Apple and Nike Settle FuelBand Lawsuit

An anonymous reader writes: Nike and co-defendant Apple have reached an agreement to settle a class action suit that alleged false advertising from the two companies indicating that the FuelBand fitness watch had capabilities to track health. The two companies agreed that Nike would pay $2.4 million out to customers who purchased a FuelBand between January 19, 2012 and June 17, 2015. Apple was a co-defendant in the case, but only Nike has been found liable for falsely advertising the wristband.

Comments

What?

[sexconker]

Isn't that the entire point of those FuelBand, FitBit, etc. things? Monitor hear rate, distance traveled, etc. and feed into an app where you can also add exercise details, food details, etc.? If these things don't track this shit, then what is it that they do, exactly?
I have no interest in these devices but I can't imaging what it is they do if they're NOT doing these things.

Or is the lawsuit claiming the advertising specifically said it tracked "health" and not these specific things (which are related to health)?

Re: What?

[TheCastro1689]

I think it's because the fuel band only measured steroids and guessed calories. Newer bands monitor your heart rate, you input your height and weight and they're more accurate.

Re:What?

[unrtst]

There is a handy link in the summary. I was curious about the same thing you are, so I clicked it, and the first sentence explains it (which should have been included in the, otherwise clickbait, summary):

Nike and Apple have agreed to settle in a class action lawsuit alleging that the two sold the Nike FuelBand fitness tracker in spite of knowing that the device’s biometrics measurements were inaccurate.

Based on the wording in the summary, I expected it to be about the "tracking" part. I was guessing that the band doesn't actually log any thing locally, so it can't be said to track anything on its own. I have no idea if that's the case or not.

Re:What?

[rmdingler]

Nike and Apple have agreed to settle in a class action lawsuit alleging that the two sold the Nike FuelBand fitness tracker in spite of knowing that the device’s biometrics measurements were inaccurate.

Based on the wording in the summary, I expected it to be about the "tracking" part. I was guessing that the band doesn't actually log any thing locally, so it can't be said to track anything on its own. I have no idea if that's the case or not.

So in other words, like many, many things sold under the guise of being healthful,

these products are about as scientifically helpful as the mood ring.

Re:What?

[macklin01]

Hi, I've used a FuelBand (SE+) for a year or so.

They do log / track locally. There is enough onboard memory to store several days' worth of activity, in one minute increments as far as I can tell. (I only sync my data once a day when recharging by USB, but I've often gone a few days between. All the data make it home.)

Moreover, the FuelBand has a display that gives real-time feedback: it can give you move reminders if you've been still for too long, or "encouragement" if you start up. (I've disabled this feature on mine.) It makes a little animation when you've hit your daily goal. You can press the button to get statistics on Fuel (more on that in a moment), number of steps, and number of "hours won" (hours with at least several minutes of continuous activity) at any time in the day.

So yes, there is local storage, tracked minute by minute, accessible on demand for visual feedback. It can communicate via Bluetooth with an Android phone or iPhone for a bit more capability. (The button broke on my FuelBand, so this is my sole means of real-time communication with the device.)

I'd imagine that where they might have had more trouble is the "health" than the "tracking". They use an arbitrary unit called "Fuel" that correlates well with physical activity, but tries to scale many types of activity onto a single unit of measure. I've noticed that on very inactive days (couch potato sick day), I'm under 1000 Fuel. On a moderately active office day where I take a walk in the afternoon, 2000-2500. On days where I go for a run, 4000-5000+. It seems to scale well. But they may not have enough trials and other tests to validate that tracking Fuel means tracking health.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

these products are about as scientifically helpful as the mood ring.

While true, nobody needs these things to be scientifically helpful. They aren't for doing experiments or recording the results of experiments. They are about encouraging people to get off their ass. They do pretty well at that too. As to some of the other folks pointing out their lack of accuracy - yep, that is true. They aren't accurate. Most of the time they are fairly decent at being self-relative though which is really all that is required. For example, if they are off by 20% on counting steps or distance - it really doesn't matter that much since what you are trying to do is show improvement. So if you went 10,000 steps today and 15,000 tomorrow - you still showed improvement even if the real numbers were 8,000 and 12,500. They don't need to be right; they just need to be fairly regular at being self-relative and keep encouraging activity in order to do what they are really meant for. As for me, I've used both the FitBit Force (for 1.5 years) and the MS Band (about 8 months now). Both worked well to encourage me to keep active. Both were pretty good at being self-relative so they allowed me to show improvement. I'm happy with them.

Re:What?

[gstoddart]

So in other words, like many, many things sold under the guise of being healthful,

It's pure marketing, and not necessarily true.

As a general rule, I usually treat most marketing claims as if they're either lies, or a creative interpretation of the truth.

Because they probably are.

I bought this XXXXXL Nike Sweatshirt...

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought this XXXXXL Nike Sweatshirt and I'm still a fat ass - time to sue!

No, anything on your arm sucks as a pedometer

[Anonymous Coward]

Trying to capture your steps from your arm is an idiots game. And 90% of the fitness trackers do this and have to guess which motion is actual walking. They are going to be around +/-20% accurate no matter what. Plus monitoring heart rate on the wrist is another horribly in accurate way of doing it.

The only actual fitness solutions are on the torso/waist (ie. chest band/bra or tight shirt) or under the foot (which is mechanically bad). Even they will still need to approximate. Nothing else...

Re:No, anything on your arm sucks as a pedometer

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want higher accuracy you will need a device with a built in GPS that calculates time, distance and height meters by comparing them to the route you have walked/ran/biked. They aren't 100% accurate either, but they are just a helpful tool to make sporting more enjoyable for some people.

I got a Mio Bike GPS for my birthday a few years ago, and I use it 3-4 times a week to track my training. It gives me nice of numbers to track my progress. It is just like the numbers from any brokers tool, including the green and red dots. And you really see the biological 'wave' over time. I can already predict that within 2 weeks I will have 'good legs' and I can try to break my running record. It is just a gimmick that will keep the inner geek happy. It's almost like WoW back in the time, but this time I get blisters on my feet instead of a stiff neck from RSI from hours of raiding.

how about

[Anonymous Coward]

If they refund every person that bought one. That would be a fare price to pay for false advertising.

So they both admit..

[Lumpy]

That the fuelband is a steaming pile of crap and everyone else has done a far better job?

Everyone I have known that bought a fuelband has had theirs fail. Fitbit destroyed nike's market because Nike has no clue at all how to do anything but sell $9.00 low quality shoes to idiots that pay $250+ for them.