Wearables - If you wear it and it's not iOS or Android come in here!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Wearables - If you wear it and it's not iOS or Android come in here!

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bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

There will be long term value for "quantified self", but it isn't going to come from fitness trackers and sportswear companies. Metrics are a huge thing right now in healthcare as quality of care is one of the top things on everyone's mind. Eventually, individual data collected on a real time basis will help fill in the gaps and allow healthcare companies to save $$ and that's when its really going to become important. Right now though, they have too much patent data to sift though with just current medical records and are having trouble making sense of it in a coherent fashion.

So, basically all the fitness and wellness stuff right now is just beta testing the sensors that your health insurance issued tracker will use in 15 years time to track your condition in real time to give you a discount on your premiums. Otherwise, all they are good for is motivation and that's something that's highly person to person.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 19:46

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 17:03

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Three Olives posted:

I mean really there are two markets right now for fitness trackers, there are people like me that are already fit and just want to obsess over data and then a secondary market of unfit people that seem to think fitness trackers are going to make them fit. Most, most people are in the second, I see so many fat people wearing them, they are going to be incredibly disappointed by them and why I think the often get a bad rep, the first market, poo poo, I've had a Forerunner with HR strap for over 10 years, every runner I know has been semi-obsessively tracking their runs forever even people like myself that aren't super serious about running but just run a few miles a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0qVi_nF6y8

It seems like Fitbit is changing their marketing a bit to emphasise that as their target market, if you are already an active person you are probably going to be very happy quantifying data of activity or inactivity 24/7, if you aren't an active person it's not going to make you active just like that gym membership that you don't use doesn't.

But like I said, that's really all just motivation stuff.

I mean, you say "obsess over the data" but what does that really mean? I get that you want to know that your run took you two minutes longer today than it did yesterday, but with the limited data set about all you can do with that is say "I'm going to try harder tomorrow." So, basically, just motivation.

To make any useful metrics out of extensive data like that, you also need to be obsessively tracking things like diet, sleep, stress levels, environmental factors, etc. When you start getting down to that level, you are really just flat out training and not casually tracking fitness data.

When you break it down to motivation, it really doesn't matter who the target market is for. It's more along the lines of if you are someone who is motivated to outdo yourself on a daily basis or if you simply don't care. I mean, one of my friends isn't a fitness guy nor is he in tip top shape, but a step tracker did WONDERS for him because he's obsessed with games (not just video games, but games in general.) That gave him a number to experiment with and track on a daily basis "What was my percentage in step increase if I used the bathroom on the next floor up rather than the one I'm on? OK, how does that change further if I drink 2 more glasses of water a day which would then cause me to go to the bathroom more often? Can I get just as proportional step change by doing something else in my daily routine?" and so forth. Getting the step tracker gave him something to game and therefore got him to drop 10lbs just messing around with it.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 20:25

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Reverse Centaur posted:

Private health care is not a thing in most of the developed world though.

Doesn't matter. In those cases it will be the government mandating the devices to keep healthcare costs low. Choose your poison. Preventative care is where it's at and the ultimate evolution of that is real time data collection to stop problems before they become real issues.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 21:43

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

fyallm posted:

Is there a reason people are going with the pebble steel bands over the moto 360 metal bands other than they just like the look of the pebble better?

They are eleventybillion times cheaper.

$35 vs $80

I love my 360 but I'm going to have to RMA it at some point. I got the stress cracks in the back around the corners of the band attachment. They are replacing them no questions asked, but I'm waiting for a bit to see if they actually made any changes in the construction to beef them up.

They don't impact performance, don't dig into my skin and aren't getting any worse. I still want them fixed though because a $250 product shouldn't have issues like that.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 21:26

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Don Lapre posted:

Pebble steel band is only $19.99

http://www.amazon.com/Pebble-Steel-...asin=B00L8C818C

Looks like only the black is and only from amazon. Stainless steel is $39.99 from amazon and $34.99 from best buy.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 22:27

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Don Lapre posted:

You can also PM amazon at bestbuy so hope you didn't pay $34.99 for yours.

I'm not in the market for one. I don't really like steel bands.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 22:51

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

They apparently cross ship the RMA if you allow them to put a credit card hold, so it's not too terrible a process. You aren't without a watch for any period of time. You can keep using yours until the new one arrives.

I haven't RMA'd yet though because I'm waiting to see if some positive confirmation has been made as to a change in construction to prevent the cracks moving forward.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2015 21:27

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Lenovo may have leaked the Moto 360 2

http://www.droid-life.com/2015/03/19/lenovos-ceo-may-have-just-outed-the-new-moto-360/

Looks like they moved the band to outer lugs. That also seems to allow them to make the watch a bid more modular in so they can offer different band sizes and bezel sizes a bit more easily. This is probably going to factor into Moto Maker more. I just wonder if the outer bezel is something that will be user replaceable (say want to swap a stainless steel watch for a black one.) It would be neat if the inner watch module is swappable. Even better if they keep it so that later versions are compatible. That way you could upgrade and keep the same accessories.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 18:33

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

butt dickus posted:

I was just thinking this morning "I wonder how long before we get a 2nd gen 360?"

It also looks like there's a crown or button or something at the 2 position.

Looks like it's a re-positioning of the current button.

It may point towards the bezel being modular (to have 4 connect points to secure the face to the surround), but it also just may be ergonomic. It's actually easier to press a button at the 2 o'clock position with your opposing hand than the 3 position.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 18:54

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

No ambient light sensor is a big negative for me for the GWR and I also don't like the case design. I also really don't like that it uses a proprietary charger.

The Huawei watch is months from release and we have no information on price at this point.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 22:02

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Logikv9 posted:

I just pulled the trigger and bought the 360 through Amazon Warehouse Deals. It arrived today without a charger. Anticipation

No access to other Qi chargers?

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 22:03

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I also didn't see anyone here mention Tag Heuer.

This morning, Google, Tag Heuer, and Intel announced a teamup for a high end wear watch.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/19/us-lvmh-intel-watches-idUSKBN0MF1NU20150319

It will likely be priced in the multi-thousand range and therefore not something most people here will investigate, but it's a significant step. While we've seen watch makers sign on for Android Wear, pretty much all the released watches have been by tech companies. This is the first evidence that watchmakers themselves are starting to take the space seriously.

I can see this partnership having ripples across the space. I doubt Tag is simply going to bolt up an Intel SoC to an LCD display and call it a day. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if we saw some sort of blending of Android Wear with mechanical watchmaking. In theory, there's nothing that says an Android Wear watch actually has to have a virtual watchface on it. They could easily do a display as a background for a traditional watch face or have it as some kind of translucent overlay.

This is the ultimate evolution of the design I think. We can have fully display based watches from tech companies, but then we can also have hybrid devices from traditional watch manufacturers. Even though Wear's interface itself can't be customized by the OEM, it is carefully crafted to get out of the way which would allow a hybrid design to work.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 22:36

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:

I don't know how possible it could be, but a traditional watch face with a screen for the back and maybe color changing transparent hands would be a crazy smart watch concept.

It really should be possible, especially when you are talking about a multi-thousand dollar watch.

Digitizers are drat near transparent. You could easily have the digitizer, then physical watch hands, then display.

You could make the hands super thin if you wanted to and have them react mechanically. Think of the way watches do their stopwatch functions if they only have main hands. When you touch the screen, the hands could align opposite of each other along the X axis, getting out of the way and creating sort of a dividing line across the display. To get even crazier, I think it would also be possible add LEDs on to the hands so they could mimic the display under them so they could nearly fade away when interacting with the display.

Make the hands glass with an LCD layer on them. Under normal operation they are opaque, but when you interact with the device, they become transparent to show the screen underneath.

There's a whole ton of possibilities.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 23:38

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

JayKay posted:

It's there a decent silicone or rubber strap for the 360? It seems like the only aftermarket straps I'm finding are metal or leather.

Tylt usually makes good products.

http://www.tylt.com/moto360-band/

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 17:13

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

With my 360, I found I can take it off the charger at 9am on day one and be at about 10% battery life at 9pm the following day. So, not quite 48 hours (more like 36), but I can get two days use out of it if I forget to charge it one night.

Of course, I already have a Qi charger at work so if I really want to to last all evening after I forgot to charge it the night before, I can have it back up to 100% in under an hour.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 19:06

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

At the end of the day it's a tradeoff between thin bezels with a ambient light sensor VS thick bezels and no ambient sensor.

I a perfect world we could get a fully round display with thin bezels and an ambient sensor, but right now we can't. I prefer the tradeoff we got (thin with sensor) as opposed to the alternative. Good thing the market has choices!

# ¿ Apr 3, 2015 19:00

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Apple watch and Android Wear aren't competitors. Both are locked into their own ecosystem and people aren't choosing their smartphone platform based on the wearables that are available.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 02:21

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Holy poo poo.

We're seriously have a 'cool' debate in this thread. I just wanted an android wear watch that didn't look like I had a square computer on my wrist and that's exactly what the moto 360 delivers. It's inconspicuous and looks like a drat normal watch. I'm not trying to make a cool statement about wearable computing or even time pieces. I wanted something understated and functional.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 20:52

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

So, kudos for this watchface maker for taking the flat tire and running with it.

http://www.droid-life.com/2015/04/15/little-worlds-turns-the-moto-360s-flat-tire-into-something-fun/

Pretty drat inventive.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2015 20:28

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

So, with the wifi support, does anyone else think this could open up android wear to much more than just watches?

I mean, why couldn't you run wear on a desk clock and get notifications along with time? Extend wear a bit more and it could even make a pretty bitching alarm clock.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 18:29

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

butt dickus posted:

Except you don't wear a desk clock. A wall clock, maybe.

Pfft, just rename 'Google Wear' to 'Google Where?' (the answer is EVERYWHERE.)

This could also basically do what the Amazon Echo does.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 18:49

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Big thing is the S2 isn't tied to Samsung phones anymore. It works on all Android phones.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2015 18:45

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Thermopyle posted:

I might be crazy, but the Samsung S2 looks pretty sweet. I really like that rotating bezel and it seems like a pretty sleek looking smartwatch.

All of the blogs have actually been raving about it after their hands on, calling it the first smartwatch yet that's worth buying.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Sep 5, 2015

# ¿ Sep 5, 2015 16:47

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

My flex and my 2nd gen Moto 360 are usually within 10% of each other.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 20:51

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 17:03

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Microsoft has discontinued the Band line.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2016 22:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Wearables - If you wear it and it's not iOS or Android come in here!

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