This is a fairly obvious move for google to get further into biometric data harvesting.
Fitbit is now officially part of Google
361–370 of 387 posts
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand the fear of Facebook from WhatsApp / Oculus users in these comments. Facebook has a clear user agreement with how they use your data, including not selling it - and they rely on users trusting them. I'd rather my data be with one of the tech giants than a unprofitable start up.
It is true I'd rather my data be with Facebook than a unprofitable startup, which was made clear, so pretty pointless copy and paste
Then you have been proven wrong by history since Facebook went back on their word in both cases meaning you can't trust them or Facebook for that matter to do any better than a startup company profitable or not.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counter-example : Chromecast.
The device that overheats when playing 1080p videos ? Or the one that freezes when just launching Youtube ? The Chromecast works well most of the time. The ways it fails is ridiculous.
Hmm, I did have minor issues, but IMHO it's much better than your average gadget (the first Chromecast at least). And it's dirt cheap, I think I got it for 4€ ? (though that's because Google subsidizes it).
I did have some issues recently with being unable to pair it with specific Samsung phones, but it's a combination of it getting old and I assume issues with Google killing software (I don't want your Google Home !).
In a way I have worse issues with my Pebble Time… which Google now owns, to my displeasure. (But it is probably more open, so I have better chances fixing the issues myself in the long term…)
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#364I'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…
You've hit the nail on the head here. The only arguments in favour of these are money-oriented and therefore celebrating the fundamental move towards a dystopic future (insofar as it isn't already here, which is debatable to a painful degree).
Nobody wins here, except for a very small group of already outrageously powerful and rich people. Any regular human being will at best gain nothing from this and at worst have all of their information inserted into the Google silo.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#365Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#366Earlier 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.
At first I thought this would be a paid positive troll, but then the post went so far into absurd fandom I figured you couldn't make this up if you tried.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> The mi band might suit your needs better.
The Mi Band 4 has a 96MHz MCU and not a lot more storage.
> I’m not sure the pine time will be powerful enough to actually use.
I suspect you're grossly overestimating the compute power needed for a lot of the features smartwatches currently have because you're not very familiar with ecosystem.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
Five or six years ago, I would have said, "Great! Now my Fitbit will be better integrated with Android and my Google ecosystem. Plus it will inject some much needed stability into a faltering company, to bolster the quality and advance their products. Yay!" Now I think about the fact that I just looked someone up on contacts.google.com, then added a visit with them to calendar.google.com, and talked with them about i…
> Looking forward to a nice Linux/open software fitness watch Haven't bought one yet, but the PineTime watch from Pine64 seems nice. There's apparently already a FOSS os/firmware or two as well.
I have one, and I think it's progressing fast. Being nearly on-par with Mi Band ~4 is not far. The more people join the community, the faster the progress gets.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
How long do they last? Personally, Ive been using Garmin smartwatches for a few years now and they last about a week, with O2 sat scanner enabled over the night. Definitely been happy with them.
I get 24-36 hours on my Colmi P8 (same hardware as PineTime), with step tracking and heart rate monitoring turned off. The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market. It's only good, at least for now, as a platform to prototype on.
> The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market.
Not really, no. Very popular Mi Band 1 up to Mi Band 5 are very much on-par in terms of hardware. The software just has to catch up and that's probably coming.
If the project is successful, a PineTime 2 with some minor HW upgrades would be doable. Then it would take much less time because now there's a community and software out there that can be reused.
Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google
#370[deleted]