WakeMate Shipping Internationally • Hacker News Board

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#21

Post by dotBen » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 7:53 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #6

WakeMate sounds really cool but I don't sleep alone. It's all about waking you at the perfect time isn't it. That means I get woken up all refreshed and my partner is going to be cranky? Not designed for couples?

Another thing to keep in mind is Wakemate works by measuring movement during your sleep.

I've noticed that if I'm asleep with my Wakemate running and my girlfriend is working on her laptop in bed or gets up to fix a drink the movement created can show up on the Wakemate and affect my score.

It's ok for couples but definitely the ideal situation is people sleeping on their own, I think.

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#22

Post by anateus » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 7:59 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #18

anateus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you use any alarm clocks isn't that the case already? I've been using my wakemate for a few weeks now in a shared bed, but my girlfriend wakes up several hours earlier than me. Since I'm able to ignore her alarm I've never had an issue. I imagine that since the wakemate wakes up fairly gently (most of the alarm sounds it comes with are pretty calm) and since it tries to wake you up during your lightest sleep…

What is your experience with it, do you wake up nice and refreshed? also is it annoying to sleep with that on?

It's actually a little weird. When you wake up with a normal alarm clock there's usually a sharp delineation between asleep and awake. With the WakeMate since it gets you during near-awakeness you feel as though you've already been waking up for several minutes when your phone suddenly stated chiming.

It's not like in sleeping pill commercials where the woman wakes up and gives a happy stretch, instead it's just that your brain is already booted up, there's isn't a wait time for it to start functioning.

If you didn't have enough hours of sleep it won't magically make you fully refreshed. However, we can often survive on less hours of sleep than we think if only we wake up at the right time. And I know that for me if I wake up at the wrong moment it can ruin my day (I remain tired all day even if I've had adequate hours)--this is something WakeMate definitely seems to help with.

Edit: I've found it to be a tad overly tight but I'm a pretty big guy. After a couple of uncomfortable nights I inverted the band which helped a lot and now it's just fine. The device is attached to a pocket on the "inside" of the band, when you invert it the pocket is now on the outside of the band, and the device itself no longer constricts the circumference. It's still just as tightly couples to my arm movements though so I don't believe accuracy has been affected.

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#23

Post by mlok » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 8:25 AM UTC

dotBen wrote: post #21

keyle wrote: post #6

WakeMate sounds really cool but I don't sleep alone. It's all about waking you at the perfect time isn't it. That means I get woken up all refreshed and my partner is going to be cranky? Not designed for couples?

Another thing to keep in mind is Wakemate works by measuring movement during your sleep. I've noticed that if I'm asleep with my Wakemate running and my girlfriend is working on her laptop in bed or gets up to fix a drink the movement created can show up on the Wakemate and affect my score. It's ok for couples but definitely the ideal situation is people sleeping on their own, I think.

Some double beds have separated mattresses, which might be a solution for some.

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#24

Post by rem1313 » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 8:41 AM UTC

I tested the WakeMate for a few days and I have the following comments:

* The software (iPhone) was not really very well thought out/polished. I don't want to scroll and select the time to the minute which I'm about to wake up if the wake up interval is 20 minutes.

* Signup for account via app redirects to web page which is not optimized for iPhone browser/smalls screen.

* Battery life is awful - max couple of nights, but its kinda cool, that it charges from the same USB charger than iPhone.

Overall the feeling is that they rushed to complete the software while trying to look cool and colorful, but forgot about the usability or didn't pay enough attention to it.

I have no opinion (yet) about the product concept/usefulness since I have only been using it for couple of days, one of which I wasn't able to get much sleep due to external factors.

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#25

Post by schrototo » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 9:18 AM UTC

greattypo wrote: post #3

I'm still intrigued by the WakeMade concept. The last HN thread I remember had all sorts of good unanswered questions.. one I remember being: do these bands help you feel more refreshed all day or is it just an initial thing? Has anyone found more information about how well these work?

I've had a sleep cycle alarm clock for a couple of years now (they've been available long before this WakeMate thing, and mine also collects sleep data, altough I guess the WakeMate interface is much nicer) and although it kinda works, don't expect to wake up refreshed if you're shortchanging yourself on sleep. If you're only getting 5 hours of sleep a night you're going to wake up tired no matter what.

Since most of the time I don't really have to get up at a specific time, I usually let myself be woken up by the sunlight, which is the most consistently effective way of waking up refreshed that I've found.

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#26

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 9:38 AM UTC

Dylanlacey wrote: post #2

What I really appreciate is they've gone and found a reshipping service, obtained a special deal and are using them to allow them to really ship internationally, not just to three continents. That's an excellent example of trying to help people buy your product.

[deleted]

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#27

Post by listic » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 9:41 AM UTC

I don't know how many of the countries this reshipping service actually covers, but they don't ship to Russia, possibly to the whole ex-USSR. ("We currently do not ship to the country you chose" for Russian Federation, "No rate was found. Please contact our customer service." for Belarus and Ukraine)

I think one could use a better reshipping service: if you outsource reshipping anyway (and make your customers sign up for a separate, paid service at that), why not cover all countries as well?

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#28

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 10:17 AM UTC

gnemeth wrote: post #12

joshfraser wrote: post #11

Have they shipped replacement power adapters yet? They emailed me to tell me not to use mine because it might catch on fire, but I haven't gotten a replacement or heard any news about that. Anyone know the status on those?

We are still working on a solution for the replacement chargers, but unfortunately it is a lengthy process. Don't worry we didn't forget about it and will be in touch once we have a solution!

[deleted]

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#29

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 12:42 PM UTC

TeHCrAzY wrote: post #14

From what I can work out, shipping internationally is going to set me back ~$65USD, pretty much doubling the price. $25 : join fee. $15 : monthly fee (cancel immediately). $50 : shipping fee (assuming its about 500grams or so). -$25 : credit/discount from wakemate. = $65

[deleted]

Re: WakeMate Shipping Internationally

#30

Post by OPAS » Tue, Apr 05, 2011, 12:52 PM UTC

TeHCrAzY wrote: post #14

From what I can work out, shipping internationally is going to set me back ~$65USD, pretty much doubling the price. $25 : join fee. $15 : monthly fee (cancel immediately). $50 : shipping fee (assuming its about 500grams or so). -$25 : credit/discount from wakemate. = $65

Hi, this is Reid at OPAS, the forwarding service WakeMate is working with. Just to clarify, we offer two membership plans: the "Package & Mail" plan requires the $15 monthly fee you're referring to, but our "Package Only" plan does not require any monthly fee. So if you don't need to receive mail documents, you can sign up for the Package Only membership and save an additional $15. Hope this helps!