MagicBand+ announced

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dreday3

Well-Known Member
Well, I went ahead and purchased "regular" Magic Bands for our trip next year with discounted prices for resort stay. $10 bucks for plain ones (finally added colors we like) really can't be beat! (well, free, but...)

Because I'm the sucker that's born every minute, we probably will purchase one of the new Magic Bands for the trip. We can take turns wearing it. :D
 
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wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Talking about the charging situation. I think this is going to be a bit of a pain point for people.

Take a family of four. Putting all four on charge every night with only a 6" cable is going to be a bit problematic for some. Especially when considering also charging two phones and 2 watches.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Aurorafan said:
No I get that - but why does the product need an update before its even been released? Was it not really ready for release when they manufactured it?
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The hardware and software is often somewhat separate. The hardware was assembled months ago and shipped, but the software team continuously works on new versions. So in the months where the bands have been in warehouses, the software has continued to be changed. Which is why the version originally installed is now out of date.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
I really do not get the appeal of that. If I go and see Harmonious it is to see millions of dollars of hardware do its thing, not to watch some LEDs flash on my wrist. I guess ultimately it probably came down to trying to justify the device's existence and stretch for features.
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The thing I like is that it can be recharged. The original magic bands had a internal battery and before the internal battery died, the magic band was able to do other things like recognize you on a ride, after the internal battery died, you could still use it at the tap points but the other features would be gone.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Disstevefan1 said:
The thing I like is that it can be recharged. The original magic bands had a internal battery and before the internal battery died, the magic band was able to do other things like recognize you on a ride, after the internal battery died, you could still use it at the tap points but the other features would be gone.
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It will be interesting to see what the service life of the rechargeable battery is.
 
Furiated

Furiated

Well-Known Member
TheMaxRebo said:
Wasn't the the issue with the Glow with the Show ears?

It looked cool when they would hand them out for the promotional stuff but then in reality like 2% of the crowd had them and it just looked silly
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That was exactly it with GwtS. In the promotional video, the whole crowd has it and they look amazing. But for the initial rollout, the ears were larger than regular ears and not very comfy, and way more expensive. If they had made it like an add on you could add to any ears and made it smaller and cheaper, they would have had way more people participate.

Though even with not that many people wearing them, I wouldn't say it looked silly. Obviously the Wow effect is when the majority of the crowd has them. But as someone that saw World of Color multiple times during the GwtS era, even the smaller pockets of light from a few people looked very cool because of how it synced with the show.
 
dmw

dmw

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I understand why the bands are non-transferable, but that takes away some of the fun my wife and I had with sharing the old bands. We would swap out the pods/bands to mix colors and match to the clothes we were wearing that day (yes, we had quite a few MBs).

Also, question for @wdwmagic for the FAQ: Can the pods be removed like the old MBs and put into other holders, such as the necklaces?
 
Patcheslee

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
Talking about the charging situation. I think this is going to be a bit of a pain point for people.

Take a family of four. Putting all four on charge every night with only a 6" cable is going to be a bit problematic for some. Especially when considering also charging two phones and 2 watches.
Click to expand...
We got something similar to one of these for out last vacation in a cabin without many outlets. Had 3 phones & a portable battery pack to charge nightly.
d7edf525-842f-4bac-8391-9459ed848439_1.db8840599eece3edff9ecea30d756c72.jpeg
 
D

DrBill

New Member
One tiny feature that would make this complete would be a clock! I wear an Apple Watch, so why would I wear this too? I would swap it out while at the parks if it showed me the time!
 
HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn

Premium Member
Furiated said:
That was exactly it with GwtS. In the promotional video, the whole crowd has it and they look amazing. But for the initial rollout, the ears were larger than regular ears and not very comfy, and way more expensive. If they had made it like an add on you could add to any ears and made it smaller and cheaper, they would have had way more people participate.

Though even with not that many people wearing them, I wouldn't say it looked silly. Obviously the Wow effect is when the majority of the crowd has them. But as someone that saw World of Color multiple times during the GwtS era, even the smaller pockets of light from a few people looked very cool because of how it synced with the show.
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Does anyone know what the uptake is on MagicBands, specifically since they began charging for them? I would imagine when it was free it was near 100% (other than folks who either declined because they already had them or maybe bought tickets from a broker?).

For me, it's just become a habit that my family and I like. I will put an order in for our December trip once the new ones are available, and I'm sure I'll get new ones each time we go. Don't know if there are others like that, or if folks stopped buying them once they became an upcharge.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
SteveAZee said:
Why not create an app for one's watch that does everything MB+ is supposed to do? (not saying YOU should create an app, just speaking broadly).
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1) You don't control the lifecycle of the devices - so you are constantly trying to do testing, validation, and changes for devices you don't control when and if those changes happen. Understand Disney wants things that work for many years... not just your normal 2 year cell phone lifecycle
2) Not everyone has the same platform or version - so you gotta now support multiple versions and platforms... increasing your development and support loads

So for those two points especially, having a single device YOU control is highly valuable

3) You want a device that is full time, wearable everywhere, by all ages. And again, due to #1, and #2.. you'd prefer to have one option, not many.
4) you want to control the feature set and have a consistent one

And 5) you can't make money selling devices if you tell people to bring their own

This is why magicbands were always a Disney product and not just 'use your own NFC' device. It makes sense for Disney to want to have a single device type to support and Disney was big enough, with enough pull, to be able to give those devices away and create upsell opportunities.
 
SteveAZee

SteveAZee

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
1) You don't control the lifecycle of the devices - so you are constantly trying to do testing, validation, and changes for devices you don't control when and if those changes happen. Understand Disney wants things that work for many years... not just your normal 2 year cell phone lifecycle
2) Not everyone has the same platform or version - so you gotta now support multiple versions and platforms... increasing your development and support loads

So for those two points especially, having a single device YOU control is highly valuable

3) You want a device that is full time, wearable everywhere, by all ages. And again, due to #1, and #2.. you'd prefer to have one option, not many.
4) you want to control the feature set and have a consistent one

And 5) you can't make money selling devices if you tell people to bring their own

This is why magicbands were always a Disney product and not just 'use your own NFC' device. It makes sense for Disney to want to have a single device type to support and Disney was big enough, with enough pull, to be able to give those devices away and create upsell opportunities.
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All reasonable points.

Perhaps a company that already makes cross-platform watch apps (who already can do the development, QA, etc) could copy the functionality of the MB+ and market it for half the price and save those who already are wearing a watch from having to wear two. It wouldn't be a replacement for MB+ but allow those who love their Apple/Google watch from having to double up.
 
raymusiccity

raymusiccity

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
It will be interesting to see what the service life of the rechargeable battery is.
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Service life might be years, but, I think it will be annoying that these could need charging every day!

"What is the MagicBand+ battery life?
MagicBand+ battery life is between 1 and 3 days, with overnight charging recommended."
 

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