Microsoft Band 2.0 Review • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Band 2.0 Review

#41

Post by doublerebel » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 6:31 PM UTC

steaminghacker wrote: post #40

As a developer, I'm very interested in the band2. Personally, I think bands are a better format that, say smart watches. The MS band looks to me, a general purpose device rather than a dedicated fitness product. I see a lot of potential for it. Like all things, the dedicated fitness devices will be displaced by general purpose ones. I'm interested in developing products for the Band to work under Android, but there's…

I totally agree, I far prefer a standard watch to a smart watch.

A band can be simpler and more durable, it's too bad this one isn't more water-resistant for swimming/surfing/etc. I wonder if there's a way to coat it to seal it? Or is the limitation due to the touch interaction?

Is there another dev-friendly optical HRM band with a mic?

Re: Microsoft Band 2.0 Review

#42

Post by com2kid » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 10:13 PM UTC

gnaddel wrote: post #19

com2kid wrote: post #4

As one of the lead software engineers on both the original Microsoft Band and now the Microsoft Band 2, I still sort of feels surreal reading a review from a news outlet that I've trusted since I was a teenager. A lot of what I first learned about CPUs, pipelines, and memory systems, was from Jon "Hannibal" Stokes. I am happy that the Ars review is the one that reached the front page here. I appreciate the work that…

Hi there, I have been wondering if the data collected by the band 2 can be exported in a sensible way to use the data for research. From what I have gathered there is no export functionality in the health app? Is this currently possible or planned?

In addition to what Breck said, we also support real time streaming of sensor data from the Band.

Your data is always made available, go have fun with it! Everyone on the team loves seeing the different research projects created around Microsoft Band.

Re: Microsoft Band 2.0 Review

#43

Post by com2kid » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

bootload wrote: post #12

com2kid wrote: post #4

As one of the lead software engineers on both the original Microsoft Band and now the Microsoft Band 2, I still sort of feels surreal reading a review from a news outlet that I've trusted since I was a teenager. A lot of what I first learned about CPUs, pipelines, and memory systems, was from Jon "Hannibal" Stokes. I am happy that the Ars review is the one that reached the front page here. I appreciate the work that…

"As one of the lead software engineers on both the original Microsoft Band and now the Microsoft Band 2," One of the things that stood out in the article (and the reason I posted it) was the sheer number of sensors packed into the device. Really impressive. Is their a division in the software between the embedded device, application and back-end?

> Is their a division in the software between the embedded device, application and back-end?

Sort of! We have multiple dev teams of course, but maintaining performance means we all have to work together very closely. A lot of tightly packed binary packet formats are used to minimize bandwidth.

Re: Microsoft Band 2.0 Review

#44

Post by com2kid » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 10:21 PM UTC

steaminghacker wrote: post #40

As a developer, I'm very interested in the band2. Personally, I think bands are a better format that, say smart watches. The MS band looks to me, a general purpose device rather than a dedicated fitness product. I see a lot of potential for it. Like all things, the dedicated fitness devices will be displaced by general purpose ones. I'm interested in developing products for the Band to work under Android, but there's…

> Anyone know if this might become available or if there's an unofficial way to access the mic.

Mic access is restricted for privacy purposes. There is no remote way to turn on the microphone.

Thank you for the suggestion though! I'll talk to the SDK team about it, our first priority is user control, but of course we want to make the device as powerful as possible!