I brought its charger with me, yet I’m too lazy to connect it to the outlet, take off my watch and connect it to the charger.
Not sure how that's the watch's fault?
I don’t suppose to take off my watch every night and charge it!
That's kinda part of the deal.
the sport band, which doesn’t make it easier to take the Watch off and put it back on.
But, it does. For putting it on you just have to brace it against something else to hold it in place. A couple practice times gets it down pretty good. For taking it off, it's basically a pull tab. Can't be much easier than that.
It's a physical watch, not our abstract lord and savior we can offload all subjectivity onto to make us feel better about ourselves.
keep telling myself it’s the best watch ever designed…
Just wait until it's also the key to your Apple Car.
I've had the sport band and have successfully taken it off and put it back on probably 500 times in a row since I've gotten it (showers and sleeping) - it just takes a bit of practice at first.
I'm also solidly in their target audience since I follow the fitness wheel religiously - about 125 straight days of meeting my "goals", which really has made a marked positive difference in my life and health. I hadn't used anything like a fitbit before that.
It sounds like he'd be happier with a pebble. Battery lasts for most of a week and it's closer to just being a watch than the other smart watches.
I mainly use mine for clock, stopwatch, two factor auth, weather, and music control. Big fan of the hardware buttons that your can bind two favorite apps to, instant access to your commonly used features makes for less poking around on it.
Another alternative would be a Vector Watch. It's very similar to a Pebble, but has longer battery life (about a month) and looks a lot better. It's more expensive, though.
No, but I've seen one live worn by the main investor, Radu Georgescu. It looks really good from a distance, but from a close distance the lines are not very smooth, because of the low resolution (probably the main reason why the battery lasts so much).
I'm really not into gadgets and accessories and haven't owned a watch in more than 15 years, but I've been considering getting a Pebble Round. It looks like it would be actually useful and help me dress up for events or meetings.
You recommend it? I thought the battery was 2 days max..?
I love mine, and get compliments on it as a watch with surprising regularity. Traded a Time Steel for it too. It gets a reliable two days for me (wearing for about 18 hours a day), leaving it on a dresser at night. It can usually last about another half day or longer if needed.
I've got a Time, battery's longer on that one. I do like it, though I'm not sure it was worth the $200. Price dropped really fast after the Kickstarter.
I loved my OG Pebble from a functionality standpoint.
That said, if your goal is for dressing up... I would probably recommend against the Pebble Round. Drop by a Best Buy and check one out in person at least; my impression is that it looks terribly toy-like for a watch and would not be something I'd choose to wear in a more formal situation.
Round is 2-3 days, yeah. IMO it gives up the major drawcard of the Pebble (ie. the battery life and simple 'just the basics' design) for no advantage other than being smaller and prettier. I've got a Time Steel and it lasts around a week, and it's chunky but not hugely so. I like it.
Haven't tried the Round, but the battery life is hard to deal with...
Honestly, I think if you get a black Time (or one of the Time Steels), you can make it work even in relatively formal situations. Because the main unit is relatively thin, you can even get it under your shirt color easily.
I have a red Time, and even then people just assume it's a sports watch or something before they see it light up with a message on it.
It really seems like Apple wanted to have its cake and eat it to with the Apple Watch. I guess they didn't want to explore e-ink, because they wanted a uniform look across devices (sort of, anyway).
> I still don’t. I do use it for the most basic functions, and rarely switch from the main screen. Taking a glance at the time and my next meeting, getting a feel of the temperature outside, and making sure that I have my alarm set, are really my main functions I use it for.
Is pretty much exactly what I do with my Pebble Time, along with the usual notifications etc, which works fine for me
I've known many people who do, but I couldn't ever understand it. It seems more common with people who have fully waterproof sport watches, I assume at least in part because they can wear them in the shower.
>I've known many people who do, but I couldn't ever understand it.
What's there to understand? It all comes down to whether the watch troubles you at all when sleeping. And if it doesn't bother you during the day, why would it bother you at night, when you are mostly unconscious?
I sometimes wear it (during sleep), and others not. Analog watches I can't usually wear when going to sleep, because I have my wrist close to my head, and the "tick tick" noise annoys me. Digital watches, no problem.
>It seems more common with people who have fully waterproof sport watches, I assume at least in part because they can wear them in the shower.
Huh? You can just wipe the watch every now and then.
I can't sleep with one on, and I don't understand why it doesn't bother others who can.
> You can just wipe the watch every now and then.
Even if I could sleep with a watch on, not having a sport watch means that I would have to take it off every morning anyways, so why not just take it off at night?
Your shoes also step on all kinds of dirt. Not something you want in your bed. And hard soles etc are inconvenient when laying flat on a bed.
Your watch does not share those properties.
(And even so, lots of people, have no difficulty sleeping with their shoes or even boots on -- on the sofa at home, in an airport waiting, and it tons of other places besides, and even on the bed, usually with clothes on too, when dead tired).
>What's there to understand? It all comes down to whether the watch troubles you at all when sleeping. And if it doesn't bother you during the day, why would it bother you at night, when you are mostly unconscious
Even with my giant stainless snowboarding watch I'd be worried about breaking the watch while I sleep.
One of the most useful cases for smart watches, for me personally, is sleep tracking.
My LG G and my Pebble before it integrate with the alarm app Sleep for Android. Basically, I set a "I need to wake up by X time" in the app, the app uses the sensors in the watch to monitor how heavily you're sleeping, and will actually set off the alarm at the point within ~a half hour before the alarm time where you're sleeping lightest.
For someone like me that has a very, very hard time getting up in the morning, it's a fairly life changing thing. I also have Sleep tied in with a set of Philips Hues in my bedroom to have it start ramping up the lights to wake me up.
I'm still not a morning person, but I'm less likely to sleep straight through my alarm in the morning these days.
I actually do sleep tracking with my Apple Watch using the Sleep++ app. The Apple Watch's battery is good enough, and charges fast enough, that all I have to do is give it, maybe, 30 minutes of charging when I wake up, and another 30 before I go to bed.
I just woke up after eight and a half hours of sleep, and had 88% battery left. Now, this was also with the Watch in Airplane Mode, but I've forgotten some nights, and still woke up with battery percentages in the same ballpark.
(Data point: I wear the 42mm model. The 38mm has a smaller battery.)
I have a Misfit Flash and I don't even sense it so it is okay to go to sleep with it, I just wonder if I sleep well but if you keep your iphone open it can be used as a smart alarm to wake you up at a light time, but some other brands can do without the phone.
I have been sleeping with the Apple Watch on for the past few months. Like the author of the post, I found the Sports Band annoying to put on and take off every day. Instead of charging all night, I now charge it during my morning shower/shave/toothbrushing routine which gives me enough juice to last all day and night.
Actually, I was surprised you were surprised :) I always wear my watch while sleeping, never seen a problem in that.
But then I realized in other comments that you were not alone in that. My bet: people who remove their watch for sleeping are the ones who tend to wear it tight, while people keeping it wear it loose.
> Huh? Does this mean that he normally sleeps with a watch on?
I always have. Had no idea that some did not, why bother taking it off, especially if it's waterproof? If it's impinging on your wrist or otherwise uncomfortable, you're wearing it too tightly.
I guess this is one of those things nobody really talks about, which leads to some weird differences, such as the guy who never realized until adulthood that putting the toilet seat down was something that wasn't just for women (like, he never did it AT ALL): https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/2jgfhw/tifu_by_using_...
Years later I discovered I had sleep apnea, so "sleep tracking" (currently via Fitbit Charge HR) became important.
(Website down. Couldn't read)
Love my apple watch. Notifications are good, I've found my lost phone a number of times, I talk to siri via it, I've noticed things that come in after wards by checking notifications while phone was in a tough pocket or bag. The faces I have setup give me all the info I need. Recently I found some of the watch apps are much better now and I've been using their views in glances.
Granted, I don't usually go in to apps on the watch cause they're slow, but it is very useful to me. I have a sport band and it is super easy to take off and tighten/loosen.
Plus it looks leagues better than the pebble I had.
Watches being early in their platform generationally, I'm finding there's been little that's been interesting to dive in to try out. Apple Watch was definitely the first, but I was quickly reminded how fast I got rid of my iPhone 1, and Note 1.
Part of a young platform is the tasks it can allow you to do vs what you quickly wish it could do.
A watch to me is just another screen that I'd expect to be able to behave like my phone, or tablet.
Watches, as young as they are in their platform cycle, are going to see a lot of hardware development from iPhone 1 to 3GS which was the first viably performant phone.
Likewise, the Galaxy Note 1 was interesting enough but underwhelmingly powered that the Note 2 replaced it within a year. What was remarkable became applicable.
At this time, I've been looking into the Asus ZenWatch 2 as a more capable alternative when loaded with WearTasker.
The $129 for a ZenWatch 2 that I can program any which way I want with WearTasker while the platform matures is almost too good to pass up while the platform develops and matures. Far less thought to buy the next one.
Would love to hear about any other watches other that Pebble that may have caught your interest.
A powered bucket that you toss all your crap into to wirelessly charge all the electronics you're carrying around with you. Room for at least 1 mobile phone, 1 bluetooth headset, 1 smartwatch and 1 wearable hud-like device.
Notice the "u" in bUcket is uppercase since it looks like the product, making it easy for people to write about in facebook and twitter without having to past the logo everywhere. In fact the logo is just the simple text version of the product name.
And it will even microwave your popcorn if you throw it in the bucket!
[edit] And you will need a bucket next to every bed, any hotel. I wonder what Borat would do with them. Reminds me of this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnuOa7tDco
>And you will need a bucket next to every bed, any hotel.
So? Most hotels managed to keep up with stuff people need over the decades -- phones, air-conditioning, TVs, microwaves, cable, ethernet-based internet access, wi-fi, movies on demand, frequently USB charging ports, etc.
Why not a toIlet®? A small charging bowl shaped like a toilet (cap i to indicate i-gadget). Toss your gear in, hit the little lever, and it charges everything. Makes a flushing noise when done.
Wireless charging IS gonna be a game changer. Over time I had a couple of watches and wrist bands. I got tired from charging them. The Pebble might not need it every night, but it is even more likely that I forget if charging is irregular.
Ikea has now furniture that charges wirelessly. In the end it will be in our walls, floors, coat hangers, beds, doormats, etc. The only other option is that the chips we put in our stuff are not gonna need energy. The current need for more and more powerful chips needs then to be stopped. The next algorithm won't be able to run on it or it wouldn't be able to have a voice interface. My bet is that these things will all need to get lots of energy out of their environment and that wireless charging will play the biggest role in that.
I think it likely that if smartwatches get big adoption, they will replace credit cards, ID, and keys, and we'll see magnetic charging stations in places like cars, airports, and office furniture. That's a pretty big "if" and doesn't help much right now, but it's sorta how USB chargers have gone. And I'd love to be able to get rid of all the other things that I have a tendency to lose.
Hmm, I've had the watch for about 6 months too. I agree with the review that I rarely switch from the main screen, and almost never use any apps. Charging is a little bit of a pain but not nearly as much of a dealbreaker as he's making it seem. And I feel like the sports band is super easy to use and way better than normal watches.
Why not just put all of the phone functionality into the watch? Maybe with a little bluetooth ear-piece that pops out of the watch similar to the S-pen with Samsung Note devices. Feel free to steal my idea, fellow HNers, because that is what I want!
Why do you want this? A watch is too small (in my opinion) to replace a phone entirely, so you'd likely be carrying around a phone all the time anyway. Using bluetooth to share the phone's internet connection seems more sensible to me.
Ironically, a watch is just fine for taking phone calls. The Apple Watch can do it; I've used it a couple times when my phone was in the other room or I was driving and it was a lifesaver. It's actually a fair bit more convenient than speaking into a phone since it's lighter. Only problem is it's always on speaker, but in many cases where you don't have a phone handy, that's what you'd use anyway.
The reason you still need a phone is because we now use a phone for lots of tasks that used to require a desktop computer.
It's a honking great running watch, not a "watch watch," so the statement would be something like "My GOD I'm too busy being incredibly fit to even remove my workout equipment! Look at how low my resting heart rate is!" So I sympathize with him not wanting to wear one of those off the trail. :)
Just to add another data point: I have no problem with charging it nightly. Dropping it on the charger before I get into bed each night has become almost a reflex, I don't even think about it. I put it on in the morning even before I get out of bed.
I've forgotten two or three times, and every time the watch has easily lasted through two full days without dying.
Like the author I don't use third party apps very much (except maybe for Wunderground), but unlike the author I find the built-in functions more than justify the cost. I would recommend it and look forward to seeing what the Watch II brings.
Agreed. What watch don't you have to take off daily and put it back on your wrist the very next day? I personally have no issues with the charging aspect. I mainly use mine for notifications and the occasion siri for timers / reminders.
I and oodles of people don't wear a watch, thus I feel Apple shouldn't have wasted their time.
Rather they need to focus on things like..
- Add wireless charging in the iPhone & make it waterproof
- Force the copyright cartel's hands by buying one of them so they can get their cable TV (OTT) service up and running. Everyone hates Comcast and Apple offering an innovative cable like TV service over the Internet I feel would be game changing .. put a hurt on comcrap.
I and millions of others will never bother wearing any type of smart watch ... our phones do us fine!
I stopped wearing watches 25 years ago and I can't stand strapping anything around my wrists any more, watches, bands, anything. Before then I took off my watch every night. So that won't be a problem for me, an anecdotal data point vs another one. The problem is that's a watch. Am I alone with that?
Me too. Watches and glasses. So not exactly excited about Google pushing their Google Glasses and Apple the Apple Watch. Waiting for Microsoft to come up with the Microsoft Braces!
3 times glasses have stopped something headed for my eyes. I kinda prefer having them on. I also wear a watch because when driving it's easy to check the time without having to dig something out of a pocket. It's also easy to surreptitiously check the time when you're bored :-)
Nope. But I have had cars with clocks, and they were unusable due to:
1. They stopped whenever the electrical system had troubles. So they were either behind or showed what was essentially a random time, because they needed constant resetting.
2. They were either woefully fast or slow.
3. They were digital (no hands) and small, requiring you to peer at them to read the time, taking eyes of the road for seconds.
4. They were accessible through a 'mode' button, which of course I never could remember how to scroll through the modes while trying to drive in traffic.
5. My analog watch I can read in 1/10th of a second with just a flick of the eye.
TL,DR: all clocks in cars suck. Not that they have to suck, they just do because of lousy human factors design.
I'm the same. I'm left handed, but mouse with my right hand, which means it was never comfortable with a watch. I think I finally stopped wearing one completely once I got my first smart phone (one of the original blackberries).
Smart watches have virtually zero appeal to me as a result. They feel very much like something my father would be into and most of the people I've seen wearing them are over 50. Anecdotal I know, but to be honest, I'm surrounded by time keeping devices at this point. I have a half dozen internet connected accurate time-synced devices within arm reach right now in fact.
I don't need one while driving since my car has a clock and I can't ever recall the last time I didn't know what time it was or having to make a fuss to figure it out because I wasn't wearing a watch.
It seems like most of the folks who talk about it being useful are people who live in very urban environments and spend significant time on public transport, bicycles or in taxis where time keeping devices maybe aren't as common.
I used to wear a watch up through the 90s, but I used to take it off reasonably often just because it wasn't super comfortable, it got in the way when typing or using a computer, etc. I stopped wearing a watch altogether when it became redundant with the rise of cell phones. However, I ended up getting a pebble because sometimes I volunteer or work events where I work with a team that coordinates via messaging, and managing literally hundreds of msgs a day is vastly easier with a smart watch.
While my plan was to only wear it during events I decided recently to try wearing it all the time. But I switched to using a "nato band", and that's made a tremendous difference. I regularly wear a watch every waking hour and it's not at all uncomfortable. Maybe eventually I'll grow weary of it, but so far it's been fine.
I am the same. I would only wear something on my wrist if it provided enough functionality to be worth the annoyance of having something attached to me all the time. Both Android Wear and the Apple watch are just not very useful.
I've bought a Garmin Forerunner 235 which I now wear all the time. The battery lasts almost a week. It keeps track of my sleep and heart rate. It has a built in GPS so it's useful when I go running since I don't take my phone with me anymore. Plus when I'm cycling I can connect my cycling sensors to it. It will also show my notifications but that is the least useful part of the watch.
The watch is by no means perfect, there are plenty of bugs. Maybe some day Google or Apple will make their watches useful. Until then, Fitbit, Garmin and Microsoft seem to be doing the right thing with their fitness trackers.
Some people are like that. Me, the first thing I do when I get out of bed is wind my watch and put it on.
Though perhaps I'm atypical I've also had the same steel bracelet on for pretty much the past seven years or so. I've taken it off for a few days/weeks at time, otherwise I sleep with it, travel with it, and shower with it. Having the watch on the other wrist gives a nice bit of symmetry.
I love my big heavy metal watches. I have a couple of lower priced "high end" ones (ie. a "luxury" brand but in the $1500 range) and love them. They are single purpose (well dual if you count time and date), not Internet anything, and they're big and heavy. To make it even "worse" is that they are mechanical; they keep worse time than a $50 quartz watch and you have to send them in for maintenance (to the factory) every 5ish years at about $300 a pop.
You'll be hard pressed to get me to get rid of them. If anything, I'm looking for more.
I am tempted by some sort of smart watch though. I have a cheap fitness band (Mi Band 1s) for basic fitness and sleep monitoring which I like. My brother loves his Apple Watch and I know of a couple of people with Pebbles who like them. My issue is that I'm not sure I need all the functionality. I have very few meetings and I already get desktop reminders of them, I don't text, email notifications are fine, but the vast majority of the time I'm at my desk, so I see them anyway. So while I kind of want one, it's more for the geek factor and the play around with it type of thing.
So I just go back to drooling over the $10,000 watches I'd love to get.
Yet another data point: I'm very happy with mine. Mostly use it for the Activity monitor, Notifications, weather, hike/bike tracking, and music controller. It's handy for taking phone calls when I'm not near my phone, too. Sport band is a little annoying but bearable. I don't care about the charging every night - I do that with all my devices, and can't imagine wearing a watch to sleep.
I'd like to use third-party apps but haven't found any that are particularly well-done. I see this complaint on Reddit a lot too - people are looking for apps but all the existing ones suck. I've heard that WatchOS 2.1 is still pretty buggy and the processor is underpowered, which makes it very difficult to write a high-quality app at the moment.
Since some time i want to express my opinion on Smartwatches specifically the Apple Watch.
- The UI, imho, it's ugly when compared to Android Wear. It needs a refresh to keep up and align with iOS. Possibly better hardware ?
- First of all this is a watch, stop treating like it's the ultimate Computer. It has potential to be great but it isn't yet.
- Apple needs to stop advertising like "you badly need an Apple Watch as a companion for your iPhone or you will have a not so happy life. This is a watch, there are people who never use a regular watch and those that will probably buy one will use it as a regular watch plus Phone notifications or tiny apps.
- All these reviews are a result of Apple Marketing, see above, the product is just the first model it will get better just don't expect to replace your Phone or laptop.
- Why don't people threat it just like a regular nice watch like Fossil, Citizen or Seiko ? Or even if they want like a Tag Heuer (for the gold model).
I've got a G Watch, Moto 360, and Apple Watch. The bit about the UI is interesting - IMHO, Apple's launcher and glance mechanism is much nicer than Android Wear, but Android Wear's notifications and watchfaces are a lot prettier than the Apple Watch. I also think that Android Wear feels more integrated as a UI; it feels like Apple put a whole lot of effort into the stock apps, but their notifications are a kludgy afterthought.
I'm using the Apple Watch as my primary smartwatch right now, largely because I think the hardware is better, but I've got the Android watches charging on the shelf and thought it was pretty ironic to see a Google product be prettier than an Apple one but less practical.
> it was pretty ironic to see a Google product be prettier than an Apple one but less practical.
Completely agree but still Apple has again some advantages since they own both hardware and software so this means in future once Apple get their design improved it might be better than Android Wear. But also i'm looking what traditional Watches Makers like Tag Heuer and Fossil will do with Android Wear.
Android Wear is awful in comparison. The UI is an utter mess and confusing, feels like 0.1 product that launched to the market. I'm not saying Apple Watch is perfect, but it's far more logical.
> Why don't people threat it just like a regular nice watch like Fossil, Citizen or Seiko ? Or even if they want like a Tag Heuer (for the gold model).
Maybe because AppleWatch will be worth little as soon as AppleWatch 2 is released. It happened with iPhone 1 and iPad 1 too. The second generation was so much more powerful (hardware specs). iPad 2 is still supported, whereas iPad 1 cannot even play HD videos and is stuck with iOS 5. We can assume AppleWatch 2 will have a far better hardware and can run apps in a better way while consuming less battery, so that the battery will last longer.
Traditional mechanical watches will work for many decades with some love and care, some of them are of very high precision and quality and already hundreds of years old.
The next problem is, I don't need a smartphone and a watch. Ideally I would want one device, a smart watch that can do everything incl. cell modem and last for a few days and be as small and lightweight as a traditional mechanical watch. We all know that this will take another few years. So for now I am happy with a smartphone and don't use a watch at all.
I can't help feeling that the Apple Watch is more or less a prototype. It reminds me of the first generation iPod, which also did not sell terribly well. That first iPod looked like a high school shop project, basically a laptop hard drive with a piece of Lucite screwed on top. But it had the clickwheel, which was genuinely innovative, and at the time iTunes was a competitive option for managing a music collection. You could see the potential in the platform. It may not be as easy to see where the Apple Watch is going, but I think the difference between the next-gen and this first model will be as great as the difference between the original iPod and the later iPod Touch.
You mean the winding that takes just a few seconds, that can be done anywhere, doesn't require additional equipment, and doesn't need the watch to leave your wrist? :)
They're nowhere near as accurate as a quartz, but...I only have to adjust mine every week(ish) and it takes a minute. Not sure about the "quite a pain" part. And, even if I let it drift for a while it takes around a month for it to hit a couple minutes off.
Source: couple of beaters (Hammy Khaki Auto and an Orange Monster)
I wear my grandfather's old watch back from the 1960s. The first thing I do when I get up is wind it up and put it on. Every two weeks or so I might adjust the minute hand back or forwards a few minutes to sync it with the real time. Not hard at all.
I have a Microsoft Band 2 since a few weeks. Like others, I stopped wearing a watch 20 years ago (when I got a mobile phone) and did not know if I would actually wear it.
For now I quite like the Band: it's not as fashionable as other smartwatches, it's more a utility/health device. It gives feedback on health, and it has motivated me to walk more during the day and sleep longer (yet most days I still don't do enough). I also did some running and biking with it, and the feedback I get from it makes me feel good.
I wear it at night too. It measures sleep; I use the smart alarm that wakes you up according to your sleep cycle. I charge it every two days during breakfast or in the evening.
Apple Watch is fantastic. It keeps introducing me to new features...like I got a phone call and took it from the watch. That was unexpected (I didn't bother to read up on it before buying-- I just wanted it for fitness tracking.)
Hell ,yesterday I wanted to take a picture of the underside of my car with my phone. Turns out the watch works as a remote camera display... very happy with that!
The watch is slowly taking over a big chunk of the stuff I used to use my iPhone for...
I didn't like having to take the sport band off every night, so I got one of those knockoff link bracelets from Amazon- it looks just like the one Apple sells at 1/5th the price.
I've decided that if they release a new watch this spring I will buy it. Even though I was late to get mine, It has more than paid for itself in 6 months. Whatever the new features of the new watch will likely make it worth the upgrade to me. (The workout app alone is worth $350 for me. I've already saved $30 in gas with the navigation reminders I expect... the watch just keeps paying dividends.)
I've been strongly considering buying one of these the last few days. I think I'm gonna hold off for a while longer, probably at least until the next generation comes along.
There's an interview with Phil Schiller a while back[1] that explains where Apple is going with their line of products. Quoting from the article:
> "The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often."
> "The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that."
> "The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. Like, why do I need a notebook? I can add a keyboard! I can do all these things!"
> "The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop, right? It’s been doing this for a decade."
> "[The job of the Mac] is to challenge what we think a computer can do, and do things that no computer has ever done before—[it should] be more and more powerful and capable so that we need a desktop because of its capabilities."
I can relate to what Phil Schiller is saying. For me, the Apple Watch become more useful once I stopped having the phone in my hand all the time.
Nowadays I either leave the phone on my desk or leave it in my pocket and accomplish basic tasks on the Watch. Checking OmniFocus, checking Fantastical, calling Uber, answering calls, making quick iMessage reply, turn-by-turn navigation, etc. You could say these tasks are boring and could be done on a phone. But the point is that I can do it on my wrist without picking up the phone, which, sometimes, very convenience to have both of my hands free.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 190 ms ] threadNot sure how that's the watch's fault?
I don’t suppose to take off my watch every night and charge it!
That's kinda part of the deal.
the sport band, which doesn’t make it easier to take the Watch off and put it back on.
But, it does. For putting it on you just have to brace it against something else to hold it in place. A couple practice times gets it down pretty good. For taking it off, it's basically a pull tab. Can't be much easier than that.
It's a physical watch, not our abstract lord and savior we can offload all subjectivity onto to make us feel better about ourselves.
keep telling myself it’s the best watch ever designed…
Just wait until it's also the key to your Apple Car.
I'm also solidly in their target audience since I follow the fitness wheel religiously - about 125 straight days of meeting my "goals", which really has made a marked positive difference in my life and health. I hadn't used anything like a fitbit before that.
I mainly use mine for clock, stopwatch, two factor auth, weather, and music control. Big fan of the hardware buttons that your can bind two favorite apps to, instant access to your commonly used features makes for less poking around on it.
You recommend it? I thought the battery was 2 days max..?
That said, if your goal is for dressing up... I would probably recommend against the Pebble Round. Drop by a Best Buy and check one out in person at least; my impression is that it looks terribly toy-like for a watch and would not be something I'd choose to wear in a more formal situation.
Honestly, I think if you get a black Time (or one of the Time Steels), you can make it work even in relatively formal situations. Because the main unit is relatively thin, you can even get it under your shirt color easily.
I have a red Time, and even then people just assume it's a sports watch or something before they see it light up with a message on it.
> I still don’t. I do use it for the most basic functions, and rarely switch from the main screen. Taking a glance at the time and my next meeting, getting a feel of the temperature outside, and making sure that I have my alarm set, are really my main functions I use it for.
Is pretty much exactly what I do with my Pebble Time, along with the usual notifications etc, which works fine for me
(BTW, Pebble latest major OS update fixed almost all the screen tearing issues I was having with my Pebble.)
Huh? Does this mean that he normally sleeps with a watch on?
What's there to understand? It all comes down to whether the watch troubles you at all when sleeping. And if it doesn't bother you during the day, why would it bother you at night, when you are mostly unconscious?
I sometimes wear it (during sleep), and others not. Analog watches I can't usually wear when going to sleep, because I have my wrist close to my head, and the "tick tick" noise annoys me. Digital watches, no problem.
>It seems more common with people who have fully waterproof sport watches, I assume at least in part because they can wear them in the shower.
Huh? You can just wipe the watch every now and then.
I can't sleep with one on, and I don't understand why it doesn't bother others who can.
> You can just wipe the watch every now and then.
Even if I could sleep with a watch on, not having a sport watch means that I would have to take it off every morning anyways, so why not just take it off at night?
What's there to bother them? It's just something you have on you wrist all day anyway and barely notice it when you're not checking the time.
I guess some people can't sleep with socks on or pajamas either, but it's not something that's anything more than a personal curiosity.
It's not like having a watch on while sleeping brings in any pain/noise/other issues that make it objectively bad for sleep.
Your watch does not share those properties.
(And even so, lots of people, have no difficulty sleeping with their shoes or even boots on -- on the sofa at home, in an airport waiting, and it tons of other places besides, and even on the bed, usually with clothes on too, when dead tired).
Yours is a very weak argument, find a better one.
Even with my giant stainless snowboarding watch I'd be worried about breaking the watch while I sleep.
My LG G and my Pebble before it integrate with the alarm app Sleep for Android. Basically, I set a "I need to wake up by X time" in the app, the app uses the sensors in the watch to monitor how heavily you're sleeping, and will actually set off the alarm at the point within ~a half hour before the alarm time where you're sleeping lightest.
For someone like me that has a very, very hard time getting up in the morning, it's a fairly life changing thing. I also have Sleep tied in with a set of Philips Hues in my bedroom to have it start ramping up the lights to wake me up.
I'm still not a morning person, but I'm less likely to sleep straight through my alarm in the morning these days.
I just woke up after eight and a half hours of sleep, and had 88% battery left. Now, this was also with the Watch in Airplane Mode, but I've forgotten some nights, and still woke up with battery percentages in the same ballpark.
(Data point: I wear the 42mm model. The 38mm has a smaller battery.)
iWatch
no thanks.
I wear my omega de ville chronometer 24/7. no ticking. and the only time I know it's there is when I want to see what time it is.
or when watching the second hand sweep round for relaxation.
no electronics. no battery. suitable for every occasion.
everything the iwatch isn't.
Pebble owner here: for sleep tracking and a vibrating alarm that doesn't wake my wife.
Also, since it is true waterproof, for laps counting while swimming.
Apple Watch got the looks, Pebble got what really matters. Like in the Chinese proverb: "the ugly wife is a treasure at home".
But then I realized in other comments that you were not alone in that. My bet: people who remove their watch for sleeping are the ones who tend to wear it tight, while people keeping it wear it loose.
I always have. Had no idea that some did not, why bother taking it off, especially if it's waterproof? If it's impinging on your wrist or otherwise uncomfortable, you're wearing it too tightly.
I guess this is one of those things nobody really talks about, which leads to some weird differences, such as the guy who never realized until adulthood that putting the toilet seat down was something that wasn't just for women (like, he never did it AT ALL): https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/2jgfhw/tifu_by_using_...
Years later I discovered I had sleep apnea, so "sleep tracking" (currently via Fitbit Charge HR) became important.
I got this one for $10. http://www.amazon.com/Orzly-Night-Stand-Apple-Watch-Conceali...
Granted, I don't usually go in to apps on the watch cause they're slow, but it is very useful to me. I have a sport band and it is super easy to take off and tighten/loosen.
Plus it looks leagues better than the pebble I had.
Part of a young platform is the tasks it can allow you to do vs what you quickly wish it could do.
A watch to me is just another screen that I'd expect to be able to behave like my phone, or tablet.
Watches, as young as they are in their platform cycle, are going to see a lot of hardware development from iPhone 1 to 3GS which was the first viably performant phone.
Likewise, the Galaxy Note 1 was interesting enough but underwhelmingly powered that the Note 2 replaced it within a year. What was remarkable became applicable.
At this time, I've been looking into the Asus ZenWatch 2 as a more capable alternative when loaded with WearTasker.
The $129 for a ZenWatch 2 that I can program any which way I want with WearTasker while the platform matures is almost too good to pass up while the platform develops and matures. Far less thought to buy the next one.
Would love to hear about any other watches other that Pebble that may have caught your interest.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cuberob.we...
http://amazon.com/ASUS-ZenWatch-Android-Wear-Smartwatch/dp/B...
Next unicorn idea: a checklist app of all the devices to charge before going to bed every night!
A powered bucket that you toss all your crap into to wirelessly charge all the electronics you're carrying around with you. Room for at least 1 mobile phone, 1 bluetooth headset, 1 smartwatch and 1 wearable hud-like device.
Notice the "u" in bUcket is uppercase since it looks like the product, making it easy for people to write about in facebook and twitter without having to past the logo everywhere. In fact the logo is just the simple text version of the product name.
Useful and a viral marketing plan all at once.
[edit] And you will need a bucket next to every bed, any hotel. I wonder what Borat would do with them. Reminds me of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnuOa7tDco
So? Most hotels managed to keep up with stuff people need over the decades -- phones, air-conditioning, TVs, microwaves, cable, ethernet-based internet access, wi-fi, movies on demand, frequently USB charging ports, etc.
Ikea has now furniture that charges wirelessly. In the end it will be in our walls, floors, coat hangers, beds, doormats, etc. The only other option is that the chips we put in our stuff are not gonna need energy. The current need for more and more powerful chips needs then to be stopped. The next algorithm won't be able to run on it or it wouldn't be able to have a voice interface. My bet is that these things will all need to get lots of energy out of their environment and that wireless charging will play the biggest role in that.
BTW, if the "jack port" (sic) is removed, there will still be a Lightning port. Which supplies power.
Due to bad luck, I went to buy a LG Watch Urbane 2nd ed 3 days after it was pulled from the store :-/
At the moment, there is no Android/iOS/Windows Phone LTE watch on the market. I would even settle for 3G :-/
Two words: screen. size.
The reason you still need a phone is because we now use a phone for lots of tasks that used to require a desktop computer.
I don't understand... the choice of what watch to wear is hindered by it being a "statement"?
I've forgotten two or three times, and every time the watch has easily lasted through two full days without dying.
Like the author I don't use third party apps very much (except maybe for Wunderground), but unlike the author I find the built-in functions more than justify the cost. I would recommend it and look forward to seeing what the Watch II brings.
Rather they need to focus on things like..
- Add wireless charging in the iPhone & make it waterproof
- Force the copyright cartel's hands by buying one of them so they can get their cable TV (OTT) service up and running. Everyone hates Comcast and Apple offering an innovative cable like TV service over the Internet I feel would be game changing .. put a hurt on comcrap.
I and millions of others will never bother wearing any type of smart watch ... our phones do us fine!
Of course, maybe you are right and it is the oodles of non-watch wearers who will finally bring Apple down.
Anyway, boredom is healthy, embrace it!!
Nope. But I have had cars with clocks, and they were unusable due to:
1. They stopped whenever the electrical system had troubles. So they were either behind or showed what was essentially a random time, because they needed constant resetting.
2. They were either woefully fast or slow.
3. They were digital (no hands) and small, requiring you to peer at them to read the time, taking eyes of the road for seconds.
4. They were accessible through a 'mode' button, which of course I never could remember how to scroll through the modes while trying to drive in traffic.
5. My analog watch I can read in 1/10th of a second with just a flick of the eye.
TL,DR: all clocks in cars suck. Not that they have to suck, they just do because of lousy human factors design.
Smart watches have virtually zero appeal to me as a result. They feel very much like something my father would be into and most of the people I've seen wearing them are over 50. Anecdotal I know, but to be honest, I'm surrounded by time keeping devices at this point. I have a half dozen internet connected accurate time-synced devices within arm reach right now in fact.
I don't need one while driving since my car has a clock and I can't ever recall the last time I didn't know what time it was or having to make a fuss to figure it out because I wasn't wearing a watch.
It seems like most of the folks who talk about it being useful are people who live in very urban environments and spend significant time on public transport, bicycles or in taxis where time keeping devices maybe aren't as common.
While my plan was to only wear it during events I decided recently to try wearing it all the time. But I switched to using a "nato band", and that's made a tremendous difference. I regularly wear a watch every waking hour and it's not at all uncomfortable. Maybe eventually I'll grow weary of it, but so far it's been fine.
I've bought a Garmin Forerunner 235 which I now wear all the time. The battery lasts almost a week. It keeps track of my sleep and heart rate. It has a built in GPS so it's useful when I go running since I don't take my phone with me anymore. Plus when I'm cycling I can connect my cycling sensors to it. It will also show my notifications but that is the least useful part of the watch.
The watch is by no means perfect, there are plenty of bugs. Maybe some day Google or Apple will make their watches useful. Until then, Fitbit, Garmin and Microsoft seem to be doing the right thing with their fitness trackers.
Though perhaps I'm atypical I've also had the same steel bracelet on for pretty much the past seven years or so. I've taken it off for a few days/weeks at time, otherwise I sleep with it, travel with it, and shower with it. Having the watch on the other wrist gives a nice bit of symmetry.
You'll be hard pressed to get me to get rid of them. If anything, I'm looking for more.
I am tempted by some sort of smart watch though. I have a cheap fitness band (Mi Band 1s) for basic fitness and sleep monitoring which I like. My brother loves his Apple Watch and I know of a couple of people with Pebbles who like them. My issue is that I'm not sure I need all the functionality. I have very few meetings and I already get desktop reminders of them, I don't text, email notifications are fine, but the vast majority of the time I'm at my desk, so I see them anyway. So while I kind of want one, it's more for the geek factor and the play around with it type of thing.
So I just go back to drooling over the $10,000 watches I'd love to get.
I'd like to use third-party apps but haven't found any that are particularly well-done. I see this complaint on Reddit a lot too - people are looking for apps but all the existing ones suck. I've heard that WatchOS 2.1 is still pretty buggy and the processor is underpowered, which makes it very difficult to write a high-quality app at the moment.
- The UI, imho, it's ugly when compared to Android Wear. It needs a refresh to keep up and align with iOS. Possibly better hardware ?
- First of all this is a watch, stop treating like it's the ultimate Computer. It has potential to be great but it isn't yet.
- Apple needs to stop advertising like "you badly need an Apple Watch as a companion for your iPhone or you will have a not so happy life. This is a watch, there are people who never use a regular watch and those that will probably buy one will use it as a regular watch plus Phone notifications or tiny apps.
- All these reviews are a result of Apple Marketing, see above, the product is just the first model it will get better just don't expect to replace your Phone or laptop.
- Why don't people threat it just like a regular nice watch like Fossil, Citizen or Seiko ? Or even if they want like a Tag Heuer (for the gold model).
I'm using the Apple Watch as my primary smartwatch right now, largely because I think the hardware is better, but I've got the Android watches charging on the shelf and thought it was pretty ironic to see a Google product be prettier than an Apple one but less practical.
Completely agree but still Apple has again some advantages since they own both hardware and software so this means in future once Apple get their design improved it might be better than Android Wear. But also i'm looking what traditional Watches Makers like Tag Heuer and Fossil will do with Android Wear.
Maybe because AppleWatch will be worth little as soon as AppleWatch 2 is released. It happened with iPhone 1 and iPad 1 too. The second generation was so much more powerful (hardware specs). iPad 2 is still supported, whereas iPad 1 cannot even play HD videos and is stuck with iOS 5. We can assume AppleWatch 2 will have a far better hardware and can run apps in a better way while consuming less battery, so that the battery will last longer.
Traditional mechanical watches will work for many decades with some love and care, some of them are of very high precision and quality and already hundreds of years old.
The next problem is, I don't need a smartphone and a watch. Ideally I would want one device, a smart watch that can do everything incl. cell modem and last for a few days and be as small and lightweight as a traditional mechanical watch. We all know that this will take another few years. So for now I am happy with a smartphone and don't use a watch at all.
Oh, the humanity.
Imaging us with those old mechanical watches. That we had to wind-up AND set to the correct time.
Source: couple of beaters (Hammy Khaki Auto and an Orange Monster)
For now I quite like the Band: it's not as fashionable as other smartwatches, it's more a utility/health device. It gives feedback on health, and it has motivated me to walk more during the day and sleep longer (yet most days I still don't do enough). I also did some running and biking with it, and the feedback I get from it makes me feel good.
I wear it at night too. It measures sleep; I use the smart alarm that wakes you up according to your sleep cycle. I charge it every two days during breakfast or in the evening.
I like mine, and I don't have a problem charging it frequently enough nor do I find it hard to take on or off with the sport band.
I do a major criticism which is that 3rd Party apps are essentially useless because they are too fiddly to launch.
Luckily the built in features make it a good product anyway.
Hell ,yesterday I wanted to take a picture of the underside of my car with my phone. Turns out the watch works as a remote camera display... very happy with that!
The watch is slowly taking over a big chunk of the stuff I used to use my iPhone for...
I didn't like having to take the sport band off every night, so I got one of those knockoff link bracelets from Amazon- it looks just like the one Apple sells at 1/5th the price.
I've decided that if they release a new watch this spring I will buy it. Even though I was late to get mine, It has more than paid for itself in 6 months. Whatever the new features of the new watch will likely make it worth the upgrade to me. (The workout app alone is worth $350 for me. I've already saved $30 in gas with the navigation reminders I expect... the watch just keeps paying dividends.)
And now eight years later they have a billion active devices.
(Okay okay, Cook probably meant all device types combined, but iPhone would still be a huge portion of that)
> "The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often."
> "The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that."
> "The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. Like, why do I need a notebook? I can add a keyboard! I can do all these things!"
> "The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop, right? It’s been doing this for a decade."
> "[The job of the Mac] is to challenge what we think a computer can do, and do things that no computer has ever done before—[it should] be more and more powerful and capable so that we need a desktop because of its capabilities."
I can relate to what Phil Schiller is saying. For me, the Apple Watch become more useful once I stopped having the phone in my hand all the time.
Nowadays I either leave the phone on my desk or leave it in my pocket and accomplish basic tasks on the Watch. Checking OmniFocus, checking Fantastical, calling Uber, answering calls, making quick iMessage reply, turn-by-turn navigation, etc. You could say these tasks are boring and could be done on a phone. But the point is that I can do it on my wrist without picking up the phone, which, sometimes, very convenience to have both of my hands free.
[1]: http://fortune.com/2015/12/04/schiller-apple-theory/