Microsoft Band Wagon
Microsoft Band
521–530 of 534 posts
Re: Microsoft Band
#522You had me at "Works with Windows Phone 8.1 update, iOS 7.1, 8 and Android 4.3-4.4 phones, with Bluetooth"
If that's true, this is pretty awesome. Funny I had to read the small print to even find this feature of the band.
Sucks that Apple Watch + Android Watch are not cross platform.
Re: Microsoft Band
#523Two things that I'm missing: - How do you charge the thing? - Is the sleep tracking automatic or do you have to press a button to start it?
I have one on my wrist right now, and from the limited amount that I've played with it: - There's a magnetic connector (like mac boks) that hooks up to USB. It doesn't come with a wall connector, just USB, which is a bit weird. - It does indeed look like you need to press a button to start tracking sleep.
A big thing about sleep tracking for me is it being automatic. When I'm about to fall asleep, I'm often too sleepy to remember to press that button. It why I ditched my fitbit.
Other fitness trackers have automatic sleep tracking, even it's only heuristic based. For example misfit just has the formula of 'if not moving much for a large chunk of time in between these user configurable hours, mark that as sleep time'. That is a huge improvement.
The basis band seems to have a more advanced automatic sleep tracking algo. You guys would be probably interested looking into it.
Re: Microsoft Band
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it can get more than 3 hours with the GPS turned on, I'll be very, very impressed.
Gets five hours with GPS.
That's very impressive - my iPhone 5, with "GPS Tracks" (my favorite waypoint tracking device), with the screen off for most of the time, gets a little over 4 hours before the battery dies out.
Re: Microsoft Band
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how they're getting around Apple's MagSafe patent, considering Apple doesn't license it out?
Surface also uses these magnetic connectors btw. So either there is a patent sharing agreement, so they have somehow circumvented it.
Apple and microsoft have a permanent patent deal since the 90's. They can use each other's patents for free as long as they don't make direct competitors. Hence why this is a fitness band and not a smartwatch ;)
Re: Microsoft Band
#526Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Finally This isn't 'finally'. This 'new Microsoft' has been doing this for a while.
Visual Studio doesn't seem to install correctly on my Ubuntu box.
But then again I use OneDrive to back up my photos natively on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. I use OneNote on all platforms. I use Microsoft Office on all platforms (including the web). I play Wordament on all platforms. I use Xbox Live Music (formerly Zune Pass) on all platforms.
How many Windows Phone apps does Google have? Zero. What about Apple? Zero. In fact, Google has even refused to allow Windows Phone to access Youtube and Maps on the web. They specifically blocked the user agent for their website.
But no, that one example from Microsoft is totally relevant. Their competitors are much more open.
Re: Microsoft Band
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
My only beef with these "fitness bands" is their lack of being able to tell you how accurately you sleep at night. Without a heart rate monitor, there's really no way to be accurate other than to say you were restless versus laying still. AFAIK the only product that does this is Polar's fitness band. And only because you can link their heart rate monitor to it to give you additional fitness information. I could be wr…
Did you read the linked product page? It specifically boasts sleep tracking and 24-hour heart rate tracking.
I actually missed it the first two times I read it. So yeah, I want one now. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
I guess this means I won't be switching back to Android for a while now, just to see how my WP8 and this work together.
Re: Microsoft Band
#528Re: Microsoft Band
#529Hey, this makes sense!
Re: Microsoft Band
#530"Only available in the US" - unless you arrange for a friend in the States to get one for you ship it to you. However, it looks like the accompanying Windows Phone Microsoft Health app is not available if you're outside of the US. (not sure if this also applies to the Android and iPhone apps as well) Workaround anyone?
Found a workaround for Windows Phone: In settings, go to region and change Country/Region to United States. Restart phone, go to Store, and you'll see Microsoft Health in there. After installing you can change your regional settings back to your own country and the app is still available on your phone.