A device that allows the world's largest advertising conglomerate to monitor my health data at all times?
Sign me up!
Sign me up!
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Watch Competition to Grow as Google Plans Its Own Wearables Following Fitbit Acquisition
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I went through 5 Fitbit HD Charges in a little over a year due to the watches literally falling apart. On some the band just broke where it connects to the watch, on others the screen fell off so I made the switch to Apple Watch and have not looked back.
Any company with the slogan "Do No Evil" which is scary enough to have to say in the first place that removes said slogan in the darkness of night is a company I do not trust.
Any company with the slogan "Do No Evil" which is scary enough to have to say in the first place that removes said slogan in the darkness of night is a company I do not trust.
I am no fan of Apple Watch because it doesn't even last 24 hours, which is pathetic. I like my Fitbit - it needs charging only after several days. However, the moment my health data, or any of my data, is shared with Google is the day I throw my Fitbit into the trash. Moreover I can just see it now - you tap your Fitbit for your pulse and it displays an ad. F*** you, Google. 🤬
Also, where is the Justice Department's antitrust investigation of this takeover?
Also, where is the Justice Department's antitrust investigation of this takeover?
Probably too late. Either Google will soon have that data or they already have it. I'm sure the acquisition of Fitbit includes all their data. Knowing Google, they may be more interested in that data than the actual hardware.
If this pushes Apple to innovate quicker, that works for me.
My wife and daughter still have Fitbit's. My son gave up after too many bands breaking for no reason.
The last time I used the service plan on his, Best Buy told me they stopped offering plans for them. If the band breaks, you get a whole new Fitbit. Good for us, not for them.
My wife and daughter still have Fitbit's. My son gave up after too many bands breaking for no reason.
The last time I used the service plan on his, Best Buy told me they stopped offering plans for them. If the band breaks, you get a whole new Fitbit. Good for us, not for them.
Apple is changing their business strategy away from making profit from selling hardware. All companies want as much data as they can get their hands on. One would have to be extremely naive to think otherwise. Privacy is just an illusion not matter what you use. It's funny how some of you criticize Tim China for his stance on different things yet believe that he will guard all your personal information no matter what. You can't get to 1 trillion if you are stupid. Or nice. These people are ruthless. All of them.
So Google is intent on building a Soli hand gesture watch with on-device AI that's not cloud dependent. Never did like poking at tiny UI when exercising and Siri is still dumb. Only road block is Qualcomm crappy wearable SoCs built on old nodes. Think they finally transitioned from 28nm to 12nm just recently but not 7nm.
There are many sleep apps in the app store that monitor sleep. I use AutoSleep.
“Fitbit health data will not be used for Google ads.”
6 months later: TOS change.
"I Am Altering The Deal"
6 months later: TOS change.
"I Am Altering The Deal"
Please, this is no threat to Apple at all. The Apple Watch remains the best accessory to the iPhone. Google lacks the W1 and H1 chip. At best, they may complete with other cheaper android wearables, but I don’t see how it will convince anyone to switch away from an Apple Watch.
I look at it as Google throwing money at the problem, which is how they’ve always operated in hardware. What’s the death count now on how many phone hardware companies they’ve destroyed?
Competition doesn’t spur innovation. Meaningful competition spurs innovation, and this ain’t it.
Well I don’t get email spam. But when I use Apple News app, I do see ads and noticed they’re all for things I’ve discussed in gmail. For example I do elder care and discuss with my best friend the health issues I’m dealing with in taking care of my mom and dad, so I see a ton of ads for products and services for the elderly. And this discussion is all based on an iPhone, but she’s on gmail and even though I’ve sent from my iCloud email, I guess it gets read and attached to me somehow.
I have friends on gmail and Facebook. I have a couple of gmail accounts myself. Somehow the AI knows who I am and even on iPhone using an Apple news service, I get targeted.
However, using Safari on an iPhone and using Samsung internet on an Android, with settings that let it be known I don’t want targeted ads, I am free of targeted ads. I have ad blockers as well, so I see very few ads. Just the ones I let in to support sites like this one.
So you can take control over what you see. But it just because you don’t see how you’re targeted, it doesn’t mean they lack the data profile on you.
I’m a completely known quantity, between the data in my public records to everything that is leached out to the free ad supported services I’ve used and all the savings club data from the grocery stores and pharmacy. I really would have a tremendous difficulty staying on budget if I had to pay non club prices. This is where they get the data profiles on us if we never touch a smart phone in our lives. And the things about us that are in public records and aggregated for easy access to any paying customer on Data Mining services are what pose the real threat to our security. I really think too much of our data fall under the domain of public record and really should be made private.
We need privacy legislation like Japan has to take our identities back under our control.
Thank goodness I stopped using Fitbit products a long time ago. Nothing against them, they’ve released some nice, focused products.
I’m not however much of a Google fan, just my personal choice having read all of their privacy policies and end user agreements, everyone else is free to disagree with me - it won’t change my mind, just as I won’t try to change yours. So, if I’d still been using Fitbit, today would have been the day I went to the shop to buy an Apple Watch.
I’m not however much of a Google fan, just my personal choice having read all of their privacy policies and end user agreements, everyone else is free to disagree with me - it won’t change my mind, just as I won’t try to change yours. So, if I’d still been using Fitbit, today would have been the day I went to the shop to buy an Apple Watch.
My boyfriend and I both have Series 4 Apple Watches with LTE and routinely get 36-48 hours out of them. They definitely trade functionality (GPS, LTE, EKG, etc.) for battery life (some devices last a week). Fall detection and the ability to have my watch call 911 if I am incapacitated (even without an LTE service subscription) are alone worth the requirement to charge the watch more often.
It does much less, however, a trade off for which you may be fine.
Google controls zero percent of the fitness tracker market. Exactly how is this acquisition an anti-trust issue?
Google's wearable division has always been a hobby. Not sure that'll change with FitBit. Alphabet isn't trying to diversify away from ads. They're not strategic into health and fitness, really. There's no good way for them to monetize this stuff, except by using people's fitness data for health research. And having been in that market, it's not as worth as much as you would think.
Good luck to fitbit. My family had fit bits until we washed them all. Yeah, you can get free replacements, but after 2 or 3 it gets sort of old.
Good luck to fitbit. My family had fit bits until we washed them all. Yeah, you can get free replacements, but after 2 or 3 it gets sort of old.
Because of the nature of Google business, they are interested more than any other company in protecting your data. If they fail at it, their business will be destroyed. And they have the expertise (unlike some other companies) to ensure this. That's why we have no examples of user data leaks from Google.
[automerge]1572622606[/automerge]
There is nothing special about W1 and H1 chips. There are tons of similar chips. Nobody (but Apple) advertises this sort of simple chips.
I love my Fitbit. I'm not a huge fan of Google. I'll have to see what data they want from my Fitbit before I decide to upgrade or not.
Google wants all your data!
I’m like you, I can usually get two days out of my S5 44 before it dies. That’s with the AOD on, Raise to Wake, GPS, WiFi, Cellular, Music, iMessage, Emails, notifications, Exercise and so on.
Normally I will pop it on the charger at night, I don’t need a watch while I sleep, I have a Withings for sleep tracking. But there are occasions when I have, for whatever reason, kept it on overnight and it generally gets me through the next day.
It would of course be lovely to have several days worth of battery life, but the technology just isn’t there yet for that. Something I was well aware of when I decided to make the switch from a kinetic mechanical to an Apple Watch.
Fitbit>Pebble
Google>Fitbit
Prediction, Google releases a watch with 7 days battery and sleep tracking.
Apple releases an AW with more battery life and sleep tracking!
This can only be good!
Google>Fitbit
Prediction, Google releases a watch with 7 days battery and sleep tracking.
Apple releases an AW with more battery life and sleep tracking!
This can only be good!
