’ll also teach you how to sleep better and will wake you up in the morning. It has a nice ecosystem of other devices, including the Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi scale and the Fitbit Zip for tracking kids.

You can set your own goals and challenges with the Fitbit One. Check out fellow VentureBeat writer Devindra Hardawar’s review here, in which he compares the One to the Jawbone Up.

Jawbone Up, $130

The first Up didn’t fare so well, since production problems made the device glitchy. Jawbone issued refunds and pulled it off the market. But it reissued the device recently. This time, the device isn’t as susceptible to water damage.

You can use it to track your steps, distance moved, calorie count, activity time, and activity intensity. It also tracks your light and deep sleep as well as your waking moments.

It comes with a bright iOS app that allows you to study your stats. And you can also use it to track your meals and share pictures of what you’re eating with your friends. If you really want to find out how many calories you’ve consumed, you can do so by checking against a big food database.

The battery lasts for 10 days, and the design is water-resistant. If you take a nap, it will wake you up at the optimal time, around 26.5 minutes. It reminds you to move when you have been inactive for too long. It has no display, so you can’t check your movements while on the move. You also have to sync it to your iPhone by plugging it into your headphone jack. Check out our review.

Larklife, $150

This baby from Lark tracks your steps and distance moved. It also tracks the type of exercise, the amount of time you spend doing it, the calories you burn, and when you started and stopped. If you have been inactive for a while, it will send you an alert to get moving. It tracks your sleep and offers you coaching about it.

As a diet logger, it tries to reduce the dullness of manually entering the meals you eat. It has a list of foods, letting you log what you eat with the touch of a button. You can also tap the screen to log that you have drunk a glass of water. This set of features about food intake is crucial to completing the loop of information about your activity, your body’s reaction to it, and refueling. However, it’s easy to forget.

If you remember, then Larklife can remind you of the best time of day for you to eat and how much you should eat.

Nike+ FuelBand, $150

The new Nike+ FuelBand gadget is a wristband that allows you to capture data on a variety of activities, like tossing a Frisbee or throwing a football. It collects information on exercise time, calories burned, steps taken, and overall movement. You wear it all day and transfer the data to the Nike+ web site through a USB or via your iPhone.

You can set a daily NikeFuel goal and track your progress. It syncs with the Nike+FuelBand app, which you can use to track your activity history and connect with friends online. Like the Fitbit One, the wristband has a display on the plastic. It can tell you the time, your goal, your steps walked, and other text-based information. You can share your achievements via Facebook, Twitter, and Path. It also just launched a NikeFuel Missions game, which is an attempt to “gamify,” or motivate you to do more exercise through entertainment.

BodyMedia Fit Core Armband, $149

You wear this watch-like band around your upper arm. The device is a third smaller than previous armbands created by BodyMedia. You can see the stats on the optional display device. It claims it has the “most accurate calories burned” number. An online subscription of $6.95 a month is required after a free trial period. The device comes with a wireless link.

Sensors track your motion and capture 5,000 points of data per minute, such as your sweat level, the rate at which heat leaves your body, your galvanic skin response, and skin temperature. With this data, BodyMedia calculates the calories you burn throughout a day. It also captures info on your sleeping patterns such as how long it takes to fall asleep. It gives you steps taken, calories burned, and your sleep patterns.

Mio Alpha

This one is for professional athletes. Mio Global says this heart-rate monitor and wristwatch is the first performance-level strapless monitor that can measure your heart rate accurately at up to 12 miles per hour. It uses optical blood flow technology to sense the volume of blood under your skin. This measures your heart rate and calculates other data such as speed, distance, pace, and location. You can connect it via Bluetooth to your smartphone.

The device is not available yet, but the company says it is launching soon. Pricing details haven’t been disclosed yet.

Under Armour E39

This is a “compression shirt” that has sensors for tracking an athlete’s biometrics. It captures heart rate, breathing rate, lung capacity, acceleration, body positioning and motion. The device has an accelerometer, microprocessor, and built-in storage, and it connects wirelessly to any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

The circular device in the middle, dubbed “the bug,” contains a computer, hard drive, and accelerometer. Under Armour is targeting college and pro sports teams with the shirt. It isn’t available just yet.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re still stuffing your face with leftovers, preparing to do so, or regretting that fifth helping of turkey with all the fixins. Even diligent weight watchers let themselves go during holiday feasts — so what better time to look at the next generation of fitness tech?

Over the past week, I’ve had a chance to test out Fitbit’s One, its third-generation activity tracker, and Jawbone’s redesigned Up health wristband. I went from not tracking my activity at all to constantly wearing two of the most advanced health tracking devices available. The result: Lots of data … and constantly feeling like a lazy bum.

Sure, I’ve dreamed of living a healthier life, but you know how it goes — work, chores, and sheer laziness inevitably get in the way. The promise of these fitness gadgets is that they’ll point out just how terrible your daily habits are, and with the power of data, they’ll force you to be move more, eat better, and get more sleep.

Both the Up and One can track your steps, sleep habits, and give you an estimate of calories you’ve burned. The One clips onto your clothes, just like its predecessors, while the Up is meant to be worn all day on your wrist.

No matter how you do it, simply tracking your activity has health benefits: People who do so generally increase their activity by 26 percent, according to the American Medical Association. Even if you don’t have a strict diet plan and a trainer at the gym, fitness data can make you healthier.

In comparing the Jawbone Up and Fitbit One, I definitely settled on a favorite. But I also learned that these devices are extremely personal — what works best for me may not end up working for you. But at least you now have a number of mature fitness gadgets to choose from.

Jawbone’s Up: You can trust it this time

Let’s not mince words. The original Jawbone Up was a failure. Released in November, 2011, the Up sported a slick Yves Behar design and came from one of the most trusted names in gadgets. But a month after launch, Jawbone was forced to suspend production of the Up and offer full refunds due to issues with its electronics.

Instead of giving up, Jawbone went back to the drawing board to figure out exactly what went wrong. It turns out building a flexible, wearable computer was harder than Jawbone anticipated. Now, after 2.9 million hours of user testing and the development of 28 new manufacturing processes, Jawbone has relaunched the Up. And even though it looks the same as the old Up, this new Up is a completely different beast internally.

Source: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

The old Jawbone up (left) alongside the newer, more well-built model (right), both without their rubber coatings.

One quick glance at the two Up models laid bare is enough to tell you which one is better built. The new model features a strong coating around the Up’s internal electronics, and it also seals together with the Up’s rubber exterior to keep water out.

According to Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management and strategy, water damage was one of the biggest problems the company faced with the first Up. Jawbone went through all of the usual industry standards for testing, but once the Up failures started rolling in, the company quickly realized it needed to come up with rigorous new testing standards of its own.

Now Jawbone is confident the Up will withstand whatever consumers throw at it. But you’ll have to pay a bit more for this model: It’s retailing for $130, instead of the $100 last year’s model cost. For now, the Up is only compatible with iOS devices. The company says it’s working on an Android app but hasn’t said when it will be available.

I’ve been using the new Up wristband almost non-stop over the past week. It’s survived showers, pouring rain, and several instances where I forgot to take it off before messy cooking situations. Perhaps due to its more solid internal construction, it also feels more flexible and comfortable than last year’s model. That’s particularly important, since it’s meant to be a device you never take off — even while sleeping.

The Up is a bit too thick to hide completely, but with its bright color options you may not want to hide it. And it’s light enough that you can easily forget you’re wearing it. Jawbone claims the Up has 10 days of battery life, and it’s performance over the last seven days I’ve been wearing it seems to confirm that figure.

The good: Strong design, revamped app

Design still holds up: I immediately lusted after last year’s Up model the moment I saw it — chalk that up to a simple, yet elegant design that makes it seem like a piece of cyberpunk jewelry, not just a gadget. Jawbone didn’t change anything with the new model’s design, and I can’t blame it. One year later, I’m still drawn to the Up in a visceral way.

Vastly improved mobile app: The original Up iPhone app released last year was fairly basic — it showed the number of steps you took and your sleep performance and offered you a way to track what you ate. But there wasn’t much of a social component, and the food tracking was mostly manual.

This time around, Jawbone’s Up app finally feels complete. You can track what you eat (using the device’s matching iPhone app) more easily with a massive database of foods and their nutritional information, and you can add friends to your “Team” to compare their performance. You can also track your mood through the app and log additional exercises like yoga and cardio workouts.

Best of all, the Up app now uses all the data it collects to generate useful insights about your behavior. If you don’t get enough sleep while travelling, or if you tend to eat unhealthy lunches at work, Up will nudge you to be better.

Sleep tracking and silent alarm works wonders: Not much has changed when it comes to the way the new Up handles sleep, but its ability to track the quality of your sleep and wake you up gently is still worth mentioning. The wristband can figure out how much light and deep sleep you’ve had, as well as how long it took you to fall asleep once getting to bed.

And since it knows how well you’re sleeping, Up’s silent alarm can pick the best time to wake you, so you get up feeling refreshed. It’s the perfect solution for anyone who hates waking up to a blaring alarm in the morning.

The bad: Syncing is a pain

For all of the Up’s whiz-bang technology, you still have to plug it into your phone’s headphone jack to synchronize it, even though the FitBit One and Nike’s FuelBand both offer wireless BlueTooth syncing. According to Jawbone’s Bogard, the company still thinks wireless syncing has a ways to go. That’s ironic, given that Jawbone made its name with its wireless Bluetooth headsets and wireless Jambox speakers.

Synchronizing the Up is a simple process, but it feels like an imperfection in an otherwise quality product. It’s also a pain when it comes to making simple changes to the Up, like changing the time of its silent alarm or tweaking its activity reminder (which buzzes to keep you from sitting down for too long). It’s not tough to get into the habit of syncing the Up twice a day, but plugging it in just to make a simple alarm clock change seriously diminishes its futuristic veneer.

You can be sure Jawbone is working to get wireless synchronization in future versions of the Up, but for now your only option is decidedly old-school. For some people, this may be reason enough to opt for another fitness gadget. But I’ve gotten used to the inconvenience — and it’s also somewhat fun to see the stares from strangers when I plug my unassuming bracelet into my iPhone.

Fitbit’s One: The pedometer, evolved

While Jawbone is a relative newcomer to fitness gadgets, Fitbit has been at this for a while now — and it shows. The company first showed off the Fitbit Classic in 2008. The Classic was widely praised for its compact clip-on design and its ability to track your steps and sleep. The Fitbit Ultra, released last year, added stair tracking, among many other new features.

With the Fitbit One, the company took all of its experience in this arena and crafted it into its most compelling device yet. It can synchronize wirelessly with your smartphone and has a smoother, pebble-like design. Instead of building the clip directly into the device, the One includes a small, removable clip “jacket” — a helpful addition, since it prevents the device itself from getting damaged if the clip gets caught in your clothing.

There’s nothing truly revolutionary about the Fitbit One, but that’s mainly because the company has done such a good job of establishing itself as a fitness leader with its past few devices. It’s hard to blame Fitbit for not pushing the envelope a bit more when it’s already done so pretty significantly several times. With wireless syncing and a strong ecosystem, the Fitbit One could be the ideal device for fitness gadget newcomers and addicts alike.

The Good: Almost everything

Secretly geeky: The Fitbit One may not be as flashy as Jawbone’s Up, but it’s perfect for people who don’t want to flaunt their fitness tracking. In my week using the One, I appreciated how unobtrusive it was — you can clip it onto your jeans and easily forget it’s there.

Data strong: It was nice to get access to my Fitbit data from the company’s extensive online dashboard (Jawbone’s Up relies entirely on its mobile app, for now). The site gives you many more ways to look at your data without fishing through a mobile app.

Easy synchronization: Where the Jawbone Up is annoying to sync, the Fitbit One is a dream. The device can wirelessly synchronize with Bluetooth 4.0-compatible iPhones and Android smartphones, as well as with computers through Bluetooth. Fitbit includes a Bluetooth USB receiver, just in case you have an ancient computer.

Useful ecosystem: Fitbit’s $130 Aria Wi-Fi scale can help you, and seven other people in your household, easily keep track of your weight. And the $60 Fitbit Zip is a good option for keeping track of your kids’ health — it can track their steps and distance traveled, but not sleep or stairs climbed.

The Bad: Competitors are more exciting

As great as the Fitbit One is, it lacks the striking appeal of Jawbone’s Up and Nike’s FuelBand. In the end, it’s the evolution of a device that’s been around for several years, instead of something that feels new and fresh. (Just compare Fitbit’s functional, but slightly boring app, to Up’s and Fuelband’s.)

This may not mean much when assessing its quality, but when it comes to convincing lazy consumers that they need to keep track of their health, it certainly helps to appeal to them on a more visceral level.

Up vs One

After using both fitness gadgets for the past week, it’s the Up that I’m most excited to use every day. Sure, the manual syncing is annoying, but I love its gorgeous design and colorful app. Most of all, I appreciate how it makes a simple statement — the future of technology isn’t just about what we’ve got in our pockets, it’s about what’s right up against our skin.

The Up feels like the precursor to the inevitable rise of body augmentation — you don’t have to wear the Up for too long before it feels like a part of you. The up has a strange and almost ineffable pull on me as a gadget geek and someone who appreciates artistic technology.

For the pragmatic types, Fitbit’s One may be more your style. It offers better access to your fitness data, as well as a few more helpful features. It’s also the best fitness gadget option for people who just hate wearing things on their wrists (that’s a bigger group than you may think).

Summing up: A wealth of choices

Even if you vehemently disagree with my preferred fitness gadget (as a reviewer, I’m used to this), the beauty of the current marketplace is that there’s a choice for just about everyone. Beyond the Up and Fitbit’s devices, there’s Nike’s popular Fuelband, and smart pedometers like Striiv’s. And if you have a smartphone, you don’t even need an additional gadget: You can dive into fitness apps like Runkeeper and Endomondo.

When it comes to fitness gadgets, reviews may not be enough. You may have to try a few before you figure out what works best for you. But no matter what you choose, it’s hard to go wrong. I have friends who’ve lost a significant amount of weight using all of the above options.

What’s important is that you find something that helps you get off your butt — and constantly reminds you to be better.

Jawbone and Fitbit provided VentureBeat with units for review.

Basis filed an Answer and Counterclaims with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, stating that BodyMedia’s claims of patent infringement are invalid.

“We believe these allegations are baseless,” said Jef Holove, chief of Basis, in an interview with VentureBeat. “One, we are not infringing [on BodyMedia's patents] and we haven’t even launched a product yet that would show we have infringed on anything. Second, there is a plethora of prior art for BodyMedia’s patents. From a larger point of view [the lawsuit] appears to be a tactic to hinder our launch.”

Holove argues that BodyMedia’s patents are invalid because of prior art for fitness gadgets that promote health and weight loss. Prior art refers to ideas and information that were public before a patent was obtained. The company also says that now that these patents have been brought to light, it intends to prove they were invalid to begin with.

Basis provided some context for why it feels BodyMedia’s lawsuit is inappropriate, and some of the reasons are a bit odd. It says that BodyMedia noticed the positive attention Basis was attracting at CES and asserts that BodyMedia filed the suit just to release a press release that the company had filed a lawsuit.

BodyMedia, which has been around since 1999, holds 17 patents for body sensing technology. In the patent infringement filing from February, BodyMedia contended that Basis violated six patents. One patent is for an armband to be worn on the upper arm that can detect health information with an accelerometer and a heat flux sensor. The other patents named in the filing related to sensors used in a health tracking device.

BodyMedia has a line of fitness armbands, under the name FIT, which track movement, skin temperature, sweat, and heat dissipation to give an overall picture of your health and daily fitness levels. The company recently closed a $12 million funding round.

Basis is in the process of developing a fitness wrist band with an accelerometer to track movement and sensors to track heart rate, temperature, and sweat levels. The company debuted its device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. It has raised $9 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners and DCM.

VentureBeat has reached out to BodyMedia for comment and will update the post when we get a response. The full filing is below.