Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fitbit is now officially part of Google

blog.fitbit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 387 posts

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#181

Post by tejohnso »

eins1234 wrote: post #145
m00x wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

I read this honestly expecting a /s at the end. If you told me this was a failed attempt at obvious sarcasm now, I'd totally still believe you.

Expected /s as well, but at home I often hear the "I don't work for the CIA" argument against privacy paranoia so I'm not surprised.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#182

Post by Turbots »

j0ba wrote: post #115
tomComb wrote: post #93

I'm sure the sentiment here will be very much against this acquisition, but keep in mind that Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business without this. It is tough for a company like Fitbit to compete with Apple & Samsung. This should lead to more competition by making it possible for Fitbit to compete with Apple. If it doesn't then the acquisition was a failure for Google anyway - Fitbit's c…

> Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? We're fast approaching a dystopian Snow Crash world of all-powerful corporations, and you people are cheering it along. How can these both be true? - it's bad all US legacy media is owne…

I could already sync up my fitbit with Google Fit, so this already existed. Their argument is moot, as you suspected

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#183

Post by IgorPartola »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #123
j0ba wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? We're fast approaching a dystopian Snow Crash world of all-powerful corporations, and you people are cheering it along. How can these both be true? - it's bad all US legacy media is owne…

>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.

Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker or Amazon they’d be buying half of Europe for cash right now. I don’t pretend to know why they can’t but empirical evidence shows that it takes them several years and at least a product generation to put out something useful. For them to put out a fitness tracker or a smart watch in a few months that would be remotely competitive with the Apple Watch is just not in the cards.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#184

Post by bhk »

judge2020 wrote: post #113
m00x wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

The assurance that it's not going to be used for Ads is the only thing that makes this acceptable. Instead of it being on some random fitbit server on someone's Cloud, it'll be held securely on Google servers.

Are you sure about that?

If you click through to the EU site

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_...

and read "Google's Commitment" on ads:

> Google will not use for Google Ads the health and wellness data collected from wrist-worn wearable devices and other Fitbit devices of users in the EEA, including search advertising, display advertising, and advertising intermediation products. This refers also to data collected via sensors (including GPS) as well as manually inserted data.

So this only covers European Economic Area, and it only covers Google Ads.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#185

Post by PurpleFoxy »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #13
that_guy_iain wrote: post #10

I was about to buy a new fitbit as my current one is basically dead after 4 years. But the way Google handles things they buy doesn't inspire confidence. I guess I'll investigate others and probably end up with an Apple Watch.

I'm waiting for PineTime, personally. My significant other just switched from a Fitbit Ionic to an Apple Watch SE and definitely likes the upgrade. Battery life is your biggest loss if you leave Fitbit, almost nobody was making smartwatches as battery efficient.

I’m not sure the pine time will be powerful enough to actually use. Iirc it has a 64mhz cpu and 3.5mb storage space. It looks like more of a toy for developers than something you would use normally.

The mi band might suit your needs better.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#186

Post by IgorPartola »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #180
m00x wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

Lol, I totally agree. I actually believe that they care a lot about protecting my data -- more than any other data caretaker. Probably because if they abuse our data it would be financially costly. But that's the beautiful thing about capitalism...

Apple has entered the chat. I am sure you’ve heard the argument before: Google is an advertising company. Using your data to sell you products is why they have your data. The more they can get, the higher their profits.

Apple is a hardware company. They don’t want your data and store it begrudgingly because to them it’s nothing but liability. Whenever they can, they will encrypt your data in a way they can’t access in order to not be liable. Their devices are the product, not you.

Based on the above, which company would you trust more?

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#187

Post by iamcreasy »

josefresco wrote: post #169
post_break wrote: post #168

Whenever I think of Fitbit I think of Pebble and get sad. I wish there was a Pebble replacement.

If you liked Pebble, you'll probably be excited about Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com

Also, how about PineTime? https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#188

Post by IgorPartola »

tomComb wrote: post #96
Dig1t wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why it's difficult for them to compete with Apple and Samsung isn't readily apparent to me. There still seems to be a large hole in the smartwatch market for a GOOD Android-compatible smartwatch. There are a lot of options, but, to me, none of them are as polished or feature-heavy as the Apple Watch. It doesn't seem that one of these companies would need access to any special internal APIs or anything to b…

I'm a long time Fitbit user and I think their products are great. From that perspective I'm just happy that they will survive. > so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours That matters. > IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise. Have you seen what some companies do when they are on the brink of insolvency? They start firing engineers, best practices lapse,…

Again, Apple has a much better track record than Google when it comes to privacy. I can’t believe I’m defending them here, but honestly they’ve been the only tech giant that hasn’t sold out every bit of your personal info they had to make a quick buck. I suppose Netflix might be the other one but (a) I don’t know for a fact and (b) they aren’t exactly the fitness brand.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#189

Post by Triv888 »

ztetranz wrote: post #122

Maybe Google will be a bit faster with new features. It took almost six years and a 544 post thread in their community forum to finally provide the ability to use kilojoules instead of calories. It's just a multiplication factor like feet to meters or pounds to kilograms. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-t...

Google is not better in this regard.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#190

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

m00x wrote: post #108
tomComb wrote: post #93

I'm sure the sentiment here will be very much against this acquisition, but keep in mind that Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business without this. It is tough for a company like Fitbit to compete with Apple & Samsung. This should lead to more competition by making it possible for Fitbit to compete with Apple. If it doesn't then the acquisition was a failure for Google anyway - Fitbit's c…

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

> I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools.

It's good to be able to integrate that information. It's bad to be forced to let Google integrate that information. I dislike it because Google isn't known for letting users choose.

Post reply on HN