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Aaron Parecki

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#fitbit

  • Aaron Parecki
    welp, the rumors were true, Google did in fact buy FitBit: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943318/google-fitbit-acquisition-fitness-tracker-announcement

    I *want* to switch to an Apple watch, but I can't until it has built-in automatic sleep tracking like the FitBit does!
    Memphis, Tennessee, USA • 41°F
    2 likes 9 replies
    Fri, Nov 1, 2019 9:58am -05:00 #apple #google #fitbit
  • Aaron Parecki
    If Google buys FitBit, I'm quitting and finally getting an Apple watch. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fitbit-m-a-alphabet-exclusive/exclusive-google-owner-alphabet-in-bid-to-buy-fitbit-sources-idUSKBN1X71NY
    Portland, Oregon, USA
    5 likes 4 replies
    Mon, Oct 28, 2019 3:57pm -07:00 #fitbit #google
  • Aaron Parecki
    Lost a few days of sleep data from my @FitBit, but thankfully I was able to reverse engineer it using logs from https://inthemoment.io
    Portland, Oregon, USA
    1 like
    Tue, Sep 19, 2017 6:54pm -07:00 #quantifiedself #qs #fitbit
  • Barnaby Walters https://waterpigs.co.uk

    The old Fitbit and Fuelband which Aaron Parecki gave me a few years ago (thanks Aaron!) don’t hold a charge anymore. The Fitbit battery is near impossible to replace, and with the Fuelband I decided that as there’s no way of loading custom firmware (which would let me get at data without an internet connection and proprietary apps), it wasn’t worth trying to get replacement batteries. So before throwing the devices away, I took them apart.

    I didn’t find out much which I hadn’t already seen in teardowns, but these devices have such strange form factors that it was fascinating to see the engineering up close.

    The rubber coating comes off very cleanly. Here you can see some of the funny curved traces used on flexible circuit boards:

    The LED array, with “Just Do It” written on the top of the PCB (invisible to the end user). On the sections of flex between the more solid boards you can see the unbelievably fine traces:

    On the back of the LED matrix section, with a part number. To the right you can see the jaggedy bluetooth antenna trace:

    The fitbit isn’t so interesting. Removing the cap with a heatgun reveals a tiny circuit board with a tiny battery and vibrating element.

    I also opened up the dock, as I noticed that the USB cable was power only, with no possibility of wired data transfer. The third pogo pin must be for the reset switch, which is mounted in the dock. There’s a little IC in there too, but I was more interested in seeing how the pogo pins were attached to the board. Turns out they’re just soldered straight on:

    I’d love to have been able to flash custom firmware to the Fuelband, it’s a lovely bit of hardware, and manufacturing something like that is completely out of the question for a hobbyist. There are so many fun things which could be done with a device equipped with an LED matrix, accelerometers and bluetooth — a wearable MIDI controller, for example.

    That possibility would also have made replacing the batteries worth doing, and in doing so saved the device from the landfill. Free software and open hardware isn’t just political, it’s better for the environment.

    Portland, Oregon
    Fri, Mar 24, 2017 11:22pm +03:00 (liked on Fri, Mar 24, 2017 1:31pm -07:00) #photo #photos #teardown #electronics #fuelband #fitbit
  • Day 42: New Sleep Posts from FitBit #100DaysOfIndieWeb

    I should have known this one would take longer than I expected.My Jawbone UP finally died, so I replaced it with a FitBit. I've really enjoyed the Jawbones, but I'm not confident in the future of the company's wearables department. I decided to take the plunge and dive in to the FitBit ecosystem instead. I got a new FitBit Charge 2, which among other things includes a heart rate monitor which I'm excited about. But step one was rewriting my sleep import script to pull sleep data from FitBit instead of Jawbone.
    continue reading...
    2 mentions
    Tue, Jan 31, 2017 12:44pm -08:00 #100daysofindieweb #sleep #jawbone #fitbit
  • Aaron Parecki
    Aw man, and I *just* bought a new @FitBit too! http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/30/14439028/fibit-layoffs-q4-earnings-report-weak-holiday-sales
    Portland, Oregon, USA
    2 likes 1 repost 3 replies
    Mon, Jan 30, 2017 8:55am -08:00 #fitbit #wearables
  • Aaron Parecki
    It's that time again, my 8th @Jawbone is dying. Does the automatic sleep tracking on @FitBit actually work now?
    Portland, Oregon
    9 replies
    Fri, Jan 27, 2017 7:37am -08:00 #quantifiedself #jawbone #fitbit
  • Aaron Parecki
    RIP Pebble "members of Team Pebble will be joining [Fitbit] to continue their work on wearable software platforms" https://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/
    Portland, Oregon, USA
    1 reply
    Wed, Dec 7, 2016 5:52pm -08:00 #pebble #wearables #smartwatch #fitbit
  • The Internet of Stings

    Portland, Oregon
    Sun, Apr 3, 2016 11:09am +00:00 (liked on Wed, Jun 1, 2016 3:16pm -07:00) #ebay #fitbit #firesheep #healthkit #alexa #steam #location #airbnb #grindr #blockchain #siri #surveillance #internet of things #hacking #quantified self #humour #music #sting
  • The Syncing Problem

    This post is a review about the syncing process of a number of popular self-tracking devices.
    continue reading...
    1 mention
    Wed, Dec 18, 2013 2:54pm -10:00 #qs #quantifiedself #qsreviews #jawbone #up #fitbit #flex #basis #misfit #shine #withings #pulse
  • Aaron Parecki
    Doh. Put my Fitbit through the wash! Don't have rice, so I'm drying it in a bag of quinoa. Crossing fingers...
    Portland, OR
    Thu, Jul 26, 2012 10:22am -07:00 #fitbit #quantifiedself #qs
  • FitBit API Get Sleep (wiki.fitbit.com)
    Thu, Apr 5, 2012 12:38pm -07:00 #api #fitbit #reference
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Hi, I'm Aaron Parecki, Director of Identity Standards at Okta, and co-founder of IndieWebCamp. I maintain oauth.net, write and consult about OAuth, and participate in the OAuth Working Group at the IETF. I also help people learn about video production and livestreaming. (detailed bio)

I've been tracking my location since 2008 and I wrote 100 songs in 100 days. I've spoken at conferences around the world about owning your data, OAuth, quantified self, and explained why R is a vowel. Read more.

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