Smartwatches

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Mingo

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Figured they're getting popular enough to deserve their own thread.

Have pretty much decided on getting a LG G Watch R and thinking I will pick one up tomorrow. Have always been intrigued with the idea of smartwatches and have waited quite a while for them to get to a reasonable quality but I think with the Moto 360 and G Watch R they're almost there. My only real concern is about the size of it but I'm sure I'll get used to it in time.

Using my phone alot for work I feel I might find a watch handy for having quick access to a calculator or calendar. Also I get sick of pulling out my phone whenever I get a message (Whatsapp is used heavily in my workplace) so I think I'll get alot of use out of it.

Anyone own a smartwatch or plan to get one? What do you have, what do you think? etc etc
 

dav3

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I jumped on board with Pebble during the Kickstarter campaign and I've been using it on and off for the last 18 or so months. It's a very simple device but it's everything you really need in a smartwatch, and they're constantly improving it. The battery lasts a week, there are plenty of apps for it, they've even implemented independent background apps recently (eg. basic fitness monitoring stuff). The only downside is that the original version looks very....... geeky. I'm tempted to get the Pebble Steel but it sounds like they're releasing a new watch next year so I'll probably hang on for that.

I'm not sure about all these Android Wear devices that are coming out, they look fancy but they seem like complete overkill. If you're going to grab one I reckon the LG is the best of the bunch, but personally Pebble Steel would be the way to go.
 

Mingo

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The pebble has tempted me for quite some time but android wear got me eventually as I thought it'd be nice to have the backing of Google and colour screen etc. Mate has a pebble steel though and it's quite an impressive little unit.

So I've had the G Watch R for a few days now and I'm quite happy. I did have trouble for a while with the "Ok Google" voice recognition thing always being "offline" pretty much making 50% of the watch useless. But I recovered the watch and re installed the android wear app on my phone and it's been working for me for quite a few hours now, so it must have been a random software glitch. Googling has taught me it's happened for people on the Moto 360 too so must be an android thing.

Even though I've used it reasonably heavily battery life is a tad under what I've heard. Saw a couple of reviews that claimed you can get a couple of days out of it but dunno how people are getting that. Yesterday it was at 20% when I went to bed and today it's at 44% at time of writing this... so I'll be charging it every night. Doesn't overly bother me as long as it gets through the day.

Will look forward to the development of android wear as it's still in it's infancy. Aside from changing the watch faces customization is almost non existent and it can be a pain to get to apps (some sort of gesture on the watch face would be nice). The apps that I have tried aren't really that impressive but it'd be hard on such a small screen. Google Now seems to display cards very randomly. For example, I still haven't figured out a way to constantly show the weather, seems to only want to display in the morning or when it picks me up in a new location. It's also been giving me ice hockey scores for some reason, gimme cricket scores dammit!

Display is quite crisp and more than enough for a screen of it's size. Seems better than the Moto 360 with a better screen for battery life (blacks = no battery drain as it's an OLED screen) and a better resolution on a smaller display. The only thing I really think the Moto 360 has over the G Watch is the ambient light sensor to auto adjust the brightness of the display, it can be a bit annoying to have to manually turn up the display when you go outside. But other than that, unless you were really sold on the look of the 360 (the flat tyre black bar on the bottom would annoy me) I really don't see any reason to get the Moto 360 over the G Watch personally.

Anyway, overall it's pretty much what I expected. Reckon it's cut back on me taking my phone out of my pocket by about 50%. Just hope google keep working on android wear and manufacturers keep us up to date with the software changes.
 

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dav3

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Will look forward to the development of android wear as it's still in it's infancy.

Yeah it'll be interesting to see what they do with it, because so far it seems to be a bit of a rush job and I reckon they've missed the point. It should be a lot simpler and not a duplicate of your phone, and charging a watch nightly is a little ridiculous. Personally I think colour touchscreens, cameras, voice control, and all the other fancy features people like LG/Motorola/Samsung are trying to cram in are a bit much, they should have started simpler and got the basics right before they started making things complicated.
 

Mingo

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Yeah it'll be interesting to see what they do with it, because so far it seems to be a bit of a rush job and I reckon they've missed the point. It should be a lot simpler and not a duplicate of your phone, and charging a watch nightly is a little ridiculous. Personally I think colour touchscreens, cameras, voice control, and all the other fancy features people like LG/Motorola/Samsung are trying to cram in are a bit much, they should have started simpler and got the basics right before they started making things complicated.
I must admit ever since I made that post on Sunday I went to bed with the watch at 60% and now I sit here at the end of my work day and at 6:30 with the watch at 80% battery life so I won't have to charge it tonight. Battery must have needed breaking in or something.

Still having trouble with the Ok Google portion of the watch unfortunately :( Dunno if I should just return it or put up with it until they iron it out. 99% sure it's software related.
 

Jamie Skella

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I almost bought a Pebble but ended up canning the order. The Moto 360 looks fantastic, but I'll be hanging out to see how good (or bad) the Apple Watch is before making an actual purchase.

From what I understand, the battery will still require nightly charging, but being able to place it down on a custom dock - instead of plugging it in - like the attached image may make that reality a tiny bit less frustrating.

composure-apple-watch-charger-dock-001.jpg
 

Mingo

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Relatively happy owner of the G Watch R too Mingo, downloaded Facer yet mate?
I got facer, played around with it for two or three minutes, didn't get it then refunded it :oops: I should probably give it another go. I'm currently using an Instaweather watch face which is quite nice.
 
I got facer, played around with it for two or three minutes, didn't get it then refunded it :oops: I should probably give it another go. I'm currently using an Instaweather watch face which is quite nice.

On it's own it's confusing as hell, but if you go to facerepo.com, you can download faces there. (not sure if you've already tried this)
 

Mingo

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On it's own it's confusing as hell, but if you go to facerepo.com, you can download faces there. (not sure if you've already tried this)
No, no I have not :oops: Thank you kind sir, will give it another whirl now.
 

Mingo

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Ryz do you use watch faces on your LG that don't have a battery saving idle screen? Does it eat into your battery pretty bad? I'm finding all the nerdy specific watch faces (Jurassic Park, Sonic, Walking Dead etc) go to the full colour screen when idle.
 

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Maxwell110

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I've got a regular old G Watch, mainly because it was like 99 bucks, and it has been great! I've been using The hundreds watch faces on shuffle and have been getting days of battery life. I'm also a big fan of the always on, I think that a smartwatch needs to be competent as a watch before it tries to add other features.
 

dav3

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10302745_1016404708389427_4101564650892778391_n.jpg

Well....... Pebble just upped the ante a little, not only are they also releasing a Peddle Time Steel with this Kickstarter campaign, they also announced that the charge port on the back of the watch doubles as a plug for "smartstraps". It opens the possibility for extended batteries, GPS, heartrate monitors, etc...... which can all be swapped out quickly with quick release straps. They also upped the battery life on the Steel to up to 10 days.
 

Slacker

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I was very keen on the apple watch, but have been scared off by battery and cost (factor into cost the need to buy a new iphone).

Strangely enough, I am becoming tempted by the Microsoft Band which offers the exact functionality I want: a wide array of fitness sensors (that all work away from the phone), time, notificiations and adequate battery performance. Negatives are the house arrest styling, questionable durability (scratches easily, not water proof) and most importantly availibility as I dont know when it will be sold outside the US.

The microsoft band continues to sell out in the US, which bodes well in the face of microsofts negligable marketing.
 

Mingo

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I was very keen on the apple watch, but have been scared off by battery and cost (factor into cost the need to buy a new iphone).

Strangely enough, I am becoming tempted by the Microsoft Band which offers the exact functionality I want: a wide array of fitness sensors (that all work away from the phone), time, notificiations and adequate battery performance. Negatives are the house arrest styling, questionable durability (scratches easily, not water proof) and most importantly availibility as I dont know when it will be sold outside the US.

The microsoft band continues to sell out in the US, which bodes well in the face of microsofts negligable marketing.
Well yeah, I'd never heard of it :oops:
 

NetworkNerd

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I was very keen on the apple watch, but have been scared off by battery and cost (factor into cost the need to buy a new iphone).

Strangely enough, I am becoming tempted by the Microsoft Band which offers the exact functionality I want: a wide array of fitness sensors (that all work away from the phone), time, notificiations and adequate battery performance. Negatives are the house arrest styling, questionable durability (scratches easily, not water proof) and most importantly availibility as I dont know when it will be sold outside the US.

The microsoft band continues to sell out in the US, which bodes well in the face of microsofts negligable marketing.

The microsoft band seems to be more like your fitness watch + a few more functions whereas the apple watch is more like a fashion statement and you can use the watch as a speaker.

I hadn't heard of the microsoft band but looking at it, it does seem fairly good, especially if you are health conscious. It has the GPS inbuilt so you dont need to take your phone when you go for a run.
 

red+black

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I'm looking at a new watch that does not require the presence of a phone. I've had a couple Polars but I'm probably looking for something else this time round.
 

dav3

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I'm looking at a new watch that does not require the presence of a phone. I've had a couple Polars but I'm probably looking for something else this time round.

The Sony Smartwatch 3 is the only one I know of sold locally. There's already a prototype smartstrap for the new Pebble Time that'll let it work without a phone but I'm not sure if/when it will be completed, or how much it will be.
 
Ryz do you use watch faces on your LG that don't have a battery saving idle screen? Does it eat into your battery pretty bad? I'm finding all the nerdy specific watch faces (Jurassic Park, Sonic, Walking Dead etc) go to the full colour screen when idle.


Sorry about late reply, dumb question, double checked what settings you've got?
 
I was very keen on the apple watch, but have been scared off by battery and cost (factor into cost the need to buy a new iphone).

Strangely enough, I am becoming tempted by the Microsoft Band which offers the exact functionality I want: a wide array of fitness sensors (that all work away from the phone), time, notificiations and adequate battery performance. Negatives are the house arrest styling, questionable durability (scratches easily, not water proof) and most importantly availibility as I dont know when it will be sold outside the US.

The microsoft band continues to sell out in the US, which bodes well in the face of microsofts negligable marketing.

Must say did lol at naming their version of Siri with 'Cortana' from Halo :D
 

dav3

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so is anyone getting an Apple Watch?

LOL no. It's a pretty watch but that's all it's really got going for it, 18 hours battery life is a joke. They were way too slow to the market and seem to be making rookie mistakes that the competition is in the process of fixing. I'm sure it'll do well because it's an Apple device, but seeing as how their market share is dropping I'm not sure making it an Apple only device is too smart.

I've got a Pebble Time Steel arriving in July, it's nice and simple, and I'm interested to see where the Smartstrap idea goes.
 
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