Be Excellent To Each Other

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

You're welcome, Troops

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!

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.

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...

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.

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

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

New stuff coming "real soon now"

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

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

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

My new Moto360 strap

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

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

I think that might be an issue.

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.

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

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

I likes it.

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

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.

Nicely written. I enjoyed that, thanks.

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.

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.

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.

Interesting. Although I can't help but think it'll be very limited in its scope. I can't see Apple letting them them encroach that far into their space.

It gets you all your notifications, which is pretty much all you need. Obviously it works pretty well with all the Google Apps, too.

Pretty much all you need, maybe. I use mine to send messages, control music, set timers and connect bluetooth headset directly when running so I don't need to take my phone. Also when Lloyds and Barclays activate Apple Pay on their cards I'll be using that too.

I'm more interested in the Samsung Tizen watches, tbf.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung- ... ns_id73214

What's happening here then? Are you playing music through the headset? Or giving yourself the ability to take calls while you're running, even though your phone's somewhere completely different?

I suspect timers will be okay (the watch will just deal with that itself, presumably). I doubt iOS will let you do the other stuff, though (although Google Play Music might let you work it).

How does it work when you go running? It can't let you take calls without the phone nearby, surely?

You can sync up to 1GB of music directly to the watch. Then connect a set of Bluetooth headphones et voila!

No, I just use it for music.

Nice. So I guess it wouldn't work with something like Spotify, just mp3s you've synced to the watch. Still, that's the first smartwatch feature I've found particularly appealing.

Not until they start coming with a SIM card built in, no. The nice thing is though that you can set a playlist to sync, but it won't actually do it until you set it to charge overnight, thus preserving battery. I've just got a generic 'running' playlist.

Keep on Running
Run for the hills
Run rabbit run rabbit run run run

You can pick up an MP3 player for less than £10 if that's all you want it to do

True. Perhaps it's wired headphones I really need to do away with, not my phone.

Does the iWatch come with Bluetooth headphones?

Nope.

I use an iPod shuffle for running and a suunto ambit 3 as my watch

Not knowing whether to yay or nay, I've decided to post here, instead.

As some may have picked up, I've had a few issues getting out and about recently. I've had hours of both claustrophobia and agoraphobia for quite a while, for a few years, but more sustained bouts in the last 15 months. I think around the time I stated fainting when pregnant and was quite scared.

Anyway, I've found that my Fitbit is a great way to remind me to get out and a great motivator, as I do go out simply to make sure I get a good deal of walking done.

Unfortunately I lost it about three weeks ago. I've had a few tough weeks anyway, but it hasn't helped, and it means I've not been out. (nay)

I've tried to stop it from happening, but over the last few days I've managed to get myself a bit upset as I combed through everything in the house to try and find it. (Nay).

I have now realise that it was important enough to me that I should get s new one, so I found a used one in eBay for £40 (nay) which has been sent (yay).

Today, emptying out the washing machine I finally found the one I'd lost. It's been through a wash and a tumble dry (nay) but still works (yay)

So, spent money I really couldn't afford, but at least I will get out now, so hopefully worth it, and I guess I have a spare. It's only the basic one, not your fancy axman you heartbeat things, but hopefully it will give me the boost I need.

Now j really do need a power bank thing for my phone again, but it will have to wait as I've spent my money on another Fitbit (d'oh!)

Our CEO is a bit of a Fitbit nut and he's apparently thinking about buying one for all employees and getting people competing with each other. I think it'll be a good idea as because I'm home-based, I only leave the house for post office trips these days, so a little incentive to exercise at home might be good for me.

Googke fit uses phone and my mate Dave says is ok.

I need something small and portable as I usually don't take a phone when out (especially if I'm with Russell). If I do take a phone it's usually in the bag on the pushchair, rather than about my person, so it'd either have to rely on GPS (a battery drain, Pokemon) or it wouldn't register steps.