Michal Ždanský After Google and Apple, Microsoft is also entering the category of wearable devices on the body. His device is called the Microsoft Band, and it is a fitness bracelet that will measure both sports performance and sleep, steps, but also cooperate with mobile devices. It will appear on sale already on Friday, at a price of 199 dollars (4 crowns). Together with the sports bracelet, Microsoft also launched the Health platform, to which the measurement results will be sent for evaluation and analysis for users.
According to Microsoft, the bracelet should last up to 48 hours, i.e. two days of active use. The bracelet uses a color display with touch control. The shape of the display is reminiscent of the Galaxy Gear Fit thanks to its elongated rectangular shape, so the Microsoft Band can be worn with the display up and down. The bracelet contains a total of ten sensors, which, according to Microsoft, are collectively the best in the field.
This includes, for example, a heart rate sensor, a UV sensor for measuring the impact of sunlight and another sensor that can measure stress from the skin. For example, the Microsoft Band not only uses an accelerometer to measure steps, but also combines data from your phone's GPS and an always-on heart rate monitor to accurately measure your steps and present more accurate calories burned data.
Band from Microsoft can receive notifications from the connected mobile phone and inform the user about calls or messages. Of course, the display also shows information about daily activity, and you can use the Cortana voice assistant (a connected Windows Phone device is required) to control the Microsoft Band with your voice. However, this is not a smart watch with a lot of functions, as is the case with the Apple Watch, for example. Microsoft deliberately created a smart bracelet, not a smart watch, because it does not want to burden the user's wrist too much with constant "buzzing", on the contrary, it wants to let the technology merge with the body as much as possible.
If someone is going to use the Microsoft Band, it's not a problem to have a watch on the other wrist. Microsoft focused on the development of a secondary device that contains a number of sensors and whose main task is to collect the largest possible volume of data while at the same time being the least disruptive element. Although Microsoft wants to gradually open its new product to other developers, it will proceed cautiously with the Health platform.
It is in the Health platform that Microsoft sees great potential. According to Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of devices and services, all existing solutions have one problem: "Most of them are individual islands." Microsoft wants to change that and unify all the data collected from smart bracelets, watches and mobile phones under the Health platform.
In addition to Windows Phone, the Health application is being developed in Redmond for Android and iOS, and if you have an application that counts steps or a bracelet that collects fitness data, you do not need to create a backend, but connect everything to the new platform from Microsoft. It will work with Android Wear watches, Android phones and the motion sensor in the iPhone 6. Microsoft has also established cooperation with Jawbone, MapMyFitness, My Fitness Pal and Runkeeper, and plans to include many other services in the future.
Microsoft's goals are twofold: to collect better and more accurate data, and at the same time to process it all and use it to effectively provide information on how to improve our own lives. According to Microsoft, the entire Health platform is primarily about collecting data and constantly learning based on it. Only time will tell whether Microsoft will actually manage to unify the amount of data from different products under one roof. His journey into the field of measuring biometric data is just at the beginning.
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As for the appearance, I really like it :)
Well, it's not really a competition for the Apple Watch. The functionality will be greatly limited, because no one will make an application for it right away, the control is less convenient and the design looks like digital ones from the market :-D But I understand, it will find its clients :-)
I wonder if it is waterproof and shockproof…
the user-friendliness of the iOS application will again be at freezing point. It paves the way fundamentally against user experience. This is how commerce.microsoft. I have an xbox account there. To find out how much you have in your account...that's about 10 minutes of searching....well....it should be on the first page, right?!!! Simply Microsoft, what else can I say.
yeah i like it too Compared to the Watch, it looks, in my opinion, much better. I also think the usability is better, it doesn't play like a piece of jewelry, it's simply a sensor bracelet on the wrist that measures where and what, and that's how it should be in my opinion, and I was looking forward to something similar from Apple, unfortunately I didn't get it. Watch um… I wear Saint Honore on my wrist and I'm not going to trade them for some embarrassing digital. I really like this, and above all the measurement of stress, heart rate and sleep, I was looking forward to something like this.
I hope there will be a review of how it works with Apple devices :-)
they are definitely better in terms of design and definitely more "practically wearable" for me :)
if the phone or the watch don't actually have GPS, that means I run with it and it feels like the phone stayed at home, until then, don't let it out into the world. why do I have to carry a phone along with the bracelet?…?