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WakeMate: The Home Stretch

blog.wakemate.com

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Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#41

Post by gnemeth »

redorb wrote: post #24

http://wakemate.com/tour/ which is still on their site..Is nothing like the final shipping product http://blog.wakemate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wristban... I would say its a multiple of degrees less 'designed' or 'professional' ... I still want my pre-order as long as it will ship working with android. p.s. You need to use your current iteration on your homepage photo; cause the one you have on there now and y…

Original wristband: too big, too heavy, not something I want to wear to bed and the electronics bulge out too far. New wristband:much smaller, much lighter, made of "pillowy" material and hides the electronics.

Overall it is a much more comfortable wristband and a much better user experience.

While the original may have been a little "flashier" we did not want to sacrifice UX for looks, especially when you are only going to be wearing this to bed.

As for our homepage - we need to get the final version of the wristband photographed and then we will be implementing a full design change of our homepage.

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#42

Post by beatings »

rstocker99 wrote: post #40
drewcrawford wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being even a week late is not my idea of a "conservative estimate" or a "firm date". I realize we're not talking about a mission-critical product here. But when you choose to use language like that, live up to it.

I haven't ordered a wakemate. I'm not the target market but I'm always amazed at the level of vitriol that follows their posts here on HN. There is no doubt that their overall communication strategy is a bit "rough". I'm always surprised and bit disappointed at the beating people give these guys here. This is a community of tech entrepreneurs who know how unbelievably difficult it is to ship product and a run a start…

Wakemate continues to say one thing and do another, moreso than nearly every other company that has come out of YC. And they nearly always had the option to say the right thing instead.

Personally, I'm far more amazed by apologists like you, who claim that because starting a company is hard, I should forgive lousy project management and shitty communication.

Yes, it's hard. But they suck at it. They're lousy project managers and lousy communicators. If they don't go belly-up it'll be a miracle, because they've done everything possible to destroy their own business.

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#43

Post by _cbsz »

eru wrote: post #39
_cbsz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If WakeMate is any good, it will end up being mission-critical for me. I've lost control of my sleep schedule and I can't move it backward because I just end up wasting a day due to tiredness and unable to keep it from slipping forward again.

How about moving it forward enough to make it wrap around?

I've wrapped on several occasions by pulling an all-nighter. It just keeps slipping forward to equilibrium. For concreteness, this has resulted in instances where I will awaken at 3 PM one day and 3 AM the next (36 hours later). Staying up extra-late so as to go to bed at a normal time and re-adjust just doesn't do it for me.

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#44

Post by _cbsz »

_cbsz wrote: post #15
pclark wrote: post #9

So with WakeMate I'll have to wear a bracelet and keep an app running on my iPhone whilst I sleep?

Unlike the ship dates, that aspect of the product has been very consistent for months, yes. (It's not entirely clear whether you have to keep the app running, but you probably do, and the bracelet is the whole point.)

Hmm, it just occurred to me that my iPod touch battery is not in the greatest shape, so Wakemate might cause me to have to leave a computer on during the night to power the iPod, which seems counterproductive to sleeping well. Might have to buy a wall charger. (got it refurb, so it didn't come with one)

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#45

Post by plusbryan »

drewcrawford wrote: post #14

A brief history of ship dates: January 22, 2010: "We've tentatively planned for the first batch of WakeMates to be shipped as early as next month." March 11, 2010: "the first run of units will go out on March!" March 31, 2010: "This is the last day of Q1 and we will be shipping out the first units today." (Maybe they did ship out a few? but I was a very early pre-order and didn't get one...) April 1, 2010: "The next…

After spending 8 months wading through the MFI program myself, I concur that it's messy and poorly managed - I'm not surprised that this is part of the reason for the delay. Keep at it, I look forward to mine!

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#46

Post by joe_bleau »

asmithmd1 wrote: post #5

"As far as we’re aware, no commercial product has made use of Apple’s authentication 2.0B coprocessor chip over Bluetooth yet so we’re not surprised by the number of strange issues we’ve encountered." Is this why there is a dearth of iPhone/iPad accessories? How much can they talk about their experiences given the fact that the protocol is under an NDA?

Yes! I'm interested in developing i* accesories too. There doesn't seem to be much out there about it. (I have seen the Microchip and Cypress dev kits; probably going to pick up a few.)

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#47

Post by utku_karatas2 »

drewcrawford wrote: post #14

A brief history of ship dates: January 22, 2010: "We've tentatively planned for the first batch of WakeMates to be shipped as early as next month." March 11, 2010: "the first run of units will go out on March!" March 31, 2010: "This is the last day of Q1 and we will be shipping out the first units today." (Maybe they did ship out a few? but I was a very early pre-order and didn't get one...) April 1, 2010: "The next…

A concept also known as Valve Time (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time) ;).

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#48

Post by jrockway »

chasingsparks wrote: post #26

I (and many other HN readers, I'm sure) have had this idea plenty of times. If you wake up in one of those bad regions, you really are so much less productive. I'm glad someone is building this. Once it looks like the kinks are out, I'm ordering one for sure.

A similar product has already existed for years; the Zeo.

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#49

Post by axiom »

Is there some specific reason they worked so hard to make it sync with the iPhone over bluetooth? as opposed to, say, syncing with your laptop over bluetooth, or just make the thing log data and then sync to a computer via USB. Is it purely the sex-appeal of having an iPhone related product?

Re: WakeMate: The Home Stretch

#50

Post by clewiston »

plusbryan wrote: post #45
drewcrawford wrote: post #14

A brief history of ship dates: January 22, 2010: "We've tentatively planned for the first batch of WakeMates to be shipped as early as next month." March 11, 2010: "the first run of units will go out on March!" March 31, 2010: "This is the last day of Q1 and we will be shipping out the first units today." (Maybe they did ship out a few? but I was a very early pre-order and didn't get one...) April 1, 2010: "The next…

After spending 8 months wading through the MFI program myself, I concur that it's messy and poorly managed - I'm not surprised that this is part of the reason for the delay. Keep at it, I look forward to mine!

Hey thank for the encouragement! IMO the authentication chip has some details that are very poorly documented (and as a result gave me months of headaches). if you want to talk shop anytime please feel free to drop me a line at: craig wakemate com. would love to have another hardware developer working on apple auth to chat with...
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