
WakeMates are ready - spydertennis
http://blog.wakemate.com/2010/12/18/wakemates-are-ready/
======
jasonkester
Look, I know it's Product Blogging 101, but it always amazes me when I see a
product blog like this one that has:

a.) No description of what the product _is_

b.) No direct link to the product website

So now, after visiting that site, I know that Wakemates are ready. But I have
no idea what a Wakemate is, and short of manipulating the URL by hand, I have
no way to get to a website that will tell me anything about them.

Since I'm on an iPad, it's orders of magnitude easier to simply hit the back
button and write this comment, before forgetting about whatever this product
was forever.

~~~
tdavis
> b.) No direct link to the product website

Except for the one in the sidebar that says "WakeMate Homepage". It's under a
big white header labeled "Links".

> Since I'm on an iPad, it's orders of magnitude easier to simply hit the back
> button and write this comment...

This is Hacker News. It self-selects for just hitting "back" and leaving a
critical, half-accurate comment.

~~~
jasonkester
You realize that this is a site full of entrepreneurs, who are here to talk
about the business aspects of these links, right? If not, I'd recommend re-
reading my comment in that light.

As a product company, having somebody actually _on your website_ and
interested in finding out about your thing is extremely valuable. It doesn't
matter that it's technically possible to find a link to the homepage. The fact
that it's not _trivial_ , as in linked from the logo, is what we're discussing
here.

If you have a blog about your product, every post needs to contain a way to
ensnare random visitors who stumbled in from wherever. The ideal way to do
this is a prominent sidebar or header with the product name, a 5-word
description of what it does and why you need one, and a big shiny button
labeled with your call to action.

That's the "product blogging 101" bit that I mentioned above. That's why these
guys need to fix their blog. They're bleeding interested visitors, and that's
a big deal.

~~~
tdavis
I completely agree with you: the blog should be better linked and branded. I
run into blogs every day that have absolutely no way to get to the main site
without changing the URL, and it's incredibly frustrating. I wasn't trying to
disprove your overall argument regarding "product blogging 101", merely point
out that your specific claim of having to change the URL is false (even if it
is clearly non-trivial, relatively speaking, to find said link) and likely had
no bearing on your decision to write your initial comment rather than
investigate further.

Frankly, your comment came off a bit snarky and holier-than-thou, which is
what I was responding to in the first place. The basic merits of proper blog-
site interlinking and branding were not meant to be brought up for debate. I
take no issue with your points, merely the manner in which you chose to
deliver them. Your follow-up here was much more thorough and useful.

~~~
delackner
And yet both he and I went through these steps:

get intrigued, look around the page for a link to a product description, get
frustrated, hand edit the url to just 'wakemate.com'.

There is no sidebar for me reading in firefox. Maybe it is some fancy script
that got binned by my various anti-junk plugins.

------
naveensundar
Congrats on shipping on a hardware product! The product seems great. A couple
of questions... The site says the product is scientific. But the first paper I
found after a bit of digging points to the use of Actigraphy which seems to be
just a method of collecting data (even though you say it is a "clinically
proven science"). The second pdf containing the excerpts does not answer the
following questions.

The questions

1\. Is waking up at the optimal time (light sleep before alarm) shown to
reduce _daytime_ grogginess rather than just wake-time grogginess?

2\. Is the continued waking up at the optimal time free of any adverse effects
in the _long run_ ? I did some googling to find answers to the above, but
couldn't find anything layman readable or substantial. If I have to pay $60
for a product, it is really a pain to do the research myself.

Some excerpts

"subjects were presented a word list 1 min after arousal from different sleep
stage ..."

"The most important finding from this study is that sleep inertia reduces
decision‐making performance for at least 30 min."

If it makes me feel good just after waking up for an hour or so, then is it
really that useful?

(Edit: Read the second pdf)

~~~
spydertennis
Your initial questions:

1\. The optimal wake feature reduces daytime grogginess only in the sense that
it puts you in a better mood in the morning. Attacking daytime grogginess is
something we address with the analytics portion of our product.

2\. Yes it is very unlikely to have adverse effects. You are just waking a
little bit earlier at a point where your body feels more inclined to wake up.

Your last question:

The optimal wake portion of our product is addressed towards people who don't
particularly like waking up in the morning. If that isn't you then no, it
probably isn't that useful. The other part of our product, the analytics
portion, is addressed to those who want to improve their sleep quality so they
can feel better rested throughout the day. It sounds like that is more what
you are looking for.

tl;dr The WakeMate wakes you up at the optimal time so you feel refreshed and
provides sleep analytics so you can maintain that fully rested feeling
throughout the day.

~~~
natrius
Your answer to the second question should show a little less certainty unless
you have a study to link to. I think the original commenter gets that you're
just waking up a little earlier, but consistently doing that every day isn't
natural. Sure, neither are alarm clocks in general, but there are probably
studies about those. This is a special case of alarm clock that could, in
theory, have different long-term effects.

There are probably legal issues with your claim as well. I'd just say that
it's very unlikely to have adverse effects instead of "it is completely free
of adverse affects".

~~~
spydertennis
I agree that it is not a good idea to make blanket statements. I have edited
my original comment.

The WakeMate wakes you similarly to how you would wake if you did not set an
alarm. That is why it is very unlikely to have adverse effects.

Regarding your comment: "I think the original commenter gets that you're just
waking up a little earlier, but consistently doing that every day isn't
natural." It may just be because I'm familiar with the product but it doesn't
seem to me that setting your alarm for 9:00am and waking at 8:55am can be
construed as unnatural.

~~~
sciboy
What is the confidence interval for the size of the effect that wakemate
produces on percieved grogginess vs waking without wakemate?

What is the size of the effect in the research?

~~~
tptacek
Kinda going off the rails here. We get it: WakeMate is not rigorous peer-
reviewed science.

~~~
sciboy
I disagree. He makes two unsupported claims that reek of cargo-culting:

"1. The optimal wake feature reduces daytime grogginess only in the sense that
it puts you in a better mood in the morning. 2\. Yes it is very unlikely to
have adverse effects. You are just waking a little bit earlier at a point
where your body feels more inclined to wake up."

Two claims. No data from either published literature (from other studies) or
their own data. How do they even know it works? Why should we treat it any
differently than claims of magnets improving your sleep? A free pass shouldn't
be granted just because they are YC.

------
dongle
I was one of the beta-testers of the WakeMate, so it's been a part of my life
for about a month now. Prior to using the WakeMate, I had two choices
regarding sleep: establishing a strict routine by retiring at midnight every
night and waking up at 7:30 on the dot, or keeping other hours and feeling
groggy all day regardless of the total amount of sleep. Since I have friends
and an unpredictable work schedule, I've never been able to stick to fixed
sleeping patterns for a prolonged period of time. With the WakeMate I still
need about 7 hours of sleep each night, however, I can take those 7 hours
whenever it is convenient for me, and wake up feeling about as great as I ever
feel in the morning.

The WakeMate costs as much as a week of coffee from a café – try it out.

~~~
brianmwang
So what exactly does the WakeMate enable you to do to get refreshing sleep on
an irregular schedule?

~~~
mike_h
When you're on a regular schedule, your body gets in a rhythm where you'll
usually end up waking up at the exact same minute every day, even without an
alarm.

When you don't maintain a regular schedule (or you're in sleep debt), your
body can't do that. So your alarm may start buzzing in the middle of "deep"
sleep, and you get stuck with sleep inertia.

Smart alarms like this try to compromise by waking you up in "light" sleep, or
ideally in moments of wakefulness that you'd otherwise pass up and go back to
sleep.

(If you're not familiar with the concept of sleep cycles:
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sleep#Sleep_s...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sleep#Sleep_stages))

------
anon-e-moose
Your website needs to have a one sentence explanation of what it does, e.g.
measure sleep and wake you up when you're in a light sleep. You pretty much
have to read the FAQ to figure out that's what it does. Not saying this makes
it seem like a quack magnetic bracelet or something. Just a suggestion.

~~~
spydertennis
We made the assumption that the average purchaser would not be interested in
details like what phase of sleep you are woken up in. That is why those
details are provided, but not prominently displayed.

Thank you for your suggestion though.

~~~
reemrevnivek
The average purchaser is probably not interested in the details, but they are
most certainly interested in a sentence describing what it does.

All that I knew about it when I clicked the link and skimmed the page was: \-
They're ready \- I skipped some stuff about pre-orders \- I might not be able
to get one before Christmas \- When you make them, they're all arranged in a
big tray, are charcoal and light blue \- The manufacturing process somehow
involves baking and cutting.

I had to click in my url bar and type in "wakemate.com" before I got anything
useful. It's a fuzzy bracelet, it has something to do with waking you up and
making you feel better, a few platforms like iPhone, some video I don't have
time for, and I finally read "Wake up at the optimal time in your sleep
cycle."

That sentence should be the first thing I read.

~~~
colomon
I cannot upvote this enough, had the exact same experience.

------
garbowza
I've been using WakeMate in beta for a couple months. As an engineer, I love
checking the sleep analytics and comparing tags to try to determine factors
that affect my sleep.

At first I was dubious that I'd be less groggy when waking up with the device,
but now I'm absolutely convinced. I even bring the WakeMate when I travel, to
ensure I wake up in a fresher state (which also revealed to me that my sleep
quality is better from hotels).

~~~
awakeasleep
Do you wear the WakeMate all day?

I loved sleep activity graphs in Brain&Behavior bio in college, wish I had
heard about this earlier.

Also, have you identified anything that benefits your sleep schedule? The site
hints at things like exercise to benefit and alcohol to disrupt, but do you
have any anecdotes for me?

And one more: Can you identify different phases of sleep on your nightly
graph?

Thanks!

~~~
coolswan
You only wear the wakemate when you're sleeping.

You can identify different phases of sleep (REM, etc.)

And the tagging is indeed the sweetest thing IMO, but you probably need a lot
of the data before making a good conclusions. I found that I actually sleep
really well when I'm sick or when I'm sleeping on the left side of the bed.
Weird stuff like that.

------
whatusername
Hey Wakemate team... I haven't got an email from you since April 1st (amusing
with the first line "WakeMate's are shipping"). What's the deal?

International pre-order, I sent paid my paypal deposit on 24/nov/2009, the
refund came through -- but I'm not getting any emails. (Doesn't seem to be in
gmail spam either)

~~~
spydertennis
In the process of sending out the emails.

------
edanm
A request for the people who ordered Wakemate - I'm sure plenty of people,
like myself, aren't sure whether to buy a Wakemate or not. If you bought it,
we'd all really appreciate you posting a review of it in a few weeks, after
you've had a chance to try it out.

------
chollida1
Congrats

It's a bit disappointing about the international shipping. I'm not sure how
this snuck up on them so late in the game.

Shouldn't this have been foreseeable? What happened to cause this mistake?

~~~
brandon
The problem might not be strictly shipping related.

Depending on the type of bluetooth radio packaged internally, the device may
have needed FCC-type registration. Of course, an FCC ID is only good in the
USA. In Europe, you need a CE mark. Australia sometimes insists on yet another
registration for 2.4GHz equipment.

Honestly, international RF regulatory certification is a mess, and the piles
of paperwork involved make it easy to miss deadlines.

~~~
spydertennis
Spot on.

~~~
brandon
If you guys haven't already got a relationship with TÜV, you might consider
talking to them about certifying your next revision. They handled all our
regulatory (domestic and int'l) with a lot less difficulty (and deadline
slipping) than doing it in-house.

------
invisible
You should really have an "allow my data to be used for anonymous scientific
study" option. It'd be really neat to see graphs of male vs female, young vs
old, etc. similar to 23andme. I guess this is coming in the future with the
"paid" wakelytics features?

------
mgrouchy
Congrats to The Wakemate team for finally shipping! The device is pretty
awesome,(I've been using during the beta) can't wait to see what these guys
have in store next.

------
forcer
Does the iPhone app needs to be running through the night for this device to
work? that's what I hated about Sleep Cycle and would not want to use it if it
has the same flaw.

~~~
spydertennis
Why do you hate that? You wouldn't be using your phone during the night
anyway?

If you want the optimal wake feature to work you need to leave the app
running. If you just want to collect data and wake up at a predetermined time
you can background the app. Unfortunately this is a limitation imposed by iOS.

~~~
chollida1
> Why do you hate that? You wouldn't be using your phone during the night
> anyway?

I can't answer for the original poster, but for me...

At night is when I charge my phone and there isn't always a plug near where I
sleep.

Having my phone have to run at night without a charge will mean it's not fully
charged at the beginning of the day, which is a very big deal breaker for me.
My phone will last the entire day, but only if it's fully charged when I get
up in the morning.

~~~
spydertennis
Oh I see. We did a lot of work to make the product use minimal battery on the
phone so hopefully that helps.

~~~
chollida1
> We did a lot of work to make the product use minimal battery on the phone so
> hopefully that helps

As a person who pre-ordered the phone, that is appreciated very much:)

------
rsaarelm
After reading the previous thread, I got interested in this and dug up the
free ElectricSleep app for Android
(<http://code.google.com/p/electricsleep/>). It seems to be pretty much
equivalent to iPhone's Sleep Cycle app, it uses the phone's accelerometer with
the phone placed on the bed. Only had time to test it one night so far, but it
managed to wake me up easily from a duration of sleep that would usually have
left me in zombie mode.

Problem with these things is that getting psyched about a fancy wake-up
technology is likely to create a placebo effect for a while, so I'll need to
stick with the thing to see how well it works in the long haul. Might look
into WakeMate if the accelerometer alarm thing is still working good after a
month or so.

An interesting thing to try with these things is doing the Everyman sleep
schedule with a 4-5 hour nightly sleep and several 20 minute naps every day,
and attacking the most common point of failure where you oversleep on the
nightly core sleep with the smart alarm.

~~~
kevinelliott
I struggle with placing items like my iPhone on the bed for 2 reasons: 1)
althoughly likely harmless (not convinced, but it's prob true) my mind worries
about having my cell phone at head level and so close while I sleep with
radiation, and 2) since I know something is on the bed, it affects my feeling
of space around me and contributes to poor sleep. Interesting how suggestive
your own mind can be.

~~~
ashearer
To address #1 at the cost of an extra step, you could turn on Airplane Mode.
(That's worthwhile if only for the side-effect of disabling notifications and
rings.) And maybe if that makes you think of the phone as safe and inert, not
restricting your movement, #2 won't be such a problem?

------
mrchess
A couple questions:

1\. Can anyone compare WakeMakes with that clock thing that tracks your eye
movement by wearing an eyemask? The name of the clock escapes me at the
moment, will edit this post once I remember.

edit: it's called Zeo

2\. If I know I wake up at least once a night to use the bahtroom out of habit
does this disrupt the wake-up system in any way?

~~~
clewiston
We have a comparison chart here: <http://wakemate.com/compare/>

WakeMate is cheaper, more comfortable, and easier to use.

Getting up in the middle of the night won't affect anything. Our analytics
system will, however, tell you that you woke up during the night.

~~~
Frazzydee
You should probably update the price column. It still says $49.99, although
the price increased to $59.99.

------
moozilla
Is it possible to use this if you don't own a smart phone?

~~~
anon-e-moose
Ditto. I'm quite happy with my qwerty-keyboard dumbphone, but I would love to
buy one of these!

~~~
ellism
It works with newer generation iPod Touches or iPad, so if you really wanted
one, you could always buy one of these devices to use it with.

------
csomar
_The WakeMate is a comfortable wristband that you wear when you sleep. It
measures subtle body movements—a scientifically proven method
([link]Actigraphy[/link]) to map dips and peaks in your sleep cycle._

I was reading through the Tour page and clicked the Actigraphy link. I
supposed to get more information about it, as it matters for me a lot to see
the technology which the product is based on. However, it took me to the About
page and I fail to find any useful information.

Is this a mistake or am I mistaken?

------
subwindow
I preordered for a WakeMate way back when I was a BlackBerry user. Wow.

Regardless, I'm glad they're finally shipping (for real this time?). I hope it
is worth the wait.

------
Sephr
You're missing Android 2.3 on <https://secure.wakemate.com/compatibility/>

------
coolswan
I've been using the beta product for some time now. Have to say when I got it
became totally worth it just to monitor my sleep.

The tagging system while sort of awkward to do right before you sleep, lets
you categorize everything over time and see how things like a cough, sleeping
on the couch instead of the bed or even a broken AC affects your sleep.

The price is dirt cheap for something this interesting. Get it!

------
geekfactor
Any thoughts on putting a buzzer in the wristband?

There may be an interesting angle for married couples in doing so. I'm
interested in the sleep-tech and prospects of "feeling better," but the thing
that would be really intriguing to me is the idea of something that can wake
me up without an alarm blaring, which my wife _hates_.

~~~
mike_h
The overall UX isn't going to be as nice as with WakeMate, and there aren't
currently any analytics, but if you want to take the technology for a spin you
can use my app Circadian Alarm (has a silent feature):

[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circadian-
alarm/id330721657?m...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circadian-
alarm/id330721657?mt=8)

Anyone wants to try it, send me an email and I'll give you a coupon code so
you get it free.

------
leif
What's the problem with Android 2.2 on the Eris? All it says is "No upgrade
available", this is pretty ambiguous. Do you mean that there is no upgrade to
2.2 on the Eris and that's the problem? There are 2.2 roms that run on it (I'm
running one); if I have a build of 2.2 on my Eris, will it work?

~~~
spydertennis
That's interesting. You'd have to ask HTC why it doesn't work but I'd be
curious to see if it worked on your phone. Could you send me an email?

~~~
leif
You might've misinterpreted my question, but mail sent anyway, thanks for the
response.

------
lachlanj
Great news, it a shame there are delays with the international shipping, I
have had this pre-ordered the second that it was available for pre-order. I'm
sure it will be worth the wait though.

------
evansolomon
I just placed an order on the site and the confirmation said you would email
me. Oddly, I don't remember giving you my email address in any of the forms.
Am I missing something?

~~~
spydertennis
Since you placed a pre-order your email address was auto-populated. You
probably just glossed over the text field (it was on the first page).

~~~
evansolomon
Actually after looking again the fields don't show up at all. I loaded the
site in an incognito browser and it's there, but in my main browser it's not.
This is a new computer since the time I would have preordered so I'm not sure
how you're figuring my email out at that stage.

I'll trust that you have my email address, though there is a reasonable chance
that the one I gave you when I pre-ordered no longer works. Regardless, if I
get a Wakemate and no email I won't really care.

Edit: Just noticed there is a logout link, which I guess means I'm logged in
but again I don't remember doing that. This is all quite clever if you
actually have my email address.

~~~
spydertennis
I just checked and we do have your email. Spooky :-).

~~~
evansolomon
Well, cool. On that note, I have two questions:

1) The form I went through said $60 while the blog post says pre-order prices
would be $50. From your explanations it sounds like I'm being counted in pre-
orders, but it's unclear. I think I was in the paypal group that got the $5
refunded, but I honestly don't remember very well at this point.

2) Should I have received an email from you? Fyi I have not.

~~~
spydertennis
Send us an email: contact@wakemate.com and we'll figure it out.

------
chancho
Any users with small children care to share your experiences? Is it even worth
the bother, given that huge uncontrollable variable in your sleep habits?

~~~
io
I was kind of curious about this, too. If I wake up in the middle of the night
to deal with a sick toddler, will WakeMate know I'm fully awake based on the
fact that I'm walking around? I suppose it would be much like waking up to go
to the bathroom, for those without young kids.

Obviously the alarm's only going to help if I set it for a window I know is
before the kids wake up. Otherwise it's their voices that'll wake me. On work
days, that would suit my usual routine. On the weekend, I'm not sure it would
be worth it to forego a potential extra hour of sleep by setting the WakeMate
alarm.

But it's still tempting, just to chart my sleep during the week and be able to
measure the effects of caffeine, exercise, etc. I'll probably wait until there
are reviews and testimonials from people who have used it for a few months.

I was tempted a couple years ago by a much more expensive product whose name I
can't recall. I think it was $300-400. In contrast, it's pretty easy to take a
chance on $60. Cool product, guys. I hope you're wildly successful.

------
desigooner
Have you compared some of your analytics/benchmarks with competing products?

I am not sure I'm interested in an optimal waking time because I tend to wake
up without an alarm at pretty much the right time.

however, I'd love to view some analytics on my sleep cycles and such. It'd be
nice to see a comparison of say Wakemate vs. Fitbit w.r.t the accuracy /
tracking / battery life / etc.

------
kilian
I'm glad you guys are shipping, but as an international customer with a pre-
order since day one, I'm disappointed (again)

~~~
geedee77
I'm in the same boat. Just checked paypal, ordered on 25th Nov 2009, refunded
on 4th August 2010 but with a shortfall due to currency conversion differences
so I'm basically out of pocket (admittedly only a bit) due to lack of product.

As I've said previously, I actually don't even own the phone anymore that I
intended to use this product with. I just hope for the sake of the company
that this is the beginning of the end of their constant problems.

------
bennesvig
Do you guys not have a fan page on Facebook?

------
kgutteridge
Well done guys, shipping a hardware and a software product was never going to
be easy! hopefully you can now reap the rewards though of having a hardware
product, thats far far harder to replicate

pre ordered back in April so looking forward to receiving sometime in the new
year I suspect, as it will be an international order.

------
brianmwang
FYI, the following repeats under your FAQ question "What is an 'optimal wake
point?'"

An optimal wake moment can be thought of as a "semi-awake" moment – the
lightest point in your sleep. Waking at these times will result in minimal
sleep inertia or grogginess. More info can be found here: The Science of
Waking

------
jiganti
Sounds cool! Just ordered mine. I think you guys are addressing a real problem
here, hopefully it works well.

------
jtagen
Does anyone know if this can be used effectively for power naps throughout the
day? I'd love to nap, but tend to sleep for an hour plus. If I set a
traditional alarm, I always feel like I'm jarred awake and a little off for
the next hour or so, completely defeating the point of the nap.

------
crocowhile
How many pre-orders did you guys get? (magnitude is fine, I don't need the
actual number).

------
SoftwareMaven
I love the notion of Wakemate and even had some conversations with them early
on. Unfortunately, my current financial situation puts it about $30 out of my
range.

Best of luck guys! As soon as the $30 in my wallet moves up to $60, I'll be on
board.

------
gfodor
After quitting coffee, waking up became easy for me.

This feels like an over-engineered solution to a problem that's easy to fix:
switch to decaf. There's a reason you feel horrible in the morning, and it's
not because of "sleep inertia!"

~~~
jackowayed
My caffeine intake is basically nil, but I still often feel drowsy when I wake
up, especially from an alarm. It's usually when I haven't sleept enough, but
sometimes if I've been sleeping roughly enough, waking up from my alarm leaves
me very drowsy.

Sleep is very complicated. Just because dumping caffeine fixed your drowsiness
doesn't mean it'll fix everyone's.

~~~
gfodor
Maybe my comment came off too strong, but I'd not be surprised (especially
given the audience for the WakeMate) if a majority of WakeMate users have a
daily intake of caffeine adversely affecting their sleep cycle.

Another way to put it is this is premature optimization for those folks.

~~~
kin
I don't drink coffee. I don't drink tea. I don't drink soda. I consume 0
caffeine and as a student I get my energy from good sleep. However, I've
realized that more sleep does not necessarily mean I wake up refreshed. I've
self observed with myself that if one day I sleep 7 hours or 8 or 5 and feel
well rested and then I try to repeat that, I don't produce the same results.
This is an excellent product that addresses this sleep issue and your comments
are really not justified.

~~~
antareus
Exactly. I'm in the middle of trying to let my wrists heal from RSI, and I've
noticed that my sleep quality isn't consistently good. Deep sleep seems
necessary for healing to occur. I'm looking for something that will let me try
out different sleep tweaks (less ambient lighting/no caffeine at all/exercise
in morning/exercise in afternoon/various diets) and see which ones are
actually effective for me.

Hopefully Wakemate fits the bill. I'll wait for the initial reviews to come
out. I'm excited about the future of health afforded by devices like these.

------
wwortiz
I have a couple questions which don't seem to be answered on the website if
anyone knows the answers.

1\. Is the battery a rechargeable or normal battery that I have to replace?

2\. Can I easily download my sleep data to my computer to mess around with?

~~~
spydertennis
1\. Rechargeable. Lasts about 2-3 nights depending on how long you sleep.

2\. Not yet.

~~~
Sephr
Could you elaborate as to why it's only 2-3 nights of battery life? I'd expect
much more from something like this.

~~~
Zev
Wakemate uses bluetooth, doesn't it? Thats bound to eat up power.

~~~
Sephr
Bluetooth shouldn't ever be on except for when it needs to upload sleep data
to your phone though (which I assume is done right when waking up).

~~~
brandon
That's putting a lot of stock into the device itself.

Conjecture: I think it's more likely that the device is something of an
accelerometer paired with a bluetooth radio that can nearly continuously feed
the phone/app with movement data so that the app can decide whether or not to
rouse you.

Rationale: The algorithm. Assuming they want to tweak their actigraphy
parameters, if the algorithm is running on the wristband you're going to need
to drop new firmware on the device. Field-flashing embedded devices is to be
avoided at all reasonable costs.

~~~
Sephr
Field-flashing isn't that bad as long as it can safely be done over bluetooth,
and I'd be willing to take that risk to have reasonable battery life.

~~~
brandon
So, again, I don't know anything about the device in question, so this is all
conjecture... _but_ :

Even given that OTA flashing is possible, why bother? The device has no means
of waking the user without a phone in bluetooth range, so what's the upshot? I
don't know that battery life falls into that category because the device would
need some pretty serious upgrades, and cost would obviously increase:

\- More RAM. Lots more. Enough to contain an entire firmware image during OTA
and an entire night of sleep/movement history.

\- More MIPS. Actigraphy isn't going to be as cheap as store-and-forward.

\- A reliable RTC so that the device can ping the phone at the _right_ wakeup
time.

\- etc.

If I was in their position, I'd build the device to be as dumb a peripheral as
possible. Push the complexity out of expensive hardware and into software. I'd
also probably have built in a sweet inductive charging pad, too, but I'm a
sucker for shiny things.

------
javert
The front page of your site says it costs $60, but your "Comparison Matrix"
says it costs $50. Maybe I'm overlooking something. But chances are that if
I'm overlooking it, lots of people are.

Congrats on shipping.

------
Groxx
Does the FAQ mean to have collapsing text chunks? I see the arrows, and they
point right -> down -> right if I click them, but nothing happens. Everything
is always expanded.

Chrome 10.0.612.1 dev

------
duck
I've never looked into WakeMate before as sleeping is one thing I can do
really well, but I thought it shipped earlier this year? I only see one
product listed, is this really new?

~~~
brandon
There have been _several_ schedule slips. A previous rant of mine details a
few: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1758288>

Addendum: I'm totally still buying it.

------
robhu
This looks really good. My wife and I only have one smart phone (a HTC Desire)
between us - would we be able to run 2 wakemates off one phone or would we
need two phones?

~~~
jlgosse
You'll need two phones at the moment, but in the future it's possible we could
make the app support multiple devices.

~~~
robhu
OK... is it possible to connect a WakeMate up to a laptop? Like a Mac perhaps?

------
jaysonelliot
Congratulations to the team, it's a big day!

I currently use the Sleep Cycle app, which uses the iPhone's accelerometer to
detect motion while asleep.

How does WakeMate stack up against that app?

~~~
clewiston
WakeMate uses a science called actigraphy to monitor your sleep patterns by
measuring the movement of your body (via your wrist). Actigraphy has been used
in sleep labs for decades and is a widely standardized metric of sleep in
humans (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actigraphy>). The Sleep Cycle app,
because it is not attached to your body, does not use actigraphy, and
therefore cannot provide the same granular level of data measurement as a
device using actigraphy, such as the WakeMate. Furthermore, Sleep Cycle is
susceptible to false data collection since it can be easily influenced by the
presence of others in the bed, such as a partner or pet.

~~~
mike_h
If you're willing to attach an iOS device to your body while you sleep
(between two socks works great, or with an armband) you can try an actigraphy-
accurate smart alarm with my app:

[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circadian-
alarm/id330721657?m...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circadian-
alarm/id330721657?mt=8)

It's a dollar in the store but email me at michael at programmablelife dot com
and I'll give you a coupon so you don't have to pay.

------
AdamGibbins
Excellent news, thanks!

Any ETA on international pre-orders (I'm UK based), notice I haven't received
an email asking me to pay yet.

~~~
jackowayed
I haven't gotten an email yet, and I'm in Delaware, US. So I think they
haven't sent them out yet (or at least haven't finished)

------
zaatar
Does it work with an iPad? Is there a disadvantage using it with an iPad
instead of a smartphone?

~~~
jlgosse
It works on the iPad if you download and use the iPhone app. An iPad app is in
the works though.

------
Monkeyget
WakeMate's website look very good. Elegent with only the information needed
and good copywriting.

------
SteveC
How does the WakeMate communicate with the phone to set off the alarm?
Bluetooth or Wifi?

~~~
jlgosse
Bluetooth.

------
cellularmitosis
it appears you can order a replacement sensor for the myZeo. Has anyone looked
into hacking it to see if you can build something cheaper than $250 which will
use the sensor?

------
geekinthecorner
Congratulations on shipping! I'm curious if after the setbacks, do you feel
that YCombinator was the right model for a hardware start-up? I wonder if the
exuberance and rapidity of the single web-app start-up lent itself towards
overconfidence in your time schedules and understanding of time to market
given the various manufacturing and design challenges?

