Microsoft Band, smartband, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA

All-day heart rate tracking, UV sensors, downloadable workouts, sleep analysis, plus weather, Twitter, Facebook, and Starbucks: and it works on Windows, Android and iOS. Pretty impressive, Microsoft.

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The Microsoft Band is now available to order and purchase. We go hands on with Microsoft's new smart wearable, including how it works with Windows Phone.

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When you stop playing with the Microsoft Band, by default, the display turns black. It looks kind of boring, but you can enable Watch Mode so that your Microsoft Band turns into a digital wristwatch. The time and date will be displayed when the screen times out. It's like the Glance screen for Windows Phone. Here's how to enable it.

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The Microsoft Band is the first hardware in Microsoft's plan to track and analyze your fitness data. We decided to try it out.

The Band is, of course, Microsoft's first fitness tracker, the physical actualization of the company's grand plan to be the source of all the world's health data. The Band is part of the plan, but it's not the whole plan; the whole plan involves cross-platform apps, a machine-learning system that turns your data into "insights" about how to live better tomorrow, and a vast ecosystem of hardware and software developers collecting data and delivering insights. The Band is the first device, but it won't be the last, not even from Microsoft.

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What makes the Microsoft Band really cool is that it supports multiple platforms. It works with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Have an iPhone? We'll show you how to set up the Band with it. Watch our how-to video.

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The Microsoft Band has a built-in sleep tracker. I've never used one before, so I was looking forward to testing it out for the first time. You'll need to activate it before you sleep and then stop the monitoring when you wake up. Here's my experience with it last night.

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If you need to start over, switch phones, or trying to solve a problem, you'll have to factory reset the Microsoft Band. Don't worry. The process is very simple. You also you won't lose the data that you've already synced to the cloud. Follow these steps to bring your Microsoft Band back to how it was out of the box.

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Part fitness band, part computer, part mobile Twitter and stock-checking smart gadget, the new Microsoft Band is a mix of things. For $200 it does quite a lot. Once more apps are available for the gadget, and the hardware reaches its second generation, the company could have a pretty popular little doodad on its wrists. Alex Wilhelm talks a look at Microsoft's Band.

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The Microsoft Band works with the iPhone, Android devices, and Windows Phone, but they don't all get Cortana integration. If you're running Windows Phone 8.1 Update, you can use Cortana on the Microsoft Band. How does it work? How does it look? We show you in our hands-on video.
More details:
"How to use Cortana with the Microsoft Band"

by Mark Guim
November 3, 2014

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One of the main features of the Microsoft Band is workout tracking. Any physical activity such as playing basketball, your favorite workout routine, or just walking the dog can be recorded. You can view your stats so you can see if there needs to be changes in your routine. Check out our hands-on video to see how it works.

More details:
"How to track a workout with the Microsoft Band"

by Mark Guim
November 3, 2014

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We've already shown you how to track a workout with the Microsoft Band. Another cool tracking feature is available within the Run tile. This tracker is recommended for activities that cover distance. Some examples are running, walking, cycling, or kayaking.

More details:
"How to track your run with the Microsoft Band"

by Mark Guim
November 5, 2014

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The Microsoft Band tracks your steps automatically. You can see this number from the main tile. Keep pressing the action button until you see the shoe icon. You can use the number of steps to measure the progress against your goals. By default, the Microsoft Band sets the goal at 5,000 steps. We'll show you how to change (increase) that goal.

More details:
"How to change your goal for steps with the Microsoft Band"

by Mark Guim
November 6, 2014

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SparkFun Engineer, Shawn Hymel, takes us through a teardown of the new Microsoft Band.

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The Microsoft Band now has a keyboard. Here's a quick clip of it in action using the onboard tutorial.

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It's hard to ignore the Apple Watch news this week, but Microsoft Band owners also have something to be excited about. The Windows Phone app, Fanband, recently caught our attention. It lets you customize the theme of your Microsoft Band with your favorite sports team, video game, tv show, and more. Want to put the Windows Central colors in the Microsoft Band? You can do that with fanband, too.

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Riding a bike is a fun way to burn calories. Curious to see what it’s like to use the Microsoft Band while cycling?
More details:
"How to track your bike ride with the Microsoft Band"

by Mark Guim
July 13, 2015

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Microsoft gives its wearable fitness tracker a new look with a curved, OLED screen and Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The new Band also includes new features such as a real-time barometer.

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We are going hands on with the new Microsoft Band 2, which is a fitness tracker with up to 48 hours of battery life

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