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Trixie Tracker launched - deep and broad software a long time coming
Filed under: Babies, Nutrition: Health, Development/Milestones: Babies, Playground Bureau, Media, Gadgets
When I first discovered Trixie and her data-obsessed parents, Ben MacNeill and Jennifer Egan, I was both amused and jealous. I wished I could have been that great at recording information about my baby, I wished I could have been smart enough to develop a whole software system around it. I was eager for the day when the Trixie Tracker would be offered up to the public at large.
And then I waited. I waited as Trixie outgrew most of her telemetry, and finally, her web site went mostly quiet but for the occasional gorgeous photo.
Today, finally, the announcement came into all our
email inboxes. The Trixie Tracker was launched.
I had wondered how it would be offered - software to load onto your computer? a module for your blog? - but I didn't envision a hosted web-based application. It looks slick, and it's clear why this took so long to launch - Trixie's parents thought of everything, from a variety of different options for leaky diapers to a useful tool that lets you indicate what's mixed into that bottle (and whether or not that pink bottle is the most recently mixed).
The Trixie Tracker has everything, starting with the über-useful sleep telemetry. You can track naps, bedtimes,
and wakeups in the middle of the night. You can do it real-time or record the events after the fact. You can track
poopy diapers, wet diapers, leaks, "open air accidents." You can measure your breastfeeding and pumping and
bottle feeding - the tracker even lets you indicate right breast or left, and note what kind of food you ate before
that pumping jag (yum, spicy Thai!). The modules that track the introduction of solid food and medicine dosages seem
particularly inspired.
Of course, it can't be free. The Trixie Tracker only has one delivery method - via
the web-based interface - and the pricing is subscription-based (but your information is never deleted from the
database). It's $8 a month, or you can buy a whole year for $59.
I want to get this. I really do. I am
sitting here, tapping my fingers on my keyboard, just wishing I could sign up for that 14-day free trial. But two
things are holding me up: (1) my baby is now, at 10 months, a little too old to really get much use out of the program;
and (2) I would rather have the module on my own web site than have it hosted elsewhere. If I use the Trixie Tracker for
Truman, I couldn't in good conscience link to my page from here - the traffic might be a bit much (well, it's not like
we're Douce or anything. I'm sorry, Ben, I couldn't resist - you need to spell check your FAQs just a bit).
And then there's another thing.
It's so, so more than I would ever use. It's fabulous. It's wonderful. I'm just not that good.
Congrats to Trixie's parents for bringing up baby and a fantastic package of baby telemetry. I look
forward to seeing the mainstream media reaction. I'm sure they'll love you just as much as our readers do (they've been
tipping us all evening!)
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-11-2006 @ 11:21AM
Lindsey said...Finally! I've been reading the Trixie Update for years, starting before I even wanted to have children. Now that I'm pregnant with my first, I was hoping beyond hope that the Tracker would be available before July. Yessss!
Reply
3-11-2006 @ 5:38PM
Missy said...Being a scientist and incredibly detail oriented, I do this with my son, since he has so many food issues that I had to monitor for so long. We used Microsoft Excel, instead. Granted, there's no nice GUI for prompting the parent to enter information and, with Excel, you have to generate the plots yourself, but it's easier than dropping $8 a month!
Then again, I don't know how many parents have to use Excel (or another spreadsheet software) for work. If you don't, it'd be a learning curve that you probably wouldn't want to deal with.
I applaud their efforts to generate some revenue for their home, though. I'm always looking for the "next big thing" to capitalize on!
Reply
3-11-2006 @ 7:14PM
Kim said...That settles it. I'm definitely signing up for another ride on the baby train! (I'm kidding, of course, but if we do decide to have another I will be a Trixie Tracker customer.)
I have Excel but I'd pay $8 a month if someone told me I never had to use it again. We just don't get along very well. My brain isn't wired for anything but the most simple Excel operations.
Reply
11-14-2006 @ 7:06AM
Alex said...I'm definitely signing up for another ride on the baby train! (I'm kidding, of course, but if we do decide to have another I will be a Trixie Tracker customer.)
Reply