With Jawbone’s status as a leading hardware manufacturer under threat by a swathe of smart watches and rival fitness trackers, the firm is placing a lot of stock in its new Up platform.
The company is hoping its well-developed Up ecosystem will be adopted to power a range of new third-party devices built outside its walls.
The first of those devices arrives today in the form of the Huawei TalkBand 2 tracker, a Bluetooth earpiece which doubles up as a wristband when slotted into a wearable cradle.
The Huawei device was first announced at MWC 2015 back in March, but the presence of Jawbone’s tools has only been revealed upon news of today’s release (via The Verge).
The $179.99 (around £119) device features a 0.73-inch touchscreen, an accelerometer, a 6-axis gyroscope and can sync your movement and sleep data back to an iOS and Android app.
More interestingly though is the newly-announced ability to send all of that data to the Jawbone UP app, which is now positioning itself as a central hub for any manufacturer that wishes to make use of it, much like Apple with its Health platform.
Read more: 8 Best fitness trackers for 2015
Thanks to the Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity and dual-mic noise cancellation it’ll also handle phone calls like a champ when hooked over the wearer’s ear.
In terms of battery life, well the 90mAh cell can be recharged via microUSB and will offer 5 days of standard use and 7-hours of call time when used as a headset.
Is this Jawbone’s lifeline? Share your thoughts below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.