Microsoft is now rolling out some new features for its wearable device, the Band allowing its consumers to live a healthier and productive life to all Windows Phone, Android and iOS users. The band is launched on last October and ever since it is getting its first update, making it a whole lot better with new fitness features, new keyboard that uses Wordflow technology and a developer SDK preview for apps. Microsoft announced that the first major update for the Microsoft Band is rolling out on this Monday. The update brings a hand full of features and improvements to the device. It has Bike tile, new virtual keyboard, guided workouts and so on. The company also updated the Band’s companion Microsoft Health app, Microsoft HealthVault and MapMyFitness also.

Bike Tile in Microsoft Band

Let’s discuss about the new features that Microsoft will provide for the wearable device that is rarely in stock. The new features include-

Bike Tile:

The biggest new feature for Band owners is the Bike Tile which lets you track your performance while biking over distances or even stationary biking. The bike tile is a very interesting feature that can track the user both indoors and outdoors. It has some features that help to monitor heart rate or helps to analyze speed and even has a GPS. The features include the heart rate monitor that optimizes specifically for biking activities. It has got Elevation Tracking to track elevation and elevation gain. It also tracks distance and duration and calorie burn that can be seen in the Microsoft Health app. The user can track the current and average speed both on the apps and the band. GPS can be used on the Band to map their ride in the mobile app and share it with via email. There is recovery feature that helps the user to estimate the time required to recover from the ride. Biking facility the Microsoft Health web dashboard is supported by the Microsoft Health mobile app and soon it will be integrated with web dashboard.
Guided Workouts: (i) Indoor Bike Tabata Sprints, (ii) Indoor Bike Hour of Sweat, (iii) Indoor Bike Total Body, (iv) Indoor Bike Pyramid and (v) Indoor Bike Intervals. Five new downloadable workouts are also cycling-related and have been added to the Guided Workouts portfolio.

Quick Read:

Quick Read provides option to scan incoming texts, emails and other notifications. When this feature is enabled, notifications are displayed in a large font size and it helps users to read messages even when they are in motion without scrolling.

Virtual Keyboard & Voice Replies for Windows Phone 8.1 Users:

Microsoft’s also added a new feature to improve the messages sending and receiving facility. Windows Phone 8.1 users can use the built-in mike to send responses with Cortana. Users can reply to text messages using the virtual keyboard with less error with the help of Microsoft’s World Flow technology. This helps to find out commonly used words and phrases.

The Microsoft Band will now sync its health data with MapMyFitness and Microsoft HealthVault. Microsoft HealthVault lets users organize their health information in one place, and helps them gather, store, use, and share information and records with their healthcare providers. To link a MapMyFitness account and Microsoft HealthVault to Microsoft Health data the user have to follow simple step. Go to the menu of Microsoft Health app and select “Connected Apps”.

Microsoft made another big announcement for developers who may be interested in taking advantage of all those sensors in a user’s Band. Microsoft has released a Preview SDK for developers who want to create apps for the platform. Just you need to visit developer.microsoftband.com. This feature is supported by Android and Window phones presently and soon it will be available for iOS.

So, keep exploring the Microsoft band updated with new features!

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Happiness is that best therapy. Use it to heal yourself and then others!

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