

MiLifePlus: Bluetooth Health Sensor For iPhone and Android - ashleyw
http://www.indiegogo.com/MiLifePlus

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timbowen
There is no way this product will ever ship. Greg, what are you even going to
do with 150k or even 250k or 1mm? You already burned up almost a million bucks
on this exact same idea when I was working for you and it was a huge waste
because of your terrible execution and stubborn reluctance to seek or take any
advice from anyone whatsoever.

The market has judged you and found you lacking. Cede your resources to a more
efficient actor in the market and go home.

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asnyder
It's unfortunate, even if MiLife+ turns out to be everything as described, my
and most others experience with WakeMate was terrible. From poor hardware, to
a buggy app, to the general indifference of their customers' suffering, does
not instill confidence in any future products related to WakeMate.

Shouldn't there be an extensive apology blog post that apologizes for the
failures of WakeMate and contrasts that with what MiLife+ will be in both
product and quality of service?

~~~
devicenull
Don't forget just abandoning the Android version completely, without bothering
to tell anyone. I really don't believe they are going to support the new
Android app any better.

It's not exactly giving me confidence when there are tweets like this one:
<http://twitter.com/wakemate/statuses/218007015379845120>

Seems slightly unethical to use you former companies twitter account (and
email list it seems, based on the ad I received) to market for your new
company.

~~~
brittohalloran
Twitter account now changed name from "Wakemate" to "Greg":

<https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate>

~~~
devicenull
It's still taking an account that was used exclusively for things relating to
wakemate and using it to market a completely different product. Look at the
history for the account, it's pretty clear it's not just a personal account
that had been used for wakemate stuff.

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tobtoh
I first heard of this via email ... an email that had a spelling error,
associates itself with Wakemate (but is a different domain) and when I visited
the Wakemate site, find it is offline.

Up until I saw this HN link, I had assumed the Wakemate accounts had been
compromised and marked the email as spam.

Given the issues they had with customer relationship/communication management
with Wakemate, it looks like they haven't learnt from their past mistakes.

~~~
devicenull
It might as well be compromised, it looks like someone who had access to all
the wakemate info has decided to start marketing a new product from a new
company using all the old wakemate accounts:
<http://twitter.com/wakemate/statuses/218007015379845120>

~~~
spydertennis
Arun from wakemate here. This is the first I'm hearing of this. Trying to get
a handle on the situation now.

Also the website is up at www.wakemate.com. (not working without the www but
we will fix it.)

Edit: working without the www again.

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burke
I'm going to echo everyone else's concerns here and say that the drama from
wakemate, lukewarm-to-nonexistant support, and now just letting the wakemate
domain expire altogether have not exactly inspired confidence in this product.
Maybe if a year down the road, it seems to be useful, I'll pick one up.

There's a lesson in PR here, though. I'm normally all over these types of
products. This should have been the easiest sale in the world.

------
brittohalloran
Did anyone else catch that they said Kickstarter in the video and its clearly
on Indiegogo?

(link to YouTube specific time, but its the same video from Indiegogo) -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCZQvguYTqg&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCZQvguYTqg&feature=player_detailpage#t=157s)

~~~
ashleyw
Kickstarter doesn't allow "Exercise and fitness products", "Health and
personal care products", or "Medical and safety-related products".

<http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer>

~~~
brittohalloran
Right, I get it -- the video just shouldn't say Kickstarter when it's hosted
on Indiegogo

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kilian
Having gone through a bunch of wakemates that stopped working or were DOA's,
their horribly unresponsive service as a result of that (and not to mention
their botched launch), I have absolutely no faith in this team being able to
deliver.

Which is a shame because the product itself, like the wakemate before it,
sounds very cool.

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swombat
I hate to be piling on, I'm sure this is an unpleasant enough thread for the
Wakemate team to read, but MiLife+ is a pretty horrible name. Wakemate was a
great name. MiLife+? Come on, even Microsoft names their products better than
that!

~~~
bennesvig
I agree. WakeMate was a great same. MiLife is too close to MLife, the
insurance company.

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spydertennis
Hi everyone. Arun from wakemate here. This is the first I'm hearing about any
of this. Trying to get a handle on the situation now.

------
james33
I'm usually excited about these things, but count me out on this one. I was an
early backer of Wakemate (pre-ordered over a year before it finally launched).
I have yet to receive everything I paid for, the product itself was defective,
and I could never get any responses from customer support, so I'd rather not
go through that again.

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mahyarm
This seems to be the same thing as a fit bit, jawbone up, etc. Except worse in
that it requires a phone and unlike the fitbit, will interpret tooth brushing
as vigorous exercise. On top of that, it requires a subscription. The
BodyMedia series of devices are better than this one and are the same price.

~~~
guywithabike
And even worse, still, in that it's being offered by the same people behind
the WakeMate disaster: broken promises, long waits, defective units, poor
software, non-existent support, and power plugs that burst into flames.

Remember when they promised that they were going to ship power plugs that
didn't catch on fire? They never did that.

------
cjrp
Not to nitpick, but the spelling mistake in the email announcement doesn't
exactly inspire confidence.

~~~
erreon
I came to say the same thing because things like "Click here for all the
detials or to order" completely turned me off and made me think their mailing
list got hacked and some new spam magnetic balance bracelet was being
announced.

------
bennesvig
Would have loved some final communication from the WakeMate team. They seemed
to just quietly fade away. I was one of the fortunate ones who got sent a
replacement wristband when mine stopped working, but now I only use the app as
a basic alarm without the wristband.

I can't imagine getting anything else from their team unless I heard some
explanation of what happened with WakeMate.

~~~
covercash
In December I finally received this email after they realized the devices were
not compatible with iPhone 4S:

To be perfectly honest, as you can probably tell, things have not been going
well for us. We simply don't have the cash to fix the problem. We likely will
not be selling anymore wristbands though we will continue to keep the service
running for existing customers. I'm really sorry!

all the best, Arun

I will say that even though the outcome sucked, Arun was always very pleasant
and helpful in our numerous email exchanges.

~~~
spydertennis
Thank you! Arun from wakemate here. This is the first I'm hearing about any of
this. Trying to get a handle on the situation now.

Also as always, if you have any WakeMate related concerns please email me:
arun[at]wakemate.com!

------
swalsh
I'm really interested in this, but to be honest the drama from the last
product makes me hesitant if I can trust the company. I'll probably wait until
they for sure have them in stock.

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tommccabe
It also looks like they took down the website and app for Wakemate, which
seems to have come as a surprise for the dozens of people that were still
using the product.

~~~
prodigal_erik
I seem to remember something about the app simply uploading its collected data
to their site where all the analysis happened. Is a Wakemate device even
useful without the site, or did they just hang all their remaining customers
out to dry without so much as a public announcement? Another argument for not
just data portability but vendor independence.

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danielsiders
It sounds like this is news to the rest of the team, it's just one person
who's gone off on his own and taken the twitter credentials and email list

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yan
Looks like they decided I'm not sleeping enough, as their intro video plays
like a lullaby.

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zinssmeister
Reading this it sounds like the WakeMate team split up and Greg now has a new
company that is trying this MiLife+

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iag
How are they tracking diet automatically through the wristband? Can someone
please explain that to me?

~~~
gyom
I'm guessing it probably comes from the app on your iPhone just like WakeMate
interfaces through a mobile phone for setup and the rest.

It makes the wrist thingy kinda irrelevant, but maybe they correlate your
heart rhythm with the food that you ate or something.

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gyom
I haven't followed the drama from the WakeMate product. I just used it to wake
up at the right times and it did a fine job at that.

~~~
achompas
I think the drama is that, for many people (myself included), WakeMate
_didn't_ do that. It would not charge, or sync, or lose connection overnight,
or any other number of problems.

Granted, their customer service offered to help me out but others weren't as
lucky.

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mrgreenfur
How does this thing know when I'm eating or exercising? I assume it's got a
gyro and accelerometer; how does it know if I'm doing squats or just waving to
a friend on the street?

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tszming
By the way, the wakemate.com domain was expired.

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Bootvis
The concept (Wakemate) is still pretty good. Why is no one else taking a run
with it?

~~~
shahabbas
Have you checked out LARK, they do the same thing that Wakemate did...

