Review: Larklife by Lark Technologies (My First Impressions)

Here is my review of my first impressions about my new Larklife by Lark Technologies (www.lark.com) which is a new breed to Personal Life Coach that may help revolutionize our work – life balance; or so I hope.  Excited to try this new technology, my pre-ordered Larklife arrived in the mail earlier today by UPS.  Although, originally promised by Christmas 2012 – in Lark’s defense, the shipping label was printed December 21st, and informed customers that had pre-ordered their newest product on December 23rd that “Due to a combination of manufacturing delays, high demand, and shipping snafus we are unable to deliver your order…”.  That being said, it is here now, so time to give it a whirl.

For those that did not have a chance to read my post commenting on larklife and Nike+ Fuelband, here is a quick peak at what larklife can do.

Larklife will track your activities during the day and your sleep quality at night while syncing your data automatically with your mobile device. During the day, larklife alerts you when you’ve achieved small wins – the little things in your day that make a positive impact on your health, energy and focus. Remember to check back into your larklife app throughout the day to see what you did!

Tony Caselli (tonycaselli.wordpress.com) commented on our blog a few weeks ago on his first insights into his new Larklife.  One point that Tony mentioned what that the larklife was ” a little larger than I’d expected, but not awkwardly large – it just doesn’t have the “cool jewelry” look of the Fuelband.  I do like that it does more than the Fuelband, in terms of sleep and water and food tracking.  It does have an led “meter” display, but I’d love it if could double as a watch also!”.  My first impressions is that I have to agree, it is a little wider then I had anticipated from the original production pictures on Lark’s website, however as Tony commented, not awkwardly large.  Overall it is about an inch wide on the front face and 3/4 of an inch on the bottom of the rigid band.  Mine fits snugly (medium) – and may keep my eyes open on Lark’s website for a replacement band and see how a large may fit, although larger band may not fit as nicely under a dress shirt and my suit.

Documentation

My initial reaction was the lack of documentation included with the larklife was a little disappointing which was limited to how to setup and sync your band with your iSomething device.  As examples, there is a small button that runs the length of the larklife sensor and series of 8 LED lights along the top of the sensor, however I could not tell you exactly what either is for.  Well I took a pause from my article after it occurred to me that the iOS larklife application had a few video tutorials as part of the setup.  In Larks defense, my eager beaver self, downloaded and installed the app a few weeks ago and had completely forgot.  In addition, I found a nice eight page manual on the larklife website at the following link:  http://support.lark.com/entries/21432948-lark-user-manual or the PDF can be downloaded directly here.

iOS App

The application is version 1.1 which shows the infancy of the application, at the same time, new and enhanced features have been introduced in the short life of larklife which first debuted in the iTunes store on November 13, 2012.  Some of the new features introduced to the application include:

• New and improved tips, which appear as notifications if outside the app
• Added Mood tagging features
• Added syncing indicator for wristband in the blue circle
• Performance improvements and bug fixes

Last night was my first night with the sleeping band, and was interesting to see its results — however a pause or “I need a glass of water” option would be helpful as my wander to the kitchen was counted as approximately 10 waking events.  It was interesting to see that it took me only eight minutes to fall asleep — not bad for 1:45 in the morning following New Years festivities.

What Features Would I Like to See

• Replacement bands so that you can order a larger or smaller size
• Better integration of the Lark and Lark Pro features into the App – we can wear two devices so make my larklife compatible
• Ability to add custom reminders in the application; for example, when to take a daily vitamin
• More reminders and better recognition of your habits
• Diet or calorie  intake