Two in One

The context is what enables the magic trick with the two graph types: Line 111 assigns the area renderer to the default context, and the steps context gets a bar renderer in line 112. In both cases, the opacity parameter determines the transparency of the graph: With values around  , the lines and areas are virtually opaque; they turn completely transparent at around 1.

The graphically enhanced motion data in Figure 6 shows that I ran down to nearby Dolores Park after work to put a few miles on the UP. In a normal day at the office, hardly anyone will achieve the recommended 10,000 steps. As you can also see, the UP accumulated almost zero steps during the evening I spent lounging in front of the TV.

After a nice long sleep until 8 o'clock in the morning, I walked the half mile to the Yahoo! shuttle stop in San Francisco. During the day, the measured walking distance increased very slowly, while I meandered between meetings in different rooms or even buildings. After work, I walked uphill from the bus stop to my home; and the number of steps taken continued to grow, finally reaching about 10,000 at the end of the day.

Under Construction!

If you buy the Jawbone UP band, do not expect a 100 percent mature product. In discussion forums, more than a few owners reported that their slender bracelets stopped working at some point. In particular, the first versions had apparently catastrophic error rates; newer ones are more reliable, but it's not uncommon to hear that individual UPs fail to charge their batteries or stop responding. The fact that the Jawbone customer service department does not always respond as expected fails to inspire confidence. But, give it a shot!

A competitor for the UP has been available for quite a while in the form of "The One" by Fitbit [6]. You can drop this small USB stick format gadget into your pocket during the day and bind it onto your arm at night using a fairly wide fabric ribbon.