Microsoft Band gets an update at last, including text dictation and a Web dashboard - gloverweld1948

Since Microsoft shipped the Microsoft Circle endmost pin, the smartband has faded from public attention. Microsoft's first Major update to the Lo and its complemental Microsoft Wellness app adds a boatload of new features, however.

The Band is equal parts physical fitness band and personal organizer, and the new updates address some aspects of the follow. From a productivity viewpoint, the Dance band now includes the ability to dictate responses to texts via the Cortana voice acknowledgment built into the Band, together with some improvements on how it handles incoming messages. For after work, the Band now includes cycling support, complete with guided workouts. After you've completed your workout, you can check come out of the closet how you've done in a new Web-based dashboard.

Microsoft's Set is the company's answer to the "quantified health" craze that's driven wearables like the Basis stria, Fitbit, and a come of others. The $200 Band can stand on its own, but it works best when paired with a phone—and with apps available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, you have your choice of platforms. The Lo measures your sleep patterns, the enumerate of steps you've condemned, and how you've exercised in predetermined slipway, including going out for a run.

Mark Hachman

You can now track your sleep in habits for the month using the new Web dashboard.

Those with flat feet will be excited that the Band now includes a Cycling tile, where users can immediately tell the Band that they're going for a ride. GPS will track your tantalise (as well as any changes in your elevation), and Band's inbuilt intelligence will analyze your speed and the recovery time that you'll need. And if you live in the frozen Northeast, single spin workouts feature been added to the Guided Workouts feature, also.

Microsoft already shows you some of the insights it culls as part of Microsoft Health, its related to app. Just the party has added a new Network dashboard, which it says will crack more analysis the Sir Thomas More you use your Band. (So far, the app appears to supply a nice, comprehensive concise of your recent activities, but nothing further.)

Talk to the Band

Microsoft has beefed upward the Band's voice-recognition capabilities every bit well. The Band already allows you to ask Cortana questions exploitation the Band's collective-in mic, set a reminder, or execute something similar. The Band also buzzes to alert you of incoming email and texts, and allows you to manually whorl through and through the first few words.

With the update, a New Fast Read function scrolls through notifications similar texts and emails, rendering them in a large, clear baptistry and auto-scrolling them automatically. And if you'd like to type a reception, you can do so with a newborn realistic keyboard that uses prediction algorithms to guess at what you're typing..

Users also cause the option to orally orderreplies to a textbook using Cortana, only, evidently, non writer new texts or email. That's a shortfall that we hope is eventually resolved. Still, at least IT's something.

Finally, Microsoft added SDK support, thusly that developers can now create Band apps. Hopefully the smartwatch testament receive a more enthusiastic response from developers compared to Windows Phone.

Why this matters:Microsoft's Band has an enormous amount of potential. Still, no combined was quite clear how significant the product was to Microsoft. The update confirms that the Band is still part of Microsoft's game plan.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/432009/microsoft-band-gets-an-update-at-last-including-text-dictation-and-a-web-dashboard.html

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