I received my Band today and have just started setting it up, loading in my Starbucks card and tweaking settings. One thing which is interesting is that the phone doesn’t use GATT Bluetooth LE to expose functionality unlike some other wearables. Instead it has three RfComm services named:-
- Cargo Service
- Cargo Service 2
- Push Service
Cargo is a code-name for the Microsoft Band and appears in a few places…
Because the screen is flat it makes the band feel very wide and I have the large size so I can only imagine this is more pronounced in the smaller sizes. I think a portrait orientation for the watch screen would be quite useful…
I thought the Starbucks integration would be some clever NFC magic but it is simply a 2D barcode displayed on the screen. This could be replicated for any loyalty card or similar provided they have a scanner which can read from a screen (Imager rather than laser scanner).
The Cortana integration is very slick and is even able to wake your phone and activate Cortana bypassing the lock screen. Whoa that’s a security risk you may think – well if you try and navigate away from Cortana you’ll then get your lock screen.
I haven’t had a chance to test the UV capabilities but since I’m in Seattle and it’s a dark and rainy November evening I’m not too worried about over-exposure at the moment.
In The Hand Ltd 