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We finally received our Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) Pro 2 that we ordered for our iPad. The idea was to relegate our Apple Wireless Keyboard to only those trips where we need extreme portability and still require a keyboard. The rest of the time, we’d use the HHKB because of its superior tactile feel. As the HHKB Pro 2 is wired, we spent a little time trying to determine the difference in power draw between it and the Apple Wireless Keyboard, to see just why reports suggest the HHKB Pro 2 doesn’t work with the iPad, and how our iPad’s battery life would change if we did get the HHKB Pro 2to work. It turns out, finding a good answer is difficult, because Apple doesn’t seem to make the power consumption specifications of its accessories easy to find, if it makes them available to the public at all.

There’s power draw at both ends.

When we’re talking Bluetooth, we’re talking power draw on both the device end (because of the Bluetooth antenna), as well as on the accessory end. The former is why most Bluetooth accessories have batteries. The power draw here is more measurable, and we can estimate it fairly.

For example, one third-party wireless keyboard manufacturer advertised their keyboard as drawing 6 mA of power, which serves as a reasonable estimate for what the Apple Wireless Keyboard draws.

Something to keep in mind is that the iPhone 4S and new iPad are using the latest Bluetooth revision (4.0), which, among other things, is designed for lower power consumption for accessories. Depending on the source, reports suggest Bluetooth 4.0 cuts power consumption by 30-50% compared to earlier Bluetooth revisions. A lot of this is dependant on how frequently a given accessory communicates with its host, as the low power consumption of Bluetooth 4.0 seems linked to an accessory’s sleep mode, wherein it leeches only tens of nA.

During peak transmission/reception, however, an accessory even under Bluetooth 4.0 is using a lot more power, at tens of mA. Of course, this all assumes the accessory is Bluetooth 4.0-compliant, which few yet are. Certainly, our Apple Wireless Keyboard is not, so we’ll continue to assume it uses roughly 6 mA of power when in use.

Back to the antenna itself, despite the fact most “This is what you can do to conserve iPhone/iPad battery power” guides claim you should turn Bluetooth off to maximize your iDevice’s power, the reality is the difference between keeping it on and turning it off is very small. This may be due to the Bluetooth antenna being part of a larger RF board which shares resources among different transmission protocols, but because Bluetooth is already very power efficient on the device end, the additional draw here is small. Several folks online have graphed power use between smart phones with Bluetooth on vs. Bluetooth off, and the difference really is really negligible. There’s no reason to assume the iPhone would operate much differently in this regard.

Even if there were a notable difference, it would only matter to you if don’t use Bluetooth with other accessories and only with a wireless keyboard; if you need to keep Bluetooth on regardless of what kind of keyboard you use, the power consumption here doesn’t matter, unless there’s a substantial change in consumption the more accessories are connected, or the more the keyboard is used.¹

In our case, we primarily use Bluetooth for our keyboard, and occassionally use it for our Jawbone Jambox. So technically, when we’re not jamming out to music, perhaps our current setup is burning more power than 6 mA after all, but even if we rounded up to 10 mA, it ultimately doesn’t matter when we consider the HHKB Pro 2.

Bad news for the HHKB.

Per the HHKB Pro 2 specs (which were conveniently a lot easier to find), the keyboard draws a max of 100 mA, and 30 mA during normal operation. The max draw is a lot higher because it assumes you’re using the built-in USB hub and have other devices connected to it. With no devices attached, the keyboard’s draw is 30 mA, which is about five times more power than what the Apple Wireless Keyboard draws on the keyboard side.

With iOS 4.2, Apple reduced the power consumption allowance through the camera connection kit (CCK) from 100 mA to 20 mA. This explains why the HHKB Pro 2 won’t power off the CCK anymore without auxiliary power, and why other USB keyboards get adequate power through the CCK to function. We can roughly estimate that a USB keyboard uses roughly three times the mA a Bluetooth keyboard uses.²

Our solution is to use auxiliary power, but of course this means we need to have an outlet handy, which typically limits us to buildings. We explored the idea of disabling the HHKB’s onboard USB hub, thereby disabling the additional power draw, but it seems this requires more serious hardware tinkering. As the HHKB is not a cheap keyboard, we decided not to risk damaging anything, so instead explored other routes.

Typically, a USB keyboard offers no need to worry about extra batteries, which is always a potential concern when traveling with a Bluetooth keyboard. For us, the determination as to whether we use the HHKB Pro 2 nearly exclusively with the iPad comes down to whether or not we can reduce the power consumption by at least 10 mA. Otherwise, we’ll still have to keep the Apple Wireless Keyboard around for when we don’t have an outlet handy.

Using a powered-hub.

When we first received the HHKB Pro 2, we of course had to verify that it wouldn’t work with the iPad as-is. That was quick, and while expected, still disappointing.

We had ordered several USB widgets to experiment with, but as we hadn’t received them yet when the HHKB arrived, we were limited to playing around with what we did have on hand: a USB hub.

The USB hub we pulled from our cable box is a small four-port powered hub made by IOGEAR. We bought it several years ago for use with, we believe, an Apple Powerbook or Macbook, and it’s collected dust ever since. It’s a 2.0 USB “microhub” with a USB cable, approximately 2″ in length, attached.

Our initial test was with the USB hub unpowered, power cable unattached. We plugged the HHKB into the hub, the hub into the CCK, and the CCK into the iPad. Unlike our attempt without the hub, we actually received feedback from the iPad this time, with the iPad complaining that there wasn’t enough power to use the attached accessory. We don’t know why we didn’t get a similar error when we didn’t use the hub, but at least we got some feedback. Unfortunately, the keyboard still didn’t work.

That was easily fixed when we plugged the power cord into the wall and hub, however. The HHKB sprung to life, and defaulted to the Japanese keyboard. We removed that setting on the iPad (leaving just English and Emoji keyboard profiles installed), and we were off.

While this was a great start, it offers marginal benefits, as plenty of tactile keyboards can power directly off the CCK. The reason the HHKB Pro 2 grabbed our attention is because of its size, and while this remains beneficial at home because setting our portable desk up anywhere is easier, the HHKB Pro 2′s small footprint can best be leveraged if we can turn this setup into one that’s more portable. Another problem with this setup is that the iPad cannot be charged when the keyboard is attached. Even though the USB hub is powered, it doesn’t supply the iPad itself with any power.

Streamling the setup.

There aren’t many keyboard aficionados trying to get power-hungry tactile keyboards working with the iPad, but there are a good number of audiophiles trying to get DACs working with the iPad. So when perusing for DAC solutions, we came across the suggestion of using a USB Y-cable.

The one we picked up had USB-A on one end, and on the other end USB-A and mini-USB-A. This type of cable is typically used to power USB hard-drives, using the extra USB-A end to obtain additional power from an unused USB port on a computer.

For our experiment, we plugged the end with only one cable into the CCK, and plugged the mini-USB-A cable into the HHKB. The other USB-A cable we plugged into the iPad power brick, which was plugged into an outlet. Strangley, this setup didn’t work.

We tried the same exact setup with a PC switchbox that also didn’t want to work with the HHKB. Our previous USB-hub solution worked with the switchbox also, but so did this Y-cable trick. Why it works with the switchbox and not the iPad is a mystery.

Back to DAC solutions, we read about Dr. Bott’s T3hub, which is a non-powered USB hub that supposedly “tells” the connected PC that it’s powered. This means that as long as there’s adequate power being pushed through a given USB port, the T3 “tricks” whatever mechanism is asking for extra power into thinking the power is there. We bought such a hub and connected it to the CCK, and connected the HHKB to the T3. We got an error that the device we connected needed more power, so we were again out-of-luck.

Just to see what would happen, we took our previous failed Y-cable setup but attached the T3 to the CCK, and plugged the one side of the Y-cable into the T3. With the power brick still plugged into an outlet, this setup worked, and actually makes for a more compact foorprint than the USB hub we used earlier, since we don’t need to carry around an extra power adapter. Unfortunately, this setup still doesn’t charge the iPad, and still requires an outlet.

Going portable.

We scrounged through our cable box one more time and dug out a portable battery charged via mini-USB. It was part of a kit to use an iPhone with a motorcycle, and basically provides additional power to the iPhone so you don’t deplete the iPhone internal battery as quickly when using GPS. Specs from the bottom of the battery are:

Capacity: 3200 mAh
In: 5V . 1A
Out: 5.5V

We charged the battery to capacity and then plugged our Y-cable into it. So on the one end of the Y-cable we had this battery and HHKB plugged in, and on the other end the Dr. Bott. The Dr. Bott was then plugged into the CCK, which was plugged into the iPad. The setup worked! This gives us a portable solution for the HHKB, and a simple USB extension cord gives us some room to move the HHKB further away from the iPad. The only downide to this setup other than the cable clutter is the lack of ability to charge the iPad with the CCK attached.

Our battery isn’t anything special, and we assume that any portable power source would work here. Just to verify, we again went through our cable box and dug out the requisite female USB-A adapter for our Solio rechargable battery.³ This worked just as well, with the added advantage of a solar recharging solution in exchange for a bigger footprint. Given the number of solar charging and battery solutions on the market nowadays, there are plenty of options here.

If you want to run the HHKB off two AA batteries, there are solutions available, or you could even build a MintyBoost if you want to go the DIY route. Our battery has five blue LED lights indicating battery charge, and with the keyboard hooked up in this configuration for a full work day, not a single light went out.⁴ Despite this, the actual power draw seems more than we expected, and may explain why Apple didn’t leave the allowable power draw through the CCK at 100 mAh.

Ultimately, our portable solution works, and keyboard battery life is about on par with the iPad itself. That’s not bad as long as you can deal with the hassle of charging a second device whenever you plug the iPad into a power source as well.

Alternatives?

The HHKB Pro 2 with a portable power source is the most compact Topre-based keyboard you’ll find to use with the iPad. The Realforce 87U is a larger alternative that may not require a power source, but the added keyboard size makes it less useful on-the-road. If you’re willing to forego Topre switches for mechanical switches like the Cherry MX series, a reasonable option is the KBT Poker, whose footprint is about on par with the HHKB Pro 2, and whose price is about 66% less. The downside is that the Poker’s build quality doesn’t meet that of the HHKB Pro 2, and the layout isn’t as ideal either, seeing as it doesn’t target the same keyboard-maestro audience the HHKB’s developers did.⁵ Fortunately, the Poker does come in various Cherry MX configurations, so you can get it in the very clicky blue configuration, the quieter tactile brown configuration, as well as the linear black and red configurations.[^5] This at least gives mechanical keyboard lovers several options, whereas the HHKB Pro 2 only comes in one Topre switch configuration with an actuation force of 45g.

For those willing to wait, you can occasionally find an HHKB Pro sold second-hand. These were produced prior to the HHKB Pro 2, and are basically the same keyboard, though lacking the integrated USB hub. Presumably, this means it would work with the iPad without any of the previously-mentioned accessory-hacking, though we can’t comment for sure since we haven’t tried one yet.⁶

For now, we’re quite happy with our workaround for getting the HHKB Pro 2 to work with our computing device of choice. The overall accessory breakdown, roughly, follows:

That comes down to roughly $107 on top of the cost of the HHKB Pro 2, so it’s not cheap if you don’t have some of this stuff already laying around. In our case, we only had to purchase the T3hub and Y-cable, so our costs weren’t that much as far as the equipment that ultimately made it into the setup goes.

Then again, if you love tactile keyboards, especially those utilizing Topre switches, you’re no stranger to paying more for quality. From our perspective, it’s worth it.

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The idea of a smartwatch appears to have the same level of appeal to those of Generation X as the jetpack does. Both devices come from science fiction, and while technology has touched upon both, neither device has really entered consumer reality yet, though both have often been promised.

The Pebble e-paper watch comes closest to realizing the smartwatch as we’ve yet seen. If you haven’t already heard of the Pebble, it’s a Kickstarter project whose funding has already surpassed eight million dollars, so it’s pretty clear the project is popular, and is currently Kickstarter’s most-funded project ever.

The good.

The Pebble is designed to work with iOS and Android devices, using Bluetooth to speak with a smartphone. Chiefly, the Pebble aims to serve as a remote notification center, so you don’t need to look at your phone whenever a notification comes in. The Pebble provides notification for the following:

• Incoming Caller ID
• Email (Gmail or any IMAP email account)
• Calendar Alerts
• Facebook Messages
• Twitter
• Weather Alerts
• Silent vibrating alarm and timer

The Pebble also touts interoperability with certain smartphone apps, so it can control your smartphone’s music, access GPS data for cycling/running, etc. Out-of-box, the Pebble will presumably work with a couple key apps, but will primarily serve as a notification center until you grab third-party apps from the Pebble online store.

The bad.

Your notifications sent to your watch may be cool, but we see this as more of a novelty than a truly useful feature; the Pebble simply doesn’t offer any features that a smartphone by itself doesn’t. Yes, it puts notifications on your wrist, but for how many niche cases is that truly an improvement over just looking at your phone? Given the short range of Bluetooth, you have to have your phone near the Pebble anyway, so is saving you from pulling your phone from your pocket really worth $115? If a notification is important enough to respond to, you’ll have to pull your phone out anyway. If you’re not expecting an important notification, you can probably go without checking your wrist until you’re in a place you can use your phone.¹

It’s not that we can’t think of ways to use the Pebble, it’s simply that we’re not convinced the Pebble is going to make anyone’s mobile computing life better. Sure, that’s subjective, but in terms of efficiency, all the Pebble is doing is adding another layer of technology between you and your smartphone, and when is that a good thing? Again, outside of extremely specific use cases, the Pebble is a great novelty item, but little more.

The ugly.

Outside of the Pebble being a neat gadget, there’s the form factor to consider. Some people wear the iPod Nano as a watch because they love the digital watch-faces but the Nano is a really big watch. For those with smaller wrists, the Nano just looks silly, and the Pebble is similarly big. Pebble’s main Kickstarter page doesn’t include dimensions,² but looking into it further, we found that the Pebble’s body is roughly 5cm x 3cm. Compare this to the iPod Nano’s 3.75cm x 4.09cm dimension body, and you can see that the Pebble is no small beast. We wonder how many backers didn’t even consider this when pledging.

The size is also a concern because it means the Pebble pretty much needs to replace a watch. Whereas other wrist gadgets can sit alongside a watch, the Pebble really can’t, and wearing it on the wrist opposite your watch just looks like you’re wearing two watches. That may not be a concern for everyone, but we wonder how more versatile the Pebble would be if it had a thinner display that wrapped around more of the wrist, and scrolled notifications accordingly.

Another design concern we have is the plastic screen (as opposed to the crystal many watches sport), as plastic scratches much easier than glass. Yet, the biggest problem with the Pebble is that it’s limited to existing APIs, as well as the hardware it doesn’t have. There’s no line-out for plugging headphones in, for example, so you can’t entirely stash your phone for when you plan to take the Pebble on a run.³ In many cases, you’ll still be using an armband to exercise with the iPhone, because the Pebble doesn’t offer a way around this.

On the iPhone, the Pebble also can’t read text messages, which limits what it can do with notifications.

Hope is in the SDK.

While the core functionality of the Pebble puts a purchase to question, the device’s saving grace may very well be its intended third-party support. The Pebble will have an SDK available before release, so third-party developers could have iPhone apps working with the Pebble as soon as the watch is released. The most high-profile iPhone app to have announced Pebble support thus far is RunKeeper, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see others take the plunge. A companion app for Zombies, Run!, for example, would be quite cool.

One area we’re looking forward to is activity-monitoring. The Pebble includes a gyroscope and vibration motor, so it has all the hardware necessary to compete against the Jawbone UP and Nike FuelBand. While no activity-and-sleep-monitoring apps have yet been announced for the Pebble, the potential is there, and we hope to see someone tackle this. At present, the Jawbone UP is the only wrist-wearable gadget that does full-on sleep and motion tracking, and there are still concerns over Jawbone’s quality control with the UP. As the Nike Fuelband doesn’t track sleep or provide activity alarms, the market is ripe for the Pebble to fill this void.

Our recommendation?

We see buying a Pebble as an investment in potential functionality. Today, the developers announced a production cap of 75,000 Pebble watches for the initial Kickstarter drive, so there are roughly 10,000 watches left for reserve. We decided to back the project, figuring the worst case scenario is that we don’t see an activity/sleep-moniting app in the Pebble’s future, or the watch is simply too big for our wrists, and we sell the watch online. Given the demand for it, backers shouldn’t have a problem reselling their wares if they need to, and may even be able to make a couple dollars on it; if you’re on the fence, you probably won’t lose money on the Pebble.

Best case scenario for us is a proper activity/sleep-monitor app being released shortly after the Pebble store goes live. In this case, our worst decision will be deciding to forego a nice watch and instead wear the Pebble nearly full-time.

At the very least, the Pebble is a cool experiment in whether this market is capable of flourishing, let alone existing. There’s also the potential we’ll see a really killer app for the Pebble that no one’s thought of yet, so lurking Pebble’s developer forum should prove interesting in the days ahead. The Pebble’s estimated ship date is September, so there’s plenty of time for new app ideas to be thrown around and worked on. So while the Pebble’s basic functions don’t excite us, we’re looking forward to what developers come up with in the days ahead.

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After weeks of use, our fourth Jawbone UP replacement band, and fifth UP overall, has finally died. We only reported on the death of our last UP band a little over a month ago, so the trend of late seems to be about one month of life per band.

Battery life on our fifth band seemed reasonable, with no real indication anything bad was about to happen. It was a week at least since our last full charge, and when the band was at around 10%, we forgot to top it off and instead let the battery expire. At this point, we plugged the band into a power source, waited until the LED went from red to white, and tried to sync the UP with our iPhone. It wouldn’t.

We tried both a soft reset as well as a hard reset. Rebooting our iPhone, per the instructions at the UP support site, didn’t help either. Instead of writing in about our problem as we had in the past, instead we called Jawbone yesterday, and were greeted by a very cheerful support representative. She suggested we plug the UP into our iPhone after we launched the voice memos app, as an UP capable of syncing should move the volume needle because it’s transmitting data using audio. We tried this, yet the needle didn’t move. That confirmed our UP was toast.

A sixth band should be on its way soon. As we had a support representative on the phone already, we took the opportunity to ask about the status of a revised UP without these problems. We had wondered several times before whether the bands Jawbone was sending out as replacements were known to have problems, or if this was effectively an ongoing “beta” period where Jawbone was trying to it right by sending out bands with small changes. The support representative confirmed that the former was true: Jawbone’s replacement bands are all original bands with known problems, and in all likelihood, would also fail.

Basically, replacing dead bands with those prone to failure is a stop-gap measure. Eventually, Jawbone will “relaunch” the UP in a revised, working state. But the representative didn’t know when that relaunch would happen. In short, if the relaunch happens before November, and we have a dead band at that time, we can request a proper replacement. In the meantime, we either keep trading dead bands in about once-per-month, or give up until the relaunch.

The representative reminded us of Jawbone’s no-questions-asked-refund policy regarding the UP, which we’ve already taken advantage of. At this point, having received a refund for the UP, we’re basically paying to use the UP with whatever time we spend dealing with the replacement process once per month. Considering we do like the functionality of the UP, and haven’t found a suitable alternative, we’ll continue playing this replacement game for the forseeable future, hoping that the relaunch will put an end to this cycle soon.

It’s a frustrating experience, but we have no doubt that Jawbone is legitimately embarassed by their lack of testing before the UP was sold last year. That’s why they continue to replace these bands at what must be considerable cost, particularly when they’ve already refunded many of the original purchases. Jawbone could have simply provided refunds and not continued sending replacement bands to the respective customers, but they’ve instead taken the high road.¹ If they can manage to relaunch the UP within the warranty period, they’ll manage to keep many of their customers, but if they don’t relaunch in time, we expect considerable outcry from their users.

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After receiving our fifth Jawbone UP, we decided to seriously look into the newest competitor in the self-monitoring gadget race: the Nike+ FuelBand. Unfortunately, as very new accessory on the market with a fair degree of demand, it wasn’t immediately available, so we had to wait several weeks before stock was replenished.

In the meantime, we looked up Nike’s sizing guide for the FuelBand, which came up short. It simply wasn’t clear from any of Nike’s documentation what size we should aim for. We printed out Nike’s sizing band, wrapped it around our wrist, and found that we literally fell on-the-line between two sizes. Per Nike’s Twitter feed, we were told that customers should opt to size up if this happens, so that’s what we did.

When we heard that stock was available, we made our purchase at the Nike online store. We received our FuelBand about a week later. It was packaged nicely, vaguely like you’d expect an Apple device to be boxed, but perhaps with a bit more box than necessary. In addition to the band, the box included a charging cable, a link removal tool, an 8mm extension link, a 16mm extension link, and a stand.¹

One link was already in the band when it arrived, and because we fell between sizes, we knew we’d have to remove it in order to get a good fit. This was an easy task, but unfortunately the sizing still seemed off – the band proved very loose even with neither of the additional links installed. If we were to wear the band over a sweatshirt, the fit would be great, but as it was, the band slid up and down our wrist a bit too much. It felt a bit awkward when it slid up our forearm, and when it slid down to our wrist, it hindered our full range of movement.

That’s a design issue.

When we bought the Jawbone UP last year, we questioned why the band didn’t link at both ends, and wished that one end could plug into the other in order to close the band securely. This is how the FuelBand works, and while we like it in theory, it’s problematic. If the Jawbone UP slides down to the base of our hand, it doesn’t restrict wrist movement because the band’s two ends can flex away from one another when pressure is applied.

Practically speaking, let’s take a power clean as an example. Your hands are pointed down at the ground when you start, so whatever fitness band you’re wearing is likely to slip towards the ground. If it slips enough to cover the joint of your hand and wrist, you have a problem as you continue your movement. By the time you jerk the bar from the ground and manipulate it to fall on your shoulders, your wrists should be bent backwards. If you’re wearing the FuelBand in this example, one hand won’t be able to bend back as far as the other because the band is in the way. At best, this causes some discomfort in your wrist. At worst, it throws your exercise off entirely.

If you’re doing the same exercise with the Jawbone UP, as soon as you bend your wrist, the two ends of the UP push away and the band slightly increases in size because of its elasticity. No harm, no foul.

It wasn’t until after we exercised with the FuelBand that we truly appreciated Jawbone’s design. In fact, before this, we cursed the design every time we accidentally tore the UP from our wrist when pulling off a sweater. Yet, it’s the very fact that the UP isn’t securely latched to your wrist that makes it such a great accessory for the weight room.

Back to sizing, we later found out that Nike claims the small FuelBand to be 171mm around with both links in, and the mediam FuelBand to be 172mm around with no links in. Yet, for some reason, Nike doesn’t recommend both links to be used at one time, which seems a little odd. This means that if we do drop down a size, we’ll have to make due with a band that’s 9mm shorter than the one we tried out. We can probably make due, even if the fit will be snug, but this likely wouldn’t correct the issue with the band restricting wrist movement, unless the band is so snug that it won’t slide over our wrist’s joint bones. Unfortunately, that means the band would have to be almost exactly the circumference of our wrists, and we seriously question the liklihood of that scenario.

Otherwise, it’s pretty good.

Beyond that one issue, the FuelBand’s design is pretty nice. The display is pretty much invisible until you press the one button on the surface of the device, giving the band a very plain, but sporty look. The FuelBand should really come in several colours, but they’d likely have to be dark for the LEDs to look nice and crisp, as they do on the black band. We found the addition of a time-keeping function a nice touch, as the FuelBand can easily replace a watch in the workplace. As the band is extremely plain looking, it wouldn’t even look out-of-place wearing a suit-and-tie. In contrast, the Jawbone UP’s slimmer profile, patterned surface, and unconventional parallel ends, make it stick out a lot more in a conservative workplace.

As far as getting the FuelBand working, there’s an additional step or two over the Jawbone UP. As we prefer to sync with the iPhone, we were disappointed that the FuelBand doesn’t work with the iPhone out-of-box. First, the FuelBand didn’t come charged, whereas the Jawbone UP ships with some level of power, even if low. Second, you have to first connect the FuelBand to a PC, after downloading the respective software application. Only once the FuelBand is set up on the PC can you set up the FuelBand app on your iPhone.

This wouldn’t be half bad if the FuelBand didn’t occasionally require reconnecting it to your PC. We love the convenience of syncing the FuelBand with our iPhone over Bluetooth, but after one particular sync cycle, we were told that there was inconsistent information on the device, and that we should sync with our PC to fix this.

The Bluetooth syncing really is nice, though. The best part is that it can sync in real time when the app is running. So as you run, the app updates with the activity you’re doing. You don’t need this functionality because you can just as easily look down at your wrist after pressing the button on the FuelBand, but presumably there are instances where looking at your iPhone is more convenient than looking at your wrist. Maybe you’re on a treadmill, for example, and your phone is propped up already.

The FuelBand’s accuracy is about on par with the Jawbone UP.² We don’t know how Nike’s tracking algorithm incorporates information on which wrist you wear the FuelBand on, but because you specify this, presumably there’s some accuracy correction for certain movements. Yet, we don’t recall ever entering into the app any information on whether we’re left or right-handed, so it’s not clear what the FuelBand is factoring in here. Otherwise, we could see it not counting certain movements we do throughout the day, like pushing our PC’s mouse around with our dominant hand.

As we mentioned in a previous post, the very fact the FuelBand has Bluetooth may make wearing it situationally dependent. While you can turn Bluetooth  on the FuelBand off, the very fact that the device has Bluetooth means certain individuals may not be able to wear it to the office.³

A lot of people have discussed Nike Fuel, the unit the FuelBand tracks. This seems mostly marketing hype, however. While the FuelBand does provide a Nike Fuel reading, it also tracks and reports steps and estimated calories burned. Presumably, the app computes Fuel based on a function of steps taken over time; the more steps taken in a shorter amount of time, the higher the Fuel calculation. We hoped to play with this theory some more, but stopped using the FuelBand because of its loose fit before we could experiment enough.

What it doesn’t have.

After thinking about our band’s sizing, our first instinct was to just exchange the band for a smaller one. But as we went back to rely on the Jawbone UP exclusively again, we realized that the UP’s killer feature isn’t in tracking steps taken, it’s in the sleep alarm and night-time sleep tracker.

That is to say, as much as the FuelBand competes with the UP, the UP is really a different product, aimed at more general lifestyle tracking. In our case, we place a more emphasis on the sleep-related features than we do the day-time step tracking, so we realized the FuelBand will never entirely replace the UP unless it improves its software options.⁴

For us, then, as long as we have an UP band that works, it will likely trump the FuelBand as our daily tracking accessory.⁵

Should you get it?

The FuelBand is $50 more expensive than the UP, yet unlike with the UP, there’s no record of defective devices. If you’re big on cardio and that’s the type of movement you want to track, the FuelBand is a better option, as it tracks both steps taken and Nike Fuel, the latter which may be a better assessment of the fitness you’re getting day-by-day. If you’re already using Nike+ to track runs, then the FuelBand will fit into your workflow nicely.

If you plan to track your workouts in the weightroom, or where you’re otherwise manipulating your wrists (like in certain Crossfit movements), the UP may be a better option for you. And if your goal is to track more than just exercise, the FuelBand will obviously fall short.

Finally, if you’re considering the FuelBand, make sure you get your sizing right. The sizing does not match up with the UP (i.e. a medium in the UP is not a medium in the FuelBand), and the UP provides more flexibility despite not having removable links. If you can wait, delay a purchase until you can find the FueldBand in a local store, so you can ensure the sizing is proper. Otherwise, you may have to deal with shipping returns, which are always a hassle.

If it weren’t for the issues Jawbone’s had with the UP, we’d recommend it immediately. Since it’s still unclear where the UP stands regarding these problems, however, the FuelBand is a good alternative, and arguably a much better option if you’re primarily looking to track runs. If that’s not the case, you might want to hold off and see if Jawbone’s UP manufacturing is back on track, as we think more thought went into the design of the UP than the FuelBand.⁶

Either way, for general movement tracking, the FuelBand and UP are both good devices. It’s just too bad we can’t have the best parts of each in one band.

Similar Posts:

• Our Jawbone UP trilogy. – Two months ago, we reported on the death of our Jawbone UP. It lasted longer than other folks’ units…
• Our fourth Jawbone up, dead. – When we last reported on our experience with the Jawbone UP, we had just received our third band, ho…
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While people love to talk about how intuitive touch is as an interface method, the cold reality is that for certain applications, legacy input formats still reign supreme. For example, for writing, there is no unseating the keyboard in one format or another, as writing by hand is slow and cumbersome for longform input. ¹

Keyboards themselves are a rather interesting animal, which can be analyzed from several perspectives. There’s DVORAK vs QWERTY, for example, and strong arguments for practicality either way. But perhaps a less niche argument is design implementation, where we have mechanical keyboards in one corner, and cheapo rubber dome and scissor keyboards in another.

Shawn Blanc just wrote a good piece on this very topic, and if you’re at all interested in how mechanical keyboards are becoming the new in thing among the blogging elite, be sure to read his piece on clicky keyboards.

We won’t go into detail here about why a mechanical keyboard is better than most mass-produced keyboards today, save for mentioning that the tactile nature of the former is what gives them a place in our hearts. Some people go all googly over the sound, but we consider that secondary to the feel. It may be a matter of min-maxing, but as Shawn can attest to, a good keyboard does make a difference in typing speed and accuracy, and over the long-term, the investment in a more expensive mechanical keyboard may be worth it.

Shawn rounded up three different mechanical keyboards in his review. One was a legacy Apple Extended II, while the others were modern mechanicals: the Das Keyboard and the Tactile Pro 3. To the casual observer, those are perhaps the big three options², but there are actually a lot more possibilities based around different types of switches. Of the keyboards Shawn tested, two use Alps mechanisms and one uses Cherry blue switches. Don’t worry about the differences, just know that both are considered very good for typing and not much else.

Not just for typing.

The other big area that keyboards excel at is gaming, and other than the PC gaming industry’s propensity to push the edge of the graphics race (which nerds love), superior controls are the other reason why PC gaming remains so full of vigor; no matter how convenient a handheld controller is, the mouse and keyboard combination maximizes human reflexes for the most intense gaming experience possible. For this reason, some savvy gamers have pushed the envelope by acquiring mechanical keyboards to further maximize their game.

Without going into too much detail here, the crux of the issue is the activation point for a given key; gamers want to know exactly when a given action is registered, and they want it to be quickly repeatable as well as predictable. As such, they prefer keyboards that allow them to ride the activation point, whereby they float their fingers on the keys at the point where a given action is registered. However, they also don’t want the keys to be too soft, offering enough resistance such that unintentional pressure doesn’t cause a key to register unexpectedly.³

For gaming purposes, none of the keyboards Shawn reviewed are great. In fact, the blue Cherry MX switches are not prefered for gaming at all, and while some claim the more linear Cherry black switches are ideal, most of the research we conducted pointed at the Cherry brown switches as more preferable, as they still provide appropriate tactile feedback. Another option many pro gamers opt for are Topre switches, usually with an actuation force of 55g.⁴ Topre switches are actually capacitive in nature, and are a sort of hybrid mechanical switch, which offers great tactile feedback and the smoothest force gradient available. They’re also the most expensive switch out there.

What about for the iPad?

We started looking into all of this ourselves some months back when we realized that we missed our old IBM Model M. We played around with many a keyboard during our past gaming days, but most were rubber dome keyboards and therefore equally bad. We kept a Model M around for casual use and loved it, despite it being a loud clacker. When we left desktops behind and started using Powerbooks/Macbooks, we didn’t revisit keyboards until we made the iPad our main computer. To this end, we picked up an Apple bluetooth keyboard, which is conveniently sized for travel, but uses the same scissoring mechanism that laptop keyboards do. We’ve said before that we consider a physical keyboard a necessity for longform writing on the iPad, and to this end, wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a better keyboard companion?

The first problem is, obviously, the wireless connectivity. Mechanical keyboards don’t typically come with bluetooth connectivity, so we have to connect the keyboard to our iPad using the camera connection kit. That’s not sexy, but it works.⁵

The second problem is form factor. If you only write longform on your iPad at home, maybe this isn’t a problem for you, but a typical 103-key keyboard is a massive beast, and most people can do without the numpad. If you’re to take your mechanical keyboard on travel with you, having a smaller physical footprint is always beneficial.

Fortunately, for the Cherry switch lovers, Leopold makes tenkeyless boards with whatever switch you prefer. If you’re willing to spend another $200 for Topre switches, Realforce makes tenkeyless models also (model 87u), with their traditional model offering variable-weight keys, and other models offering specific actuation forces across all keys.⁶ Finally, there’s the Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) Pro 2, which has the smallest footprint of the bunch, but with the added problem of a built-in USB hub. This means the iPad won’t power the HHKB Pro 2 without some sort of auxiliary power source.⁷

Because mechanical switches take up more physical space than the scissor switches used in laptop-style keyboards, there’s no way you’ll ever match the footprint of the Apple bluetooth keyboard, but the HHKB Pro 2 is reasonably close.⁸

Of course, if you go this route, the last consideration is finding a suitable iPad stand; we’ve relied on both the WINGStand and Incase Origami in the past, but both are designed to work with Apple’s keyboard, so neither will work with the HHKB Pro 2. It took us awhile to discover the Origami and WINGStand, which are the top two solutions for typing on one’s lap with an iPad and physical keyboard, so we might have to hack something together from scratch in order to make the HHKB work even half as well.

We just put an order in for the HHKB in gray/black⁹, as well as for some USB accessories so we can experiment with powering the board properly. If all goes well, it will mean we can charge the iPad while we’re using the keyboard, which was always a concern of ours in the past when we mused about using a wired keyboard instead of a bluetooth one.

Once we have all the parts in hand, we’ll be sure to report on our findings.

Similar Posts:

• Using a power-hungry tactile keyboard with the iPad. – We finally received our Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) Pro 2 that we ordered for our iPad. The idea w…
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