Microsoft forays into wearable devices with Microsoft Band

With the launch of $199 Band, Microsoft has forayed into wearable devices and has also announced its new service called Microsoft Health. The device would run on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

The Microsoft website, describes Health as a cloud-based service that gathers data from all user's fitness devices and apps. According to Microsoft, the service uses this data to provide insights into users' health.

For instance, how long one's body would need to recover before user's next training session or how well one slept in the night. A key benefit of the service is that there are no restrictions as to the kind of device one may be using.

It can pull data from smartwatches, mobile phones and even desktops and store it in one place.

The device can pull data from any device one may be using for tracking and present the information on the Band.

Microsoft has also tied up with fitness service providers including Gold's Gym, My Fitness Pal, RunKeeper and Map My Fitness to help users keep track of their progress. It also claims it can collate all one's health information from other apps and bring it into one place.

According to Microsoft the Band lets users track their daily physical activity and review their stats with a glance at one's wrist.

Microsoft promises that the Band would last about 48 hours on a single charge, with functions like GPS lowering that somewhat, PC World reported. It would charge in about an hour and a half. The device, though, is not waterproof, so swimmers would need to look elsewhere. But it would repel ''splashes'' and work from 14 degrees up through 104 degrees.

According to commentators, the Band would include and optical heart rate sensor, a three-axis gyrometer, GPS, ambient light sensor, skin temperature sensor, and ultraviolet light sensor, a galvanic skin sensor and a capacitive sensor.

The watch would monitor one's  heart rate 24/7, and assess whether one had been sleeping well.

The Band would record data without a data connection, then beam it one's phone via Bluetooth. The device would not make calls, but flash messages, emails, and even Facebook posts and Twitter tweets.