The Only Way is Up - Tech Interview with Shane O'Brien

What is Three Mobile’s Positive APPitude campaign all about?
“It’s about wearables - various different accessories that link to your smartphone and help you understand your wellbeing a lot more. It’s almost like body hacking - seeing what your body is doing and whether you can create more improvement.”

What is the UP band by Jawbone?
“It’s like a really cool bracelet. You put it on your less active hand. There a 3.5ml jack to plug into your phone. It downloads all the information you’ve acquired over the day and night onto an application on the phone. The Jawbone tracks your movements throughout the whole day. How many times you’ve moved. The longest resting period, the longest active period.”

Does it track exercise?
“Yes, it works as a pedometer. It’s recommended that people should walk 10,000 steps a day. We would never know on average how much we walk, but UP tracks your footsteps. The Jawbone tracks your movement throughout the day and you can set yourself higher targets if you wish. I’ve been achieving 10,000 a day no problem, so I’ve tried to boost it a little bit higher to 15,000 steps a day.”

It also tracks sleep?
“When you go to bed, there’s a little silver button [on the device] that enables motion sensors when you go to sleep. It will tell you how long you have been asleep: light sleep, deep sleep and so on. We are advised to sleep eight hours, so it can help you set goals if you’re not getting enough sleep.”

What else can the UP band do?
“Nutrition advice. The corresponding app for the device measures your daily intake, and level activity, according to your height, weight, age, and gives you advice accordingly.”