No thanks, WakeMate (A Review)
WakeMate is an iPhone app and sleep sensor that promises to track and enhance restful sleep. I've considered a few products like this in the past, but the relatively low price ($60) convinced me to give this one a try. I'm sorry to say I've probably never become so disenchanted, so quickly, with a product.
The WakeMate includes a sensor that you wear on your wrist when you go to bed. The sensor communicates, via BlueTooth, with an iOS app. I don't want to turn this into a 1000 word rant, but here are the things I discovered in less than 24 hours with the product:
- The WakeMate wrist band uses elastic instead of velcro. It's also apparently sized to fit an 11 year old girl. I woke up a few times on my first night wondering WHAT THE HELL IS ON MY WRIST AND WHY ARE MY FINGERS TINGLING? OH, RIGHT.
- The app shows you the sensor's battery level, which is a nice touch. Before I used it for the first time it reported that the battery was over 50% full, so I didn't charge it. The device was dead by morning. When I recharged it and then tried to download my night's data, I received an error message that there wasn't at least 4 hours of data available. This leads me to conclude that you have to charge the sensor completely full before every use! Also, if a greater than 50% charge can't capture at least 4 hours of data, how will it ever work all night when fully charged? (Update: The manufacturer says this is wrong. See comments on this post.)
- The promise of WakeMate is that the app will wake you at an optimal time, within the time window that you set. However, you can't change the alarm sound. Hope you like their crappy music. Also, when the alarm does go off, you'll have to unlock your iPhone before you can silence the alarm. This is sure to be popular with your bedmate. (Update: You can set your own music to wake to, but I'm not interested in that. The manufacturer says there are other alarm tones, but this was not apparent to me in the user interface.)
- To get the functionality promised, you have to sign up for the online service and your data must be uploaded in order for it to be analyzed. All the power of the iPhone, but you have to rely on their servers to let you see any results? Phooey. (Update: See comments on this post.)
- I encountered at least two messages that told me to "reboot" either the phone or the device. In my opinion this is a sure sign of an error-prone implementation and voodoo troubleshooting. It doesn't give me confidence in the reliability of their alarm app. (Update: See comments on this post.)
So, no thanks WakeMate. A product that can't give a delightful, yet alone functional, experience on its first-use is so very disappointing. The best thing about my experience with it is Amazon's simple product return and refund process.