Down the line, hopefully sooner rather than later, it would be nice to see Apple with the help of Jony Ive's industrial design prowess, produce a more elegant and sophisticated version of this concept for its iOS products.
The Pebble is much better looking, in my opinion, and seems to be more functional.
Both of these watches seem to be in the early stages of what I think will really catch on.
And yes, Apple should have designed the Nano to be a watch, and they just might do that. A companion "watch" even for a smaller device like an iPhone would be fantastic.
I wish both of these companies well, but I'd LOVE for Apple to swoop in and make a really cool Apple watch that fits into the whole ecosystem.
But, but, but… I quit wearing a wrist watch. I quit wearing it because I now have a pocket clock on my smart phone.
In all seriousness, I can see where this would be useful. The concept is even more exciting and goes beyond a simple wrist watch. But, Bluetooth kills my battery. I already use my smartphone enough now that it requires a second charge, or tethering to an electrical outlet for much of the evening as I sit on my couch and surf the Internet and social sites such as Twitter or accomplish many of the other small tasks that are suitable to being done on my phone when you just don't want to use a large computer.
I currently get a solid eight hours of use out of my phone's battery. Bluetooth will cut that by at least 30% I estimate. Why? Why would I want to do that?
This is a good idea but implementation of it is going to be less than good because of Bluetooth battery drain. Get past that issue, and it becomes a better idea. The potential of your smart phone to communicate with other devices to make life easier is limitless. This watch is only the opening tip of a much larger iceberg.
Ugh, no. Not cool. Geeky, maybe. Its the pocket protector for the 2000s. Maybe as an Apple user I'm just used to better design. A 96 dpi 2-bit display? Big black bezel around the tiny screen? Maybe it goes great with a T-shirt that says "honk of you love Linux c0de!"
"I currently get a solid eight hours of use out of my phone's battery. Bluetooth will cut that by at least 30% I estimate. Why? Why would I want to do that?"
RE: I have the Strata Metawatch which is the one they're currently pushing... design is much better, however batterylife with iPhone 5 is pretty much nonexistant. I think this is the first time that I have ever carried the charger cord for the iPhone (have owned every version of iPhone).
Still hopefulle that they will sort out the issues..
The potential of your smart phone to communicate with other devices to make life easier is limitless. This watch is only the opening tip of a much larger iceberg.
This is the point, seems to me. Almost any effort to use the phone as a transmitter platform to other devices is valid. The geeks will pave the way, according to their taste.
Myself, I'm looking forward to AirPlay-enabled video glasses. Stereovideoglasses, with two embedded cameras for stereo video capture, microphone and headphones included. 3D FaceTime will change the world.
What I would really like is an OS X desktop app that can display status messages from iDevices, and maybe incoming calls, on my desktop or laptop. Since all the new Lightning equipped devices have no Apple docks available (and the few third party ones are dead ugly), I don't keep them on my desk any more, as they consume too much space lying around.
Since all the new Lightning equipped devices have no Apple docks available (and the few third party ones are dead ugly), I don't keep them on my desk any more, as they consume too much space lying around.
Bothers me to death, that does. They'll come up with a way to do a dock eventually…
I used a WIMM Android based smartwatch for a while. (Apparently no longer available, as the company was bought up.)
It had some nice features over most other such watches:
Capacitive touchscreen and fairly smooth.
Dual display = fast color when being used. Otherwise falls back to a power saving B&W display so the time is always readable under any light.
Bluetooth, and also WiFi so it doesn't need a smartphone to sync up or read news.
Accelerometer for games.
Compass for standalone orientation.
Easy to create tiny Android apps for it.
Easy to create different watchfaces, of any type analog or digital.
Unfortunately, it's way too power hungry. The most I ever got out of it was 24 hours without charging. A smartwatch needs to go at least a week, I think.
Like others, I'd love for Apple to get into the smartwatch business, as long as they don't lock it down too much.
I was a little disappointed when AAPL decided to abandon the nano watch sized form. With some work it could have been a useful and cool device in a wristwatch form.
This thing here though is butt ugly. The idea is fine - as others have commented Siri and other functionality is needed. The size needs to come down too. If someone could turn Jonny Ive loose on the project, they'd have something. The face needs to be very customizable in function and layout, something like the iTunes function for configuring iOS devices' pages.
The low power BT should make the dongleware market a natural partner. Sports applications; perhaps even some medical devices. Wanna really kill it? Figure out a way to imbed a camera. Dunno how many snapshots I've missed reaching for the iPhone. No, I don;t mean "pictures"; just a fast snapshot.
An intriguing idea. Not ready for prime time though.
" recent years as gadgets have continued to become impossibly small"
first issue i have with this is that Android phones have gone the opposite way and become laughingly huge! And the iphone 5 is bigger
secondly, the answer to small devices if to make an even smaller one on your wrist? did the writer not spot the irony of this as they wrote that sentence?? Weird
all that said, I like the idea of this, low battery alerts, check a text etc.. perfect, but i agree with urbanvoyeur, the nano should have gone this way.
I miss the day when i could pair my nokia with my mac and send texts and initiate a call. iMessage partly replaced this, but it would be cool if i could answer the call on my mac, and talk while i work, or use iMessage to do all texts.
And with Notification Centre, the mac could tell me if my iphone or ipad had low battery, etc
Can I swim and shower with the watch? Otherwise, don't care.
What problems are there that really need solving? 1) Earphones without these long wires that constantly are tangling up. 2) Earphones which I have to identify which is left and which is right -- it should just know! 3) phones that can act as a pager when I really need to take this call -- work or other emergency. 4) Before cell phones, when family called, we each had our own phone set with which we could listen and talk. Now, one tiny smart phone with weak speakers and weaker mic, around which we all need to hunch over to join the conversation.
Can I swim and shower with the watch? Otherwise, don't care.
Hopefully.
What problems are there that really need solving?
1) Earphones without these long wires that constantly are tangling up.
2) Earphones which I have to identify which is left and which is right -- it should just know!
3) phones that can act as a pager when I really need to take this call -- work or other emergency.
4) Before cell phones, when family called, we each had our own phone set with which we could listen and talk. Now, one tiny smart phone with weak speakers and weaker mic, around which we all need to hunch over to join the conversation.
1) We finally have BT that is low power. Unfortunately it's not good for streaming audio. I think we'll get there, but I don't know when.
2) How can it know which is left and right? Those directions are only in relation to you. You'd have to have some device on you that it could use to orient itself and then let you know it's backwards when it detects it. Once true wireless headphones it may just be obvious top to bottom which would set your left and right by default.
3) What do you mean? Caller ID works like a pager. You know what number called you and when.
4) There is conference calling. YOu can up to 6 more lines connection. A system could be set up to call multiple numbers at once through a unified phone number but I don't think that's something worth investing in for families. As for voice quality, that has more to do with the way voice is encoded digitally over analog lines. You can always use the speaker phone for group speak during the holidays.
Comments
Both of these watches seem to be in the early stages of what I think will really catch on.
And yes, Apple should have designed the Nano to be a watch, and they just might do that. A companion "watch" even for a smaller device like an iPhone would be fantastic.
I wish both of these companies well, but I'd LOVE for Apple to swoop in and make a really cool Apple watch that fits into the whole ecosystem.
In all seriousness, I can see where this would be useful. The concept is even more exciting and goes beyond a simple wrist watch. But, Bluetooth kills my battery. I already use my smartphone enough now that it requires a second charge, or tethering to an electrical outlet for much of the evening as I sit on my couch and surf the Internet and social sites such as Twitter or accomplish many of the other small tasks that are suitable to being done on my phone when you just don't want to use a large computer.
I currently get a solid eight hours of use out of my phone's battery. Bluetooth will cut that by at least 30% I estimate. Why? Why would I want to do that?
This is a good idea but implementation of it is going to be less than good because of Bluetooth battery drain. Get past that issue, and it becomes a better idea. The potential of your smart phone to communicate with other devices to make life easier is limitless. This watch is only the opening tip of a much larger iceberg.
"I currently get a solid eight hours of use out of my phone's battery. Bluetooth will cut that by at least 30% I estimate. Why? Why would I want to do that?"
RE: I have the Strata Metawatch which is the one they're currently pushing... design is much better, however batterylife with iPhone 5 is pretty much nonexistant. I think this is the first time that I have ever carried the charger cord for the iPhone (have owned every version of iPhone).
Still hopefulle that they will sort out the issues..
This is the point, seems to me. Almost any effort to use the phone as a transmitter platform to other devices is valid. The geeks will pave the way, according to their taste.
Myself, I'm looking forward to AirPlay-enabled video glasses. Stereovideoglasses, with two embedded cameras for stereo video capture, microphone and headphones included. 3D FaceTime will change the world.
Unfortunately, I prefer analog watches...
What I would really like is an OS X desktop app that can display status messages from iDevices, and maybe incoming calls, on my desktop or laptop. Since all the new Lightning equipped devices have no Apple docks available (and the few third party ones are dead ugly), I don't keep them on my desk any more, as they consume too much space lying around.
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Since all the new Lightning equipped devices have no Apple docks available (and the few third party ones are dead ugly), I don't keep them on my desk any more, as they consume too much space lying around.
Bothers me to death, that does. They'll come up with a way to do a dock eventually…
I used a WIMM Android based smartwatch for a while. (Apparently no longer available, as the company was bought up.)
It had some nice features over most other such watches:
Capacitive touchscreen and fairly smooth.
Dual display = fast color when being used. Otherwise falls back to a power saving B&W display so the time is always readable under any light.
Bluetooth, and also WiFi so it doesn't need a smartphone to sync up or read news.
Accelerometer for games.
Compass for standalone orientation.
Easy to create tiny Android apps for it.
Easy to create different watchfaces, of any type analog or digital.
Unfortunately, it's way too power hungry. The most I ever got out of it was 24 hours without charging. A smartwatch needs to go at least a week, I think.
Like others, I'd love for Apple to get into the smartwatch business, as long as they don't lock it down too much.
My Breitling might only tell me the time and date but at least I am not embarrassed to wear it out in public. Talk about an ugly cheap looking watch.
cool features, ugly watch. Black and gray LCD face looks like a cheapo 80's watch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eightzero
I was a little disappointed when AAPL decided to abandon the nano watch sized form. With some work it could have been a useful and cool device in a wristwatch form.
This thing here though is butt ugly. The idea is fine - as others have commented Siri and other functionality is needed. The size needs to come down too. If someone could turn Jonny Ive loose on the project, they'd have something. The face needs to be very customizable in function and layout, something like the iTunes function for configuring iOS devices' pages.
The low power BT should make the dongleware market a natural partner. Sports applications; perhaps even some medical devices. Wanna really kill it? Figure out a way to imbed a camera. Dunno how many snapshots I've missed reaching for the iPhone. No, I don;t mean "pictures"; just a fast snapshot.
An intriguing idea. Not ready for prime time though.
In short: make it iOS.
J.
first issue i have with this is that Android phones have gone the opposite way and become laughingly huge! And the iphone 5 is bigger
secondly, the answer to small devices if to make an even smaller one on your wrist? did the writer not spot the irony of this as they wrote that sentence?? Weird
all that said, I like the idea of this, low battery alerts, check a text etc.. perfect, but i agree with urbanvoyeur, the nano should have gone this way.
I miss the day when i could pair my nokia with my mac and send texts and initiate a call.
iMessage partly replaced this, but it would be cool if i could answer the call on my mac, and talk while i work, or use iMessage to do all texts.
And with Notification Centre, the mac could tell me if my iphone or ipad had low battery, etc
Ah ha:
9to5mac(dot)com reports an apple iwatch in progress:
chinese-report-claims-intel-and-apple-are-working-together-on-iwatch-product-due-in-just-months/
Quote:
Originally Posted by eightzero
Ah ha:
9to5mac(dot)com reports an apple iwatch in progress:
chinese-report-claims-intel-and-apple-are-working-together-on-iwatch-product-due-in-just-months/
Here is another link to this rumour:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/27/rumor-apple-building-bluetooth-smart-watch/
/.
What problems are there that really need solving?
1) Earphones without these long wires that constantly are tangling up.
2) Earphones which I have to identify which is left and which is right -- it should just know!
3) phones that can act as a pager when I really need to take this call -- work or other emergency.
4) Before cell phones, when family called, we each had our own phone set with which we could listen and talk. Now, one tiny smart phone with weak speakers and weaker mic, around which we all need to hunch over to join the conversation.
Originally Posted by waldobushman
Now, one tiny smart phone with weak speakers and weaker mic, around which we all need to hunch over to join the conversation.
Turn your volume up. They're quite loud these days.
Hopefully.
1) We finally have BT that is low power. Unfortunately it's not good for streaming audio. I think we'll get there, but I don't know when.
2) How can it know which is left and right? Those directions are only in relation to you. You'd have to have some device on you that it could use to orient itself and then let you know it's backwards when it detects it. Once true wireless headphones it may just be obvious top to bottom which would set your left and right by default.
3) What do you mean? Caller ID works like a pager. You know what number called you and when.
4) There is conference calling. YOu can up to 6 more lines connection. A system could be set up to call multiple numbers at once through a unified phone number but I don't think that's something worth investing in for families. As for voice quality, that has more to do with the way voice is encoded digitally over analog lines. You can always use the speaker phone for group speak during the holidays.