A month ago, I posted an initial list of speakers for the 10th D: All Things Digital conference.

After a decade, the event — which is held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, at the end of May — has attracted another amazing group of speakers, including: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; serial entrepreneur Sean Parker, who will appear with Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek; Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus; Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz; LinkedIn Chairman and VC Reid Hoffman, who will appear with the social business site’s CEO Jeff Weiner; and Skype CEO Tony Bates.

Now, here’s another group of stellar speakers we’ve added to the programming lineup (and there are still even more big names to come in the weeks ahead): Oracle CEO Larry Ellison; former tech analyst superstar and now VC Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins; Intellectual Ventures’ Nathan Myhrvold; Pixar co-founder and Disney animation head Dr. Ed Catmull; and Visa President John Partridge.

Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of the enterprise giant Oracle, needs little introduction, as one of tech’s highest profile figures and a true Silicon Valley icon. Frankly, I think the short bio that’s on Oracle’s Web site says it all: “Larry Ellison has been CEO of Oracle Corporation since he founded the company in 1977. He also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.” There will be a lot to talk about with the voluble and always entertaining exec — who appeared at the D conference once before many years ago — from the current state of the tech industry to insights to where it’s all going. (In addition, Ellison has agreed to appear on a panel we are doing as a tribute to his close friend, Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs.)

Another well-known tech figure is Meeker, who is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, having joined the storied venture capital firm in early 2011. She focuses there on investments in its digital practice and via KP’s Digital Growth Fund, working with companies such as Spotify, Jawbone and One King’s Lane. But Meeker is perhaps best known for her long stint — 1991 to 2010 — as a star Internet research analyst at Morgan Stanley, where she brought many of the Internet’s great companies to the attention of Wall Street and beyond. She also wrote a series of groundbreaking reports on the landscape. That includes her annual “State of the Internet,” which Meeker will debut this year at the conference in an extended demo of her always riveting Internet trends presentation.

Nathan Myhrvold is also a tech legend, having worked for 14 years as chief strategist and CTO of Microsoft. But, instead of retiring, the avid inventor decided to focus on patents, founding and leading a controversial company called Intellectual Ventures, which buys them up and licenses them out (or sues if it doesn’t sell). With all the mishegas around patents right now, it’s a good time to have Myhrvold back to explain it all and perhaps to take some of the blame for the explosion in intellectual property lawsuits. (Myhrvold also co-authored a cookbook, “Modernist Cuisine,” so we hope we will also get some sort of futuristic cooking demo. Perhaps, Patently Delicious Flan?)

Speaking of tasty, the animation from Pixar over the years has been just that and it’s been one of Disney’s greatest acquisitions. Given how much Pixar has contributed to animation technology, we are glad to finally get Dr. Ed Catmull onstage. As co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, he will discuss where entertainment and technology are intersecting and where they are not. Catmull is a geek’s geek in the industry — having also founded the computer graphics laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology, the computer division of Lucasfilm, as well as Pixar, which he did with chief creative officer John Lasseter. Get ready to talk about image compositing, motion blur, subdivision surfaces, cloth simulation and rendering techniques, texture mapping and the z-buffer. Also, Catmull’s five Academy Awards.

Lastly, it is perfect timing for bringing on John Partridge, president of Visa. With swirling issues around online identity theft, digital privacy, the future of money and the rise of upstart competitors such as Square, Partridge has his hands full at the credit card giant. One of the most neglected arenas in tech, the way we manage payments is perhaps the biggest story of the next era, especially as it relates to mobile and the rise of smartphones as all-purpose devices.

It’s certainly not easy — the road to disruption can be paved with premature launches, faulty products, tepid or negative consumer reaction and lawsuits — and that’s usually after years of research and development and dollars spent.

The minds behind Jawbone, the Nest thermostat and the new Lytro camera came together on Monday to discuss this exact topic on a SXSW Interactive panel.

All agreed on two points: Good design is critical, and even if you’re a hardware company, you’re not just a hardware company anymore.

“The way we see it, it’s hardware and software services,” said Matt Rogers, co-founder of Nest, which late last year launched a new “smart” thermostat. “You have to think of how these pieces tie together: When you pair it with your iPhone, how’s it going to work? And that’s incredibly difficult, some of the most difficult engineering we’ve done.”

For Ren Ng, founder and chief executive of Lytro, introducing a new type of camera meant not only designing a new light-capturing sensor, but also creating an entirely new form factor. “You can’t just build software, because it’s connecting an entirely new kind of data inside. So, for us, it was clear that we had to build new hardware, too.”

Jawbone, which is known for products pairing audio technology with hardware devices, said technology companies have to deliver a complete experience that’s cohesive to consumers.

“The barrier to entry for hardware has come down, but the barrier to great hardware has not actually gone down, and I think that’s given a false sense of hope to some people,” said Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management.

Jawbone, which uses expensive medical-grade plastic in its best-selling Jambox speaker, recently faced its first major setback with hardware — and complementary software — when it was forced to pause production on its UP wristband and fix its companion iPhone app.

“It means putting cost and good design into products,” Bogard said. “These are not easy decisions to make.”

And while many tech entrepreneurs hold Apple products up as the pinnacle of design, these “disruptors” said that reaching almost-perfection means killing your design darlings — often many times over.

Bogard said that with the UP wristband, Jawbone was actually set to launch the product six months earlier than it did, but the company decided the band needed to be 30 percent smaller. Nest’s Rogers said the company threw away many designs before settling on “the one.”

“To take something you think is beautiful, and say it’s not good enough yet, and throw it away, it takes a lot of effort,” Rogers said. “It’s emotionally intensive, and it’s also cost-intensive. It’s impossible to get to perfection, but as entrepreneurs and designers, that’s what we strive for.”

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If the early buzz over a rubberized activity-tracking wristband that syncs with your smartphone gives you deja vu, it might be because you’ve seen this all before — with something called the Jawbone UP.

Oh, right. The UP! So, what’s going on with the Jawbone UP?

Unfortunately, what we don’t know is still more than what we do know. Jawbone, which is known for its slick audio products in addition to the UP, paused production and agreed to issue no-questions-asked refunds for faulty UP bands back on Dec. 9. The company has declined to say anything specific about when it might resume production of the device, or if consumers will see a hardware update.

A spokeswoman for Jawbone has said that refunds are still in progress, and reconfirmed that the company still doesn’t have anything to share in terms of timing.

Jawbone did recently update the UP iPhone app, as it said it would; based on the update description, which includes vague “bug fixes,” the app update seems incremental.

We also know that Jawbone’s UP testers program is ongoing.

As part of the program, volunteers are sent UP bands to test and offer feedback on. They’re also issued challenges, and asked to weigh the UP against competing devices. Participants are required to respond to regular surveys and had to sign a binding confidentiality agreement, meaning that, outside of designated UP tester channels, they’re not supposed to blog, tweet or talk to the media about the product.

The program kicked off in early January and was invite-only (it’s now closed to new participants).

Below, you can see some of the questions Jawbone is posing to UP testers:

Readers, are you still using your UP wristbands, or have you returned them for a refund? Feel free to leave your comments below.

(UP band photo courtesy of Flickr/m8roberto)

Andy Smith, CEO of IAC-owned DailyBurn, says that the benefit of fitness-tracking tools goes away after the first few weeks, and users ultimately fall into the same activity — or inactivity — patterns as before.

“They do help a small subset of people,” Smith said. “You find that there are type-A personalities that like to track everything, and that’s great. For others, it might give them a little jump start. But the value proposition of those devices after the first few weeks goes way down.”

DailyBurn is a fitness-data-tracking company that is now focusing on fitness content. The company pivoted partly because data-tracking wasn’t all that effective, Smith said.

Last week, Nike introduced a $150 lightweight wristband with a tri-axis accelerometer for gauging activity levels; earlier this week, Fitbit — maker of the popular Fitbit device — announced that it had raised $12 million in Series C funding to continue making fitness products.

Nike’s FuelBand just became available for preorder, so it’s too early to tell how enthusiastic consumers are about that particular device. And while it’s unclear how many Fitbit units have sold since it hit the market in 2009, the newer Fitbit Ultra is listed as one of the top 50 products in the health-and-fitness section on Amazon.com.

Another wearable fitness device, the Jawbone UP, is currently in production limbo as the company deals with technical and hardware issues, but the wristband was initially received with excitement from some consumers.

“I feel like these are not quite a gimmick, but are close to it,” Smith told AllThingsD. “You get people to spend $100 to $150 bucks on something that’s just a glorified accelerometer — which, by the way, you have in your phone, too.”

“I think people know when they’re not active,” Smith added. “They know if they didn’t move around enough today. I don’t buy it.”

Smith’s opinion is informed by the fact that DailyBurn used to be more data-oriented, but has since shifted its strategy become more content-focused, he said.

DailyBurn first launched in 2008 under the name Gyminee. Back then, the company was tailored more toward fitness data tracking and the sharing of data through social networks to help users meet their weight loss goals.

In May 2010, the company was acquired by IAC. At the time, the company claimed 500,000 members; Smith said it has around two million users now.

Following the acquisition, DailyBurn introduced the DailyBurn Tracker app, as well as food-tracking app Meal Snap, an attempt to spur weight loss motivation by giving caloric estimates based on photos of food.

Ultimately, Smith said, constant tracking isn’t necessarily the best way to facilitate that.

With DailyBurn’s newest fitness product — a personalized Web video program that streams over smartphones and the iPad to users’ TV sets — the company is focused on getting people to exercise four to six times a week, for 30 minutes a day, at a good level of intensity. It’s not something you buy that’s a quick fix, Smith said.

Readers, what are your thoughts? Are health-and-fitness tracking devices useful or useless?

The new round comes entirely from existing investors Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC and Felicis Ventures.

The company said it plans to use the funding mainly for hiring and for aggressive product development. Fitbit declined to elaborate further on what type of new product or products it has up its sleeve, except to say that it is now looking ahead to other connected and affordable health-and-fitness devices for the year, and is hiring top engineers to get the company there.

But Fitbit’s next steps — no pun intended — probably need to be very strategic ones.

The funding round comes amid increasing competition from other makers of wear-’em-and-forget-’em data-tracking devices. While Fitbit has been a leader in this area of health-and-fitness tracking, Jawbone, a maker of audio products, launched the $99 UP wristband tracker late last year, which was initially received with enthusiasm. And Nike just introduced its version of a polymer-encased wristband, the FuelBand.

The Jawbone UP has since suffered technical difficulties, forcing the company to refund unhappy customers and temporarily pause production.

But with the $149 FuelBand, Nike has brought big-brand cachet to activity tracking. And Nike isn’t just targeting the serious athlete or runner anymore — it’s going after the casual athlete and the desk jockey, too.

While some fitness devices involve the use of pedometers, accelerometers or galvanic skin-response sensors, Nike’s band promises to combine oxygen uptake with the activity tracked through the device’s tri-axis accelerometer for a high-tech reading. To be fair, it’s not entirely clear yet how that differentiates the FuelBand, and we won’t be able to gauge how well it works until we can get our hands on one and test it.

The Fitbit also uses a three-dimensional accelerometer to measure users’ steps and activity levels. When the $100 Fitbit device launched in 2008, it punched up the idea of the average pedometer, and offered hassle-free, wireless uploading of 24-7 personal analytics and activity data. Fitbit also created a Web dashboard through which users can monitor their activity levels; for $50 a year, Fitbit users can view even more detailed analytics.

In October 2011, the company introduced the Fitbit Ultra, which added a digital clock, a stopwatch and an altimeter that measures elevation gain; a Fitbit iPhone app was launched, too.

San Francisco-based Fitbit, which recently started selling Fitbits in Canada and the U.K., declined to say how many units have been sold to date. In the U.S., the Fitbit recently became available in Target stores through a retail partnership.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Fitbit also unveiled the Fitbit Aria, a Wi-Fi-enabled “smart” scale, as Forbes reported here. The company plans to ship the scale starting in April.

(Fitbit photo courtesy of Redefinery/Flickr)

The Nike+ FuelBand measures time, calories, steps and “NikeFuel.” It uses an accelerometer to measure movement, has built-in USB and 20 LED flights that flash red or green to show your progress, and can connect wirelessly to the iPhone via Bluetooth.

The FuelBand comes with a free iPhone app, and is social network friendly, for those users who want to share their activity updates with Facebook, Foursquare and even Path. For now, the FuelBand app is iOS-only. Stefan Olander, Nike’s vice president of digital sport, says that the company will eventually explore other mobile operating systems for the app.

Nike, for competitive reasons, currently isn’t sharing details on how the band calculates users’ NikeFuel levels, whether they’re running, skateboarding, or doing any other kind of physical activity. The idea of NikeFuel — a measurement or score of a user’s activity — sounds a little bit like the Fitbit’s “flower power” currency. It’s a way for users to compare workouts without necessarily referring to data like calories burned, which may differ from user to user.

With FuelBand, Nike seems to be taking a slightly different measurement approach from those of other makers of health-and-fitness bands. The company says it maps oxygen uptake against a three-axis accelerometer during both activity and downtime to measure the metabolic equivalent of a task (a.k.a. M.E.T).

The Jawbone UP, for example, measures steps, heart rate, calories burned and sleep patterns. Basis is also focused on measuring heart rate and other metrics with its Basis B1 Band (no chest strap needed). And BodyMedia’s Fit armband uses galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors to measure body temperature and how much heat has dissipated from the body to determine the amount of energy that’s being used.

The Nike+ FuelBand will be available for preorder in the U.S. on Jan. 19, and will cost $149 — more than the UP, less than the B1 Band, and in the same range as BodyMedia’s bands.

Nike has a few other wearable workout tools already on the market, but its FuelBand is really meant to be worn all day, so Nike device users don’t have to switch from day wear to workout wear. With the FuelBand, Olander says, Nike is aiming to hit all areas and levels of the fitness market, not just serious athletes and runners.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the FuelBand compares to Nike’s other fitness-monitoring devices:

There’s the Nike+ SportBand, which currently retails for $59, has a slightly bulkier form factor, and works in conjunction with a sensor that goes under the sock liner of your left-foot Nike+ compatible shoe. This one is water-resistant, tracks distance, pace, time elapsed and calories burned, and stores 30 hours of running data. (It’s also available as a “Livestrong” SportBand.)

There’s also the $199 Nike+ GPS Sportwatch powered by TomTom, which works with or without a Nike+ sensor as well as a Polar WearLink Transmitter for measuring heart rate. Compared to a single rubbery wristband, that’s a lot of stuff to carry around; without those devices, the watch alone shows a mapped route and tracks time, distance, pace, heart rate and calories burned. It plugs directly into a USB port on your computer to upload run data and recharge the battery.

And the Nike Amp+ iPod Remote is no longer available through Nike’s store, but way back in the day — four years ago — it was a nifty device that synced the Nike watch to users’ iPods and provided voice updates on time, distance, calories and pace during workouts.

Popular right now are monthly shoe clubs that send you a new pair every 30 days. But here’s a twist: A site that lets you try out consumer electronics and home and kitchen gadgets before buying them.

YBuy.com, which launched today, allows members to try out a product, such as an iPad, a Jawbone headset, a Keurig coffee maker or an iRobot Roomba vacuum, for 30 days before deciding whether they want to keep it.

Members must pay $25 for the service. If they decide to keep the product, the fee applies toward the item’s purchase price. YBuy says shipping is free both ways.

The Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company was started by Stephen Svajian and Kevin and Tim Wall, and has raised $750,000 in funding from angel investors.

The concept is based on the theory that product returns are already costing the consumer electronics industry a lot of money. In 2011, YBuy estimates that 68 percent of products were returned because they did not meet customer’s expectations, costing the industry $16.7 billion.

Thus, if users get the chance to use the product before they buy it, the number of returns will drop. YBuy says it offers new products, but will also refurbish unwanted products before sending them to another customer.

Other subscription services have received large investments recently with a new twist on the business model introduced in the 80s with the CD club.

For example, ShoeDazzle, which was co-founded by celebrity Kim Kardashian, raised $40 million in capital last year, and JustFabulous raised $33 million with the help of former model Kimora Lee Simmons, who was previously married to Russell Simmons.

Unlike the onerous subscription services of the past, YBuy says subscribers can cancel anytime or choose to skip a month and have that month’s fee applied toward the purchase of a future product.

Right now, YBuy is invitation-only as it ramps up.

The e-commerce giant (a term typically reserved for Amazon in these woods) is one of the larger examples companies from the Bay Area that are setting up shop here and looking to soak up some of the Northwest’s rich engineering talent.

Other companies with satellite offices in the Seattle area include Google, Facebook, Zynga and Salesforce.

“I’m surprised I ended up at eBay, but the story is compelling,” said Ken Moss, who was hired in November to be eBay’s VP of managed marketplaces technology; Moss is GM of the Redmond office.

A long-time Microsoft employee whose claim to fame includes inventing the Pivot table in Excel, Moss more recently co-founded CrowdEye, a start-up focused on search technology and later on stock market prediction.

He said eBay’s dedication to the region is one of the biggest selling points for recruitment.

Most of the 75 employees that currently work there were hired over the past few months, and a small team has been here for seven years. Among the newbies I met were a number of Microsoft veterans who had been there for 12 to 15 years.

Moss says he will report directly to eBay’s CTO Mark Carges, which is “a signal to the whole company that diversified development is for real.”

“We are first-class citizens,” Moss said, referring to sometimes strained relationship between remote workers and a company’s headquarters.

Eric Brill, VP of eBay’s research labs, is also based in the Redmond office, and has been working part-time there since joining the company in 2009.

Moss said eBay will be looking to hire a range of technologists, from college graduates to senior leaders, including developers, testers, researchers, data miners and other positions.

While I was at the office on Tuesday, the mountains were peeking out from the clouds and were easy to spot from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the fourth floor. It was easy enough for everyone to have a window seat in the open-floor plan.

Although the employees just moved in on Monday, a sign outside the building already announced eBay’s presence. Inside, workers were busy putting the final touches on the space to make it feel like eBay. Primary colors of red, blue, yellow and green highlighted the office walls; with a bit of Seattle flair, conference rooms were named after Northwest tribes such as Puyallup and Quinault (and other names that might be difficult for San Jose-based employees to pronounce).

But missing were some of the perks that some recruits expect these day — no shuttles to and from work or fancy cafeterias, for instance. 

In fact, eBay has a long way to go to compare with what Google has done here. Since entering the market seven years ago, Google has hired more than 900 employees, spread across two locations, a spokesperson confirmed.

One office is in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood; the other is on the Eastside.

The two offices are geographically divided by Lake Washington, which can be crossed by one of two floating bridges — or by boat, if you are crafty enough. The traffic bottlenecks make for a horrendously notorious commute, so having two locations that straddle both sides is a huge perk — like having offices in both San Francisco and San Jose.

Because of Google’s size here, many of its perks are similar to its Mountain View headquarters, including free meals prepared by chefs, frozen-yogurt bars and other, mostly food-based, luxuries.

In eBay’s case, the new digs are located deep on the Eastside, a couple of miles past Microsoft in Redmond, and roughly 15 miles from Jeff Bezos’s empire in downtown Seattle. Recently, Amazon relocated its headquarters to a brand-new campus in South Lake Union, a neighborhood being revitalized by former Microsoft executive Paul Allen.

Other outside companies that have also established sizable tech centers here include Facebook and Zynga. A couple others have gained offices through acquisitions. Electronic Arts, for instance, now has a large office here, after acquiring PopCap; EMC now has big expansion plans here, after purchasing Isilon.

And Geekwire, a Seattle-based technology blog, is good at keeping an ongoing tally, including recent moves into the area by Jawbone and SweetLabs, a San Diego-based start-up, based by Intel Capital and Google Ventures.

Two years ago, Facebook opened an office in the heart of downtown Seattle. It plans to move soon to a 27,000-square-foot space that will have room for about 135 employees. The 70 or so engineers in the office today have worked on projects such as video calling, the Facebook iPad app and other big issues, such as security.

Last April, social game maker Zynga opened an office in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, hoping to absorb some of the game talent here, spawned from Xbox and Nintendo, and cloud-computing knowledge from Amazon. It has 50 employees today, but declined to say how many it planned to hire in the near future.

As with most of these companies, eBay believes it can find a diversity of talent here that can’t always be easy to hire in the Bay Area.

As a Seattle native, and having covered tech here for the past 12 years, including an eight-year stint at the Seattle Times, I might not be the most unbiased on the subject. But I’ve seen first-hand the breadth of talent here, from Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, T-Mobile and many others, including a strong start-up pool.

Despite that, the local tech community often suffers from an inferiority complex when it compares itself with the Bay Area, which is much larger. Still, it seems that Silicon Valley companies are finding a number of excuses to travel north to drink from the area’s plentiful tech waters.

Featured alongside Jawbone’s signature Jambox speaker, the problem-plagued band was looking as (Live)strong as ever.

We’re told an update is coming to the UP wristband — but it’s not the one we’re waiting on, at least not yet. The company is planning on pushing out a new version of the UP iPhone app in the coming weeks, based on feedback it’s getting from a group of UP testers.

Last Saturday, the company launched the Jawbone UP Testers program, and plans to send participants free hardware — including UP wristbands — from time to time for user testing and feedback. The program isn’t open to the public; users had to have received an email from Jawbone in order to participate. Participants are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that is binding for two years. And all of the tester feedback has to be shared through designated tester channels, so that means no tweeting, blogging or talking to people in the media (like me).

It’s good to see Jawbone taking even further action to remedy the Jawbone UP, which got off to a great start but quickly became the subject of user complaints.

Asked when Jawbone would issue the UP update, Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s vice president of product management and strategy, said, “We’re still in the same place as before.”

Bogard reiterated Jawbone’s commitment to the UP wristband, and said it has been the company’s best-selling product. He declined to say how many testers were in the group so far, or to specify which complaints would be addressed by the expected app update.

Bogard also said that Jawbone wasn’t concerned about other health-and-fitness gadgets being shown off at the big show in Las Vegas this week, saying that wearable fitness is a new category, and that Jawbone doesn’t see other products being as wearable as the UP. “The point is really to wear these things all the time to get the maximum benefit,” he said. “If other products aren’t as wearable, they just won’t work as well.”

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Two of the 25 TechZones on the showroom floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center will be geared specifically toward digital health, with more than 171 exhibitors showcasing products as part of the Digital Health and Fitness category.

Basis B1 Band

One notable device attendees will see is the Basis B1 band, which offers an alternative to accelerometer-based fitness products. The band is a water-resistant wristband that uses multiple sensors to calculate calories burned, amount of physical activity and sleep patterns. It also sports Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors that track perspiration to measure body temperature alongside ambient temperature.

In addition to showing off the B1 band at CES, Basis CEO Jef Holove said the company plans to demo a Web dashboard that works with the USB-compatible band to help users track the activity data they upload.

The cost of the Basis B1 band, which is expected to launch in early 2012, is still to be determined.

Another company, called Striiv, will showcase a $99 keychain-friendly device meant to track a user’s every movement; the idea is to motivate individuals by using activity-based games and creating challenges based on real-world distances, like crossing the Grand Canyon. The Striiv device hit the market this past October.

Among the other health-related products to be featured at the CES 2012 Sports and Fitness TechZone are waterproof MP3 players, armbands, heart monitors, high-tech goggles, GPS-enabled cameras and the integration of gesture-recognition technology into games for fitness and sports.

According to a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organization that runs CES, the sports and fitness category is a $70 billion annual business in the U.S. alone.

The growing mobile phone market and explosion of mobile apps has contributed to the growth of the digital health market as well. A recent ABI Research report says the market for sports and fitness apps is expected to reach $400 million by 2016, across more than one billion annual health-related app downloads.

Health care companies have also been getting into the app arena. United Health Group plans to show off mobile applications at CES 2012 for managing health care accounts, tracking prescriptions and creating health goals. Aetna already has mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry; Blue Cross and Blue Shield introduced an app for iOS devices earlier this year.

The development of these mobile apps, as well as lightweight wearable devices such as the popular FitBit, opens up a new category of products that are less expensive — and in some cases less cumbersome — than a traditional, bulky fitness watch or a heart-rate monitor that straps around the chest. In many cases, new fitness products come with analytical Web services, and aim to go beyond the standard pedometer or accelerometer to offer a comprehensive look at activity and health.

But the marriage of health and fitness data applications with actual hardware can be a difficult one in terms of product development. Case in point: The Jawbone UP wristband.

Jawbone UP

Jawbone, a maker of slick audio products, recently made its first foray into the fitness market with the $99 dollar Jawbone UP. A few weeks after the launch of the UP, which tracks user activity and plugs directly into the iPhone to sync the data, user complaints began to trickle in. Some cited battery issues, syncing problems and poor design. The company put out an apology, instituted a no-questions-asked return policy and has temporarily halted production of the device.

Jawbone declined to comment on when the company will resume production of the UP device, but Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s Vice President of Product Management & Strategy, issued a statement saying, “The passionate response to UP has been phenomenal — and this is just the beginning. We’re extremely committed to the category and we’re going to keep improving the UP product until we realize the powerful vision of what this category can be.”

Basis’s Holove concurred that fitness devices that look to eliminate straps and wires while still performing multiple tasks can be complicated products, and said part of the reason the Basis band isn’t officially launching at CES is because the company is focused on “getting it right.”

“We don’t want to repeat any lessons learned in the industry recently. We’ve redoubled our testing plans now,” Holove said.

Holove says he believes the initial excitement over the Jawbone UP is evidence of growing consumer demand for wearable health-and-fitness devices. He also predicts that, in the near future, more corporations will begin to institute health-incentive programs, like Virgin’s HealthMiles, which could involve the mass distribution of health monitors. Through Virgin HealthMiles’s Pay-For-Prevention program, companies encourage employees to use a GoZone tracker and record their daily activities for potential rewards.

But for now, Holove says, the focus is still on marketing directly to the consumer when it comes to fitness and health. ”It’s no mystery that we need to be healthier. Health care costs are rising while health is declining, so we’re going directly to the customer and saying, here’s what you can do about that.”

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
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In other words: UP does mean having to say you’re sorry.

Jawbone’s CEO, Hosain Rahman, said the company has found an issue with two specific capacitors in the wristband’s power system that affects the ability to hold a charge; Jawbone is also working on an issue with syncing related to the band’s hardware.

The company reassured users that the problems are performance-related and don’t pose safety risks.

If customers are unhappy with the UP, they can also receive a full refund for it — and keep the (possibly nonfunctional) one they’ve got. Jawbone said the refund program will go into effect starting tomorrow.

The Jawbone UP, a $99 wristband that monitors users’ activity and plugs directly into an iPhone to send data to an app, first hit the market a month ago and initially received positive reviews for its wearable form factor and ease of use. Within a short time, though, some customers alleged that the device wouldn’t hold a battery charge; there were also complaints about syncing issues and the fact that the cap at the end of the band falls off easily. The product is the first foray into the health-and-fitness market for Jawbone, which is known for its nifty audio products.

Full text of the Jawbone letter below:

Update from the CEO
The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee

To the UP Community:

Earlier this year, we unveiled Jawbone’s vision to help people live a healthier life with UP. We’ve been thrilled by the passionate response to this product. We heard from tens of thousands of you through emails, tweets, blog posts and on our forums about how you’re changing your lifestyle and becoming consumers of your own health. In just four weeks, UP users have collectively taken over three billion steps, gotten more than 300 years of sleep and captured hundreds of thousands of meals.

While many of you continue to enjoy the UP experience, we know that some of you have experienced issues with your UP band. Given our commitment to delivering the highest quality products, this is unacceptable and you have our deepest apologies. We’ve been working around the clock to identify the root causes and we’d like to thank everyone who has provided us with information and returned their bands to us for troubleshooting. With your help, we’ve found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We’re also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware. Typically, these issues surface within the first seven to ten days of use. The glitches are purely performance related and do not pose any safety risk.

We’ve also received helpful feedback on the application experience, including bug reports, ways to make signup and finding friends easier, user interface suggestions and new feature requests. Your comments are invaluable as we continue to improve, so please keep them coming and check back frequently for updates to ensure you’re always enjoying the latest features and enhancements.

We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone’s expectations – including our own – so we’re taking action:

The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee

This means that for whatever reason, or no reason at all, you can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band. We are so committed to this product that we’re offering you the option of using it for free.

The program starts December 9th and full details can be found at http://www.jawbone.com/uprefund.

For most of you, this program is simply meant to offer peace of mind. Please continue to enjoy your UP band and keep sharing your experience with us. If you encounter any problems with your UP band, contact Jawbone directly for your choice of a replacement and/or refund under this program. It’s that simple.

Jawbone remains deeply committed to addressing all issues with UP, investing in the category and giving our customers the tools to live a healthier life. We’ve temporarily paused production of UP bands and will begin taking new orders once these issues have been sorted out. In the meantime, we’ll continue to release app updates for existing users.

We regret any disappointment we’ve created for our community of users and appreciate the trust you’ve put in us. The fact that you’ve taken the time to talk with us and help us make a better product is simply phenomenal. Our customers have always been part of our team and we’re incredibly grateful for that.

Please know that we’re doing – and will continue to do – everything we can to make things right. This is just the beginning for UP and we are excited to keep improving until we realize the powerful vision of what this category can be.

If there is absolutely anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Hosain Rahman
CEO
Jawbone

Like previous Jawbone product launches, its newest slick device, called UP — a digital wristband that tracks your health — hit the market amid high interest and positive reviews.

But, just over three weeks after its launch, it seems that some users are down on UP.

One of the complaints about UP involves the hardware and design of the device, a MotionX-powered bracelet that tracks users’ daily activity, sleep patterns and even their meals.

One major issue involves the end of the wristband — which is protected by a removable cap — that plugs directly into users’ iPhones for immediate access to the data through a Jawbone UP iOS app.

Some users are claiming that the cap falls off too easily, and have submitted multiple complaints about lost caps to Jawbone’s online forum. The cap is also designed to lie on the underside of the wrist, which some allege gets in the way for frequent laptop users.

Others are complaining that the UP device sometimes doesn’t sync with the iPhone and send the necessary data after plugging it into the smartphone.

Finally — in what might be the most critical of complaints about the UP, since it’s meant to be worn 24/7 — some users are claiming that too-quick battery drainage is an issue with their devices.

Jawbone, a San Francisco-based start-up known for its nifty audio products, such as the Jawbone wireless headset and Jambox wireless speaker, said it is aware of the issues and has been addressing them on its Web site.

In an interview, Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said a minority of users are affected, and that both the company and outside teams are working hard to diagnose the roots of the various problems.

He declined to say when exactly the company will have answers for its customers, except to say that they are “close” on the diagnostics results.

“We’re taking all of this technology and trying to simplify it for the user, which is a complex problem to solve,” Rahman said. “There’s waterproofing, power management, how to utilize the phone, design, a social experience and more, all in one product.”

It’s a fair point. And while it works to solve complaints, Jawbone has been shipping free replacement UP devices to dissatisfied customers. Three-packs of replacement caps are also available for $9.99.

The possible problems with UP do not seem to have affected sales. For first-time buyers, Jawbone said UP is currently back-ordered, with new orders expected to ship in one to two weeks.

But the possible device malfunctions are an unusual misstep in the company’s first foray into the health and fitness market. The UP, which costs $100, was introduced as a comprehensive solution for personal health analytics, offering both hardware and software and aimed at the same market as such products as the wearable Fitbit and the Zeo Sleep Manager.

“We do believe the issues that people are experiencing can be addressed very quickly,” Rahman said. “It’s going to be a constantly evolving product solution.”

Here is a video interview that Kara Swisher did with Rahman and Jawbone’s software head Jeremiah Robison, just before UP’s launch:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111201/complaints-pop-up-for-jawbones-up/feed/ 11 http://allthingsd.com/20111102/jawbone-debuts-up-which-tracks-well-you-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111102/jawbone-debuts-up-which-tracks-well-you-video/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:01:08 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=139846

Jawbone, the San Francisco mobile products company famous for its Jawbone mobile headsets and Jambox wireless speakers, today introduced its latest offering, called UP.

The company had previously shown off the small $99 wristband and its accompanying Apple iPhone application, which track a user’s daily activity, sleep patterns and eating habits. Incorporating motion sensors and social elements, UP will be available to consumers on Nov. 6.

Jawbone said it is making the move into the sector because “global health is on a disturbing and rapid decline.” Hence, UP, which is aimed at making people aware of how they move through the world (or not).

The consumer electronics company had raised another $70 million in funding earlier this year.

The wristband was designed, as usual for Jawbone, by Yves Behar, and comes in three sizes and numerous colors.

Here is a video about UP that I did last week at Jawbone offices with founder and CEO Hosain Rahman and the company’s software head, Jeremiah Robison:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111102/jawbone-debuts-up-which-tracks-well-you-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110830/jawbones-newest-headset-comes-with-a-built-in-nerd/ http://allthingsd.com/20110830/jawbones-newest-headset-comes-with-a-built-in-nerd/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:00:46 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=114998 Jawbone’s latest headset looks a lot like its existing Icon product, but with one small addition.

The new model includes a little USB dongle, known as the Nerd. And, like the nerds in all of our own lives, this nerd helps magically make tech products work — in this case making it easier for the headset to connect to a computer.

The Jawbone Nerd convinces the PC or Mac that the headset is just like any other audio device, allowing the new headset to be easily connected simultaneously to both a cellphone and a computer.

Unfortunately, like other nerds, Jawbone’s is particular, only working with the new Icon HD with which it comes bundled for $139. The product also has some other audio and control improvements to go along with its heftier price tag. (The existing Icon sells for $99.) Because it is a single earpiece, it can’t match the immersive stereo experience that many people like when listening to audio on their computer. Jawbone executives note that the need for better headphones has caught their attention, although they say they have nothing to announce yet on that front.

Jawbone is also releasing a free Android app on Tuesday that allows its headsets to more easily manage conference calls; Research In Motion has a similar app for the BlackBerry.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110830/jawbones-newest-headset-comes-with-a-built-in-nerd/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110713/jawbones-newest-product-health-tracking-wristband-called-up/ http://allthingsd.com/20110713/jawbones-newest-product-health-tracking-wristband-called-up/#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:34:02 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=97677 Jawbone, the San Francisco consumer electronics start-up that just grabbed another $70 million in funding, has announced its latest gadget called UP. The new product is described as “an intelligent, wearable wristband with an application that combines tracking, analysis, social and motivational elements.” Jawbone, which makes a popular Bluetooth headset and also the Jambox wireless speaker, said UP will track a user’s movement, sleep patterns and nutrition.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110713/jawbones-newest-product-health-tracking-wristband-called-up/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110712/jawbone-nabs-70-million-in-a-jammed-box-of-funding/ http://allthingsd.com/20110712/jawbone-nabs-70-million-in-a-jammed-box-of-funding/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:30:07 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=97072

Jawbone, the maker of elegant mobile and wireless devices, has added $70 million in funding to its coffers, with a new investment from J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The San Francisco-based company has now raised a total of $170 million, which includes a recent $49 million venture round from high-profile Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz in March.

Jawbone also has raised money from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures and a number of prominent angel investors.

All are making a big bet on consumer electronics, an always dicey arena, and on Jawbone’s innovative products, such as its initial Bluetooth headsets.

The start-up has more recently expanded its offerings to the Jambox Smart Speaker, which has become a fast-selling wireless speaker.

Both have been particularly popular with Apple users, and Jawbone has been prominently featured in its retail stores.

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman certainly sounds like Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he talks about an all-encompassing digital solution.

“We’re going to get into some new categories of products,” said Rahman, about what he plans to do with the new funding, especially around making smaller, embedded and wearable devices. “We want to be an end-to-end experience.”

While he would not be specific, Rahman said that this area of computing is changing to encompass the entire mobile lives of its consumers.

“We want to leverage the power of the tool in your pocket,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”

Here’s the official press release from Jawbone:

JAWBONE SECURES $70M IN GROWTH FUNDING FROM J.P. MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENT

Jawbone to Expand its Products and Services for the Mobile Lifestyle

SAN FRANCISCO –- July 12, 2011 –- Jawbone, a leading innovator of products and services for the mobile lifestyle, today announced it has secured $70 million in funding from investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Jawbone is one of the largest privately-held, venture capital-backed consumer electronics companies in the world, and this round brings total investment in Jawbone close to $170 million to date. The funding will allow Jawbone to continue its rapid growth and expand into new markets and categories, building on its successful portfolio of premium mobile products and services.

“We seek to invest in the best high-growth companies,” said Larry Unrein, managing director of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. :Given the widespread adoption of smartphones globally, we are seeing a massive shift in user expectations around having a complete, high-quality and seamless experience wherever they are. Jawbone, with its long-standing expertise in mobile user experience, has been delighting customers by enabling them to get the most out of their smartphones through a combination of cutting-edge technology and great design. We believe Jawbone is poised to be the next great mobile computing company coming out of Silicon Valley.”

“Funding from J.P. Morgan Asset Management is fantastic for us as we continue to rapidly expand our business,” said Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone. “As people’s digital lives become increasingly centered around mobile devices, we see no shortage of opportunities for our technology and products to unlock the potential of a full mobile experience. The support of J.P. Morgan Asset Management will help us be even more aggressive in our pursuit of these opportunities.”

Jawbone’s innovation has resulted in unprecedented demand for its products and services on a global scale. The company is known for leading and disrupting categories with its breakthrough software, strong commitment to design, and award-winning products.

“Jawbone is one of the most important mobile companies with which Sequoia Capital has partnered,” said Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital and Jawbone board member. “Jawbone’s relentless building of great products that consumers love gives the company a unique ability to redefine established markets. We are delighted to have J.P. Morgan Asset Management on board.”

Jawbone first made its mark in the industry by creating an entirely new class of intelligent Bluetooth® headsets, and has successfully expanded its portfolio of products for the past decade. The JAMBOX Smart Speaker™ is one of the best-selling speakers globally, and the recently-launched Jawbone ERA™ headset is the first to include HD audio and motion sensors.

For more information, images and product demos, please visit www.Jawbone.com/Press, or follow @Jawbone on Twitter.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110712/jawbone-nabs-70-million-in-a-jammed-box-of-funding/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110316/little-speakers-big-bet-andreessen-horowitz-invests-49-million-in-headset-maker-jawbone/ http://allthingsd.com/20110316/little-speakers-big-bet-andreessen-horowitz-invests-49-million-in-headset-maker-jawbone/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:00:50 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=30811 Little speakers, big bet: VC shop Andreessen Horowitz is putting $49 million into Jawbone, the company best known for its slim mobile headsets.

There aren’t any other investors joining Andreessen Horowitz in the round. The firm is perhaps best known for its high-profile bets in Web/media/software companies like Foursquare, Skype and Twitter (via secondary markets).

Partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz had both previously invested in Jawbone as individual angels; Horowitz will get a seat on the company’s board.

Jawbone has now raised around $100 million over a 10-year period. Most of the other money in the company has come from Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures.

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman won’t spell out what the new money is earmarked for, other than products that fit into the “total mobile experience.”

But the company’s product history may suggest a roadmap: It started out with a single Jawbone headset, has since added two more, and then branched out with the Jambox, a wireless speaker box. Most recently, it rolled out a free “Thoughts” app, which lets users dictate quick messages and send them out via email or text.

“They have quite an advanced software platform, and the company has evolved, from an intellectual property standpoint, into what’s essentially a software company,” Horowitz says.

Here’s video of the company showing off the Jambox and its Thoughts software at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference last December:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110316/little-speakers-big-bet-andreessen-horowitz-invests-49-million-in-headset-maker-jawbone/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101208/plantronics-aims-to-make-conference-calls-less-painful/ http://allthingsd.com/20101208/plantronics-aims-to-make-conference-calls-less-painful/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:15:06 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=684 Okay, I’m still not sold on putting a Bluetooth thing in my ear all the time. But Jawbone and Plantronics are doing their best to lure me.

Both showed technologies at D: Dive Into Mobile aimed at making the headsets useful for more than just making cellphone calls. And on Thursday, Plantronics plans to announce what sounds like another pretty nifty feature. Dubbed InstantMeeting, it is a piece of software that makes it possible to dial in to a meeting with the press of a button–instead of having to go through the usual process, which involves calling a number, entering a conference code and then maybe a password to boot.

For now, InstantMeeting is a program for the BlackBerry (see image) and Android, though Plantronics says that an iPhone version is in the works, as is a Skype version and one that can connect directly to Microsoft’s Outlook software–the place where that call-in data often is buried. Those other versions should come early next year.

As for the Android and BlackBerry programs, a free trial version allows 20 free dial-ins, while the premium version, which allows for unlimited dial-ins, will sell for $2.99. However, Plantronics says that those who download the free trial version on Thursday will get 1,000 free calls.

I’ll have to see it in action to believe it, but it sure sounds like a time-saver. Plus, if it works, when your phone drops the call, you can just press one button to dial back in. Of course, as with Jawbone’s Thoughts application for the iPhone, I don’t actually need a headset to use InstantMeeting.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101208/plantronics-aims-to-make-conference-calls-less-painful/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101207/jawbone-you-wont-pay-a-penny-for-our-thoughts/ http://allthingsd.com/20101207/jawbone-you-wont-pay-a-penny-for-our-thoughts/#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:15:32 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=445 Headset maker Jawbone thinks it has found another nifty use for its electronic earwear. The company is using D: Dive Into Mobile to announce Thoughts, an iPhone app that lets road warriors dictate a quick thought that gets delivered as an audio file to whomever they like. If the recipient also has the Thoughts app, they can get messages delivered there. If not, the program can send either an email or text with a link to the recorded message, or even a computer transcription if they need one.

It’s really convenient for senders. With just a press of a button, they can dictate the equivalent of a text message and know that it will reach the person. It’s like sending a voicemail without having to listen to that annoying message or–heaven forbid–talk to someone. You can even share your thought with various groups of people.

As for the recipients, I’m not sure how they will take to an influx of “thoughts” should their friends or company really start digging the new messaging option.

In any case, Thoughts is a free download due shortly at the App Store, so it won’t cost a thing to try it out. You don’t even need a headset, though it integrates well with Jawbone’s gear and software. However, the goal of the software is to make headsets more versatile.

Plantronics is also trying to expand the device’s utility, in its case expanding from a cellphone-only headset to one that can talk to Skype and enterprise phone systems, in addition to cellphones.

Live Notes

4:15 pm: Aliph/Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman takes the stage with Walt and Kara.

4:16 pm: He starts taking out the Jambox, a wireless speaker system and speakerphone in one.

4:17 pm: Aliph is offering 40 percent off the device to D: Dive attendees.

4:17 pm: They transition to the real demo.

Rahman says they are usually talking about headsets, but today they are here to talk about an app they have developed.

4:18 pm: He says we all live in a distracted life.

“People are constantly bumping into stuff now, with all the touchscreen stuff.”

4:19 pm: He says they love texts because they are asynchronous and you don’t have to get back to people immediately.

He says they love voice because it is the oldest method of communication. “It’s better for expressing emotion,” says Rahman.

4:20 pm: He opens Jawbone Thoughts on his iPhone 4.

The app is a hybrid between texting and voicemail–quickly sending a voice message to an individual or group.

4:21 pm: Rahman sends a message, and now we switch to the receiver’s phone.

The interface is slick, and avatar-driven. Feels like playing song demos in iTunes–just a snippet to get a quick idea.

4:23 pm: The app also has a text-to-speech engine for text messages.

Kara asks, “Can you control it with voice…so no tapping on the screen?”

“Soon. We are waiting on some APIs,” says Rahman.

4:25 pm: The app can also send voice messages or texts to people who don’t have the app. It just sends a text message or email.

The demo ends with a mention of version 2.0 for the app.

Here’s Aliph’s own demo video of the Thoughts app:

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101207/jawbone-you-wont-pay-a-penny-for-our-thoughts/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100930/aliph-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-for-jawbones-in-the-workplace-launches/ http://allthingsd.com/20100930/aliph-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-for-jawbones-in-the-workplace-launches/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:00:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34511 In April, Cisco unveiled a wide-ranging collaboration with Aliph–a San Francisco start-up that is famous for the noise-canceling Jawbone Bluetooth mobile headset–to put its software and device in Cisco’s IP phones in the enterprise.

It launches today.

The Cisco (CSCO) deployment is a big win for Aliph, since the networking giant is a dominant player in the arena to provide telephony solutions to businesses, part of its Voice and Unified Communications division.

The idea is to use the Jawbone device and the software that manages it to allow workers to move around an office and have the call move with them, echoing increasingly mobile consumer behavior. That will even include jumping from office phones to mobile devices.

To do this, Cisco will be using Aliph’s technology, which the start-up is calling a “wearable platform.”

The company was formally launched in 2004–in fact, at the D: All Things Digital conference–by Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman, who met as Stanford University undergraduates.

It is funded by Silicon Valley venture powerhouses Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital, as well as smaller investors, who put in a total of $43 million.

With the stylish and innovative Jawbone, Aliph has turned a lot of heads in the wireless headset space, aimed directly at high-end consumers.

It is prominently featured, for example, in Apple (AAPL) retail stores.

Now, it is finally in the workplace.

Here is the image of the box for the new Cisco/Aliph partnership:

And here is the official press release:

Jawbone and Cisco Introduce Wireless Headset for Enterprise Collaboration and Beyond

Jawbone Integrates With Cisco Video Endpoints Extending Unified Communications Inside and Out of the Workplace

SAN FRANCISCO and SAN JOSE, Calif. Sept. 30, 2010–Jawbone and Cisco today announced they are closely collaborating to allow employees to easily move from device to device throughout their day. Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headset will intelligently bridge mobile phones and Internet Protocol (IP) phones in a way that is transparent to users and extends unified communications beyond the walls of the workplace.

Users will be able to connect to their Cisco® Unified IP phones and mobile phones simultaneously, creating a truly unified, wireless, and hands-free communications experience as they move from in-the-office to on-the-go. While on the same headset, employees can take a call from their desk phone and the next from their cell phone as calls can be handled from both sources at the same time on the same headset. The headset extends Jawbone’s industry-first wearable software platform, with Cisco technology to deliver applications that span enterprise and mobile use. Jawbone’s industry-leading industrial design and superior ergonomics ensures users can wear their unified communications wherever they go.

Shipments of the Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headsets have begun in the U.S. and Canada, bundled with Cisco Unified IP Phones 9951 and 9971. International shipments will begin in October 2010.

Key Facts / Highlights:

• Users no longer need to remain tethered to their desks; their audio and voice follow them wherever they go, leaving their hands free for other tasks.
• Employees can remain connected to both phones at the same time and don’t have to pick up the handset on their ringing phone, then pick up their cell phone when it rings because both calls from both sources can be handled at the same time on the same headset.
• Users will be able to make and receive calls from their Bluetooth-enabled mobile, Cisco Unified IP Phone, Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone or Cisco Cius and can switch among the endpoints as they change location.
• Jawbone ICON for Cisco delivers built-in intelligence that allows the headset to be dynamically enhanced through new software applications and functional updates via the Jawbone MyTALK platform.
• As rich new features and functionality are available, the headset can be easily updated either by the IT manager or user themselves.

“We live in an increasingly connected world where the lines between work and play are blurring fast, if not completely gone. People want integrated solutions that are valuable to them all the time regardless of where they are or what they are doing–these need to be lifestyle solutions with the best functionality in a form that is appealing,” said Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone. “No one is willing to make tradeoffs anymore and we are extremely fortunate to be collaborating with a company like Cisco that is committed to leading this vision of new user experiences around the best of both worlds: enhanced productivity through innovative enterprise-grade technology with an equal emphasis on user-centric design.”

“Cisco understands the changing nature of work,” said Steve Slattery, vice president and general manager IP Communications business unit, Cisco. “The Jawbone ICON for Cisco Bluetooth Headset is the type of next-generation device that will allow workers to collaborate regardless of where their work lives. This first wearable and updateable platform is the only one that enables enterprises to get more value out of the device over its lifetime through functional updates as Cisco enhances its UC offering.”

About Jawbone

Jawbone, also known as Aliph, is committed to creating wearable and personal technology products that deliver an unsurpassed user experience. The company’s flagship product, the award-winning Jawbone Bluetooth headset, first disrupted the industry in 2006 with its military-grade NoiseAssassin technology and instantly became recognized as the best Bluetooth headset available. In 2010, Jawbone ICON became the company’s most innovative Jawbone yet; introducing unmatched ease of use, personalization, sound quality and design to the market. Jawbone ICON is currently available in 23 countries across North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

The winner of numerous consumer awards, Jawbone features a uniquely stylish design and is part of the permanent collection at various museums including New York MOMA.

Jawbone is a privately-held company headquartered in San Francisco.

About Cisco Collaboration

From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together integrated network-based collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation, and productivity. They also designed to help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100930/aliph-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-for-jawbones-in-the-workplace-launches/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100428/aliph-in-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-jawbones-in-the-workplace/ http://allthingsd.com/20100428/aliph-in-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-jawbones-in-the-workplace/#comments Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:40:39 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27775

Today at a partner event, Cisco will unveil a wide-ranging collaboration with Aliph–a San Francisco start-up that is famous for its noise-cancelling Jawbone Bluetooth mobile headset–to deploy its software and device in its IP phones in the enterprise.

It is a big win for Aliph, since the networking giant is a dominant player in the arena to provide telephony solutions to businesses, part of its Voice and Unified Communications division.

The idea, said sources, is to use the Jawbone device and the software that manages it to allow workers to move around an office and have the call move with them, echoing increasingly mobile consumer behavior.

BoomTown had heard rumors of intense interest in Aliph by Cisco (CSCO) months ago and assumed a purchase to add to its growing consumer portfolio, such as its recent acquisition of Pure Digital’s Flip camera line.

But that did not turn out to be the case–instead it is more a partnership, said sources, to use Aliph’s technology.

The company was formally launched in 2006–in fact, at the D: All Things Digital conference–by Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman, who met as Stanford University undergraduates. It is funded by Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

With the stylish and innovative Jawbone–the most recent of which is reviewed here by The Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret–Aliph turned a lot of heads in the wireless headset space, aimed directly at high-end consumers.

Now, it is apparently pivoting into the workplace.

While Rahman confirmed the collaboration, he did not give a lot of details, although he did agree to sit down with me last night to broadly sketch out the new relationship.

Here’s the video of the interview:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100428/aliph-in-collaboration-deal-with-cisco-jawbones-in-the-workplace/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090504/welcome-to-lucky-d7-still-gambling-on-the-digital-future/ http://allthingsd.com/20090504/welcome-to-lucky-d7-still-gambling-on-the-digital-future/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 07:26:10 +0000 Kara Swisher http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=126

Incredibly, this is the seventh year of the D: All Things Digital conference.

We feel very lucky to get here, especially in the midst of what our own site’s Digital Daily scribe, John Paczkowski, has so perfectly dubbed the “econalypse.”

Ironically, Walt Mossberg and I planned to launch the very first conference in the middle of the last major downturn for tech, in 2001. But, in the carnage of the Web 1.0 meltdown, we actually held off for two years, with our first D gathering taking place in 2003.

It’s been a real winning streak since then for D, due in large part to our great speakers–such as Microsoft (MSFT) icon Bill Gates and Apple (AAPL) legend Steve Jobs.

Both have been onstage many times over the years, including a historic interview the pair of tech titans did together in 2007 at D5.

Other amazing speakers have included: Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE), Barry Diller of InterActiveCorp (IACI), legendary director George Lucas, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN), former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, News Corp. (NWS) head Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer, Walt Disney (DIS) honcho Bob Iger, Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), CBS (CBS) CEO Les Moonves, Democratic and Republican pols like former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain, all the leadership of Google (GOOG) and many, many more.

We have had a lot of great moments onstage with all these tech and media players over the years, to be sure, with interviews ranging from the funny to the sublime to the truly disastrous.

But, like the digital industry and the innovation our conference focuses on, we also like to lean forward to try to figure out what the Next Big Thing is around the corner, whether it comes from Silicon Valley or not.

That’s why we’re kicking off our conference on May 26 with two of the founders of Twitter–Biz Stone and Evan Williams–who are riding high on tech’s latest hot thing, which might turn out to be either a rocket ship or a shooting star.

They’ll be followed up over the next two days by a plethora of interesting players, from the leaders of several major mobile companies to content execs hit hard by fast-moving digital forces to a new Internet leader like Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, who is trying to turn around one of the Web’s great icons from its more recent lackluster path.

And, as we always do, we will be featuring a spate of demos too, trying to see if we can unearth that next next thing.

In the past, the D stage has seen the debut of start-up products like Sling Media’s Slingbox, Aliph’s Jawbone and Pure Digital’s Flip, all of which have gone onto glory. And also some, like Palm’s Foleo, which did not.

While not everyone can attend D, our crack staff is committed to bringing all the action from this year’s conference to readers of the All Things Digital site via up-to-the-minute blogs, photos, videos, tweets, digs and more. We’ll also, as soon as we can, post the videos of each of the onstage sessions, in their entirety.

Until it all kicks off, here is the list of speakers, below, in alphabetical order, who will be appearing at 2009′s D7 conference:

Irving Azoff | CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM)

Mitchell Baker | Chairman of Mozilla

Steve Ballmer | CEO of Microsoft

Carol Bartz | CEO of Yahoo

Mark Cuban | Chairman of HDNet and Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures

Eve Ensler | Playwright and Founder of V-Day

Arianna Huffington | Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo | CEO of Nokia (NOK)

Mike Lazaridis | Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIMM)

John Lilly | CEO of Mozilla

John Malone | Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation (LCAPA)

Roger McNamee | Partner, Elevation Partners

Jon Miller | Chief Digital Officer of News Corp.

Jon Rubinstein | Executive Chairman, Palm (PALM)

Randall Stephenson | CEO of AT&T (T)

Biz Stone | Co-founder of Twitter

Owen Van Natta | CEO of MySpace

Katharine Weymouth | Publisher of the Washington Post (WPO)

Evan Williams | Co-founder and CEO of Twitter

Jeff Zucker | CEO of NBC Universal (GE)

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