Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been waiting and watching this technology grow over the past couple years and when I had saw all the fantastic reviews for the Force on the internet I thought that the technology had finally arrived for a decent tracking product. I thought that I had found a great Christmas gift for most in my family and even made some recommendations to others for spouses. I purchased the Force from Best Buy on the first day that it launched and as much as I wanted to be impressed, I am not impressed at all. The first thing I noticed about the Force was its size. I'm a collector of fine wristwatches (Omega, Tag Heuer, etc..) so I am used to wearing something substantial on my wrist, yet the size of the Force immediately stood out (something that was not apparent from pictures online). I could see that this thing was going to get caught on everything due its texture, size, and sharp angles. I have not been wrong regarding this first observation. The very first thing this morning while sliding my arms (carefully) into my Columbia jacket, the Force came off inside the jacket sleeve. Then again, when I was carefully removing the jacket the same thing happened. I wear a lot of Under Armor products and the Force gets caught on all the ones I have tested so far. Conversely, I am very happy to report that I did not have any problems sleeping with this unit nor did it come off overnight. Driving home from Best Buy yesterday night, the Force logged ~240 steps or about .15 miles during roughly 50 minutes of actual driving. All right, I know that there is going to be some error here but... Then this morning, the Force says that I walked .15 miles (260+) steps all in my sleep last night, and all while in SLEEP MODE! Hooray. The Fitbit Force has caught me sleep walking. Or maybe its just a case of poor programming where movement is still calculated as walking while sleeping. When I wake up at night and hit the button on the Force to see the current time, why does it display the amount of time "asleep" as counted by the stopwatch? Who would want to see this info in the middle of the night? I want to glance at the time and then fall back asleep. This added confusion while in my slumber state and caused me to inadvertently stop the sleep mode. For some odd reason, I then awoke another half our later, looked at the time and started the sleep mode again because I was confused as to what time it really was. I now realize that once Sleep State is activated, the default display is Sleep Mode. So, when waking up in the middle of the night to glance at the time, you will be greeted by the amount of time asleep from your Force. I don't know about you, but when I'm asleep and happen to glance at the time, I want the actual time. To view the actual time while in Sleep Mode, the user must press the button twice. Prior to purchasing the Force, one of my concerns was that one had to press the button every night to activate Sleep Mode. I tried to tell myself that this would not be a big deal, but upon using the Force I can tell you that Sleep Mode is feature that was not thought out well. There should be a selection in the settings for the Force that would stop Sleep Mode when the alarm sounds. Also, why can't I set generic times for sleeping in the settings that would set the Force into Sleep Mode? I realize that this wouldn't paint an accurate picture of the total amount of time asleep, but I'm mainly concerned with how many times I am waking up at night and at what times. The kicker and test of real world performance came this morning. After waking up to having walked .15 miles in my sleep (ha ha), I removed the Force as not to shower with it. Put it back on, made breakfast and I was out the door to school. It is a very short ride to school on my scooter (8 minutes) and then another very short walk up one flight of stairs and down the hall to my class. Rode scooter back home. Walked around inside the house. It is about noon, I havent done anything but get up, drive to school, attend one class, return home, and then write this review and I am at ~3400 steps (about 1.25 miles). Here we are 20 minutes later (I went to the bathroom and have been editing this review). We are now up to 4900 steps and 1.76 miles. Hmm..... The Fitbit Force records steps fantastically when tested solely on walking, but my problem is all the erroneous data that is recorded from real world movements/interactions in every day use make this device beyond impractical. After all, this product is made to be worn 24 hours a day minus showers, right? I would think that a device like this would be much more effective when worn around the ankle for the purpose of tracking steps and distance (nor would it get in the way) or when worn specially for walking for running. I want an improved version of this product badly, but unfortunately we are just not there yet. I'm rating this product 3 stars due to poor real world functionality, sensationalized hype, incomplete software programming, and the inability fit with clothing items. This technology really needs to improve further for consumption of the masses. UPDATE FEBRUARY 21, 2014. Fitbit has issued a recall on all Fitbit Forces and is no longer going to sell the item at this time [...]