It'll be great if we can have custom firmware for fitbit and selfhost the data collection services.
Fitbit is now officially part of Google
261–270 of 387 posts
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#262The question now: how soon before my fitness tracker stops working? (Given Google's track record)
I learned the hard way how developer-unfriendly Nest became after acquisition. I wanted to do some very basic home automation with a smart thermostat and it was like somebody had released a broken beta of an API and stopped maintaining it. To add insult to injury they were in the process of shutting down the few useful APIs that remained and almost completely closing it off. Sold it and went to a different brand.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#263Anyone stopped using Fitbit as a result of this?
Yes. I had a 30 message back and forth with their support to get a refund and they wouldn't do it.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#264If someone from Fitbit is reading this: It is asinine that the data from my wearable has to go to my phone, up to the cloud, and back down to my phone for display.
I wanted to switch mine from 12hr to 24hr clock format.
I couldn't do it on the watch itself. I couldn't do it on my phone from the app. The only solution was to log in to fitbit.com in a browser, change a setting there, then re-sync my device via the app.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#265I'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 assume it's because every product I've bought from them was terrible quality hardware wise. The Aria scale just randomly can't upload weights, also it will randomly just turn on for a whole day thinking you are trying to weigh yourself and will stay in that mode until it kills the batteries. I've had multiple of their bands and they all lasted less than a year before they had something break. At my work we gave every employee a Fitbit charge hr, and within 6 months half of them had the band separate from the sensor. I had another Charge HR that one day turned off and then never turned back on after 3 months of use.
I wanted to like them, but the quality of the product was lacking, and I'm happier with the Apple Watch.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have an entire hardware division that regularly churns out quite high quality consumer hardware: nest. They also have a pretty big hardware group that makes high performance servers and specialty hardware (TPU servers among other things). They have a few other hardware divisions as well. Google would have absolutely no issue creating quality fitbit devices. Whether or not the market would be there for them to st…
Nest was acquired and was already a mature and popular product. They by no means built it from scratch. And enterprise server products are probably outside the scope of what we are talking about, which is consumer electronics. I can build you a pretty decent server pretty quickly. I wouldn't know where to start to create a smart watch that had good battery life, great screen, great app ecosystem, great sensors, and d…
> Nest was acquired and was already a mature and popular product. They by no means built it from scratch.
Sure, but they did come in and add real innovation to the product; for example, adding a secret microphone that wasn't disclosed to the customer.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#267If someone from Fitbit is reading this: It is asinine that the data from my wearable has to go to my phone, up to the cloud, and back down to my phone for display.
Sounds like ANY device or peripheral - the data is more valuable that anything else. On acquisition - the exit strategy is to have a pile of data.
I think regulation is the only way to change this because it's a gravy train.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#268What is a good lightweight 24/7 heart rate and sleep tracker that's not a Fitbit? I have an Apple Watch but the Fitbit's sleep tracking is way better and I keep it on for days (whereas I charge my Apple Watch overnight). I am super happy with my Fitbit but given Google I assume it will be "sunset" within a year or two so I want to switch early.
Xiaomi Mi Band.
Do these phone home to Xiaomi?
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I am against jail for non-violent crimes. I'm open to modern non-medieval ideas even for violent crimes. I don't have the answers there, but I wish there were more people caring about this. So far it seems to be only the far left (I don't consider that an insult) and anarcho-capitalists, but I wish more people that fall into the middle somewhere (like myself) would think about this. Usually people don't think ab…
Not even the most liberal societies on Earth, usually the Scandinavian ones, go as far as you describe. And they do have a prison system meant for prevention of recidivism and reintegration into society. What you're saying is closer to an utopian ideal or who knows, something at least 50 years from now, in the future? :-)
Less utopian than people who cannot imagine themselves committing a violent crime (either because they are not physically imposing, or because the tiny gains of violent crime wouldn't make a dent in their monthly nut) thinking that the people who actually commit the crimes that they themselves consider committing might not be all bad.
White collar crime kills more people than violent crime by multiple orders of magnitude.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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…
Counter-example : Chromecast.