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Microsoft Band

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Re: Microsoft Band

#261

Post by lhl »

jacquesm wrote: post #218
jmsdnns wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "the msft dude for YC" mean?

It means: try to get companies that otherwise would not go for Microsoft products to give it a try through free product samples, and talking down companies not microsoft. I really wished that companies like Microsoft, Google and so on would not have a 'HN guy' (and would not have non-disclosed HN guys either, Felix is at least above board on that), it can make it a lot harder to figure out what is a genuine user expe…

I assume that these days MS is mostly pitching Azure which pretty happily runs Linux VMs. It feels like any YC team (the guy said he's the "the msft dude for YC" not HN) worth their salt will need to learn how to navigate evaluating vendor promises sooner rather than later anyway (not to mention the mentoring/advice they should be getting from YC if they're not so experienced, or the fact that $50K is what, only 25% of a fully-loaded FTE cost anyway?).

Re: Microsoft Band

#262

Post by donkeyd »

sytelus wrote: post #117

While everyone is trying to make a watch that looks as traditional as possible, Microsoft is thinking radically different for how the future watch should look likes. That's some guts. At $200 this looks like great device with built-in sensors including GPS and UV that also talks to whatever phone you own. I also like the fact that heart rate monitor is always on. Addition of barometer could have been nicer, however.…

The design is rectangular, like Gear Fit, so giving credit for trying something different doesn't seem right.

Also, most pictures on the site have people wearing it on their left hand, so it seems perfectly capable of being on either wrist.

Finally, you're calling it a watch, while this is clearly not what Microsoft intended it to be. So it seems their marketing strategy is pretty on point for what they're trying to sell. The words 'watch', 'time', or 'clock' aren't mentioned anywhere on the page. You should be judging the product for what it is, not what you want it to be.

Re: Microsoft Band

#263

Post by netcan »

It's an interesting time. People are incredibly interested and open to technology and that is an opportunity.

HN probably has a thousand joking references to calculator watches of the 90s, how goofy they looked and how they marked you as chronically uncool. There's something to that. Sensibilities have changed and there is an expectation that gadgets will evolve and unlock all sorts of cool magic. People are so open to this stuff today.

My reading of these bands/watches/wearables is that they're still exploring. They're not getting enough data passively and they aren't really working to the point where they're a permanent addition our lives. Basically, not good enough yet. Maybe they need 10X better battery life. Maybe they need better sensors or somesuch. Maybe it's a killer app they need. I just see around me people buying one, playing with it for weeks or months and then not using it anymore.

Either way, device makers are being tossed a soft ball by consumers. They're willing to buy and try them and help explore. I hope this means they'll get someplace useful. But, people are ultimately fickle and these need to start delivering fast. I hope this isn't a misfire, too early to really achieve something.

Re: Microsoft Band

#265

Post by netcan »

ethomson wrote: post #257
somberi wrote: post #243

Quoting an article from The Economist.com: "... Strikingly, one-third of users discard their devices after six months, according to research by Endeavour Partners, a consultancy. Some industry insiders speculate that the true number may be much higher than that. ...The novelty of being able to track your steps, calories or other metrics is appealing at first, but swiftly wears off. ..." Full article - http://goo.gl/h…

To compare Microsoft Band to a FitBit doesn't do the Band justice. FitBit is a toy - counting footsteps isn't "fitness" and a few LEDs isn't feedback. With GPS and an actual display, the Band actually has the ability to compete against Garmin and Suunto and actual fitness watches. My Garmin is bulky, can't lock a signal in a neighborhood with tall buildings and has software reminiscent of an Atari. And it was more ex…

Still, the proof is in the eating.

Battery life still is an issue and will remain so for the next while. Daily charging means it isn't really 24 hours and it also puts a hurdle on for use. My ipad is often dead in a backpack someplace because it's not as essential (to me) as my phone or laptop. Daily charging is like a daily price and a value hurdle this band needs to jump.

Re: Microsoft Band

#266

Post by gommm »

jacquesm wrote: post #242
onion2k wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now, if your competitor is on an open stack and on real computers they will eventually run rings around you because they get more control and lower costs. Obviously it depends on what you're actually doing, but for a straightforward SaaS app (a few servers, a db server, a queue and a load balancer in a few datacentres around the world) one good sysadmin/devops guy costs far more than a set of AWS instances that essen…

You could of course simply hire freelance sysadmin/devops guys. Initially those are not full-time jobs anyway. The choice is definitely not between going for a cloud platform versus hiring a bunch of people full time. There are other options.

Exactly plus at scale AWS doesn't do everything either, a sysadmin or at least consultants are still needed to navigate the gotchas and help with how to better provision the stack. AWS instances don't just scale themselves.

There is one specific case when I recommend AWS instead of dedicated servers and it's for customers who have widely varying traffic with predictable peaks. In that case having the flexibility afforded by cloud providers to increase the number of instances temporarily to deal with the peak makes sense.

Re: Microsoft Band

#267

Post by gadders »

jacquesm wrote: post #220
rjbwork wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Person scaling with Azure here. It's pretty awesome and easy. But dear god, the XML! They've started making more and more stuff code-configurable though, so that's good.

> Person scaling with Azure here. It's pretty awesome and easy. And it's pretty expensive. Now, if your competitor is on an open stack and on real computers they will eventually run rings around you because they get more control and lower costs. The initial boost you're experiencing will turn into a straightjacket with a hefty pricetag over the longer term.

Stack Overflow seem to be doing OK: http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/7/21/stackoverflow-upda...

I think there is a case for an open stack, but I think unless you pick a real dog of a platform good people can make it work well. It comes down to a "can I get good people for stack X?" as much as "Does stack X work or cost too much?"

Re: Microsoft Band

#268

Post by yitchelle »

suprgeek wrote: post #27

Got a nice package of on board sensors: Optical heart rate sensor 3-axis accelerometer/gyro GPS Ambient light sensor Skin temperature sensor UV sensor Microphone Haptic vibration motor The 2 day battery life is the one turn off for me. Otherwise this is actually quite nice for $199 cross platform fitness wearable

The battery life is obviously dependent upon what services are enabled. For such a versatile device, MSFT should have a table for battery life for different usage cases.

For example, for Joe the jogger who wants to use it a purely health gadget companion, he may not want the microphone, UV sensor and ambient light sensor on, but for Jane the office worker who wants to take her steps around the office and have some office notification, the GPS and gyro is turned off. These two use cases could have vastly different battery life.

Re: Microsoft Band

#269

Post by ghshephard »

radmuzom wrote: post #246
jacquesm wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means: try to get companies that otherwise would not go for Microsoft products to give it a try through free product samples, and talking down companies not microsoft. I really wished that companies like Microsoft, Google and so on would not have a 'HN guy' (and would not have non-disclosed HN guys either, Felix is at least above board on that), it can make it a lot harder to figure out what is a genuine user expe…

The "much" better off is an assumption. If I remember correctly, Fogcreek primarily uses a Microsoft stack; so did lot of people who used to hang around in the Business of Software forum run by Joel Spolsky. Most of them had bootstrapped companies rather than use a lot of VC money to buy expensive tools. Most of them did quite well making money with their business. Using open tools is not a criterion for both technic…

Joel Spolsky - former Microsoft Product Manager? Yes, it's not particularly surprising that they would use Microsoft Products - their incredible familiarity with the product would offset any downstream licensing costs.

Small business usually get everything for free (or nobody bothers to check in on their licensing status, at the very least, they run on a massive discount using "developer editions").

Very large businesses have so much bureaucratic overhead, that unless their core business is Software/service (I.E. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Dropbox, etc...) - the cost of software licenses is minor, and anything they can save by going with something "Standard and Supported" is worth the offset.

But, anybody interested in trying to run their small-medium business on something like Oracle Enterprise edition on their 16 Core Server will quickly start taking a second look at Postgress/MariaDB once they see what the annual licensing costs for Oracle are. Partitioning and Optimizer are only worth so much...

Re: Microsoft Band

#270

Post by krzyk »

simi_ wrote: post #223
guylhem wrote: post #35

All the sensors + apparently a very lightweight OS + small form factor = I like it. The killing feature is the integrated GPS. As mentionned on the website, you can go without your phone. That alone could make it a buy if it supports wireless charging (I don't want to bother with wires in 2014) Also, it is multiplatform, which is a big plus. I do not want an android watch or an iwatch, but something that will work re…

It's ugly, but if I were in the market for a smartwatch/fitness tracker this might be the only one I'd bother with. As I find myself saying more and more, I love this new Microsoft. It's insane how much harm a single man can do.

Ugly? For me it's one of the best designs for a smartwatch (I think Samsung or Sony also have this "band" design), not the big clunky watches that were released this year.
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