Jawbone UP4 announced with inbuilt NFC payment feature

Jawbone has announced its new UP4 fitness tracker, in partnership with American Express. The UP4 is identical to the soon to be available UP3, with the exception of adding an NFC chip to enable mobile payments

With the UP4, users will be able to track all their fitness data, and simply tap to pay where contactless payments are accepted. The only catch is that the UP4 will only work with American Express. With that set-up, the convenience factor could potentially be quite nice.

Its important to note however, that the UP4 does not have a verification failsafe like the PIN or fingerprint sensor used for Google Wallet or Apple Pay. However, American Express VP, Leslie Berland, says that it after months of testing, such measures are not deemed necessary, "If you think somebody else has your band, or if you lose it, you just go into the app and you disable it right there so it takes away any of that risk."

Jawbone says that none of a user’s financial information is stored on the UP4, and because it is meant to be worn continuously, the additional security measures do not need to be taken. “When you have something that’s on the body 24/7 you know when it’s not there.”

The Jawbone UP4 will be available later this summer for $200, which is $20 more than the UP3. The UP4 will be available in the same color options as the UP3 as well, black and gray, and both will provide about a week of battery life.

source - Jawbone (PDF) | WSJ