Units in Australia

[SteveninAus]

I live in Australia, where the unit for energy has been the kilojoule, not the calorie, since 1974. It should be a simple adjustment to have an option of kilojoules instead of calories, and it would show respect for people living in countries where the calorie is not the unit of energy. Similarly, heights and distances are measured here in centimetres, metres and kilometres ('re' not 'er'). Again, not difficult to allow for English spelling and shows respect for those who don't use the American ones.

Moderator edit: updated title for clarity

[SteveH]

There is a feature request to enable the use of kilojoules as an alternative to calories. If you'd like to vote your it then you can find it at https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-to-show-Kilojoules-in-Dashboard-and-all-a...

As far as the heights and distances go, these can be changed between imperial and metric in your profile settings at: https://www.fitbit.com/settings/profile  Once changed and saved then next time you sync your fitbit will be updated.

[SteveninAus]

Thanks for bring the kilojoules v calorie issue to people's attention.

So far as the lengths/height issue is concerned I am fully aware that
there is an option to use "...meters" but the correct spelling outside
of America is "...metres", and that is NOT available. Insisting on using
American spellings being used by those who use English spellings is
highly disrespectul, and it's not hard to overcome.

Regards
Steven Secker

[Esya]

Regarding the language, it is an American product from an American company who only released it in the American language. I don't think that has anything to do with respect. You could debate it has to do with respect when they released multiple languages and you could change it in the settings and your language was missing. But they did not release it in Dutch either (or Spanish to use a more common language as an example), and I don't feel disrespected by that.

[SteveninAus]

Thank you Esya.

The lack of respect comes not from missing a language from a range -
that can happen simply because the company hasn't got the resources to
offer everyone's language - but from the fact that an American company
exports its products but expects everyone else to use its spellings as
if that's "English". If FitBit sent products to Italy with Italian
labels and "ciao" spelled "chow" the Italians would be disgusted. If I
have a book published in the US it has to be printed in the US or Canada
with American spellings, but American companies are not even encouraged
to provide their products with spellings which match those used in the
destination country. Failure to do so shows an attitude of "everyone
does things the American way", which is not true.

A new start-up company could be allowed some freedom to expand and take
on the responsibility of respecting trading partners overseas, but
FitBit is not a new start-up company, and the cost of meeting
expectations in destination countries is very small compared with the
cost of developing the products and having them distributed.

Steven
former grammar adviser to universities

[Esya]

@SteveninAus

You decided to buy an American product from an American company. Is this difference in spelling really that big a deal? It is not even close to publishing a book or releasing a local website. If FitBit were to publish a book then I would agree, but the product does not compare to a book. We are talking about an app where a few words have a the American spelling. I have been using English spelling all around on the forums while the other posters use American spelling mostly and even talking to FitBit officials and no one even worries about it. I am respected. I feel you are making this issue bigger than it really is. So let's agree to disagree.

[USAF-Larry]

I am not sure what the political correctness of "shows respect" for those that don't use the American English spelling vs other languages has to do with the technical development of devices. As an engineer for many years involved developing systems for international sales, I always worked in centimeters, meters, and kilometers (not SAE measurements), while my good friends in Australia and a few other countries worked in centimetres, metres and kilometres, and none of us ever felt disrespected because the other one didn't know how to spell the word correctly. Nor did it bother me that they couldn't correctly spell organize (-ize not -ise).  But then, engineers are not known for being grammatically correct...

While I had to work in the metric system for all of my engineering work, I did not insist that American companies change all product development & documentation to use metric references in order to respect my work.  But then, my calculator always had a metric-SAE conversion available when I needed it...

[SteveninAus]

The issue is the rampant American approach that "everything we do is
better than what you do", or "I thought our way was the only way" - and
yes, I have heard both of those too often. The issue of spelling has
nothing to do with the technical development of a product, but American
companies have a habit of providing "English" instructions with
spellings consistent with those in the US, despite English elsewhere
using different spellings. Like those who have responded so far, as an
individual I'm used to converting spellings, but it's very hard for
teachers in Australia to get students to spell words correctly,
according to our spelling approach, when they are bombarded with
American spellings in books and software, including on things like FitBit.

All I ask is that EVERY company should provide instructions and labels
in the language of the country to which the item is being exported, and
not assume that the American version of English is acceptable. It
doesn't cost a lot, especially for companies selling products overseas,
to get professional advice so that everything is presented as if
designed by a local of the destination country. Americans don't face the
same issue because we have to write in American English to be allowed to
sell in the American market. What's good for the goose is good for the
gander.