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Microsoft Adds New Features With Latest Updates To Its Band Wearable Device

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I wrote about my initial thoughts on the Microsoft Band, right here. I’ve been using the Band daily since Christmas of last year and am a fan of the device. I had noticed a couple of quirks with the Band early on, like the heart rate monitor taking too long to lock in and Bluetooth syncs occasionally failing, but updates to the Microsoft Fitness app, the band’s firmware, and potentially Windows Phone 8.1 itself, seem to have taken care of those issues.  For the last few weeks, the Band has been behaving perfectly for me.

When the Band launched last year, Microsoft claimed that they’d be continually updating the device and its companion software in response to user feedback. It seems they are making good on that promise. “For the last three months, we’ve monitored feedback carefully from customers, partners and media.  While the response has been overwhelmingly positive, we are continuing to listen to our customers and make improvements based on their feedback,” said Matt Barlow, General Manager of New Devices Marketing. “This feedback is at the heart of the decisions we make, and today we’re pleased to take our first steps in launching new features and functionality for Microsoft Band and Microsoft Health that address what we’re hearing.”

This past week, Microsoft released new firmware for the Band, updated the Microsoft Fitness app, and launched a web dashboard that enables a number of new features for the Band. Along with the new web dashboard, biking functionality has been added, additional ways to scan and respond to incoming notifications is available, and your data can now be integrated with Microsoft HealthVault and MapMyFitness. Microsoft also launched the Microsoft Band SDK Developer Preview for third party developers interested in creating application for the Band.

I have found the new web portal to be somewhat limited, but still quite handy compared to the Microsoft Fitness app alone.  The web dashboard offers new observations, extended data views and more detailed charts than what is available via the mobile app—all good things. And the interface is very clean and easy to navigate in my opinion.  Microsoft should offer the ability to customize the device via the web portable and perhaps pull data down off the site for the hardcore geeks out there what would like to more deeply analyze it.

The Biking feature is similar to the Running feature that’s been available on the Band since launch. It has the ability to map rides, track elevation, do speed analysis, track calories burned, etc. There are also some new guided workouts available. But the new virtual keyboard and voice replies available for Windows Phone 8.1 users have been the best additions for me.  You can now respond to texts and other notices right from the band, provided you’re within range of your smartphone. There were a few canned responses available before, but now you can actually type on or dictate to the band. The virtual keyboard is obviously quite small, but I’ve found its predictive capabilities to be good. Answering quick text messages without having to pull out my phone is very handy.

Some early reviews of the Microsoft Band called it buggy and complained that it lacked some features that are now available with the device.  If you’re in the market for a wearable like the Microsoft Band, don’t put too much stock in any reviews written around the launch—the device is a different beast today.