Wearable Tech

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11843

Grim... later

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Seems to be working fine, no dodgy pixels or anything

I've installed Wear Mini Launcher, which is the only addon necessary at the moment. Might play around with some custom faces later.

myp · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 13:45

Trooper wrote:

Might play around with some custom faces later.

I always knew you'd have to go down the plastic surgery route.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11843

American Nervoso wrote:

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But you just keep on beatin' those odds.

Can't believe I missed this. Superb work, Doc!

Good lord, you even quoted it on this page!

myp · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 13:53

Bobbyaro wrote:

American Nervoso wrote:

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But you just keep on beatin' those odds.

Can't believe I missed this. Superb work, Doc!

Good lord, you even quoted it on this page!

Only to Craster's reply. I missed it first time.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

How responsive to a wrist flick when typing is yours Grim...? Mine is basically unresponsive, it only turns on automatically if you raise your arm and twist, which is a bit shit. Not sure if that is just the way it is, or mine is faulty.

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 15:36

It seems okay. I've not been annoyed by it yet, at any rate.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Hmmm.... Not sure if it's just me or a dodgy accelerometer then. I don't know how it should be acting though. Should turning your wrist when typing turn on the watch face? I would have expected so.
I might send it back and see what the replacement is like, but that runs the risk of dead pixels again...

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 16:09

Are you at the quiz on Wednesday? We could compare them.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Depends on how the root canal goes tomorrow!

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 16:28

Moto 360 get!

Does anyone want it before I send it back?

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Apparently the watch face turn on algorithm needs tilt + up, not just tilt. That'll explain it then.
That's also a bit shit.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

If you have a Samsung device and still use the default Samsung SMS app, then SMS messages won't get pushed through to the 360. Swap to using SMS via Hangouts and it works fine though.

Edit: actually it seems they may get pushed, but you can't reply.

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 16:53

Yeah, I use MySMS and you can't reply.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Hangouts lets you reply apparently, haven't tested it yet though.

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 16:59

Yeah, but unless I can send SMS through my browser Hangouts can go jump.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Grim... wrote:

Yeah, but unless I can send SMS through my browser Hangouts can go jump.

Not without a google voice account.
How often are you going to reply via your watch though, really. The only time I would ever do that via the watch was if I was driving.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Grim... wrote:

Yeah, I use MySMS and you can't reply.

MySMS can fix this with a patch. The actions you can take on a notification are an open API (and indeed, are used elsewhere in Android, they define the actions you can take when looking at a notification on the phone itself.) So it might get added at some point.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

The navigation is pretty dreadful. I gave up after it had been "calculating route" for 5 minutes.

markg · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 16560

To be honest though I've never once used a sat nav and thought it could be improved if it was shrunk until it was just a bit bigger than a postage stamp.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Trooper wrote:

Apparently the watch face turn on algorithm needs tilt + up, not just tilt. That'll explain it then.
That's also a bit shit.

Switched to my left wrist and it is exponentially better. Guess I'll have to stop being a freak!

The music control function is lovely and simple.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

markg wrote:

To be honest though I've never once used a sat nav and thought it could be improved if it was shrunk until it was just a bit bigger than a postage stamp.

It's supposed to be reasonably useful if you are walking around, just keep walking and it vibrates if you need to turn at a junction. Apparently. I wouldn't know as it doesn't work...

After playing with it for a day, the device itself is really nice, android wear though, that has quite a long way to go. Version 2 is due "real soon now", so let's see what that brings.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Yes, walking directions are a natural fit for a wearable.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Interestingly, the accelerometer seems to be fine. If I have it on ambient mode it responds perfectly even on my right wrist.
Looks like it's a software issue, and looking online a couple of people are complaining about the same issue since the last update happened.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Battery wise, i've just put it on to charge with 11% left, after taking it off charge at around 10am. 12 hours including software updates, setting up (twice), downlaoding apps, playing with it all day, and a few hours in ambient mode.
Not too bad really, see what happens tomorrow when I should be arseing around with it a lot less.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Used it normally today, a few timers for cooking, heartbeat a couple of times, a fair few notifications (hi DavPaz!) and I had it on ambient mode so the screen is on almost constantly, but in dim mode.

Took it off the charger at 8:30am,battery is currently showing 48% at 9:20pm. That's actually pretty good I think!

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11843

You actually think a watch which loses half its battery in a day is pretty good?

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

It's no more a watch than your smartphone is a phone, of course.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38464

You're welcome, Troops

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2014 23:58

I agree about the battery life being better than expected.

I took mine off charge at 8am,and right now it has 52% left (ambient mode is off).

I really like it!

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

I've been playing around with Facer today, to see what watch faces I can get on it. Some are nice, but i'm not sure any of them are nice enough to warrant the battery hit.
This one might appeal to a certain Moto360 owner though...
http://facerepo.com/app/faces/details/f ... 48a2b1c0f6

I'm currently swapping between the standard minimal and digital faces, and trying to decide which I like best.

I've ordered a new strap, just to see how it looks with something a bit more traditional, and to see how easy it is to swap straps. I shall post pics when it arrives.

Also, I've installed "find my phone" which is an app I can run from my watch, which will start an alarm on the phone if I can't find it. More importantly than that though, the watch warns me if I have left my phone behind.

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Nov 05, 2014 18:38

Trooper wrote:

I've ordered a new strap, just to see how it looks with something a bit more traditional

Reddit thinks non-standard straps lead to the back cracking.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Grim... wrote:

Trooper wrote:

I've ordered a new strap, just to see how it looks with something a bit more traditional

Reddit thinks non-standard straps lead to the back cracking.

I saw that, it's related to the new strap being thicker than the old one so putting more pressure on the back. I've made sure the strap I ordered was the same thickness, so it should be OK...

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

If you start navigation from your phone rather than the watch it works, and it's actually really useful.
I've just had a 3 mile walk across London, turning when my watch buzzed at me and showed me what road I needed just before I got to the junction. Much more convenient than using your phone for walking directions.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

... and today hangouts has stopped notifying on my watch, it was working fine yesterday.
Yeah, Android Wear still needs a lot of work

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... -your.html

New stuff coming "real soon now"

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

http://facerepo.com/app/faces/search?qu ... ron&page=1

This may be of interest to a certain Mr Grim...

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11843

Sony e-ink watch
http://www.kitguru.net/channel/generalt ... f-e-paper/
looks quite nice.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

My new Moto360 strap

Attachment:

1nT0yjf.jpg

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

John Gruber on speculation about pricing for the Apple Watch Edition (the one made out of solid 18K gold):

Quote:

The more I think about it, and the more I learn about the watch industry, the world of luxury goods, and the booming upper class of China, the better I feel about that bet. I don’t think I was wrong to place a friendly late night bar bet on a $9,999 starting price. I think I was wrong to guess just $4,999 in my ostensibly sober published analysis.

I can see which way the wind is blowing. For months I’ve been asking friends who might know — or know someone else who might know, or even know someone who knows someone who might know — whether my guess of $5,000 is too high for the Edition starting price. The answer has always been “No”. But the way I’ve been told “No” has given me the uneasy feeling that I’ve been asking the wrong question. I should have been asking if $5,000 is too low.

I now think Edition models will start around $10,000 — and, if my hunch is right about bands and bracelets, the upper range could go to $20,000. I was off by a factor of two, and my friend Vincent, I think, nailed it back on the day Apple Watch was introduced.

...

Apple Watch Edition is not a tech product, so don’t try to price it like one.

Grim... · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:31

$20k for a watch that has a shelf life of, what, four years at the most?

I think that might be an issue.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

The common theory on Twitter is that you'll bring it in for a service every so often (like a mechanical watch) but that service will be swapping out and upgrading innards.

Grim... · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:17

Doesn't that require them to keep certain things the same, like that control wheel mechanism and screen size, for instance?

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

This seems *ahem* timely. I lived with a smartwatch for three months and wrote up my Use Cases For Smart Watches: http://actionatadistance.net/post/11325 ... rt-watches

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 17:04

I likes it.

I especially likes the use of "The master of unlocking".

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Yeah, that pretty much covers my smartwatch usage too.

One extra thing i've done, is use it for driving navigation when I bought a car with no sat-nav in it, nor had a phone mount handy. That worked pretty well.

MaliA · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 17:09

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

This seems *ahem* timely. I lived with a smartwatch for three months and wrote up my Use Cases For Smart Watches: http://actionatadistance.net/post/11325 ... rt-watches

Nicely written. I enjoyed that, thanks.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

Is there a way to get the UK trains app to start on your watch when you get into the station? I'd imagine it should be possible to start it on the phone based on location using a third party app, but not sure if that can start a watch app.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22270

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nept ... w-seamless

This looks pretty interesting. The device on your wrist is the hub, the "phone" and "tablet" are just dumb screens that wirelessly connect to the hub.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:54

Android Wear came out for iOS yesterday, so if you think the Apple Watch is too expensive but would like a smart watch you've now got some alternatives.

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Wearable Tech
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Be Excellent To Each Other

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Wearable Tech
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