Smart Watches

[Raging_Bulls]

Re: Re:

On the other hand, if you're the type of person who loves doing stuff with Android, downloads the SDK, builds versions on their PC, and mods OSs and tinkers to that level, of course you'd probably grab one as soon as.

I'm still not sure I would though. I simply don't like the bulk of most of those smart or weird watches (like the binary ones).


They also offer barely any advantage over my phone.

I'd rather read my calendar, text messages or mails on a 5" HD screen than on a 1.5" diameter VGA screen. You can't reply on the watch anyway.
Same with the map. Only useful when really navigating because it'll then only display the next corner/exit, but sometimes I like to zoom out and look for my own scenic routes. Good luck doing that on a watch.
Phone calls? Yeah, right. Good for a couple "Kitt, I need you" jokes, but that'll be it.
Remote camera? Real life isn't a bad James Bond movie. No use for such gimmicks.
As a watch then? Nothing wrong with my old Festina.

Seriously, the only use I actually see for a smart watch is for controlling my phone's music player.

That being said, if the soon-to-be-revealed HTC watch is styled to match the One M8, I'll probably come up with some use for it.

 

[Neil]

Re: Re:

On the other hand, if you're the type of person who loves doing stuff with Android, downloads the SDK, builds versions on their PC, and mods OSs and tinkers to that level, of course you'd probably grab one as soon as.

I'm still not sure I would though. I simply don't like the bulk of most of those smart or weird watches (like the binary ones).


They also offer barely any advantage over my phone.

I'd rather read my calendar, text messages or mails on a 5" HD screen than on a 1.5" diameter VGA screen. You can't reply on the watch anyway.
Same with the map. Only useful when really navigating because it'll then only display the next corner/exit, but sometimes I like to zoom out and look for my own scenic routes. Good luck doing that on a watch.
Phone calls? Yeah, right. Good for a couple "Kitt, I need you" jokes, but that'll be it.
Remote camera? Real life isn't a bad James Bond movie. No use for such gimmicks.
As a watch then? Nothing wrong with my old Festina.

Seriously, the only use I actually see for a smart watch is for controlling my phone's music player.

That being said, if the soon-to-be-revealed HTC watch is styled to match the One M8, I'll probably come up with some use for it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure there will be some that go with them, and their popularity will increase. But a step change in the type of displays and how they're deployed is kinda what they need to be effective as wearable tech in the way implied (kinda like Nokia's "vision" video thingmy from a while back).

But I think if you have specific needs, at present (sports related tracking of some kind) they are clearly not the best choice at present, or the near future.

 

[Neil]

I'm taking the old farts standpoint. I won't be buying one until they do something genuinely useful. I'm not into technology just for the sake of it or to impress the shallow. The only.thing going near my wrist for the forseeable is my Traser.

This is a good point well made - at the moment, it's all potential in terms of what they can really offer people with specific requirements.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se.

But if you have specific needs, there are much better options at present - for various reasons.

And the extrapolation that smart-watches will instigate some paradigm-shift in wearable tech and it's use - well maybe - but it will need a lot of other better things to come along to enable it.

Personally, I have enough things I have to charge, have to meddle with. What I want from my watch(es), these days, is something I don't have to faff around with. Always the right time (even when BST kicks-in / goes away), always charged, able to be easily read night or day. I wear them 24 hours a day, and the only thing I need to do if travelling to a different timezone is set the new timezone. Last thing I want, is to have to take the damn thing off, every so often to charge it up.

 

[yagamuffin]

Charging I'm not worried about, like my phone it'll be charging while I'm asleep and if it can use the same wireless charger then even better.
I think the idea of the smartwatch, at least at the moment is it's an extension of the phone. Your wrist will vibrate when you get a message, a call or an appointment. If it's a call you can pop on your headset and answer it, a message you can read the opening few lines and get the gist to see whether you need to look further and the appointment will tell you where and when you need to be wherever. All while you're phone is tucked nicely away in your pocket/bag/desk drawer/wherever. As phones start to get bigger again and hipster clothes start to get tighter(!) being able to interact with your phone without having to carry it in your hand because it won't fit in your pocket is going to become more important.
I'm liking the look of Android Wear, being able to use Google Now from your watch may actually be pretty useful, "Watch, where the **** am I? Take me home please" and ping, up come the directions to home! Sounds pretty cool to me :8

 

[xerxes]

Re:

Most of the reviews I've seen of them haven't been very complimentary. Also, are they waterproof? You'd want something that could stand up to a bit of a soaking for use on a bike.

 

[T'boo Ted]

There seem to be a few available and I'm thinking they could be a useful aid for the cyclist, especially if they could be used with some sort of GPS app.

Only talking about this point, I use a Garmin FR610, and generally it works pretty well, but having it on your wrist when riding, well that not so good. I recent;y got a handlebar mount for it, and it is like a million times better. Even if you only have 1 field displayed, its still not the easiest to read.

 

[Neil]

Charging I'm not worried about, like my phone it'll be charging while I'm asleep and if it can use the same wireless charger then even better.
I think the idea of the smartwatch, at least at the moment is it's an extension of the phone. Your wrist will vibrate when you get a message, a call or an appointment. If it's a call you can pop on your headset and answer it, a message you can read the opening few lines and get the gist to see whether you need to look further and the appointment will tell you where and when you need to be wherever. All while you're phone is tucked nicely away in your pocket/bag/desk drawer/wherever. As phones start to get bigger again and hipster clothes start to get tighter(!) being able to interact with your phone without having to carry it in your hand because it won't fit in your pocket is going to become more important.
I'm liking the look of Android Wear, being able to use Google Now from your watch may actually be pretty useful, "Watch, where the f**k am I? Take me home please" and ping, up come the directions to home! Sounds pretty cool to me :8

No doubt - and perhaps for some they are, or will be an absolute boon.

Personally, I'm quite happy to let my smartphone take care of those things, and I actually prefer the lines of demarcation - I like my watch(es) to be good at being a watch, not an inferior proxy for my smartphone.

But then we're all different, and if nothing else, the "cool" factor is a BIG factor in consumer electronics. As is seeding, and creating a need for something.

When such wearable interfaces are more robust, don't require fairly regular removal for charging (ideally solar powered), have decent water-resistance, and have a reasonable degree of autonomy and true function in their own right, maybe I'd be more swayed, personally.

I just think for the purposes of tracking sports activity, other things come to play - robustness, water resistance - those sorts of things. If you like them, and can find reasons and lots of future potential - every strength to you.

 

[Bats]

Smart watches are an absolutely rubbish idea that gets pushed around a lot by people who haven't the foggiest about how to design and make an actually useful product. Oddly enough this overlaps a lot with tech journalists.

I did laugh though when a combination of apple false-flag rumours and the tech press' usual idiocy convinced Samsung to rush one out the other year. Lead balloon comes to mind.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

Each to their own.
I find the concept of having a device aka wristwatch, strapped to my hand that only does one pointless thing e.g. just display you the time, well plain silly.

Something useful like the smartwatches now I could start wearing them.

 

[Neil]

Re: Re:

Each to their own.

With you there.

I find the concept of having a device aka wristwatch, strapped to my hand that only does one pointless thing e.g. just display you the time, well plain silly.

You lost me, there.

People have been wearing watches for the sole purpose of telling you the time for a loooong time. It's hardly pointless.

Something useful like the smartwatches now I could start wearing them.

There's only so much info that a small device on your wrist can give you. Sure, I can see to some the advantage of packing their phone away, whilst they get some info from their phone - but that's only some people.

Plenty of people still want a watch to tell the time.

Independence, autonomy, solar-power and robustness, and also features that replace other things I'm using for wearable tech - maybe, whenever it gets there. But probably more as supplementary / complementary wearable tech than something that replaces a decent watch for me.

If you're an enthusiast or a gadget lover, I can see the draw - but that's what pointless tech does in the early stages, draws us in, and the early adopters are the ones that drive it forward to something that can actually sustain, or not.

Thing is, apart from the gadget lovers, they're not there, yet, threatening the devices that people do use for key, functional, wearable tech.