I have written before about my love of the Misfit Shine (Link) at iMedicalApps, with the emphasis of my discourse on the multiple functions, various ways to wear the device, and the longitivtiy of battery life.

Previously I had been a follower of Fitbit, however, after various times forgetting to put the peripheral on my coat/pants/other clothing extension, finding the device dead and out of electric life, the final straw came after tossing them into the washing machine where their mechanical life struggle was futile with Tide Wash and at a high setting.

It just came down to the fact that if I was going to routinely toss these gadgets in the wash and accumulate a large amount of monetary loss, I should at least invest in a waterproof one. In addition, the Misfit Shine was delightful in that its design look superb. I mean, it had a good flair, and I routinely was asked what it was that I had upon my wrist.

In any event, lets get to how I lost the bugger. I recently got married and spent my honeymoon with my lovely new wife at the Bahamas. After dancing the night away on our wedding night and wracking up a veritable large number of points on my Shine, I was excited to see how well it did while swam in the Caribbean.

To my delight, I found that swimming in the pool, ocean, SNUBA, snorkeling, and swimming with the dolphins, along with running around the resort, truly did contribute substantially to the number of points I was getting. However, my hopes for continued output were dashed one day.

I had to switch out the wrist worn band for my Shine early on, as the strap band wrapping around the Shine has been wearing away. I would hypothesize that the Shine has been created on either a Mill or a Lathe, and left with a sharp edge, that has slowly destroyed the side of the band over time, leading to it routinely 'popping out.' I would be curious if that edge had been sanded, or grooved differently, whether such a design issue would occur.

In any event, I elected then to wear the necklace version that my wife had, and which did not look to daft to wear in my swimming trunks at least. However, I am unsure if the salt water got to that strap as well, as eventually it fell apart amongst the reefs of the Bahamas, and the loss of my Shine.

So where do I stand on wearables? I love them, let me be clear, I do feel they make me be more active, with my impecable spamming of its readout and syncing with the iPhone app to see how active I was for the day. And I feel that matters. However, the continued loss of such devices doesn't warrant that continued feel good happy spot I get in my chest when I see my goal reached for the day.

In the end, I am going to hold out for something that is designed in such a manner that will have substantial battery life, multiple functions, and will be hard to lose. Here's looking at you Apple, I want to see what wearable you have coming out. Maybe I will find out Sept 9?

How I Lost My Misfit Shine, or Why I Won't Buy Another Wearable