Slashdot Asks: Do You Want a Smart Watch? 381
Watches that do more than tell the time have been around for a long time. (And in fiction, James Bond, Dick Tracey, and Michael Knight all had notably high-tech watches.)
The new smart watches from Samsung and LG, without a phone connected via Bluetooth as backhaul, can still serve to show the time and to serve as alarms (and Samsung's can measure your pulse, too), but all the magic features (like searching by voice via the watch) do require a connection. They can't play MP3s or take pictures on their own, and they don't have built-in GPS. Even so, compared to the polarizing Google Glass, the new breed of smart watches are wearables that probably are an easier sell, even if this far the trend has been to replace watches with smart phones. (Android Wear has gotten a lot of attention, but Microsoft has their own upcoming, and Apple almost certainly does, too.) Are you interested in a smart watch, and if so, what uses do you want it for? If they have no appeal to you now, are there functions that would make you change your mind on that front?
smartwatch (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd like a very *simple* smart watch...
* Simple caller-ID and memo display, programmable shortcut buttons, nothing else.
* Very long charge life comparatively (2 weeks would be okay) and/or very easy charging (put it on a charging pad).
A smartwatch as a Bitcoin wallet (Score:2, Interesting)
If a smartwatch served as a secure Bitcoin wallet, I'd buy one!
Smart watches seem pointless (Score:1, Interesting)
All smart watches seem like to me is a cash grab by the big tech companies.
What can a smart watch do that my smart phone can't!
Hmmm.....well..it fits around my wrist? Does that count for anything?:)
Doesn't have to be that smart. (Score:3, Interesting)
I signed up for a Pebble on day 2 of the Kickstarted campaign. When I finally got it, I spend many hours loading watchfaces, apps and exploring all the features. Nothing really klicked for me. Kept it on my arm anyway for a week - just for show and tell - and now I'm totally hooked.
The killer app is the alerts. Not having to pull out the phone 500 times every day is what keeps this ugly thing on my wrist.
Forget all the music control, runkeeper, navigation and whatever they try. Camera - that's just stupid. That's all done better on the phone, but the *alerts* are golden! Several friends went through the same process. Initial disappointment turned to must-have. I never use the buttons - just a quick glance when the thing buzz. Android or iOS in the watch is nonsense. Pebble got the idea right, but could scale down on the features and focus on the looks.
So get me a "moderately clever" watch...
Re: Wrong question (Score:4, Interesting)
The computer in the watch can do that, no biggie.
The key is user interface and that seems unlikely.
Some look OK (Score:4, Interesting)
If it had a separate power supply or some way to use the last bit of the main supply strictly as a watch with a 6 month reserve for essential functions I'd probably buy that.
But most of them are little phone gadgets for your wrist that will require charging daily, or nearly daily. Useless.
YES! just not the ones they making. (Score:4, Interesting)
I would love a smart watch but it would be more like computer on your forearm. the problem is the requirements are has, a highres display that flexes in three dimensions, sticks to your arm using the van der waals force (like gecko feet), uses heat from your body for power, weighs less than a 10 grams and is 1mm thick. It's not impossible, my idea is just an expression of several "almost there" technologies.
that is the smartphone i really want.
Re:I already have one (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm on my fourth watch and this one even has a date window. I cannot comprehend how a watch can get even smarter!
I agree. 10 years ago, I thought about all the money I had spent on cheap watches that I later destroyed or that simply stopped working. The next time I needed a watch, I purchased a $500 Seiko, which has served me well as a watch for the last ten years, it's really a nice time piece.
For me, there just isn't enough screen real estate on a watch no matter how much computing power it has. Sure, I often look at my phone for the time, but my Seiko is a mighty fine and quite accurate piece of "man jewelry". I really like it.
I also have a Rolex Oyster, but I only wear that to impress douche bags.
Nope (Score:3, Interesting)
I barely need my smart phone, why the hell would I want to spend hundreds of dollars on a second, feature-pared screen that has a terrible battery life?
Doesn't have to be that smart. (Score:2, Interesting)
You don't need a watch, you need a life!
You've obviously made the trade off to give up your freedom to be connected 24x7, I am not judging you, its just not a choice that I would make for me.
500 alerts a day? That's over 30 alerts an hour assuming a 16 hour day. An alert every 2 minutes? Wow... Just wow.
How do you have time to have a life? I am serious about this. Are these alerts coming from work? From social media? Text Messages from friends?
So during a 2 hour dinner or a movie or anything else you might do, you don't mind being interrupted 60 times?
What do you do with these alerts? Ignore them? Respond to them? Does that mean you pull out the phone and respond?
My personal time is too precious to give it over to a little black box on my wrist. I'd want to control what notifications I get, how often and from whom.
I don't want a little black box to control my life.
Absolutely, I get that people in a support position might need to get alerts while on the job, but 500 a day that need your immediate attention can't be healthy,
for the organization or any person. I certainly hope they pay you really really well!!!
Want and Have (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a Pebble -- until recently, a Kickstarter-edition one, though it malfunctioned and the company quite helpfully replaced it.
I originally got it as a geek toy, a whim, but it turned out to be hugely useful for me, given my constraints and work circumstances. Largely, this came down to three factors:
I manage people, and at least at my current company that means that the vast majority of my time is spent in meetings. Having a Pebble on which to see what messages I'm receiving (just for text messages, not FB or email) means I can know when someone's texted me (a rare, but potentially important, occasion) and be able to see what I got without having to reach for my phone in my pocket; it also means that because being able to see the message doesn't necessitate using the tool with which I respond, that I'm less likely to respond immediately, which makes the process less disruptive to the people I'm in meetings with;
I used to miss meetings often because I'd get in the middle of something (or another meeting) and forget to check where I next need to go. My phone quickly vibrating in my pocket was easy to miss. But my watch vibrating? For me, it's unmissable, and it makes me much more aware of where I need to go next.
The other factor that's made a huge difference is not work-related. Being able to control music on my phone via my watch is a trivial improvement when I work out, but it's made another issue basically go away: The "What the hell did I do with my phone?" problem. If I can't find my phone these days, calling it doesn't necessarily work -- it's typically in quiet mode -- but using my Pebble to get some music playing on it, and increasing the volume, is usually immediately helpful in figuring out where the phone is.
You could, of course, argue that these three factors are not, or should not, be relevant to the average geek -- maybe you don't have as many meetings, or are more disciplined about checking your calendar. And God knows we all found our phones before we could remotely start them playing music. But it's been very helpful to me.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you mean a specific phone or vendor? The Pebble has been around for a long time and has no such allegiances.
And ugly? Have you seen the Steel? It's more handsome than the majority of watches I've owned.
Calendar alerts, live weather, caller ID, and text messages all have made me a fan of my Pebble. Try one for a couple of weeks - I'm pretty sure you'll become a convert. I'm sure it varies based on style, but I've discovered that I probably only respond to about 30-40% of text messages (some are ignored, others are received ends of conversations). The rest can be viewed on my watch without having to ever mess with the phone.
With a watch and a blue tooth head set soon enough the question will not longer be who needs a smartwatch, it will be who needs a smartphone - I think the mini-tablet will ultimately reign supreme and act as a hub for tiny peripherals. That's what I'm hoping for at least.
Re:No (Score:4, Interesting)
Almost, I want a smart phone sitting in my top pocket that will tell me the time and date when I ask it, even when it is pin locked. So some more shirt pocket voice commands when screen is locked, handy when driving.
Re:@CauseBy - Re:Yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Unless you like carrying a smartphone in your hands all the time in crowded places, or like leaving your smartphone on the table where it can get lost or stolen, the smart watch is better. Nothing beats a watch for quickly checking something. Constantly fishing a phone out of your pocket, unlocking it, checking stuff and putting the phone back in your pocket can become extremely tedious quickly.
Constantly having to take it out to skip songs gets tiring and many people don't like voice control.
Sorry, your alternatives aren't that much better either. According to you, the wristwatch should've never been invented. People should just be satisfied with fishing out gold/silver/steel watches from their breast pockets to check the time.
Smart Watches I've Owned (Score:4, Interesting)
I haven't owned any of the current generation of cellphone-accessory smartwatches. The ones I have owned:
In practice, I find that almost all of the time I'm either in front of a computer screen with a clock display in the corner, or in an environment with clocks around, or carrying a cellphone with a clock display on the main screen, or in an environment that's not very friendly to watches, or in a social environment where I don't really care what time the clock says it is, so I've stopped wearing watches most of the time.
When smart-watches get smart enough to be the phone instead of being a peripheral display for the phone, maybe. But is a smart-watch phone that needs a Bluetooth headset and needs reading glasses to use more convenient than a cellphone with big text that can use a wired headset? For me, it's really not.