Wait, it isn't April 1st yet? I'm confused?
Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
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Re: Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
#12We must stop the Martians from theft of our acoustic technology! ... was my first thought, as I had no idea who either Whistle or Mars were. I guess I'm old and terminally unhip. Or not in the target market.
You didn't think of Mars candy? I was wondering who the hell Whistle was, though, and what they could do for candy.
Might have been a probe left in Mars orbit. Phobos, Deimos, and Whistle has a nice ring to it.
(On the the gripping hand, I believe 'Crunch' is a trademarked candy name.)
Re: Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
#13Fitbit for Dogs. Silicon Valley truly is solving Important Problems.
The detached condescension is a nice touch and par for the course around here but I can give an anecdote that explains their value prop a bit better. My sister has a grown Australian Shepherd with a Whistle tracker and she rescued a younger Aussie last year during the record cold spell in the Midwest. She didn't have a tracker on the younger one yet and soon after she brought it home, it bolted out the door into her…
Both of my dogs have the Whistle GPS. Whistle was originally only a fitness tracker. Last year they acquired the company Tagg which was exclusively GPS for dogs. After the acquisition, Whistle redeveloped the app and the underlying tracking service. Many Tagg users (myself included) felt like Whistle made the GPS capabilities worse at the expense of fitness tracking and social features.
In my opinion the criticism is valid. Whistle solved a dumb problem (fitness tracking for dogs) and made a dog GPS service worse.
Re: Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
#14Fitbit for Dogs. Silicon Valley truly is solving Important Problems.
It's a non-HIPAA controlled platform where we can try out things like pulse & respiration monitoring without worrying about FDA regulations that make developing medical devices a slow process. That particular dog tracker might not do it but some of them do: http://petpace.com/
Re: Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
#15Fitbit for Dogs. Silicon Valley truly is solving Important Problems.
"Silicon Valley" is not centrally planned, and thus cannot effectively stop unimportant projects. As a result we live in this terrible dystopia where some ruthless people make products that other people might want to buy, with no regard about whether it's an "Important Problem." It's almost as if -- and I'm afraid to even say it -- the world doesn't care about you or your important problem and the important product t…
>the world doesn't care about you or your important problem and the important product that's going to solve it
Funny that you lobby on behalf of gadget-loving dog owners, but actively rail against someone who points out that there are more important issues. I'm not sure what motivates that line of reasoning. Commitment to frivolity?
Sure, you can say that these companies are just making products that people are willing to buy. But, that's just another part of the same problem.
Re: Whistle’s ‘Fitbit for dogs’ acquired by Mars Petcare
#16Fitbit for Dogs. Silicon Valley truly is solving Important Problems.
"Silicon Valley" is not centrally planned, and thus cannot effectively stop unimportant projects. As a result we live in this terrible dystopia where some ruthless people make products that other people might want to buy, with no regard about whether it's an "Important Problem." It's almost as if -- and I'm afraid to even say it -- the world doesn't care about you or your important problem and the important product t…
>the world doesn't care about you or your important problem and the important product that's going to solve it
Interesting that people lobby on behalf of gadget-loving dog owners, but actively rail against someone who points out that there are more important issues facing humanity. I'm not sure what motivates that kind of passion.
Sure, we can say that these companies are just making products that people are willing to buy. But, that's just another part of the same problem.
There has long been criticism of the relative dearth of meaningful projects in SV. OP is not the first to notice and waving him/her off doesn't improve the plight of humanity.