This looks very, very nice. The fact that the microphone barely does anything with iOS is a bit of a concern for iPhone owners. They say their working on it, though.
I am still quite happy with the 360. Back to my normal daily life it has been getting to the end of the day with 50-60% life left, which is more than enough.
I don't understand how the microphone barely does anything with iOS. If you have a standard bluetooth headset with microphone, you can use it to talk to Siri. I perhaps wrongly assumed that since the first Pebble's functionality worked entirely through standard Bluetooth profiles that the microphone was just a standard bluetooth microphone.
This is a very good point. I don't get why they wouldn't have this working already (the KS page said the mic only works for responding to gmail notifications, nothing else). If anything, that should at least give you some confidence that they will success in their pledge to get it working? Maybe it already does work with Siri the way a standard headset would, but that got lost in what they were saying about voice replies to notifications.
When I first got the Pebble it even had trouble just staying connected to the iPhone and showing all the notifications. They rapidly and continuously fixed and improved that functionality. I trust they will continue to do the same going forward.
Is it a problem unique to the Pebble or is it just a fact of Apple iOS API and OS level restrictions?
There is nothing to do with the iOS API. Everything the Pebble does with iOS it does as a Bluetooth device. The iOS Pebble app and the watch communicate through two Bluetooth connections using standard Bluetooth profiles.
When the Pebble first came out there were actually bugs in iOS itself with regards to it pushing notifications over Bluetooth properly. These bugs were simply undiscovered because the Pebble was perhaps the first device to try to actually take advantage of that feature. It was all pretty much fixed by the next major iOS update.
It's close between this and the Apple Watch. I like the round screen of this one, but the sides are a bit too plainly cylindrical. The shape of the sides of the Apple Watch are nicer, and the way the shape flows into the straps too. These images are all stills from a video though, so until there are proper product photos, it's hard to know. I have a feeling this will cost a quarter of a similar style Apple Watch too.
It's close between this and the Apple Watch. I like the round screen of this one, but the sides are a bit too plainly cylindrical. The shape of the sides of the Apple Watch are nicer, and the way the shape flows into the straps too. These images are all stills from a video though, so until there are proper product photos, it's hard to know. I have a feeling this will cost a quarter of a similar style Apple Watch too.
Who can say? It could also have some huge problems in areas like battery life, functionality, etc. It really seems like one of those products that looks really good either in concept images, but is probably garbage in reality, if it even ever comes to market.
That's why I'll Pebble 2 for the interim. I think another generation of devices has to come out before there's something that is both stylish and technologically optimal.
But, of course, I'm sure the $649 price will be more than double the above Huawei watch. Ha, I just noticed the thickness of the new MacBook is less than 2mm thicker than the Huawei watch!
I think I'll stick with my current setup of not having a watch at all
Not a fan of square watches. Whoever designed the watchfaces left a lot of black space which looks stupid. Also it's fucking huge. It's only 0.8mm thinner than the Huawei. The Dell XPS 13 laptop is thinner than the Apple watch might as well strap an iPod Nano onto you arm.
Next thing Jonny Ive will be telling everyone their wrists are too small. I guess he also has to retract the statement on not giving the consumer any choice in design by offering so many different versions of the same device.
The price is hilariously high for something that won't fit in any of my shirts and looks ugly as fuck.
Pebble wins or don't wear a watch unless you want something useful like Google Now on it .
Waiting for the over embellished "magic" filled commercials.
The fact that they announced an $18k version at their main event is idiotic. Rich people know they will be able to get their jewel-encrusted custom version of consumer tech, they just might have to get it from their jeweler. If Apple wants to be the one to provide this, you do it through a subsidiary or product imprint, and you don't let it get in the way of keeping you on point and selling these things to the masses.
Not a fan of square watches. Whoever designed the watchfaces left a lot of black space which looks stupid. Also it's fucking huge. It's only 0.8mm thinner than the Huawei.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the circular watch faces stuck on the front of a square-screened watch. But the thickness isn't about the mm to mm thickness comparison. It's more about how the edges flow visually and how they interact with your sleeves.
The cross section of the Huawei is like this: [''''''''''']
The cross section of the Apple Watch is like this: (''''''''''')
So... What is the size comparison between strapping an iPod nano to you wrist vs the apple watch? Didn't someone release nano wrist straps a few years back?
That idea sounded like a good one, but in the end it was annoying watch you had to press a button to see the time, and due to the lack of speaker or bluetooth, if you wanted to listen to anything you had to run the headphone cable up your arm.
I still use my Nano when traveling, and the clip is really handy, but clipping it anywhere near the wrist is super annoying.
Out of all the smart watch designs, I actually favour the look of Samsungs Gear S.
I have the Gear 2 Neo. Not to fond of the software, sometimes it sticks and crashes. But it works well enough enough of the time for it not to be an issue. Check notifications, control my fitness tracking, read messages, answer and make calls. Play games while I'm waiting for something. Controlling the TV.
The battery lasts 1-2 days depending. The neo 2 gets uncomfortable after wearing it for a while, this is because it's flat and plastic. The friction builds up during the day.
A metal surface that's curved to this wrist would be ideal. Or other material, that doesn't chafe.
The Moto 360 goes gold! Gold coloured metal, I'm guessing, for $329, which is still cheaper than the cheapest Apple Watch will be.
Putting aside the black segment on the bottom of the screen looks even worse on this than the black version, the 18mm strap looks too thin to hold a watch of that size. So what if we try the 23mm strap?
How can they sell straps that don't even begin to fit the watch itself? There's no way it lines up at all.
What I want (not that I'd buy any smart watch for another year at least) is either:
- A smaller Huawei. Either a smaller face or one not so tall. Or at least more rounded in terms of cross section. With a digital crown for scrolling and pressing, not just a button. The strap in the pictures above looks fine.
- An Apple Watch, Black Sports Edition with black sports band... but with a round screen. The home screen where you pick apps on the Apple Watch looks like it should work just as well with a round screen, if not better.
I think the Pebble Time Steel has some insane ability to upgrade ("Smart Straps"). A link can be replaced with one that includes new sensor(s) whether it be NFC, GPS and anything that can fit inside the link. Pretty amazing.
Sounds like it allows for some future proofing.
I wanted to get a feel for the sizes so I looked up my current watches.
I pulled out the biggest jewellery watch I own and it is 44.2mm in diameter (it is round) and seems fine but the the main thing is that it is (at it's peak) 8mm thick (for some reason I bought a watch that I could go underwater with when I was a kid on impulse when I had a big tax return).
This watch can be fiddly to fit inside a cuff. The only reason the size works is because it is round and has a thick bezel which has design elements that match the wrist band.
I will wait on any watch to get thinner and there is no way I'm paying more for an accessory for my phone than the phone itself. I would find using an accessory irrelevant if it did not have Google Now functionality.
I think the Pebble Time Steel has some insane ability to upgrade ("Smart Straps"). A link can be replaced with one that includes new sensor(s) whether it be NFC, GPS and anything that can fit inside the link. Pretty amazing.
Sounds like it allows for some future proofing.
...
I will wait on any watch to get thinner and there is no way I'm paying more for an accessory for my phone than the phone itself. I would find using an accessory irrelevant if it did not have Google Now functionality.
I didn't know Pebble Time was going that route. I saw on Twitter that the Apple Watch had something similar, but that the port was just for diagnostic purposes... and then again that the port won't be functional in the first version for sale, or won't be there at all.
The worst use of this would be some kind of "licensed watch bands only will work with this watch" type deal. Knowing Apple, that's probably a part of it.
I'm willing to sacrifice some levels of comfort for more functionality, but not style for price. My watch cost £160~, that's more than I'm ever willing to spend on something that has minimal importance. Especially as it's likely to get smacked into things, I'm glad it's only a bit of plastic.
The moto watch is just abit of fashion, doesn't look too comfortable. The one thing I like about the Apple watch, is the sensor array underneath. It appears to be able to see into your soul. The sensor on the Gear Neo is this pixie little sensor and LED, which isn't too reliable. If you're monitoring heart rate, it doesn't like a moving or twisted wrist. It has to be quite flat and still.
This xray examination/teardown of the Apple Watch is really amazing. It's just crazy how good Apple designers are getting at miniaturization and packing stuff into a small package.
I can't figure out a use case for this thing that justifies the price point. My ~$200 Citizen that has what I think is marketed as "Eco drive" so it never needs a battery replacement suits me fine in combination with taking my phone out of my pocket once in awhile.
At maybe $100 I'd buy one to have texts and notifications show up on my wrist. More if it reliably measured interesting stuff like pulse and SpO2 would be REALLY cool, but I don't think that's feasible for a single surface sensor (yet).
Comments
When the Pebble first came out there were actually bugs in iOS itself with regards to it pushing notifications over Bluetooth properly. These bugs were simply undiscovered because the Pebble was perhaps the first device to try to actually take advantage of that feature. It was all pretty much fixed by the next major iOS update.
It's this view I'm worried about. From the front it looks perfect, but that is a very "tall" cylinder to have on the wrist.
http://store.apple.com/us/buy-watch/apple-watch-sport?product=MJ2T2LL/A&step=detail
But, of course, I'm sure the $649 price will be more than double the above Huawei watch. Ha, I just noticed the thickness of the new MacBook is less than 2mm thicker than the Huawei watch!
I think I'll stick with my current setup of not having a watch at all
Also it's fucking huge.
It's only 0.8mm thinner than the Huawei.
The Dell XPS 13 laptop is thinner than the Apple watch might as well strap an iPod Nano onto you arm.
Next thing Jonny Ive will be telling everyone their wrists are too small. I guess he also has to retract the statement on not giving the consumer any choice in design by offering so many different versions of the same device.
The price is hilariously high for something that won't fit in any of my shirts and looks ugly as fuck.
Pebble wins or don't wear a watch unless you want something useful like Google Now on it
Waiting for the over embellished "magic" filled commercials.
The cross section of the Huawei is like this: [''''''''''']
The cross section of the Apple Watch is like this: (''''''''''')
That's a big difference to me!
I still use my Nano when traveling, and the clip is really handy, but clipping it anywhere near the wrist is super annoying.
I have the Gear 2 Neo. Not to fond of the software, sometimes it sticks and crashes. But it works well enough enough of the time for it not to be an issue. Check notifications, control my fitness tracking, read messages, answer and make calls. Play games while I'm waiting for something. Controlling the TV.
The battery lasts 1-2 days depending. The neo 2 gets uncomfortable after wearing it for a while, this is because it's flat and plastic. The friction builds up during the day.
A metal surface that's curved to this wrist would be ideal. Or other material, that doesn't chafe.
Putting aside the black segment on the bottom of the screen looks even worse on this than the black version, the 18mm strap looks too thin to hold a watch of that size. So what if we try the 23mm strap?
How can they sell straps that don't even begin to fit the watch itself? There's no way it lines up at all.
What I want (not that I'd buy any smart watch for another year at least) is either:
- A smaller Huawei. Either a smaller face or one not so tall. Or at least more rounded in terms of cross section. With a digital crown for scrolling and pressing, not just a button. The strap in the pictures above looks fine.
- An Apple Watch, Black Sports Edition with black sports band... but with a round screen. The home screen where you pick apps on the Apple Watch looks like it should work just as well with a round screen, if not better.
Sounds like it allows for some future proofing.
I wanted to get a feel for the sizes so I looked up my current watches.
I pulled out the biggest jewellery watch I own and it is 44.2mm in diameter (it is round) and seems fine but the the main thing is that it is (at it's peak) 8mm thick (for some reason I bought a watch that I could go underwater with when I was a kid
This watch can be fiddly to fit inside a cuff. The only reason the size works is because it is round and has a thick bezel which has design elements that match the wrist band.
I will wait on any watch to get thinner and there is no way I'm paying more for an accessory for my phone than the phone itself. I would find using an accessory irrelevant if it did not have Google Now functionality.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/05/would-you-buy-a-smart-band-for-an-apple-watch/
The worst use of this would be some kind of "licensed watch bands only will work with this watch" type deal. Knowing Apple, that's probably a part of it.
Casio vs Nixie tube vs Smart watch
vs wrist computer
Style, function, price, comfort
I'm willing to sacrifice some levels of comfort for more functionality, but not style for price. My watch cost £160~, that's more than I'm ever willing to spend on something that has minimal importance. Especially as it's likely to get smacked into things, I'm glad it's only a bit of plastic.
The moto watch is just abit of fashion, doesn't look too comfortable. The one thing I like about the Apple watch, is the sensor array underneath. It appears to be able to see into your soul. The sensor on the Gear Neo is this pixie little sensor and LED, which isn't too reliable. If you're monitoring heart rate, it doesn't like a moving or twisted wrist. It has to be quite flat and still.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Watch+X-ray+Teardown/41323
For example, this is an Apple Watch next to a Nike fitness tracker GPS thingy:
At maybe $100 I'd buy one to have texts and notifications show up on my wrist. More if it reliably measured interesting stuff like pulse and SpO2 would be REALLY cool, but I don't think that's feasible for a single surface sensor (yet).