Larklife Smart Wristband System Now Available in Apple Retail Stores

[MacRumors]

Lark today announced that its new Larklife wristband is available for immediate purchase both online and at Apple Retail stores.

Like the newly updated Jawbone Up, the Nike+ Fuelband, and the Fitbit, the Larklife is a smart wristband that is designed to track personal fitness, nutrition, productivity, and sleep.

Larklife goes beyond tracking your information; it is focused on helping you build better habits through small changes that help you feel your best each day. Using continuous machine learning, it analyzes your activity, identifies your unique patterns, and delivers real-time coaching through the iOS app. Designed with world-renowned scientists and coaches, like Dr. Shiv, Stanford neuroscientist and Fortune 500 CEO coach, lark's app provides personalized simple suggestions from the wristband and app.

Larklife stands out from similar offerings because it comes equipped with two different wristbands. There's a sweat-proof wristband for daytime use and a soft fabric wristband for use at night. The two bands share a single interchangeable core that collects activity, sleep, and diet information.

With Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, Larklife automatically syncs collected information to the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 with the free Larklife iPhone app in real time.

Larklife is now available at brick and mortar Apple Stores. It can also be preordered online from the Lark website for $149.99.

Article Link: Larklife Smart Wristband System Now Available in Apple Retail Stores

[segers909]

While reading the article I was expecting this to be a 50$ gadget. Oops.

[notjustjay]

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I kind of think that if you need an iPhone app and a gadget to tell you whether you're active enough, then, well... you're not active enough!

[ck2875]

I prefer the look of the Nike Fuelband and app for the same price. I don't own either, but my technology-adverse sibling asked for the Nike one for Christmas, so its starting to reach the mainstream conscious, which is semi-important when a lot of my friends have the Nike one and part of it is social competition within the app. However, it is nice to see options available to fuel (just realized how that comes off as a very bad pun. Note to self: make better use of the thesaurus) competition.

[testcard]

Not the Dr. Shiv, surely?

[ck2875]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I kind of think that if you need an iPhone app and a gadget to tell you whether you're active enough, then, well... you're not active enough!

But it comes with a softer, night time version that tells me if I am active enough in bed. Who doesn't want a trinket to show the person trying to go sleep next to you that you need to get some exercise?

[ThatsMrsGeek2U]

In some cases these bands to a lot more than tell you if you've been active. I used a fitbit to help track sleep issues and see what things I did that help or hurt it. I'm now looking at getting one that wakes you in a light sleep stage to help my hubby deal with his very early job a bit better. In general sometimes it just helps a lot to be able to stand back and see patterns. I think folks own recall on their past week for example is probably off base a lot!

[spazzcat]

Was getting tired of forgetting my fitbit and just ordered a Fuelband, if this wasn't so ugly I would send the fuelband back...

----------

Originally Posted by notjustjay

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I kind of think that if you need an iPhone app and a gadget to tell you whether you're active enough, then, well... you're not active enough!

I like stats, like when I changed jobs in March, I started getting about 4000 - 5000 less steps a day.

[likemyorbs]

This thing is ugly. I'm a big fan of the UP, it just looks like a regular bracelet and actually looks really nice. I would also hate to find out how the bluetooth syncing affects battery life. The UP syncs through the auxiliary jack and has a solid 10 day battery life.

[JaySoul]

Love my FuelBand, but competition is great.

Still an relatively new market - but trust me, in 5-10 years these activity tracking gadgets will be considered essential.

[jclardy]

Originally Posted by JaySoul

Love my FuelBand, but competition is great.

Still an relatively new market - but trust me, in 5-10 years these activity tracking gadgets will be considered essential.

I've been pretty happy with my Fitbit. Helped me lose 40 pounds over the past year by just watching what I eat and being a bit more active.

It would be nice if Apple built this in to the iPhone as some kind of Nike+ collaboration. I carry my fitbit in my pocket, just like my iPhone which has a much better accelerometer I would imagine.

I guess they could just open up the iOS SDK a bit more to allow it you could have background accelerometer access (I know some apps do now, but you have to have them open in order to do it which wastes battery a lot faster than a small background process would.) That would be ideal for me as I take my iPhone running anyways (for RunKeeper.)

[WissMAN]

Originally Posted by segers909

While reading the article I was expecting this to be a 50$ gadget. Oops.

Agreed. A bit pricey for a "nice to have"... For fitness, maybe the company could work with healthcare payers to encourage better health... and reduce the price point.

[JaySoul]

Originally Posted by jclardy

I've been pretty happy with my Fitbit. Helped me lose 40 pounds over the past year by just watching what I eat and being a bit more active.

It would be nice if Apple built this in to the iPhone as some kind of Nike+ collaboration. I carry my fitbit in my pocket, just like my iPhone which has a much better accelerometer I would imagine.

I guess they could just open up the iOS SDK a bit more to allow it you could have background accelerometer access (I know some apps do now, but you have to have them open in order to do it which wastes battery a lot faster than a small background process would.) That would be ideal for me as I take my iPhone running anyways (for RunKeeper.)

I also use my iPhone for RunKeeper, but other that that, find that the FuelBand is great for 90% of my activity. The only downers are:

- Gives a few too many points when driving (though far less with every update)
- Doesn't reward certain stationary/weight exercises much
- Can't go swimming with it

To be honest, I don't like carrying my iPhone unless I absolutely have to. First thing I do when I reach anywhere is take it out of my pocket. So I much prefer a wristband tracking activity than the iPhone.

I think technology will catch up to our needs the more people buy into it. Glad you enjoying your FitBit and congrats on getting in shape!!

[huntermaclean]

Looks neat, but I'm still sticking with my FuelBand. Both these bands have a very simple look, but it's the addition of the clock that sold me. So I'm not just wearing a fitness tracker on my wrist, I've got a retro yet high-tech watch available at the touch of a button.

[perealb]

C'mon! How long can you stand using such a horrific piece of ****** 24/7?

[spazzcat]

Originally Posted by perealb

C'mon! How long can you stand using such a horrific piece of ****** 24/7?

I always (when I remember) wear my fitbit 24/7, the few days I could keep an Up working, I wore it 27/4 without issue.

[nigameash]

I wish the nike fuelband had a vibrating sensor in it to wake me up in the morning. I like all the features of the fuel band but the alarm function would have totally sold it to me.

[Howmanoid]

Picked one up from the Apple store today.

The setup instructions are cryptic at best. Physically the thing is HUGE about 3x bigger than an UP band. While I expected a little more girth to house the BT radio this is not a incremental increase it's a giant leap larger. Then there's the color. Only the baby blue bands were available at my Apple store. Sorry, it's not something that you can ignore, it's like wearing a huge blue hand cuff. Nothing about it is subtle.

The software setup is less than intuitive, with scant instructions in the box and no real further help in the app it was a hit and miss experience on holding down the band's button in differing timings that got it to pair with my iPhone.

The final straw was wearing the band throughout the day and have it pop "open" on 4 separate occasions. This is the biggest flaw with the LarkLife band. The "Brains" snaps into a rubber strap in two places with nothing but friction holding it in place. You flex your wrist and POP it opens, allowing the band to drop off your arm. TERRIBLE design. Makes the UP look well thought out, despite those stupid caps.

Seriously if you want a good fitness monitor you're better off spending your hard earned cash on the remodeled UP or a FitBit... Sorry Lark. You suck. Getting returned tomorrow.

[iwayne]

I fully agree with your review. I had the thing for two hours and returned it. It constantly popped open. It's HUGE. I felt like I was wearin a woman's bangle on my wrist. The color was really bad too. The blue is not flattering on a man. The other thing is the quality. The idea of popping the brain into the day band looked horrible. There were gaps which as stated before eventually released. Lark should be ashamed to have released this product. I own a fuelband already and picked up a fitbit after returning the larklife. So far I'm loving the fitbit.

[fruitpunch.ben]

Originally Posted by Howmanoid

Picked one up from the Apple store today.

The setup instructions are cryptic at best. Physically the thing is HUGE about 3x bigger than an UP band. While I expected a little more girth to house the BT radio this is not a incremental increase it's a giant leap larger. Then there's the color. Only the baby blue bands were available at my Apple store. Sorry, it's not something that you can ignore, it's like wearing a huge blue hand cuff. Nothing about it is subtle.

The software setup is less than intuitive, with scant instructions in the box and no real further help in the app it was a hit and miss experience on holding down the band's button in differing timings that got it to pair with my iPhone.

The final straw was wearing the band throughout the day and have it pop "open" on 4 separate occasions. This is the biggest flaw with the LarkLife band. The "Brains" snaps into a rubber strap in two places with nothing but friction holding it in place. You flex your wrist and POP it opens, allowing the band to drop off your arm. TERRIBLE design. Makes the UP look well thought out, despite those stupid caps.

Seriously if you want a good fitness monitor you're better off spending your hard earned cash on the remodeled UP or a FitBit... Sorry Lark. You suck. Getting returned tomorrow.

I agree. I'd been looking forward to this for a long time (since it was announced 3 months ago!) because the bluetooth adds a very useful feature to the Up. I wore it for about 30 minutes and returned it. Its so big, fat and ugly. You are constantly being reminded you are wearing it, which is not the point. It should be in the background like any other bracelet. It is solid, and only a small part of the band is flexible rubber, so if you have a different shaped arm than the Lark people apparently do (mine is a bit bony and flatter rather than round) it is very uncomfortable. I presume the size has to do with a large battery being needed because of the bluetooth. But as the Fuelband has shown, you can have a large band that doubles as a fashion accessory. The larklife is nothing of the sort!
I returned it and will be ordering the Jawbone Up in white. It fixes all the above problems (except for bluetooth sync, but I'll live without it!)