These So Called "Smart" Watches

spen666

So yeaterday Samsung and Sony had launches of their smart watches.

Apple and others to follow suit no doubt.


Can anyone explain to me why I should get one. What advantages does having one of these to remember to charge etc have over just having my phone.

As I understand it I still need my phone to use the said smart watch.

I'm puzzled as to what purpose they serve - apart from to make their manufacturers a lot of money

CiB

spen666 wrote:

So yeaterday Samsung and Sony had launches of their smart watches.

Apple and others to follow suit no doubt.


Can anyone explain to me why I should get one. What advantages does having one of these to remember to charge etc have over just having my phone.

As I understand it I still need my phone to use the said smart watch.

I'm puzzled as to what purpose they serve - apart from to make their manufacturers a lot of money

See also iPad, iPhone, Di2, carbon frames, hypercars, in fact anyhting that exceeds by some margin the basic requirements needed to fulfill its function.

I might get one as I've spent the last couple of years looking for a nice watch and there's nothing on the market in that sweet spot between between nice try but cheap looking, and Rolex price zones. Might give one of these a go.

pitchshifter

Samsung have made their phones too big. They fix this problem with a watch that tells you what's going on with the phone you can't be a*rsed to wrestle out of your pocket..

Genius.

EKE_38BPM

pitchshifter wrote:

Samsung have made their phones too big. They fix this problem with a watch that tells you what's going on with the phone you can't be a*rsed to wrestle out of your pocket..

Genius.

Where is a "Like" button when you need one.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Yonks ago, when bluetooth earpieces were in high fashion, I thought to myself that all I really wanted from a phone was something to make a receive calls and store numbers. All the rest of the crap on a phone I could do without. Something that would do calls, be wristwatch sized, and play nicely with a BT earpiece seemed a pretty good idea to me.

Miles ahead of my time, me. Miles.

I'm currently thinking hoverboots would be awesome, so watch out for them in a few years.

asprilla

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

spen666

Asprilla wrote:

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

that seems to be theonly reason I can see.

So, no one can tell me what these phones do that I can't achievewith my phone alone?

edhornby

it's a design looking for a requirement.... the daily mash is right

EKE_38BPM

As far as I can tell, a "Smart" watch with a phone is a bracelet. It doesn't have the capability to make calls/send texts/send emails on its own.

greg66_tri_v2.0

EKE_38BPM wrote:

As far as I can tell, a "Smart" watch with a phone is a bracelet. It doesn't have the capability to make calls/send texts/send emails on its own.

So even now my idea remains ahead of the game.

I should be an inventor.

spen666

edhornby wrote:

it's a design looking for a requirement.... the daily mash is right

So I'm not the only person trying to find the purpose of these.

Interestingly if you order a Sony Z1 phone with T mobile (or was it EE) you get a smart watch thrown in for free - so they are giving them away from the outset- so much for the £150- £200 cost price suggested

EKE_38BPM

spen666 wrote:

edhornby wrote:

it's a design looking for a requirement.... the daily mash is right

So I'm not the only person trying to find the purpose of these.

Interestingly if you order a Sony Z1 phone with T mobile (or was it EE) you get a smart watch thrown in for free - so they are giving them away from the outset- so much for the £150- £200 cost price suggested

Sony, makers of a "Smart" watch, trying to get the early adopters to show off down the pub? Bit of a loss leader.

walkingbootweather

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Sony, makers of a "Smart" watch, trying to get the early adopters to show off down the pub? Bit of a tosser identifier.

FTFY

Ride hard

EKE_38BPM wrote:

As far as I can tell, a "Smart" watch with a phone is a bracelet. It doesn't have the capability to make calls/send texts/send emails on its own.

I had the news on in the background so didn't follow this too closely (especially as I'm a bit meh about these so called 'advances' in human evolution. Facebook anyone?) but I'm sure I saw some dude put his fingers to his ear as if making a phonecall.

Edit: I wasn't dreaming. You can do that with the Samsung watch apparently. Cue drivers now going around with no hands on the steering wheel while they order a pizza with one hand (finger), and with the other update their friends on FB with that all important press release about their bowel movements.

Genius idea.

Kieran_Burns

spen666 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

that seems to be theonly reason I can see.

So, no one can tell me what these phones do that I can't achievewith my phone alone?

Wear it on your wrist. Duh. :roll:

jonginge

Teleport?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4BR4jgCFAc

mackenziecockram

They have both missed a trick in not implementing some form of heart rate monitoring surely?

That would actually make it functional for sports users like the Forerunner and turn it in to a rival for the Garmin Edge.

walkingbootweather

My phone has a really useful clock feature, if there was some way in which this information could be displayed on a wrist device to save me getting my phone out of my pocket, I'd be really interested.

Kieran_Burns

walkingbootweather wrote:

My phone has a really useful clock feature, if there was some way in which this information could be displayed on a wrist device to save me getting my phone out of my pocket, I'd be really interested.

redhanded

I've been playing around with a Pebble smart watch for a while.

It is definitely still a geek toy and not for the general public. It reminds me a bit of the first set of mp3 players on the market and it needed Apple to bring out the iPod to turn mp3 players into mainstream products.

As a watch, in my opinion it does have a better user interface than LCD watches like Casio G-shocks. With the Casio, you need to remember what buttons or sequences of buttons to press to access any of the functions while with the Pebble, the menu system is far easier. Of course if you prefer a Rolex to watches with electronic displays then this is all irrelevant.

The pebble integrates with smart phones over bluetooth, so you can see incoming notifications for emails and messages on the watch, and control music on the phone using the watch.

Sometimes this is definitely more convenient. As a real world example, I was on my bike, phone in my pocket, and get a buzz from the watch that I've got a message and with a glance at my wrist could see it was from a mate and he was running late. Also walking along or travelling with a phone in your pocket, the watch is a pretty handy way of starting and stopping music, although plenty of headphones have controls for this as well.

So if you are a geek with some money to spare, get one, it will be just another toy. If you want something that may be genuinely useful, wait for the third or later generation of products in about 2015/16.

spen666

mackenziecockram wrote:

They have both missed a trick in not implementing some form of heart rate monitoring surely?

That would actually make it functional for sports users like the Forerunner and turn it in to a rival for the Garmin Edge.

I wondered about that

Ride hard

Kieran_Burns wrote:

walkingbootweather wrote:

My phone has a really useful clock feature, if there was some way in which this information could be displayed on a wrist device to save me getting my phone out of my pocket, I'd be really interested.

hahaha...legend

Initialised

spen666 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

that seems to be theonly reason I can see.

So, no one can tell me what these phones do that I can't achieve with my phone alone?

I wouldn't mind having one bar mounted showing time, speed, cadence, Strava split times and heart rate using my phone (tucked safely away in a waterproofed pocket) as a relay for ANT+ sensors.

redhanded

mackenziecockram wrote:

They have both missed a trick in not implementing some form of heart rate monitoring surely?

I think that will come. With a watch, you can basically do 24x7 heart rate monitoring so I can see an application where the watch uploads this data to the internet, and then there will be medical applications to analyse it, as there may be ways of spotting the onset of some medical problems through patterns in the heart rate data.

Of course, the data will need to be kept secure...

"Darling... why was your heart rate up at 200 for 5 minutes yesterday evening when you said you were at that boring client meeting..."

itboffin

JonGinge wrote:

Teleport?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4BR4jgCFAc

fuck me that's a lot of work, but i'd forgotten how hot Janet was nom nom nom

itboffin

itboffin wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Teleport?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4BR4jgCFAc

fark me that's a lot of work, but i'd forgotten how hot Janet was nom nom nom

oh dear wtf happened there?

Ride hard

Initialised wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

that seems to be theonly reason I can see.

So, no one can tell me what these phones do that I can't achieve with my phone alone?

I wouldn't mind having one bar mounted showing time, speed, cadence, Strava split times and heart rate using my phone (tucked safely away in a waterproofed pocket) as a relay for ANT+ sensors.

Errr....isn't that what most bike computers do (bar the Strava thingy)?

rubertoe

Ride hard wrote:

Initialised wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

It is, according to the Daily Mash, so that men of all ages can pretend to be children playing spy games.

I think they are right.

that seems to be theonly reason I can see.

So, no one can tell me what these phones do that I can't achieve with my phone alone?

I wouldn't mind having one bar mounted showing time, speed, cadence, Strava split times and heart rate using my phone (tucked safely away in a waterproofed pocket) as a relay for ANT+ sensors.

Errr....isn't that what most bike computers do (bar the Strava thingy)?

:roll: :roll:

paul_mck

call and text notifications while cycling will be a big thing for me. I NEVER hear or feel my phone go while its in my back pocket

alarms will be much handier for calender events etc. just a 2 sec glance rather than hoking the phone from your pocket or what not.

just a couple of basic examples Im sure the software boffins will come up with a heap more.

rubertoe

Will it have a calculator function? what about TV remote?

CiB

The Telegraph as always is the answer to our need for unbiased correct thinking and opinion.

8 things you can do with it.

The answer to a question that no-one's thought to ask seems to be the best summary so far.