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Xiaomi's Mi Band 2 Fitness Tracker Featuring OLED Display Launched at $23 (cnet.com)
Chinese technology conglomerate Xiaomi has unveiled the Mi Band 2, the second iteration of its fitness tracking band. The tracker features an OLED display -- which is touted as resistant to scratches and fingerprints, and helps the wearer track time, notifications, heart rate, calories burned, and number of steps taken among other things. The company says that Mi Band 2 can function for 20 days on a single charge. It is priced at $23. It is currently only available to purchase in China, but the company says it will be launching the wearable in other regions as well. To recall, Xiaomi has already begun selling some of its products in the United States.
Venture Capitalist Bryce Roberts said: "$23. If you're thinking of doing a consumer hardware startup let that sink in a bit."
Venture Capitalist Bryce Roberts said: "$23. If you're thinking of doing a consumer hardware startup let that sink in a bit."
~~~Astrology~~~~ Horoscope, Python, GPLv3 -- https://sites.google.com/site/...
I only do fitness once a month so the 20 day battery is not nearly long enough!
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The device itself is compelling - but the one thing FitBit & others have going for them is the software design and interface. They way Xaomi could really succeed is to be able to interface with already good software, such as Google Fit or PlexFit and open their APIs to their device so that devs can tinker with the raw data rather than having to rely on whatever they choose to reveal.
If it doesn't boost Apple's cashpile by at least $200, it can't be any good.
Equals cheap prices.
Yes, thank you Xiaomi for helping me understand that there are reasonably priced pulse sensors and wearable sleep monitoring bands out there (and these even alert you when your phone is ringing). For that I am grateful I don't have to spend $100 on a silly Fitbit or even more for an Apple Watch.
But the thing that Xiaomi needs badly is someone to manage the brand understanding and confusing proliferation of Xiaomi band models that they're offering.
If you try to buy one of these things, I challenge you not to be bewildered by:
-- Mi Band
-- Mi Band Pulse
-- Mi Band Original
-- Mi Band 1S
This is made worse by the slew of websites that sell these things with poorly explained feature differences between all of them, have pretty different pricing of similar looking bands to the point that you're not sure which one you're getting. You have to admit, Apple does some things much better...
If the Eagles could wait out hell freezing before any of them died, so can YOU!
Fitness trackers do one thing really well.
Taking advantage of the fact that most people are unaware that for the basics they are no better than your phone.
...they don't tell you about but 'send home to the mother ship' that is...
Overtly or covertly where is the data collected being sent?
That something might be the cost of making other fitness monitoring devices likely made in China. Of course, the executives and advertisers for US branded products are likely making much more money than their peers in China. I wonder what the profit is on Apple's $10,000 watch.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
I have several of their $16 headsets. As far as I am concerned, they are absolutely the best headsets you can buy under $100. And I have tried too many. A $23 fitness tracking band / watch? I'll have to give it a shot when it come here.
This makes no sense.
I would expect python programmers to practice haruspicy , not astrology.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
These low level RF signals are not safe....the best they can say about it is that they have never tested it so you are on your own about if it is safe. BUT, the same basic RF is comming out of your cell phone and they know that it causes cancer. So it makes sense that the bads do cause cancer, just not as fast.
“We have no information whatsoever on the long-term health effects of wearable fitness-tracking devices,” says Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist and founder of the Environmental Health Trust. “The lack of proof of harm is not evidence of safety. You have to decide for yourself if that’s a risk you want to take.”
The thinner the skin near the RF the more damage it does to you.....unless you have a very fat wrist it is certainly causing cancers....just slower than your actual phone.....try this....tape one to a fish tank.....the fish will move to the opposite side of the tank and they will never get close to the thing....put it on your cat as a collar, the cat will tear it off even if they are used to a collar....something is wrong with these devices, certainly they are not "heathy"
I have the original ($15 iirc) Mi band, it works great as a step counter, the battery lasts for something on the order of what they claim, and it's got the usual haptic feedback / alarm etc.
The biggest issue for me was the sign up process, they wanted my phone number and they wanted a text to verify it. I discovered I could sign up online with an e-mail address but every time I tried to use a disposable mailbox the page suspiciously failed to load. I tried again with my normal gmail account and it wanted me to "link the app" or something similar so I ended up creating a burner account just for the Mi band.
There is absolutely no need for this as I've never had recourse to check the account since, the phone app works fine as a standalone. But this is a company that very clearly wants your data, and wants it linked to a unique and identifiable source. They're no different from google et al in this respect but buyer beware, "if you're not paying, you're the product" may be applicable to suspiciously cheap wearables too.
A fitness watch that does something useful - I'll call it bare basics -- for $23? That is disturbingly exciting. Hmm.... $300 Apple Watch, $23 generic. Even if they had to double the price before coming to the USA. If it had the basic features that people actually use companies like Apple could be in for a serious run for their money.
Now as others have mentioned apparently the software interface for these things leaves room for improvement (and maybe this is what Apple spends the $300 on). But if the dev world got hold of this and offered interfaces to, say, Under Armor's app (endomondo) - it could be a killer.
If you are looking for this device to measure heart rate, you'd likely be disappointed.
It can't measure your HR while you are exercising.
What it can (at least in case of 1S) is measure it once, when you apply pressure as instructed... and even then I was getting rather wildly fluctuating results.
They should just be more honest and give these sorts of things away for free, considering that they're collecting all your 'fitness' data and monetizing it, using it to target ads at you, giving it to governments to add to your profile, etc. At least that way you're getting 'paid' something for all that you're having taken from you.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Was that you could never really be sure whether you were ordering a knock-off.
We have three Fitbit trackers in my household. I received one, a Charge, as a gift a little over a year ago, and it died. Not, "it doesn't stay charged," but "DIED." I won't charge, it won't sync. It can't be updated. It can't be found. I'm out of warranty, so I was offered a coupon by Fitbit support, but I would still be spending over $80 for something which, if you read the forums, is going to die another, eventually frustrating death. The Fitbit Charge should last about a week on a single charge, so it could not make it to 100 charge cycles? Really? In 2016? Not impressed. Give me something cheap and I won't mind. A $100 pair of ear buds which die in a year equals rage. A $20 pair? Meh.
While I'm on thinking about it, another thing which I don't like about all of these trackers is that they "track." For the most part, you're spending more $$$ to upload your data to a corporation. I don't want to pay to be the product. I've gone back to an old chest strap and watch combo which I've had for years because their batteries, which you can buy by the handful on Amazon for cheap, are replaceable. Oh, and I don't have to use Bluetooth for anything to work. Sometimes you don't need to chart your exercise. You just need to exercise.
Make love, not reality television.