Microsoft Band, the wearable fitness tracker, and its accompanying Health app have received their first major update, some four months after the initial release.
With the latest update, the band is getting some new features -- enabling it to monitor biking (yes, even stationary biking), a quick read feature for notifications and -- (you’re not going to believe this) -- an on-screen keyboard.
One can’t but wonder how in God’s name can anyone type anything on a 1.4-inch touchscreen, but Microsoft is betting a lot on its Word Flow technology to ease the typing process.
The company says its Word Flow technology will allow you to type "with minimal errors", and has also included a voice dictation feature.
It has also released a web portal for a more detailed look at your daily activities’ statistics, and will allow MapMyFitness users to sync with the service.
The Bike Tile can track both outdoor and indoor bikes, optimizes the heart rate monitor and activates elevation tracking.
What’s really nice for the stationary bikes is that it can track the speed, and how long it will take you to recover from the workout.
The Health web portal has also been revamped, giving access to all of the information available in the mobile apps, including both sleep and workouts.
My fav feature in the Feb update is the Virtual keyboard...replying to texts from my #MicrosoftBand for WP 8.1. pic.twitter.com/aFIQMjO3AW
— Paul Britton (@paulstorms) February 23, 2015
Microsoft has also introduced an SDK for the Band to allow third-party apps on the fitness tracker.
It is still in developer preview, but the SDK will allow developers to get data directly from the Band’s sensors.
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