Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer with Health Management Software
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Customer Reviews of Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer with Health Management Software
Customer Review: Omron Pedometer HJ-720ITC
Summary: 5 Stars
My oldest daughter encourage me to pursue the 10,000 steps per day fitness program. She gave me a pedometer, but it failed to work properly no matter where I placed it. My wife gave me one and it failed also and I lost it when it fell off my pocket. The Omron Pocket Pedometer HJ-720ITC has not failed yet and the record of my progress is great. The charts available by uploading the data to my PC are excellent. Even my doctor is impressed and asked for a copy of a chart I showed him.
The charts give you a quick picture of the varous factors that you need to monitor, especially the aeorbic steps. I have compared the step measuring while on the treadmil during my cardiac rehab sessions as well as my measurred mile for walking in my neighborhood. It is quite good and consistent. Anyone serious about improving their fitness through walking will not get the help any better way and at a more reasonable price.
The tether is an essential part of the device. I do strenuous yard work and other activities and the tether has many times prevented the device from falling and being damaged. The holder-clip that holds the device in place is the best I have seen and appears to be quite durable again protecting the device. I have found that when doing a lot of bending and stooping it works better to have the device clipped on my belt or waist band at the side rather than in the front to reduce the likelihood that it will be dislodged. Sometimes it is necessary to clip it on my pocket with the device inside the pocket to keep it from being knocked off while raking, shoveling, etc.
The most recent discovery is that it appears that it does not adapt to daylight savings time. The instructions were not clear how to make the time changes. It is not difficult, but it was elusive and I figured it out by deducing that the reset button was the way to restart the clock and set it to the correct time. Since this is a prevalent need twice a year, they should revise the instructioin manual to make it clearer how to make that adjustment. I had some concern that pressing the reset button might wipe out data stored that had not been uploaded, but it was not affected as a small note in the manual had intimated.
Customer Review: Accurate, Easy and Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
The Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer keeps track of up to 42 days of activity - on an hour by hour basis! Connect it to your PC and get a great running total of your walking exercise. I love this thing!
Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer First, some history. I started out with a cheap, regular pedometer. It sort of worked, and sort of counted steps. I had to reset it and write things down. Soon I had upgraded to the Omron HJ-112 (the model below this one). It was awesome. You could wear it on your hip or carry it in your purse. It auto reset every night so you didn't have to think about it - you just walked around with it on and always knew your steps for the last 7 days.
But as I actually started to pay attention to my walking, I wanted to keep track of it. Yes, I could write down what the pedometer said, but often I forgot to do that. I wanted to see comparisons of how I was doing over time, but my Excel spreadsheet was a bit more work than I wanted to get into.
A friend of mine had bought this HJ-720ITC version and simply adored it. I was finally talked into upgrading. I'm so glad I did! Now it is SUPER easy. I wear the pedometer on my hip. Every few days I plug it into my computer with a simple USB cable. POOF! My running total is updated. Not only that but it even tracks on an HOURLY basis how I'm doing!!
You can track multiple people, see things by day, week or month. You can even set goals and see how you're doing towards those goals.
Now, a down side. When you set your goal and you don't reach it, you get a frowny face!! It's very disappointing. I don't need to be beaten up for being sick or something. My friend had actually said he deliberately lowered his goals just to get away from those frowny faces. I didn't understand what he meant until I got the software - but now I agree. They should have done that differently.
In terms of how the pedometer itself works, it is excellent, just like the "lower end" Omron. It is very accurate and works quite well either on your hip or in your purse. If you use the purse you have it clipped vertically, as they tell you to.
Highly recommended!
Customer Review: Great unit, lousy software
Summary: 1 Stars
If this were a review just on the pedometer itself, it would be 5 stars. However, the real problem is the software. So first, the unit works great, I have used it for several months now and really like the small size and readability of the display. No complaints.
Now the problem. As soon as I got the unit, I tried to install the software but got incompatibility notices during the install. Not going to go there so I emailed the company to find out what's going on. Turns out I have a Windows 7 machine which the software does not support. oops. So much for the good software. Basically totally useless.
The email reply from them says to use MS HealthVault. Don't do it. HealthVault is a total disaster. I must have installed the connection 5 times, each time getting error messages, then finding out through emails that I need to verify the email, then needed to install the new driver for Windows 7. OK, finally got that done, then uploaded the data from the unit. But the data is just junk in HealthVault. It can't be anything like the software that comes with the unit. Healthvault just is not a good software program. Disaster. It's so sad to see Microsoft put out junk like that.
OK, so bottom line:
1. If you don't care about the software or you have an XP or Vista machine and have no immediate plans to upgrade to Windows 7, then this is a great unit and the software will likely work well.
2. If you have Windows 7 and want the software, don't buy this unit. You will be totally disappointed. The software is just not supported for Windows 7.
I'm really mixed at this time: the unit works great for me, but I'm really disappointed that I can't use the software. Right now I weekly download the last 7 days steps and put it manually into a spreadsheet. This is ok for me at this point. But the stupid little Bi flashes because the memory is full and I can't clear it. The last 7 days still are kept, but beyond that you can't get the data.
Now if someone has managed to load the software on Windows 7, let me know how to do it and not cause any compatibility issues.
Customer Review: My way to get in shape!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say that I LOVE this pedometer. Would I buy the Omron HJ-720ITC again...YES! It is my way to get in shape. After years of trying to lose weight with online programs, books, etc., I heard about getting 10,000 steps per day, and thought I would try it. Well, you have to have a good pedometer to track those steps so I started reading all of the reviews on here, and found this one had high reviews and a software program. So, after 2 1/2 weeks of using this ped to track my steps, I will not go anywhere without it. It is very accurate, small and discreet enough that no one will know you are wearing it if you don't want them to know. It is pretty durable, as I've bent over and accidentally knocked it off (no scratches and it still works). It makes me accountable for how active (or inactive) I am every day. But the reason it works so well for me is that it makes it fun to try to reach my daily goal of 10,000 steps...almost like a game. Has anyone ever said exercising is fun? Well, when I see I don't have enough steps for the day, I will pop in an exercise tape (Leslie Sansone is my favorite)and after awhile, I have achieved my goal. This has truly been a motivator to me since I hate to exercise.
My only question about this product is while it lets you input your stride to calculate your steps, it doesn't let you input your weight, so I'm not sure how it really calculates the calories burned. It has the calories burned feature and displays an amount, but when I go online to any ''calories burned calculator'' site and input my weight and the type of exercise performed and for how long, the amount of calories burned is different from what the pedometer displays for me. Maybe I am wrong on how I am thinking of this, but I'm just wondering if it is right. Don't misunderstand me though, this doesn't change my mind about this product and I'm not saying that the calories burned feature isn't right....I'm just raising a question since I don't understand how that feature is calculated.
If you need a pedometer, buy this one...it is a great product and you will love it too.
Customer Review: This is NOT a pocket pedometer!
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this because it had good reviews for accuracy, and because I liked its features, but it has been a disappointment. My primary desire was a pedometer I could put in my pocket, rather than on my waistband, but when it's in my pocket, the accuracy varies tremendously. (It's advertised as working in a pocket, or in a purse or pack.) I've been putting my old pedometer (a Digi-Walker), on my waistband for comparison, and sometimes they're together, but they've also been as far as 3000 steps off in a day, and I *know* the Digi-Walker is accurate.
The other feature I liked was being able to download all my information to my computer. I have Windows Vista, and knew this did not come with Vista software, but I saw that it was downloadable from the Omron website, so I went ahead and made the purchase. The download was easy, but installation became a nightmare. It kept saying it couldn't find a certain file, but the file was there, and in the path specified. I finally called Omron support, and their solution was for me to pack up the pedometer and send it to them for them to check out. Huh? The issue was with either their software, my computer, or operator error. The pedometer was not at all involved, but the person on their help desk absolutely could not hear that, and would not back down. I gave up on her, and kept trying to do the installation, and after at least 10 tries, I did get it to install. (I might add I have a good computer, and a fair amount of computer expertise, so really think this was an issue, either with Vista, or with the Omron software.)
I do like the software and what it will do. If the pedometer were accurate while in my pocket, I would give the whole thing a 4, due only to the software installation issues, but it's pretty useless since I can't depend on it. I did try wearing it on my waistband, too, but I found it's really too large to do that comfortably, and I didn't see a lot of improvement in accuracy, as it's so large, it wouldn't lie flat.