Moto 360: Neat gizmo – if you're a rich nerd I used to have wearable connected technology, back in the day, and it was actually very handy. You wore it around the neck on a lanyard. It would beep when there was an incoming message or phone call or diary appointment, and it could go two to three days or more between charges. You could also make calls by speaking into it, …
No idea where you got that idea from. The mobile phone part of motorola was spun off and sold to google, and the remainder, which is basically telecoms infrastructure went it's own way. It's definitely they 'googly' bit of motorola which is knocking out this watchphonething.
That's what I'd use it for too - to see caller ID on incoming calls / silence the ring / reject the call, see subject and sender for mail, read an SMS scrolling by, and making sure I know about missed calls / messages (right now there's no way for me to know whether I missed anything unless I pull my phone and wake it up - and frankly, getting my phone out of its belt-worn holder is generally way, way more hassle than glancing at my wrist...). Granted, it would have to last at least a week for me to get interested - but that would be easily achievable with Bluetooth LE and an e-paper display.
E-ink is always on but it still consumes power to change the display. The likes of the pebble watch try to minimize updates to reduce power consumption. e.g. one watch face only shows an approximate time. Personally I'd like to see mirasol appear in watches so at least the display is in colour. But no smart watch gets anywhere close to the power consumption of an LCD.
Maybe a kinetic / solar face combined with e-ink or mirasol would be enough for a watch to provide timekeeping functionality even when it doesn't have enough power to do anything more.
"E-ink is always on but it still consumes power to change the display. The likes of the pebble watch try to minimize updates to reduce power consumption. e.g. one watch face only shows an approximate time. "
Pebble doesn't use e-ink - they call it e-paper.
"But no smart watch gets anywhere close to the power consumption of an LCD."
And what they call e-paper is just an LCD from Sharp...
Apparently it's a:
144×168 pixel Sharp Memory LCD "e-paper"
Found that out when I was going to order the Pebble Steel earlier in the year so decided to wait it out until the market matured a bit or they upped the resolution of the e-paper display.
Get a phone with a glance screen - shows what you have missed when you pull it out of your pocket - without the need to turn the display on. Usefully displays the time too in case you aren't wearing a watch, smart or otherwise.
Available with many (but not all) Lumias - don't know if Android has it - not that I have seen though.
"Available with many (but not all) Lumias - don't know if Android has it - not that I have seen though."
Moto X has active display, that is very similar to glance. There's an app in the play store that will replicate it by replacing the lock screen on any android - you need the right display type for it to not waste your battery though.
I use glance on my 1020 - it's a nice feature, I'd just like a few more configuration options.
Nope, there're two of us - I just find a belt clip more practical. The phone doesn't fall out of my top pocket when I bend over, doesn't get scratched by my keys/change in my pocket, doesn't get sat on in my back pocket, and I don't have to constantly move it from place to place to prevent any of the above! It just sits there securely within easy reach. Perfect!
Each to their own, I do not like texts, they take too long to create and far too long to read and who knows when, or if they have arrived? They demand whole attention, if only for a few seconds and the use of hands as well as eyes. But a voice call to the earpiece gives two way near instant contact, everything done in a very few words. Life can continue without disruption hand and eyes can continue their appointed tasks, whether it is dog walking, shopping, walking, painting or anything (everything?) else.
Oh and I still use a Nokia 6230i with a bluetooth headset as it simply does what I need better than anything else I have so far found - and it fits in my inside pocket where it can stay all day long, never needing to be looked at. The new touch toy I was sent sits in my desk tidy where it has been for the last 18 months useless, all new 'features' and no usability.
However, if your usage and needs patterns find something else useful, good luck to you; it is all about choice as long as I can have my ideal tool so can you. But please don't tell me a watch is smart, mine tells me the date and time, that is smart enough!
It'd certainly be a more discreet way to check things — in meetings, in the pub, etc. Maybe we'll all be walking around like ex-smokers in a few years, completely lost for anything to do with our hands?
But the battery life just isn't acceptable. I wear a Basis, one of the fitness watches, and its battery lasts four or five days. That's already short enough to be a major hassle. Charging every day, or even several times a day as other reviews of the Moto have alleged, just isn't convenient. Wearing a watch in those circumstances quickly demotes itself back to being more bother than it's worth. If it's not on enough to be habit-forming then what's the point?
" the battery life just isn't acceptable. I wear a Basis, one of the fitness watches, and its battery lasts four or five days. That's already short enough to be a major hassle. "
Charging when you've noticed that it's run out of charge and gah, you wanted to go for a run -- that's a hassle.
Charging every day is ritual, and if it's easy enough (no connectors), it'll be ignored.
does anybody here use siri/cortana/whatever else regularly? i do not know, and have never met anybody who uses it. sure, when you first get a phone with speech input you ask it a couple of "silly" questions, if you're lucky, you might get a "silly" answer in return, and you think "ooh, that's funny", promptly forget about it and never use the speech input again. nobody wants to talk to their phones/watches/tvs etc - you look like a twat. i've seen a couple of people with a samsung go-go-gadget-gear watch and you know what i thought?
"twat".
stop trying to make us looks like twats various technology companies!
That's been my experience. Disclaimer - never tried Siri, but both Google/Android and Blackberry voice recognition seem to understand me around 50% of the time in normal speech and maybe closer to 75-80% with very careful choice of word pattern and enunciation. Either way, it's not yet good enough to significantly improve the useability
Happily been using the Google voice search part of my S3 for years now.
I tend to just use it for simple things.
"Do I need an umbrella?"
"Navigate to Bradford on Avon"
and Google searching
"How does knitting work?"
Since even with Swype it's faster than my fat finger swipping.
I'd say I get a 90% success rate with it.
The Samsung version is no where near as good though.
That said I only tend to use it in quiet locations as otherwise I end up wanting to throw the thing out the window.
I use it all the time too. My kid asks a question that you'd normally look up with a search - how much does a blue whale eat in a day, how many rooms are in Buckingham Palace, etc.? Or I'm in the car and need to send a text message, or make a call or navigate somewhere new. All of these I can do quickly and reliably without touching my phone. And all that with a Scottish accent, it's pretty remarkable.
You obviously dont suffer from the same problems as these two
As a Scotman myself I have gone through the evils of trying to configure/train DragonSeaking to my accent many moons ago.... It was a very frustrating affair. And I consider myself as having a very easy to understand accent due to the fact that I have lived outside of Scotland for almost 30 years and was obliged to improve my diction in order to become understood ....
I don't like speaking to Google as I have no idea what twisted usage they might eventually make out of my recorded voice... ( Tinfoil hat for me please)
The Burnistoun sketch is hilarious and was the first thing I thought of when Google launched the speech recognition. Thankfully it has few of these problems, unlike most the commercial speech recognition implementations I encounter when phoning companies in the US. That's all the more remarkable given the much broader range of speech Google is required to detect.
What is really nice is the contextual correction, so if you speak a street name that sounds like, say Grand St. but then say in Nashville TN which only has a Grant St., Google will spot that and correct it to Grant St. automagically. (The example is made up, but I've seen it do this many times).
Obviously it's up to you whether or not you speak to Google, though if you ever call me and I don't answer, don't bother leaving a message. Google Voice will be recording and transcribing it for me.
I agree. I personally never use it but my daughter asks siri to do everything. Odd how a child who's new to tech (She's 6) uses this method rather than typing. Now in part thats due to the fact she isn't the best at spelling (Just like her Dad) but she choses it as Kids tend to find the simplest way to do things. To me this means Siri (Or Google Voice) are simple, its just us oldun's who feel like idiots using it, thus we choose not to.
As for the watch. I'll give this one a look. Unsure yet if I'll jump in but certainly the best looking and I still don't care about charging every day as I have to charge my phone that often. still don't get why people get so hung up on the daily charge!
You must learn Klingon. I've found Klingon is 100% compatible with Siri AND whatever the other "voice recognition" system is called.
One major problem is translating between Klingon and English. "Release" is most closely translated as "software has battled its way to tactical supremacy". Etc. Perhaps not the most convenient use of voice recog.
I was reading an article earlier about the Tricorder X Prize (medical wizardry) - and all of the competitors say that body contact is needed to make any meaningful personal medical detector (paired with a smartphone)
Maybe that will be the killer (sorry, lifesaver) app for wearables?
When I'm riding, something that notifies me of upcoming turns, and that I can have a decent look at (i.e. not on the bars, a long way away and inevitably pointed to optimise sky reflections) would be useful.
Would it be £200? Maybe - if it did HR measurements from the wrist, and could pair with ANT+/BT sensors for other "sports" information then there could be a market. But the thing has to do this independently - it needs to not rely on a phone.
I believe it does all the stuff the £150 fitbits do, (something this article fails to mention), so it's actually a pretty good buy at £200.
I actually prefer the look of the new Sony Smartwatch3, and am considering picking on up, as there is some nifty cycling apps, and a neat ski navi/tacho that I am keen to try. Being able to hide my phone away in my ski jacket and control the phone from my watch would work well.
So, I think there is alot more than just changing watchfaces to this.
It's also worth seeing what AndroidWear 2.0 brings (all current AndroidWear watches are getting the update soon).
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/04/source-android-wear-2-0-will-be-released-on-october-15th/
A watch needs to tells me the time, additional information is fine but it's primary role is a time piece and I am quite happy that I only need to change the battery every 2 years or so. I don't understand why I would want a watch that might run out of juice on a daily basis on my way home from work especially when I am trying to catch the right train.
I agree. It's bad enough my phone is no longer a phone.
Last weekend I went out for the day with my kids, phone fully charged. 5 hours later I go to check the traffic for the journey home and the battery is at 3% and the phone shuts down. Some shitty piece of NoQAware (tm) has gone rogue and hammered a 3200mAh battery down to unusable. Nothing in the Android OS prevented it from doing this or killed all non essential processes when the battery got down to, say 15%.
Result is if I'd had an accident or broken down on the way home I would have been been screwed.
Bring back Symbian+QT, we really miss you.
So, as your nice example illustrates, you'll now also have a watch you can't rely on to tell you the bloody time.
My Samsung does as well, but it only does obvious things like dim the screen, shut down wifi and mobile data to stop apps chattering back to base etc.
What it will not do and I suspect your HTC will be the same unfortunately, is kill off any rogue/crapware processes that are hammering the battery. Also, since 4.3+ Google have made it almost impossible to kill off certain system apps like Google+. They want to know where you are and what you are doing 24x7. So if one of those goes nuts (and Google+ does frequently) it will just hammer the battery. Even Greenify can't stop it.
Don't even get me started on the bloody media scanner that blindly scans your entire 64GB SD card for hours with no way of excluding folders. This particular piece of junk has battered my battery on numerous occasions :(
I tells me time and - lo and behold - the date (although it thinks every month has 31 dags and I need to help it along every so-often). It doesn't need recharging. All I have to do is wear it. It has a built in energy accumulation device (commonly known as a spring) so it keeps running for a day or two if I take it off.
Every 7 years I have to take it down to the watch shop, where it is sent along to the manufacturer to be relubed and cleaned up. It comes back after 3 days looking brand new, and I'm set for the next 7 years.
When I get a phone call my phone rings and vibrates, wherupon I decide to take the call or not.
Where exactly does this newfangled gizmo I have to hook up to a charger every day fit in ?
Thing is - I take all my calls. If I got spam calls (or texts - I get none basically, use the TPS) I would add them to the built-in call blocking system, my list is empty.
I have read that people take their phone out of their pocket 75 times a day just to check if they have missed anything - have a text etc. (which is why Lumia Glance saves so much battery I suppose).
Since removing the phone from a pocket appears to be so little hassle (for most people most of the time) that they do it for no obvious reason - then the use case for the watch seems smaller.
I suppose if it could be charged enough kinetically to keep going on standby indefinitely, it would become far more useful - but the amount of power they use is just too much for that I think.
Actually, that's almost exactly how I view my Pebble - as a pager that happens to sit on my wrist.
The Pebble is a good watch, it gives me alerts on SMS, emails, and phone calls, silently, so I *don't* have to pull out my phone to see what that buzz/beep was. It also includes pedestrian watchlike things like a countdown timer and a stopwatch, but that's about it.
And that's about all I want it to do. I don't want a complicated superdevice on my wrist; I want a watch that, like my old watches, has alarms. It's just that the alarm function includes phone calls, and text messages/emails.
It's not for everyone. There are people complain that it doesn't do enough, and there are people who complain it does too much. But I'd rather have an unassuming device that does a few functions well, rather than one that has a hundred functions I can't remember.
It reminds me a lot of my old Palm Pilot. While WinCE devices and other PDAs were trying to put computers into people's hands (at a time when the tech really didn't support that), the Pilot was really just a battery-powered Franklin Daytimer, and it took off because of that.
From what I've seen of most of the competing smartwatches, they show promise, but they are definitely works in progress.
"I have read that people take their phone out of their pocket 75 times a day just to check if they have missed anything - have a text etc. (which is why Lumia Glance saves so much battery I suppose)."
This is my issue with a lot of this new technology - it stops being an enabler and becomes a dependency.
If you can't face a minute of your life without checking bloody facebook then it's a sad state of affairs.
I will only adopt if it gives me something that I haven't got now, but ALSO does not require me to change my life around it.
I've had the Gear 1 and Sony Smartwatch 2 (as well as the very old Sony Ericsson MBW 100 in 2006) so feel I have road tested these devices. I have two phones - one for business and one for personal. My business phone is in-hand and visible during my work day so the notifications to my smartwatch from my personal phone are actually very "handy". Also I can quickly see who is calling and reject calls and reply to sms quickly if in a meeting (no need to find the phone and then enter a PIN etc). So the use depends in your situation - it is not a "silver" bullet to deal with all your digital management issues, it is an add-on for some people for connivence. Yes the suppliers would want you to think if you don't have one you are missing out on something wonderful...you're not.
Most of the speculation has been seemingly prompted by Apple iWatch rumours, and given substance by efforts from Samsung, LG, Motorola and - pre-dating the current smartwatch buzz - Sony. Samsung have taken the 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach, as have the other traditional phone handset makers with their watch efforts. However, not much is said about the existing Bluetooth LE watches that occupy another point on the features against power consumption graph.
Casio (G-Shock BLE) and Citizen (Proximity) make such watches, which give phone notifications, and allow you to 'page' your phone. Reviews suggest the concept (minimal 'connected' features in a traditional-looking watch with good battery life) is sound, but the implementations are not satisfactory (random breaking of the Bluetooth connection etc).
The other element in the mix are the type of device that some people have used for years - fitness trackers and heart rate monitors etc.
None of the above devices require a smartphone-class SoC or a colour display (The Moto 360 is criticised for using an OMAP3 SoC that is believed to be built on a 48nm process). Indeed, the Citizen Proximity watch uses only physical dials to show calls, SMS and email notifications.
The original iPhone was notable for what it left out (contemporary rival handsets had 3G cellular, copy and paste, 3rd party applications) as much for its multitouch UI... this might prove to be a good approach with watches.
"The Moto 360 is criticised for using an OMAP3 SoC that is believed to be built on a 48nm process"
I think most of the criticism for using such an old SoC (think Nexus One) is that more modern SoCs are much more power efficient and snappier. According to Ars Technica there is some lag swiping around the Moto 360's interface and the battery lasts half as long as the Samsung and LG Android Wear devices.
It isn't a mainstream use, I'll grant you, but I had the 2nd Gen Sony Smartwatch (the new wear-based, despite being called No.3, is actually the 4th Gen) and found it useful whilst out training. I do ultra-distance races so, when training, I'm out for several hours at a time. My phone sits in a backpack well out of the way. My smartwatch allows me to see how far I've gone, what direction the next checkpoint is, keep an eye on whether or not anyone (important) is trying to get in contact with me, dismiss/delete the crap etc. With just a phone, all of this required me to keep the phone in some kind of belt pouch (and belt pouch sizes are not keeping up with smartphone sizes so that was becoming tricky in itself) and keep pulling it out, unlocking it and checking it. Okay, not a big deal but I'd occasionally drop it or trip over and sweaty hands/rain tend to make the screen unusable plus, until I got a Z1 Compact, none of my phones have been waterproof so I was always afraid of borking them. The watch certainly wasn't indispensable but it made a few tasks a lot easier and was well worth the £75 it cost.
However, after the first week or two's novelty wore off, it ONLY got used for training. It certainly wasn't a daily watch replacement. I can see the new ones being of use for people who have opted for a Phablet and carry it with them in a bag, though.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
