Smart Watches

iruul

I'm considering getting a smart watch for my Android phone. Any of you guys use one? Are they useful or should I just wait until the technology gets better? Any recommendations? It seems the most popular is still the pebble. I was hoping they would announce something awesome at last CES but all it was is a metal frame and $100 price increase with same specs. Should I just wait or is it still better than the other options?

Coldguy

Omate TrueSmart is in my opinion the best one you can get.

muppet

They still seem like they're in neat-toy-gizmo status to me. I'm not convinced that it will ever be otherwise.

$300 is just too much to pay for the convenience of caller ID on my wrist, and from what I gather, the cheaper watches are glitchy and more frustrating than useful.

Apreche

A Pebble is not useless. If you have one you almost never have to take your phone out of your pocket.

Rym

Glass is way more useful than the watch. The watches don't give enough tight integration and functionality yet.

Apreche

Rym said:

Glass is way more useful than the watch. The watches don't give enough tight integration and functionality yet.

Glass does not currently integrate with the phone other than basic Bluetooth headset functionality. It mostly does its own thing just using the phone for data connectivity when wifi is not available.

For example. Both my phone and Glass have Twitter and Google Hangout apps. If someone sends me a hangout message or tweet, I will receive it on both, but they are both getting that message independently. The Pebble simply displays all notifications the phone gets. So if I set the Steam app on my phone to notify me of a sale, I see that notification on the watch without having to take my phone out of my pocket. Since Glass doesn't have a Steam app, it's no help.

Because writing the watch software is so trivial, and SDK so available, the pace of development is much more rapid. You can do things such as control the music on your phone using a Pebble (play/pause, track next/previous), and also see the name of the song currently playing.

The one area that Glass beats the watch is it saves you from taking your phone out of your pocket for sending anything. The phone can't send anything at all since it has hardly any input. If you want to actually send a tweet, and not just be notified, Glass can actually do that.

This is why it is currently not stupid to have both devices if your goal is to minimize having to actually take your phone out. However, eventually with enough software advancement there is no reason that Glass could not have all the functionality of the Pebble, plus a bunch more. It just doesn't have it right now. If it does eventually get all that functionality, the watch will be pointless to a Glasshole.

iruul

Well, there is also the pros/cons of wearing glasses vs a watch. Imo, I'd rather wear a cool watch than dorky glasses.

Rym

The watches aren't cool though. They're bulky, not super precise as input devices, and basically look like regular smartphones strapped awkwardly to one's wrist.

Apreche

Rym said:

The watches aren't cool though. They're bulky, not super precise as input devices, and basically look like regular smartphones strapped awkwardly to one's wrist.

Says the guy wearing Google Glass with strapped on ski goggle inserts, Utilikilt, and toe shoes.

muppet

Rym

Apreche said:

Rym said:

The watches aren't cool though. They're bulky, not super precise as input devices, and basically look like regular smartphones strapped awkwardly to one's wrist.

Says the guy wearing Google Glass with strapped on ski goggle inserts, Utilikilt, and toe shoes.

The aesthetic of the pebble is part and parcel with all of those things. It's the same thing. ;^)

muppet

ITT: geeks with too much disposable income.

Coldguy

muppet said:

FTFY

muppet

Sorry, on potato, did not notice.

TheWhaleShark

Rym said:

Apreche said:

Rym said:

The watches aren't cool though. They're bulky, not super precise as input devices, and basically look like regular smartphones strapped awkwardly to one's wrist.

Says the guy wearing Google Glass with strapped on ski goggle inserts, Utilikilt, and toe shoes.

The aesthetic of the pebble is part and parcel with all of those things. It's the same thing. ;^)

I...what?

I believe this constitutes a Pyrrhic victory.

Andrew

Rym should just wear a trilby and complete the look.

Rym

I only wear ski beanies, all-black baseball caps, or cowboy hats. No other hats allowed.

Andrew

Also, it seems Rym hasn't seen the new Pebble watches.

Rym

Those are orders of magnitude more fashionable than the current gen, but they're still a little fugly. They're also not nearly high res enough.

TheWhaleShark

Who the fuck even wears a watch these days? What use does a smart watch serve that another device does not already serve? Is it so hard to check your phone for the time?

My prediction: smart watches will be worn by snooty jackasses who want to look more tech-savvy than everyone else while actually knowing nothing about technology.

I drank a lot of Haterade this morning.

muppet

I wear a plain ol' analog watch every day.

johndis

Coat my exterior meat shell in cosumer electromics so my other consumer electronics never have to leave the safety and warmth of my cloth pouches.

Rym

Things a smartwatch should do/have:

1. Be a general control surface
2. Be an RFID/NFC contact point
3. Have an easy QR Code scanner
4. Have integrated hardware compass and accelerometer set
5. Be completely waterproof to a reasonable depth
6. Have IR, bluetooth, and wifi C&C capabilities (e.g., able to act as a remote control).
7. Show notifications and allow direct responses on-device
8. Collect fitness monitoring data (e.g., heart rate).

TheWhaleShark said:

What use does a smart watch serve that another device does not already serve? Is it so hard to check your phone for the time?

1. Just like Glass, they keep your phone in your pocket and its screen off. The screen is the battery killer. Phone does the processing and uplink, watch does the display-side for most tasks (time, receiving notifications).

2. Taking the phone out of the pocket is a distraction, and it does take time. People keep their phones much more accessible than they otherwise would as a result (e.g., outer pockets). If I'm walking down the street with a coat on, I shouldn't ever have to pull my phone out to see a message.

3. Once the phone is out, people tend to do other shit. They check twitter. They get distracted. The watch (or Glass) shows the notification, allows contextual interaction, but isn't a gateway to all that other useless shit that can wait.

Walking? Look at the watch when it buzzes. Sitting at a coffee shop? Pull out the phone and read twitter.

Now, unless smart watches do ALL of the above eight things, they're not actually more useful than Glass, and are basically redundant.


My prediction? Many people wear three devices most of the time:

A. Glass-like device: high priority notifications, navigation, photos, video, time
B. Smart watch: all notifications, physical control surface
C. Phone: Immersion (e.g., reading articles, watching videos), uplink, data processing, gaming.

Where A can't be used (movie theatres, secure areas, etc...), B assumes most of its roles.

iruul

I think pebble can do all that except 2,3 and 6 (only bluetooth). Those aren't that necessary imo. I cant remember the last time I scanned a QR code or used NFC.

muppet

The fact that you think QR codes are at all relevant shows that you attend too many cons, I think.

Rym

Pebble isn't enough of a control surface to be useful. It needs to be larger and have more physical buttons and dials for generic use. If it's not more powerful than Glass as a control surface, I would just use Glass or my phone.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

I have a standard waterproof digital watch, because I can't stand having to take my phone out of my pocket in order to know what time it is.

MATATAT

The solution is to not care what time it is.

TheWhaleShark

And once the smartwatch is useful, people will obsessively check it the way they obsessively check their phones. People used to obsessively check "real" watches too. It's all the same behavior.

But mostly, the presence of Glass seems to invalidate most uses of current smartwatches, and I really don't see a situation where that will be different. They're both just information display and interfaces, and there is no reason that Glass couldn't do literally everything a smartwatch could do and then some. I mean, buttons? You already have to physically touch Glass sometimes for certain things. Context should create most button functionality.

Rym

Glass won't have dials and accellerometer controls.

Really, fuck the watch: I want a control surface that is on my belt just to control Glass.

Apreche

Glass is currently behind Smartwatches in terms of software. If you want to minimize taking your phone out of your pocket TODAY, your only option is watch and Glass because Glass is far away from fulfilling its potential.