I think I can resolve this little debate by saying that the latest revisions of the WakeMate hardware, for me, won't get through a full night. Fully charged at 9:30pm, battery dead before 5:45am.
Regardless, a hopelessly optimistic battery indicator is a bad thing.
I really wonder what is the issue causing this. I bought two wakemates, one for myself and one for my mom as I'm home for the holidays, and for the past 3 nights each unit has functioned perfectly. As the package instructions say, before using them the first night we let them charge overnight for a full night because it said to charge fully before using the first time. The first two nights of usage we didn't charge the bands at all and they worked fine. After that we left them connected to the wall chargers all day, and they worked fine last night.
iPod touch and iphone here, but if the devices don't even talk to the phone during the night, I don't see how that variable makes a difference.
The guy above you trying to argue that a duff battery meter didnt matter has really confused me. Anyway, interesting to hear more comments from people that actually have these.
I specifically asked whether devices were shipping to customers and you indicated that they were, at the same time that you sent me a replacement WakeMate unit. If this is not final hardware I reviewed then what is being sent to consumers?
Secondly, you never expressed any concerns about my testing on Android and I was quite clear with you about the issues I was having, and even delayed the review so that I could use a more recent version of the software.
Finally, when you contacted me and offered me a WakeMate in the first place the subject was "WakeMate review unit" and inside that e-mail you repeatedly used the word "review."
I'm sorry, but I can't cut any slack on a reviewable product that is shipping to customers.
I'd also ask that if you have further concerns you contact me directly rather than posting here.
This reminds me of one of my favorite movie scenes, from "Annie Hall" when Woody Allen's character has a disagreement with a man in the line for a movie:
MAN IN LINE: It's the influence of television. Yeah, now Marshall McLuhan deals with it in terms of it being a-a high, uh, high intensity, you understand? A hot medium ... as opposed to a ...
ALVY (More and more aggravated): What I wouldn't give for a large sock o' horse manure.
MAN IN LINE: ... as opposed to a print ...
Alvy steps forward, waving his hands in frustration, and stands facing the camera.
ALVY (Sighing and addressing the audience): What do you do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you? I mean, it's just maddening!
MAN IN LINE: Wait a minute! Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan-well, have a great deal of validity.
ALVY: Oh, do yuh?
MAN IN LINE: Yes.
ALVY: Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. So ... so, here, just let me-I mean, all right. Come over here ... a second.
Alvy gestures to the camera which follows him and the man in line to the back of the crowded lobby. He moves over to a large stand-up movie poster and pulls Marshall McLuhan from behind the poster.
MAN IN LINE: Oh.
ALVY (To McLuhan): Tell him.
MCLUHAN (To the man in line): I hear-I heard what you were saying. You-you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.
ALVY (To the camera): Boy, if life were only like this!
[Alvy, fast forward to 2010 and Hacker News. It is now.]
(I don't mean for this comment to judge either person's opinion, just that I find it so interesting that you never know who's going to drop by Hacker News and join the discussion.)
Well, I won't share the fun interplay behind the scenes, but I will say there's an update in the review. WakeMate shipped me another wristband to try, the third, plus another new version of the app. This performed no better than the previous ones.
There'll be a new HN thread soon enough, and they always blunder just enough in each that their company stays at log(n) on the Cuil scale (where n is the number of threads).
Regardless, a hopelessly optimistic battery indicator is a bad thing.