Jawbone Up Back On Sale With Fixed Hardware and a New App

But unlike those other fitness gadgets it doesn't pair with your phone via Bluetooth. You have to take the bracelet off every time and plug it into the phone when you want to pair it and see how many steps you've taken. It also doesn't have a display right on the device either, meaning there's no knowing how many steps you've taken unless you plug it in. The FitBit Zip and the Nike FuelBand, by comparison, pair with a phone wirelessly and have displays right on the device.

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But according to Jawbone the whole purpose of the Up is to blend in – to not make it look like technology.

"We think it has to be something that passively disappears into your life. The design bar was that it had to be something you would wear anyway. We don't want people to know there is technology in it," Bogard said. "It ultimately becomes functional jewelry; that intersection between something you would wear but something that serves a purpose."

Ironically, the last time around the technology got right in the way of that goal. But this time Jawbone and Bogard are confident that it won't be falling off the horse.

"Knowing what we now know and what other products are out there, none are going to live quite the same way."