As the world continues to see more and more everyday objects become “hardware” controlled through operating systems and internet connectivity, an ex-Apple engineer called JP Labrosse is hoping to take that principle and combine it with elegant design to transform the prosaic world of office desks. Read More
Remember the Stir Kinetic, the standing desk that learns your sitting habits and adjusts the height automatically? Well, it’s going up for sale today and yes, it’s as expensive as we said it would be. As promised, the hardwood desk starts at $3,890, though for now you’ll only need to pay a $300 deposit; the rest will get charged to your account when it ships in April. (The first 50 customers will actually get it in February.) Just so you know what you’re getting into, the desk has a super-minimal design, adorned only by a touchscreen, which you’ll use to lower the desk over its 26-inch range. You can also tap the screen to see how many calories you’ve burned and keep track of how much time you’ve spent standing. There’s also an “Active Mode” that allows the desk to move periodically, encouraging you to take a break. Additionally, the desk has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, along with four USB ports and eight AC sockets — a neat way of ensuring your cables stay put as you move the desk up and down.
As we’ve been saying all along, $3,890 is a heckuva a lot to pay for a desk, so in addition to having deep pockets, you better be sold on the idea that working while standing up is good for your health. If not, the company will be showcasing the desk at an in-person store, but just one: the Wired Web Store at 353 West 14th St. in New York. If you happen to live in the area, you can mosey on down starting December 4th and check it out in person (no purchase necessary if you just wanna get your kicks). As for everyone else, you might just want to revisit our hands-on video and call it a day.
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If you’re anything like me, you spend way too much of your day seated, at your desk, hunched in front of your computer. During busy days — especially once firmly planted “the zone” — it’s easy for a few hours to fly by without leaving a sedentary position. For this reason, I’m probably not the only one who could use a gentle reminder, just a little, “Hey Rip, you’ve been sitting for two hours, how about standing up, ya lazy bum?”
Well, my friends, your Fitbit can remind you that you’re behind on your steps, but what if your desk could remind you to stand up, or take a break? Thanks to Stir, a Los Angeles-born startup founded by former Apple, Disney and IDEO employees, now you can buy a smart desk that will do just that.
The Stir Kinetic Desk, the startup’s first product, which launches today, combines the health-tracking software of popular wearables like FitBit and Up with connected-hardware and machine learning to create a work experience that actually promotes movement — and, in so doing, your health.
Stir Founder and CEO JP Labrosse was one of the first 35 employees to join Apple’s iPod Division, where he led engineering development teams on two early iPod projects. It not surprising, then, that the Kinetic Desk borrows a bit from familiar Apple designs and interfaces, including built-in touch screen, which has a very iPod-type size, shape and look to it. It’s this touch interface that acts as the desk’s main “control panel,” allowing users to change the configuration and height of their desk, or to go from sitting to standing (and back) just by double tapping.
Not only that, but the screen displays graphs and visual representations of a user’s movement, so they can quickly see how long they’ve been sitting and what their work habits and usage looks like. The desk contains a thermal presence sensor and computer outfitted with its health-tracking software, allowing it to track your movement and display that data through its touch screen.
While it may sound almost uncanny, not to worry, the desk isn’t yet outfitted with Siri’s voice or any sort of personal assistant. While Labrosse was willing to admit that the Stir Kinetic Desk could incorporate some Watson or HAL 9000-like features down the road, for now, the desk is meant to work in concert with the Internet of Things, not to try to commandeer it and dominate your office.
In fact, the desk tracks and adapts to your personal routine in such a way that’s meant to optimize health and productivity. The desk will display how many calories you’ve burned, time spent standing versus sitting — and your answer to “who is the most beautiful desk of them all?” of course.
Labrasse, echoing Harvard Business Review’s recent study, called sitting “the smoking of our generation,” which is probably a little overdramatic, but it’s true that in our overworked, over-connected modern work environment, we do spend more time in chairs than on our feet. While your Kinetic Desk won’t remind you to eat, shower, finish coding and go outside or be a better friend, it will help keep you upright and mindful of the healthier routine that’s right around the corner.
The desk also contains a setting called “active mode,” which you can activate by hitting a button on the front of the desk, which will put it into “Whisperbreath” mode — meaning that the desk prompts you to move after you’ve been sitting for too long with a gentle, one-inch rising and falling motion. You can then double tap to change positions.
Stir’s new smart desk also comes with built-in AC and USB ports (eight and four, respectively), connected to a single power cord you plug into the wall, and comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, which the CEO hopes will eventually allow the desk to integrate with third-party fitness and wellness devices. To think: Your desk could be come your fitness and wellness graph itself. Imagine that. The team will also eventually release a web-based dashboard to allow you to view your work and health data on the go.
The Stir Kinetic Desk has a hardwood surface, comes in white, espresso and four underside colors, and will retail at an expected $3,890. It’s not cheap, but, hey, you can’t put a price on good health, people, especially when it’s your office furniture that’s keeping you healthy.
Labrasse and the Stir team were kind enough to let us take their new health-conscious desk for a spin, and you’ll find our video below. Find the Stir Kinetic Desk at home here.
By now we’ve all likely heard the deafening buzz proclaiming that sitting is the new smoking; sitting is ruining our bodies and irreparably hunching our backs; sitting is going to be the death of us all, damnit. But are you ready to give up the passive, sedentary pseudo-comfort of a long day spent in a chair? Can you commit to a standing workstation
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If Apple were to build a desk, it would look like this. Much like Nest, maker of the world’s sexiest thermostat, Stir is a company founded by someone who worked on the first iPods, and, it too is trying to make a mundane household item fashionable. In this case, of course, the product in question isn’t a thermostat or even a home appliance, but a standing desk. The Kinetic Desk, which will ship in the first half of 2014, has a thermal sensor that can tell when you’ve arrived, and over time, it learns how long you prefer to be on your feet before taking a break. To lower the desk over its 26-inch range, just double-tap the built-in touchscreen, located on the left end. From there, you can can set goals, like standing for 25 percent of the day, as well as see how many extra calories you’ve burned, or monitor how much time you’ve spent sitting. CEO and founder JP Labrosse tells us that the desk might eventually integrate with fitness-tracking services like Fitbit, though it won’t at launch. Still, the desk has WiFi and Bluetooth radios baked in, so if Stir ever did want to share data with third-party services, the hardware would at least be able to support it.
Like an iPod, the Kinetic Desk has just one button. Press it and you’ll be telling the desk to enter “active mode,” which will remind you to take periodic breaks by rising up and down ever so gently when it’s time for you to stop what you’re doing and walk around. (It’s less distracting then it sounds; in fact, Stir is using the name “WhisperBreath” to describe it.) Also like an Apple product, the desk has a stark design: it’s powered by a single cable, with eight AC ports and four USB sockets tucked into two hidden panels at the top of the desk. That makes for a minimalist look, of course, but it also means you don’t have to worry about dragging cables (and knocking things over) when you adjust the height of the desk. Once this starts shipping, you’ll have two color options for the lacquered wood surface, and four choices of accent colors for the underside and in the two charging drawers. As for the starting price, you’re looking at $3,890 and up — suffice to say, you’d better already be a standing desk convert before taking the plunge.%Gallery-slideshow98401%%Gallery-slideshow90897%
Source: Stir
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