Microsoft fitness bands slapped on wrists: All YOUR HEALTH DATA are BELONG TO US Microsoft has joined the wearables market with “band”, a fitness-monitor-cum-smartwatch, which is accompanied by a suite of online services dubbed “Microsoft Health”. There's more than a hint of raised middle finger directed at Cupertino in the dual announcements, as Band is on sale now for US$199 and is said to have enough …
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/smartband-talk-swr30/features/#black
for starters, then there is a slew of other Android activity trackers, along with Withings, Fitbit and no doubt others.
This is basically a year late and a dollar short. Pretty much usual story for Microsoft these days.
So it has GPS which few fitness bands have - WIN
It has a proper colour screen that is useful, which few fitness bands have - WIN
Battery life better than Samsung - WIN
It works with the three main phone OSes - WIN
Seems to me they have learned from the mistakes of the competition.
To be fair, Xbox One was basically the same price as PS4, the problem was the assumption everyone would want the Kinect (which I still think is worth having) and the dreadful marketing introduction. Still astounded that the Surface Pro 3 developer model (512Gb) weighs in at £1750 including VAT. For a 12" 2in1 laptop for goodness sake.
So for a console that half as powerful as a PS4, noisier, uglier you pay the same price? That's why it's tanking. Microsoft thought they had won over gamers last generation without their slick marketing, so much so, they thought they could cost-cut on the Xbox One specs, fit a crap CPU and GPU, el-cheapo DDR3 memory and load it up to the hilt with DRM and online authorisation, and nobody would bat an eyelid.
They thought wrong. Sure they have reversed the bad DRM decision, but the crap CPU/GPU/Memory specs are going to haunt them for another 7 years.
I can almost imagine buying one of these...
I'm assuming BT4, and hoping that additional sensors can be employed via said interface (but that's not a breaker)
I'm also assuming that it can do route following, with beep/vibrate alerts to look at it for directions.
Have nothing else windowsy to connect it to, but so long as it behaves reasonably as a standalone device that's no problem.
Microsoft back to doing what they do best - peripherals hardware (Microsoft mice and keyboards have been on my desk for years...)
"I can almost imagine buying one of these..."
Me too. I'm currently going out running with my Nexus 4 strapped to my arm with runkeeper running on the phone. Not ideal, I'm constantly worried about it getting wet. For me, GPS is a must (i find pedometers to be shite), as is something that reports distance and pace (the runkeeper voice tells me every 5 mins or kilometer, but I'd be just as happy to read this from my wrist). Heart rate would be an excellent addition.
Unless I'm looking in the wrong places, I see nothing comparable at the same price. Assuming the USD to GBP exchange rate doesn't magically become 1:1 yet again.
This one's dustproof and splashproof but not swimming-proof. Personally I wouldn't swim with anything that wasn't resistant to 10ATM but the capabilities of this thing are only matched by Garmin and Suunto gear that costs over $500 so you can't really fault it on value.
And GPS+HR monitor means that cycling analytics is just a software problem, so there's that.
If you can find a way of measuring blood sugar without a pin (and the unstable, one-time-use enzyme that checks the blood), you should clear October from your calendar... you might need to go to Sweden to collect a medal.
The only thing preventing the development of an implantable insulin pump is that there is no suitable method to measure blood sugar.
@Benjol
Good call, but unfortunately sixty quid a fortnight for the sensor, unless I can persuade my GP to prescribe one!
I saw a stick-free one in development, and lost the link, and google is not helping... google are developing a contact lens for the job.
I think I recall a research/prototype device that used an IR light (Laser) to read the blood sugar in a finger without holes.
Aha! Here it is. According to the article we should start seeing these commercially available in about a year or so.
Because you don't know. Nobody really knows. Do I sleep better if I eat earlier? Maybe. Do you? Maybe. Do you follow exactly the same set of rules that I do? Unlikely.
Hard data is hard data. It's up to us to decide whether to use it or just to sneer about every new idea or device that comes along - oh, it's jake, nevermind.
These are definitely not my thing, but the UV monitor sounds useful to this Celtic-skinned reader, mainly because UV index is the one thing that your body doesn't tell you ... until the damage is done.
(That said, I'm sure jake has trained himself to develop extented-spectrum vision, and can see from the 5Ghz band all the way to gamma rays, but for us mortals...)
Incidentally, it looks like the accompanying app is being launched on iOS and Android too, not just Windows Phone (http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-us - about halfway down).
I'll give you "hard data".
Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years without this kind of tat. If you are hungry, eat. If you are thirsty, drink water. If you are tired, rest. It ain't exactly rocket science. Sneering at me is not exactly conducive to your "argument".
you reap what you sow, old thing, and you sneer at everything.
Yes, humans have been around a long time but life expectancy now is not what it was 10,000 years ago because of this thing we modern humans call "technology". This may or may not be a means of producing a data sample big enough to suggest ways of extending that lifespan and physical health a bit longer but we'll never know if we just come out with your eternal "oh, humans have existed for centuries without your newfangled "cooking" bullshit, go away".
"Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years without this kind of tat" -- jake
For most of those millenia, 35 was old. Whilst I agree with your sentiment in a lot of cases, hard data can be useful. My old GP used to reckon that if every bathroom scale was swapped by the NHS for a blood pressure monitor, several lives would be saved: you know if you're fat when you put on your trousers; you pretty much have no idea what your BP is without measurement.
Upvote!
The age of GP's guessing what is wrong with you is fast going away. They need hard data, even if they don't currently know it, someday it will be crucial.
Heartrate monitors are the only non-obstrusive objective measure of cardiovascular effort. Blood pressure measurements are really useful when correlated, but not easy to take when you are running!
I ,like many here, am waiting for a wrist device that is GPS+HR+10M waterproof. Especially if I don't need the Polar strap...
P.
"You say it can be worn for 24 hours a day"
Reading their oh so boring release on it, they claim up to 48 hours from a charge ("normal use", less if using GPS etc) and a full charge in under an hour and a half.
To reply to another poster, it is indeed BlueTooth 4 (low energy).
Microsoft spin doctors will be poking the media to tell Americans that this will make them live longer, and the idiots will queue up to buy it. Sadly, They will of course drive 100yrds in their SUV to the store to buy it, stopping at McDonalds on the way for a BigMac and coke, and then a posh frothy coffee on the way back...
"Microsoft spin doctors will be poking the media to tell Americans that this will make them live longer, and the idiots will queue up to buy it."
As it doesn't yet come in XXXL Super Bingo Wings size, presumably they are only going after a small segment of the US market to start with...
Oh, I know, but someone has yo say it.
How long would it be before life insurance schemes, credit agents and the like demand so many months wearable monitoring history before they advance services?
Not a government Big Brother, that's for sure, but an effective barrier to the great British public.
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