It's the software, stupid: Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch bags big apps Samsung is not a great innovator, yet it’s certainly one of the world’s greatest imitators. Although it follows other companies into booming markets with me-too products, it remembers to add a little more sparkle to its offerings so that it not merely to catches up with its rivals, it eventually pushes past them. That’s what …
Tethered = sadness and fail. Remember the early Nokia 700 web tablet thingy? Had to be thethered for connectivity outside wifi, which was a deliberate design choice, and as soon as the iphone came out it shriveled and died. Or the hilarity with Blackberry's tablet mail that had to be tethered to the phone at first?
Tethering might increase functionality. It definitely increases hassle and things to fail.
It's not so much about age - it's experience. The whole smartwatch thing comes around every few years or so, and a few maniacs get excited, but then we all realise that our phones have a clock on them and we've all gotten very used to slipping it out and having a quick glance.
None of these 'smart' watches actually do anything particularly smart, and where it comes to functionality they seem to promise little beyond the last wave of them we saw years ago...except for a few acronyms like OLED, etc What they will do it empty your wallet for a thing that won't even last pass staying out overnight at a friend's house, or partying, whatever.
I know which watch you bought then.
This was the one I bought (or something similar).
I can not remember if I ever did get a calculator watch, but I had a very simple "organizer" one that I could store phone numbers on (never used a phone back then, so pointless) and it was made by Casio.
Was one of these http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mlwSOhLASb8OHLwDKl2OX1Q.jpg
Had a radio watch at some point that sadly fell apart.
Never went back to such gadgets again after that. And a rotary watch or two is all I've got. :)
Pah! That makes you a mere whippersnapper.
Anyone remember the Sinclair Black Watch? Two versions; one pre-assembled and the other was one that you had to solder yourself.
All would have worked well but for the essential 1970s fashion items; when everyone wore Bri-Nylon shrts and the static fried the watches.
"because I think this new hype about smarwatches is just that - hype and....." Yeah, but I'm much more likely to use a smartwatchphone than be a Glasshole, especially if I'm doing something like jogging or cycling when I don't want my phone falling out of my pocket and breaking. Pair it with a (discrete) Bluetooth headset and enjoy not looking a total nerd.
Of course, one of the smaller Andorid phones, something the size of the old HTC Wildfire S, mounted in landscape mode on a wrist strap is even better and a whole lot cheaper, and has a far better screen.
I have two main criteria for a watch.
1) Rugged. Metal body and strap (real solid metal, not plastic with silver paint or plastic with a thin metal coating) and a toughened glass screen. Watches don't last long on my wrist. A plastic face has a life span of less than a week before it gets a nasty scratch across the display. My current one meets the specs I mention and has lasted 10 years and only slightly showing wear and tare. No point in me strapping my new shiney to my wrist and accidentally scuffing it on a wall after a drunken stagger to my front door.
2) Water resistant. Not talking deep sea diving. I'm talking about not worrying about the rain hitting it (we are in the UK after all) or sticking your hands in a bucket of water with the thing still on. Something else that has kept my watch going for 10 years. I worry about getting my phone out to check text messages or take a photo when its even light drizzle. That does preclude any watch that needs a cover opened to stick in a charging cable daily. A few charging pads on the back or inductive charging is what you need.
Once the two above are satisfied, I'll consider one, as it will have a chance of lasting long enough to become obsolete. It was tough to find my current watch (which also stores phone numbers if you are looking for the geek angle).
A little digging found one of the most important specs missing from this report... the size of it.
Another site has the dimensions as 37mm wide, 57mm tall and 11mm thick.
Comparing that the watch currently stuck on my arm, it's about the same width, twice as tall and roughly the same thickness. I don't like how thick my current watch is, but, can't find one I like to replace it.
I have slim wrists, and something that big would look ridiculous on there.
The G-Shock is rugged and waterproof, but it sounds like you want a watch with a sapphire crystal - which not likely to be featured on a smartwatch which might only be used for a couple of years before being superseded by a newer model. The faces on G-Shocks do tend to be deeply recessed though, so not as prone to scratches as other non-sapphire watches.
Maybe they will give us a nice range, rather than one size fits all.
I've tried the plastic bodied watches before (including the ones that pretend to look like metal but are just metal coated plastic). They scuff up too easily and tend to break where the strap meets the body (where the pins holding the strap go into the body).
Sitting in a bedside cradle sounds like a good idea for the smart watches. As long as the cradle is portable (doesn't take much room in your overnight bag) and doesn't have a bright charging light. Too many things with a bright LED in the bedroom already.
I still find it amusing that my £29 Nook has 800MHz CPU with 256MB RAM, and 16GB of storage. I mean, the idea that the future would have watches and phones that were actually mobile computers with high spec wouldn't have surprised me, especially at hundreds of pounds, indeed, that was what we were expecting the future to be. But 256MB RAM in something that's dedicated at one function, to read books?
It's like saying in 2030, a £20 toaster will have 256GB of RAM and an 80-core processor.
Acorn A305 - 8MHz ARM2, 512KB RAM, and 720KB discs (though 40MB Hard drive was an option) - And you can wear it on your wrist, instead of it taking serious desk space. How far we've come eh?
But, I can't see this flying without at least a week's usage between charges. That must surely be the usable minimum?!?
When I was doing O level French I was reminded that if the examiner asked 'Quel temps fait-il?' not to look at my watch thinking they'd asked about the time.
Now, you'd have to explain to them (in French, of course) that you weren't actually checking the time, but looking at the watch weather app!
But that's a considered contemplation of the weather report and not something you have a quick look at.
info on your next appointment, direction to the nearest Starbucks (an example!), how long to the next train - these are quick look things.
As a bit of a Sammy fanboy I was waiting for this, crossing my fingers that they wouldn't do a 'Sony' and lock it to their phones. Doh - Guess I'll be waiting for Google's offering. I doubt a 'Nexus' watch will only work with Nexus devices; that would be shooting themselves in the foot. Like Samsung has just done.
Samsung isn't really shooting themselves in the foot - they are just ahead of the Android pack and waiting for them to catch up. They have put Bletooth LE hardware in their kit before support for the standard was rolled out in the last major Android update.
Oh, Google bought a smartwatch start-up a few years ago, but the deal was kept secret until last week when some law firm leaked it. If you wanted to develop a smartwatch in secret, you could do worse than to make a song and dance about some smart-spectacles you are also working on.
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