Microsoft Unveils $199 'Microsoft Band' Fitness Wearable

[r-m]

Built in GPS, you say? That, with the other capabilities it has without having to use a smartphone, 2-day battery life, and the form factor, this is the closest fit to what I've been looking for in a smart fitness watch. I'll just have to accept that for music I'll need an iPod Shuffle if I value battery life.

Say hello to The Dash by Bragi
http://www.bragi.com
Use that for activity, and Microsoft Band for all day monitoring.
Comes with 4gb storage so you can shove a little music on there. Tracks a whole bunch of info.
Not sure of it HAS to have a connection to a smartphone for fitness tracking though - no idea if it works on its own and syncs later.

 

[XVentura]

The combination of the heart rate sensor, the sleep tracking and the exercise and calorie counting excites me most.

This was more of what I imagined the Apple Watch to be like.

I don't want a phone on the hand. I buy a big ass phone because I do way more than just call people on it. If I wanted a tiny display to call people, I would have stuck with my 10 years old 3310.

Let's hope they iterate fast, get battery life up and ditch some of the features that are phone-like but consume far too much battery to be worth it.

 

[r-m]

I think I want one. I want the all day tracking, and sleep tracking. Features look good. Slightly more than apple watch (I'll probably never want to look at more than text notifications on my wrist really, so watch apps aren't a big thing for me).
I like.

 

[kodos]

I was unexpectedly surprised waking up to this news. I am going to check this out in a store today, my wife and I have our anniversary on the 8th of November, this might be a good his-and-hers present.

I was looking into an Apple Watch for her, but I just cannot get myself to pull the trigger. Battery life won't work for her, and I just cannot see her going to the gym with it on her wrist, as it is more jewelry than functional fitness device.

But this is very intriguing, assuming the form factor will work for her wrist.

It is odd, in the last year I've found Microsoft's ecosystem more and more compelling. The rest of my family is in Apple land, but starting with my Surface, I have started to be more integrated into the Windows ecosystem again. They are doing some really good work. The sensors on these seem like everything she'd love.

BUT, the marketing is terrible, and they cannot seem to showcase their devices and tech very well. They need to fire their entire PR, and marketing department (and whoever names their stuff).

My wife looked at an ad for the Surface Pro 3 that came on TV the other day, and wondered if a High Schooler made it.

Just plain awful.

 

[sinfonye]

Will they buy an 18K gold Apple watch and go jogging to use it's health tracking?

Anyone who can afford the watch can afford bodyguards to go with it.

 

[SlipSlidinAwa]

Not waterproof like the iWatch

I feel like I'm in some unreality bubble watching all these fashion people GUSHING about the Apple Watch and I'm thinking, "really, this thing is so clunky and plain looking". WTF are these people smoking?

Unless a sports watch is waterproof not "water resistant" like the Band and iWatch it is of no use as it will be wrecked in a shower, heavy rain or swimming. It really is only a fashion item, a toy, and judging by most of the comments on these pages no one is a real sports enthusiast. Garmin, Suunto, Timex and others do real sports watch's for real sports people, and with much better battery life.

iWatch and Band are for pseud's and poseurs.

 

[SHNXX]

I don't understand this urge to track sleep.

I have used it with the Jawbone UP but saw absolutely no reason to use it other than that it was kind of fun the first few times.

Also when you charge it, the thing will have to come off your wrist anyway.

 

[luigi408]

I returned my Garmin Vivofit to Amazon and purchased this fitness/watch band. It seems to offer everything I was looking for in a band. I just hope it also integrates with HealthKit. If I don't end up liking it they offer free returns which is cool. I am also starting to move back to MS ecosystem like email and Office 365. What I like is that it integrates much better to iOS than Google for me (specially push Email on my iPhone).

I'd use Apple email but they don't let me change my Apple ID so I will never get an email from Apple until they change this.

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I don't understand this urge to track sleep.

I have used it with the Jawbone UP but saw absolutely no reason to use it other than that it was kind of fun the first few times.

Also when you charge it, the thing will have to come off your wrist anyway.

It fully charges in 1.5 hours. You can charge 80% of it while you shower (since you can't wear it while you shower) and you'll be set. It can definitely be used while sleeping without any problem.

 

[peterdevries]

iWatch and Band are for pseud's and poseurs.

I guess there is a difference between activity and light sports watches (Apple Watch and MS Band) and real sports watches that are more targeted at specific functionalities.

Apple and MS are trying to catch a far wider range of functionality than Suunto, Timex etc.. And that is fine.

Is someone who does 30 minutes of jogging a week also a pseud or poseur according to your logic? We don't all need to be ironman athletes.

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It fully charges in 1.5 hours. You can charge 80% of it while you shower (since you can't wear it while you shower) and you'll be set. It can definitely be used while sleeping without any problem.

That means your showers take longer than 1 hour???

 

[Anim]

I personally like the band style of this watch.

The Apple watch looks like they modified the 6th gen iPod nano and added a strap. Ha, just googled that...

But I will still get the Apple watch, being a developer I have to be aware of every new OSX/iOS device they release. $$$

 

[matthewhuk]

The tiles are customizable. check out this direct link -

http://www.microsoft.com/Microsoft-...rganic_socialmicrosoft_tw_29102014_LaunchBand

Why are they all wearing it under their wrists in that video?
I hate it when people wear their watches like that!

Other than late it looks pretty cool, interface looks clean and easy to use, more so dare I say it then apple's, at least they can do the flat look properly.

 

[576316]

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

 

[RedWeasel]

The thing is, today the word "Microsoft" has so much baggage associated with it. It's also fairly plain to see that "Microsoft Band" is a rip on the "Apple Watch" branding.

As in "$companyname" "$productname" branding being unique to Apple?

 

[Anim]

As in "$companyname" "$productname" branding being unique to Apple?

Like Microsoft Windows? oh you were replying. Every company does this anyway. Nike Air etc.

 

[Mustafa]

Look out for the blue screen of death.

 

[peterdevries]

I'm really interested in this, because it can be worn on the other wrist in addition to a "normal" watch. This is not possible with the Apple Watch without looking like a dork..

I'm interested to see the reviews in about a week.

 

[FieldingMellish]

The watch looks very Windows. Very 90's.

 

[NightFox]

The 48hrs on a charge is very promising, but I'd be very interested to know how long a recharge takes. This is clearly designed as a device to be worn 24hrs/day, so if it's going to have to come off my wrist for 2hrs every 2 days then that's potentially an issue. If, however, it's like my Jawbone UP with only takes about 15 minutes for a full charge then I'd be happy with that.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Never been excited much by MS products but this looks interesting. I'm def. going to have to go to the MS store to eyeball it. Now I know why Fitbit has to preannounce their new Charge HR and Surge bands. Aside from Apple, this really pressures Fitbit b/c they don't have anything with a heart sensor or GPS for the holiday season. MS's watch is here today.

I really wanted a Charge HR, but this might fit the bill too. One of those cases where first to market is a distinct advantage over brand.

 

[OllyW]

Which doesn't make any sense to me, because, my personal opinion, it's not that good looking of a watch. I'm sure Jon Ives could've designed a helluva watch if that's all he were making, but all that added hardware inside doesn't leave much room for streamlined elegance.

I'd hardly call myself a watch connoisseur, but to my untrained eye, I don't see much special about it. I wouldn't call it a hideous failure of design, because it's not. But I also wouldn't say it's all that spectacular, either. It's very...

...plain.

That's about the most damning thing you can say about an Apple product.

I think the Apple Watch is the best looking smart watch by far. Jony and his team have done their homework and have got watch details like the lugs and straps spot on.

It's a different matter it's when compared to traditional watches. It's not ugly but it's also not that great looking either. It doesn't look too bad when it's display is turned on and it's displaying a nice watch face but it is very plain looking when when the screen is turned off, which is how it will look most of the time when you are wearing it.

It sort of reminds me of the LED watches of the late 70's.

I still prefer the direction Apple have taken though and expect the first generation of Apple Watch will be a moderate success. I'm not sure about Microsoft's take though, as there are already a few established competitors in the fitness band field.

I'm really interested in this, because it can be worn on the other wrist in addition to a "normal" watch. This is not possible with the Apple Watch without looking like a dork.

That is one advantage Microsoft and the other fitness band makers have over Apple.

 

[xDKP]

Not exactly.

But at least they aren't wasting their time putting the photos app on a watch.

I'd rather a smart watch be good at a few key things that a watch is good for rather than try to stuff it with all the apps on your phone.

I'm interested to see how this turns out.

This is a point I have been thinking about as well. I know Apple has done this silly thing before (photos on small iPod Nano's etc.) but they shouldn't have used their energy on all the stuff that makes no sense at all, when we carry our big screen iPhones on us anyway (we need to - Apple made sure of that)...

I quite like the idea of a simple, good looking smartwatch... I feel the race for features should have been obvious for a company like Apple - That's not the point in a product like this... If it were, nobody would buy traditional watches... Not all of us want to look like Dick Tracy...

 

[roadbloc]

Looks a very nice product to be honest. If I was into all this smartwatch hype, I'd get it over the Apple Watch.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

The watch looks very Windows. Very 90's.

The display is signature Microsoft. The band itself isn't much different than other fitness bands - pick: vivofit, fuel band, Polar's band, etc. Only question is, is it clunky and that's hard to say w/o wearing it. It's looks like they could have made the display narrow so the band curved a the top of the wrist. That's the only thing I wonder about.

 

[RockSpider]

Microsoft = I don't care. Move on nothing to see here.

At least they've built something that looks futuristic, instead of something a very strong fashion model might wear.

 

[NightFox]

...And for the sake of completeness: Microsoft Health (iOS)

Hmmm... when I click on that link it takes me to MS Word for iPad. Is this not available in the UK store yet? Even so, I would expect the usual "This app is not available in your country" message.

Anyone got a link to the app in the UK Store?