Chris Hollindale is cofounder and CTO of seed-funded stealth startup Hasty.

If you’ve ever tried out a Nike+ FuelBand, a Jawbone UP, or apps like RunKeeper or Strava for runners and cyclists, the chances are that you’ve seen the powerful effects that gamification can have.

Gamification is an effective mechanism that taps into our naturally competitive instinct to help change our behavior. And in the case of health and fitness apps, this change of behavior means real lifestyle changes, enabling us to be fitter and healthier.

But is this gamification being applied to the right health metrics? Could it be applied to areas that have even more of a positive health impact?

In the health and fitness space, the best examples of gamification are those employed by the likes of Nike+, Jawbone and FitBit’s tracking devices. Statistical and anecdotal evidence shows how effective the gamification is here – FitBit reports that its users take 43 percent more steps. But is tracking your steps  – which is ultimately what these devices do — actually all that good for you?

I’d argue that there are many more important metrics when it comes to living better and healthier, and this is where the future of health gamification will lie.

An interesting possibility is applying gamification to real health metrics. Services like WellnessFX now allow consumers to evaluate all manner of data points about themselves, from nutrient levels to cholesterol and testosterone. Being able to measure and improve these core health metrics is a huge leap, and I can see exciting applications of gamification applying here in the future. It could be that you’re able to create and compete with your own personal wellness score based on a variety of health metrics.

Or … even try to beat your mate’s level of testosterone – the ultimate “who’s the bigger man?” competition.

Of the metrics that people currently track, the one that has the most overall impact is food. Gamification has the potential to have a huge impact on the way we eat and the choices we make when it comes to food, and this can make a monumental impact in terms of our collective health.

If I earned a badge for eating well during the day, or was competing with a friend to see who could stick to a diet the longest, I would be way more incentivized to persevere and eat well. The problem standing in the way is that currently, tracking is hard: it’s simply not automatic enough.

But if that were to be resolved, the applications of gamification to food tracking become really interesting. Fooducate is a good example of gamification already being applied to food – by scanning barcodes, it grades the groceries that you buy to encourage you to eat better.

And Google Glass has the potential to fundamentally change the way we track and gamify health.

Imagine being able to track and gamify your statistics for any sport – like what your shot accuracy was in your latest tennis game – or having Google Glass automatically read the stats off your bike machine at the gym. And how about creating a proper augmented reality experience for exercise – extending the idea created by the Zombies, Run! smartphone app, your morning run could be turned into all manner of videogame-style scenarios, from escaping zombie hoards to chasing down one of your friends.

And its tracking applications will go way beyond physical health – it could even be used to track and gamify the number of words you spoke during the day, or the number of social interactions you had.

There are many opportunities for new applications of gamification in these areas. As a final thought, suppose Google Glass could record all the food you ate, the portion sizes and how much food you left on your plate. Suddenly, you’d have cracked the food-tracking problem and you’d have a massive opportunity to gamify and fix our increasing battle with preventable, diet-related health problems.

Photo credit: Chris Chabot/Google

Android owners now have one less excuse against getting healthy.

Jawbone has finally released an Android app for its Up health wristband, which has so far remained an iPhone-exclusive device.

Jawbone recently re-released its Up wristband ($129) after a disastrous debut in 2011. Just like the previous model, the device tracks your daily activity and sleep patterns — but its far better built, so it shouldn’t die off as easily as the first Up. The Android app allows you to synchronize with the Up, log your food, and keep track of your moods, among several other features.

It offers all of the features currently on the iPhone app, except for the recent ability to share your updates to Twitter and Facebook, according to Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management and strategy.

“Right now we’re focusing on supporting Android well,” Bogard said. “There’s a lot of variety out there, this is why many people in this space have either declared they won’t support Android [referring to Nike's Fuelband], or will only support one or two Android devices.”

Specifically, Bogard tells me that the Jawbone Up now supports more than 26 different Android smartphones, which includes most of the popular models you’d expect. The company has spent the past year developing the application in parallel with the iOS version, but it took a while to test it on a decent amount of Android phones.

Additionally, Jawbone is releasing an updating iPhone application today which includes support for more international languages. Basically, plenty of people who’ve wanted to get their hands on the Up will finally have a reason to do so.

“What’s cool is that people who have friends in the [Up] system move around 10 more miles per month and have 20 percent longer workouts,” Bogard said. “Being able to touch more people really helps create that encouragement and support.”

I’m a huge fan of the revamped Jawbone Up (so much so that I prefer it over the Fitbit One in my dual review), so it’s nice to see it finally reach Android. Unfortunately, you still have to plug in the Up device to synchronize it with your phone (that won’t be fixed until an entirely new model is released), but at least Android users now have the option to use it.

San Francisco-based Jawbone has raised $202 million in funding so far from Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, and others.

By marrying hardware and user-experience design, Jawbone wants to help people to make more informed decisions about their health.

So the wearable computing maker today acquired MassiveHealth, a maker of apps to promote healthy eating; and Visere, the design firm behind the Unstuck life coach app, for an undisclosed sum. 

As we pointed out in a review, it’s one thing to receive data about your sleeping habits and calories that you’ve burned, but it’s another to actually improve your lifestyle choices. The goal with these acquisitions is to improve the user experience around Jawbone Up, the health-tracking wristband.

Source: Jawbone

A Jawbone Up user

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said in a statement, “Both companies have shown a deep understanding of the intricacies of designing engaging products and experiences, and we’re eager to continue to harness talent of that caliber here at Jawbone.”

Up is the brainchild of Jawbone’s chief creative officer Yves Behar, the design wunderkind behind some of the most iconic tech products of recent years (including Kickstarter sensation Ouya, a video game console that plays Android games). It will be interesting to see how an infusion of design talent — notably Massive Health founder Aza Raskin — will transform the product.

Raskin is the son of Jef Raskin, the human-computer interaction expert best known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple in the late 1970s. Prior to starting Massive Health, he led the user experience team at Mozilla Labs.

A blog post from Visere’s Adam Wulf indicates an ongoing relationship with Jawbone — so it’s not a surprise that the Oregonian firm would come on board. Massive Health is a bigger get — the San Francisco-based startup has raised over $2 million in venture capital funding

According to GigaOm’s Om Malik, about 25 new people will bring expertise in data science and design. The company has not yet decided what it will do with Massive Health’s Eatery app, which received rave reviews but failed to reach a critical mass of users.

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.

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.

The sad reality of the technology world is that many of the best gadgets are also really expensive. Tablets, smartphones, game consoles — the high end of the gadget world is dominated by some really awesome devices that come with equally scary prices. And this makes them awful as gifts. (Though, admittedly, we have a gift guide for tablets as well.)

The cure, then, is clear: Go cheaper. Plenty of devices on the lower end of the price spectrum do some pretty impressive things, and the gadgets you’ll find below are some of our favorites.

For the failed home gardener: Koubachi Wi-Fi plant sensor

Some people are really good at taking care of plants. For everyone else, there’s the Koubachi Wi-Fi plant sensor. Once placed in the soil of a plant, the sensor gives forgetful botanists the low down on all the plant’s vitals, including moisture levels, light intensity, and temperature. All this information is fed to the Koubachi app, which lets you see how your plants are doing — even when you’re out of the country. Something tells me the house plant mortality rate is about to drop precipitously. $100.

For the kids: Furby

With every holiday season comes that one toy parents scratch each other’s eyes out over in toy stores, and this year it’s the Furby. Furbies have always sat on the divide between cute and creepy, but the latest revision is something else: super high-tech. Along with the toy, Mattel has created an iOS app that kids can use to both feed Furby and figure out what the heck the thing is talking about. $80

For the writer: Moleskine’s Evernote Smart Notebook

Being a writer is tough nowadays: Do you stick to paper or fully embrace the promise of the cloud? The Moleskine Evernote Smart Notebook turns that conundrum into a compromise: Not only can it be used as a regular old notebook, but the included smart stickers let you upload your notes (and automatically tag them) simply by photographing them. Comes with two free months of Evernote Premium. $30

For the eco nut: Square water bottle

There are about as many water bottles on the market are there are drops of water in the ocean — but the Square is different. Solving one of the central problems with water bottle sanitation, the Square opens at both ends, allowing owners to clean it with unparalelled ease. The best part? It won’t roll away if you drop it. $45.

For the bibliophile: Kindle Paperwhite

With the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon has once again improved on a fairly spotless formula: Create a well-designed device and attach it to a seemingly infinite ecosystem of content, and you have a device that’s pretty tough for the average book lover to pass up. And by giving its latest eReader a backlight, Amazon has made the whole package that much more compelling. $120

For the music lover: Jambox

There are a lot of Bluetooth speakers out there, but none rise to the level of elegance of the Jambox. Deceptively small, the Jambox blows out some pretty powerful sound for a device that’s just 1.6 pounds. Oh, and it comes in four colors. $130.

For the fitness fanatic: Jawbone Up

If personal sensors are the future, let’s hope that future looks a lot like the Jawbone Up. More than a fitness tracker, the Up is capable of tracking your whole life: hours slept, calories burned, distance traveled — everything falls within the Up’s purview, which makes the device not only comprehensive, but wicked smart, too. The Up’s insight engine means that the device can also learn things about how its wearer lives and help that individual develop new habits — in theory, anyway. (To get a sense of how well it works, check out our review.) $130

For the cable cutter: Mohu Leaf

For anyone whose severed their relationship with their local cable provider, devices like the Mohu Leaf are a godsend. The super thin HDTV antenna gives owners clear access to local over-the-air programming, which, for a lot of people, is all the television they need. $40

For the hardware hacker: iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit

The gadget teardown wizkids at iFixit are good at what they do, and with the  iFixIt Pro Tech Toolkit, a lot of other people can be too. The kit gives you access to a wide range of indispensable tools, including openers, tweezers, a spudger, and 54 screw driver bits. For anyone who’s always wanted to crack open their electronics, there’s probably no better gift than this. $60

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.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If you’re tired of guestimating how many calories you burned walking around the living room, check out Nike’s new wristband gadget that tracks calories and movement.

The new Nike+ FuelBand, announced Thursday, is a direct competitor to Jawbone’s similar UP wristband. Jawbone suspended production of the UP in December and issued full refunds to customers after complaints of battery and synching issues. Like the Jawbone UP, the FuelBand is worn around your wrist and can be synched to an iPhone or PC to upload activity data.

“The NIKE+ FuelBand is a way for Nike to further evolve the exciting possibilities of merging the physical and digital worlds,” said NIKE, Inc. President and Chief Executive Mark Parker, in a statement. “Nike has always been about inspiring athletes, and the NIKE+ FuelBand will help motivate them in a simple, fun and intuitive way.”

Designed to measure your movement throughout the entire day, from walking and running to biking and ballet, the waterproof band also allows you to set daily goals. The FuelBand will notify you through its LED software whether or not you meet those goals.

So, what makes the $150 FuelBand different from the $100 Jawbone UP? For starters, the Jawbone UP can stay charged for up to 10 days, while the FuelBand lasts only four. However, the FuelBand has internal USB, which could make using the Jawbone seem like a hassle when having to use its required USB-to-headphone jack adapter to charge.

Although the FuelBand is heavier, it offers a polished user interface and web access for $50 extra. In theory, the FuelBand could make for a better experience, especially for previous Jawbone UP owners burned by issues with early models. The FuelBand is available for pre-order now but won’t ship until Feb. 22.

Athletes like Lance Armstrong have already endorsed the FuelBand, claiming the tool will help people meet daily and weekly fitness targets.