Sitting at a desk every day isn't the best way to stay active, but Stir is hoping to change that by making a desk that moves so you don't have to sit all day. The Stir Kinetic Desk M1 is a unique piece of furniture that hopes to keep you focused and in shape while working.
The M1 is the company's latest model with dimensions of 59.5 x 29.5 x 1.125 inches (HxWxD), and it weighs 140 pounds. It also sports a curved edge towards the user, compared to the rectangular design of its predecessor, the Kinetic Desk F1. The technology behind the desk's abilities comes from the five-inch built-in LCD touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 400, which is powered by a Cortex-A8 processor (1 GHz, ARMv7).
It works with a simple double tap on the touchscreen, which is what makes the M1 rise and fall according to each user's specified height setting. Users can set their own height preferences as well as set everyday goals to determine how much of their work day will be spent standing up or sitting down.
Additionally, they can also turn on Active Mode, and the desk will send reminders to change the desk height in the form of a feature called Whisperbreath, where the desk rises and falls for one inch. The data for each user is stored in the cloud, so multiple users can use the same desk and still get their personal height preferences.
The desk can also determine preferences if the user is wearing a FitBit device and syncs the data with FitBit's dashboard. (The company is looking at more devices to link to the desk, such as Android and iOS devices.) In terms of connectivity, the M1 has Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 Ghz) as well as four outlets. However, it doesn't have as many ports as the F1, which has four additional outlets and four USB ports.
Unlike the F1, which has an MSRP of $4,190, the M1 comes in slightly cheaper at $2,990. This could be because of the lack of power supply available on the M1. While it has four outlets, the F1 includes eight of them, as well as four USB ports. Additionally, the company claims that the USB ports have the ability to detect the type of device plugged in to provide adequate power for the device.
Stir's Kinetic Desk M1 seems to be an answer for those who want to have the best of both productive worlds. It starts out as sitting desk, but based on user preferences, it can rise and give you the much-needed work boost throughout the day by making you stand up. It's one of the many first steps to combine office productivity with smart technology, and Stir seems to be going in the right direction by providing a simple desk that should make any worker more productive.
Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
