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Ask Slashdot: What Can I Really Do With a Smart Watch?
kwelch007 writes I commonly work in a clean-room (CR.) As such, I commonly need access to my smart-phone for various reasons while inside the CR...but, I commonly keep it in my front pocket INSIDE my clean-suit. Therefore, to get my phone out of my pocket, I have to leave the room, get my phone out of my pocket, and because I have a one track mind, commonly leave it sitting on a table or something in the CR, so I then have to either have someone bring it to me, or suit back up and go get it myself...a real pain. I have been looking in to getting a 'Smart Watch' (I'm preferential to Android, but I know Apple has similar smart-watches.) I would use a smart-watch as a convenient, easy to transport and access method to access basic communications (email alerts, text, weather maps, etc.) The problem I'm finding while researching these devices is, I'm not finding many apps. Sure, they can look like a nice digital watch, but I can spend $10 for that...not the several hundred or whatever to buy a smart-watch. What are some apps I can get? (don't care about platform, don't care if they're free) I just want to know what's the best out there, and what it can do? I couldn't care less about it being a watch...we have these things called clocks all over the place. I need various sorts of data access. I don't care if it has to pair with my smart-phone using Bluetooth or whatever, and it won't have to be a 100% solution...it would be more of a convenience that is worth the several hundred dollars to me. My phone will never be more than 5 feet away, it's just inconvenient to physically access it. Further, I am also a developer...what is the best platform to develop for these wearable devices on, and why? Maybe I could make my own apps? Is it worth waiting for the next generation of smart-watches?
Would the Pebble fit your needs?
Gotta love the honesty on that web page, it got a smile from me.
Sell it at a loss?
I commonly need common communications commonly between my common friends commonly found on my common smart phone.
commonly leave it sitting on a table or something in the CR, so I then have to either have someone bring it to me
Use it so that if you get too far from your phone, it makes your phone ring so you'll remember to take it with you. And as a way to find your phone when you can't find it.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Very extendable. Can read emails from the phone - can't respond back though.
[...]
various sorts of data access
Part of writing a good ticket is being specific about your use case and not presupposing the solution. From what you've written, the problem is not technical and has nothing to do with a smart watch. The problem is you are forgetful.
If you can be specific about what you are actually doing with your phone, we can give you solutions that may or may not involve a smart watch.
Not a smart watch.
Better yet, why do you need a mobile phone inside a clean room in any case?
If there was ever a case for having a separate phone for home and work... You should have a phone that stays in the clean room that can be used for work and emergency contacts. The 'clean room' barrier metaphor is actually quite apt for keeping your work and personal life distinct.
Make your own apps and open source them or GTFO...
On TV I saw the young dad from Parenthood talk to his wife via his Samsung smartwatch while he was climbing around on the roof of his house working on christmas decorations. Fortunately he didn't have to hold a smartphone to talk to his wife, so he could grab something to keep him from falling if he needed to.
For me, having a smartwatch allows the government and their corporate overlords monitor me more consistently than my smartphone or computer.
In six months the fanboy noise floor will be at +120Db. The time to ask is before it is incorporated into a religion.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
3D print your own and show the world that your 3D printer paid for itself in a year!
That was kind of the conclusion I came to, but always worth asking :)
The correct answer is 42.
Clean and sanitary, easily replaced, easy to manipulate phones through. So long as operating such equipment in your clean room environment is allowed, it should be ok - probably not in line with RF environments, though.
Part of writing a good ticket is being specific about your use case and not presupposing the solution. From what you've written, the problem is not technical and has nothing to do with a smart watch. The problem is you are forgetful.
Reason: Unable to reproduce
(chick's aren't impressed by smart watches)
Are you serious? Just get a small smartphone and clip to a strap on your underarm when you enter the clean room. I do it under similar circumstances (not a clean room, quite the opposite)
Paai
Everything you buy today - especially things with software - will cause you grief - error codes, constant software updates, hacked, frozen and race conditions, and general frustration - so you have to ask yourself, is it worth it?
A true smartwatch would provide both in addition to time based on UTC. I find it amazing that a purely mechanical watch, albeit those that cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars can do both (provided you set the cams inside for proper longitude and latitude) but a watch with a computer inside that can do these calculations is unavailable.
Why do you need weather maps in a clean room?
I don't like my phone making noises and I generally wore headphones. Which left me with leaving the phone in my pocket and either putting it on vibrate and have phantom buzzes or put it on completely silent and miss texts/appointments. Got a pebble maybe 9 months ago and it's been great. As long as I'm in bluetooth range I'll get notified for SMS/Google Chat message, some Facebook updates, calendar events, and incoming phone calls. All of that is customizable and while a few apps allow you to send canned responses I don't use that currently - I just want to know something happened.
Best part is when you're in a meeting and your phone buzzes, you can just check your wrist to see what it was which is far more discrete than pulling out your phone, unlocking it, and then finding the right app.
What you need is a good voice-only interface for your phone, and if possible in your clean-room environment, some kind of Bluetooth headset. Phone rings, you tell it "answer". If you want to do something, tell Siri or equivalent, and get voice feedback. Not being an iPhone user, I don't know if Siri's good enough. (The Android stuff I've used so far hasn't been, but my car's phone-dialing interface is at least a start.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Did you ever see Christopher Walken in "Pulp Fiction"? ;-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
What can I do with a smart watch?
Do you really want /.ers to answer that ??? The most popular response will be like in real life - something about the sun not shining.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Serving me ads when I don't have my phone out of my pocket, so Google can make more money.
The entire point of having a battery in a watch is so that you don't have to worry about winding it every day,,, it's good for 3 years and then you replace the battery when it goes.
If I'm going to replace my watch, something that I've been using for years, and have only had to replace the battery twice since I got it, with something newer, then that newer thing should not create additional inconveniences that far outweigh anything it can do that a watch might not, particularly when there is nothing that it will do which a smart phone does not already do anyways.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Buy a tablet... and fix it in the wall.
The unit you want is probably dB.
Mostly random stuff.
Very true. Pebble looks the best solution for now but with the Apple watch and the equally interesting looking Microsoft Band thingy the market is hardly mature.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "we have a protractor"
best use ever for most "smart" devices - bin it and enjoy your freedom
Smartphone should stay outside the cleanroom. you need fixed terminals inside the room (or wall mounted tablets) with AD integration for logon. These provide all of the functionality you are looking for and more except text. But there are apps to tie your mail account into your phone etc.
Maybe I could make my own apps?
A developer wouldn't never pose that hesitant question, so no.
Bennett Haselton(BH) is a frequent contributor(FC) to slashdot (SD). His frequent contributions (FC) are ridiculously verbose(RV) and full of(FO) utter bullshit(UB).
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I appreciate your faith in Apple but I'm not convinced the watch is anything comparable with the iPhone. The iPhone's success was primarily due to it's touch interface. I remember watching an interview of Steve saying how they put everything into the iPhone, almost as a last shot of reviving Apple. The price point was scary but 3 year contracts saved them from failure since most people would never have forked out more than $300 on a phone. It was a good day at the casino for Apple and the success continued for years after.
I'm hoping Apple can surprise us. We need another evolution in tech to allow things to continue moving at the retail level.
secret codes for your decoder ring
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
Let's see...
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
for the LG G Watch R. You can change the appearance of it to suit your preferences, and it has most, if not all, of the functionality of any other "Smart Watch"
Might seem silly, but why not just put your phone in a ziplock type bag?
I've had an LG G Watch R for a little over a month now and quite like it. I don't use it to run apps per se, but it is a good interface to the phone. Anything on Android that would cause a notification will appear on the watch, and I can dismiss them as needed. Of course, it doesn't replace the phone, but 9 times out of 10 I just want to see the notice not actually do anything. I review it here if you are interested: http://www.adventuresinoss.com...
Find a holder/holster which will strap around your upper or lower arm, outside of your clean suit. The sort that trendy people use while working out.
This will eliminate the need for extra, expensive tech, while also keeping it handy.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
This is the #1 case for something like a Pebble right now.
- Put all your notifications on your wrist. Email, caller id, SMS.
- Reject calls from your watch!
- Never have to unlock your phone again - it's tied to the watch.
- Canned responses from your watch.
- SILENCE your phone. You can't miss the buzz on your wrist, so now you won't be that ass whose phone is whistling every 10 seconds.
- Likewise, you cannot miss the buzz on your wrist for alarms, no matter how noisy it is.
- Navigation and music control on your watch.
People always go on about 'oh but your phone is right there!' But it's all about the user experience. Pebble: *buzz* I glance over, in meeting, okay - good to know, no need to answer. 2 seconds. Nobody even knows that happened. Or I discretely hit a button to send an 'OK'. Phone: *phone whistles or maybe I was thoughtful enough to put it face down so it just buzzes on the table* Now I pull it out of pocket or flip it over on table, unlock it (or are you just putting notifications on the lock screen, insecurely?), oh, okay. I didn't need to read that now, but didn't know that till I read it. Put it back down. 5-10 seconds, a lot of motion and being a dick to everyone around you.
It's like SSDs. You don't *need* an SSD. So I tried telling people for 5 years how they transform your computer, but oh *PISH POSH* till they actually get one and never want to go back.
Solution : Put smartphone in OUTSIDE pocket. If you can't use a smartphone in the CR, you can't use a smartwatch.
I have bad metal allergies (sensitivity). The cheap metal on the back of my watches made my skin break out. So when I got my SW, the same thing happened. Since I am a determines tech user I really wanted this to work, so I started looking for other places to stick the watch so I wouldn't have a rash. I tried wearing a vest and sticking it in the pocket or wearing it around my neck on a chain, but both options failed to work. Finally I stuck the thing in my pocket next to my cell phone. Now it works perfectly and I always know where it is.
Six weeks on I dropped it under a bus when I pulled my phone out and knocked the watch free. Can't seem to figure out what the big deal about them was.
http://www.dailystormer.com
Are any of your reasons for needing your phone related to your job? Can you not go through a workday without playing with your phone? If you need outside communications from the clean room then your employer should provide them.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I can deal with my Pebble watch and it's 7-8 day time between recharges. When it gets down to 20% (day 7) I think, "Hmmm, better charge that up". When it gets down to 10% (day 8) I think, "OK, charge that up tonight".
Then I wake up in the morning with a dead watch and charge it fully in the time that I have a shower and breakfast. Or I plug it's USB cable in at work for 45 minutes when I'm at my desk.
Point is , I can deal with weekly charges.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Unless he meant "Drooling bullshit".
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
you still have to pay the sales tax.
OP works in a clean room where he can't take his phone out from under his body condom ... but apparently he doesn't need to wear gloves?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
How about the extra-ordinary solution of wearing your phone in a pocket that IS accessible within the clean room? Or in one of those exercise arm-band thingies to hold it on your arm outside the gown? There are also bracelets that you can wear that warn you if you get too far from your phone which are inexpensive, so you won't forget your phone in the clean room
The real question becomes what is allowable for you to wear in your clean room. I'm a little surprised that a watch would be OK, or that bringing your phone in would be OK, but I suppose it depends on the situation.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Ah la.. http://www.cultofmac.com/239581/the-saddle-lets-you-mount-an-iphone-onto-your-wrist/
You're not the market for smart watches, and that fact has made you useless on this topic, so why post unhelpful derp about your inability to adapt to new technologies?
Accessorize to maintain your "Glasshole" image while in those Luddite establishments that won't allow you to wear your Glass.
The entire point of having a battery in a watch is so that you don't have to worry about winding it every day,,, it's good for 3 years and then you replace the battery when it goes.
If I'm going to replace my watch, something that I've been using for years, and have only had to replace the battery twice since I got it, with something newer, then that newer thing should not create additional inconveniences that far outweigh anything it can do that a watch might not, particularly when there is nothing that it will do which a smart phone does not already do anyways.
There are a fair number of people out there who happily traded the 2-week battery life of their perfectly functional cell phones for dead-in-a-day smartphones. As it turns out, the inconvenience of having to constantly recharge a smartphone was worth putting up with in exchange for being able to do all the things you can do with a smartphone. Clearly, not everyone shared this sentiment, as you can still see any number of people using non-smartphones today--but significant numbers of people chose functionality over battery life.
It's hardly a stretch of the imagination to see the same thing happening with smart watches.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Yep, for me too. I love Apple gear, We have 3 iPads at home as well as 3 MacBooks and an iMac and 2 Apple TVs, but I don't have an iPhone (what for? no-one calls me except the missus and I work with computers all day and have access to emails etc, and phone plans cost more than I'm will to pay). An iWatch that needs daily recharging? Mmm, no.
Instead of buying a smartwatch, get a smartglass. You get all the information needed in front of you: emails, text messages, IM, etc. What you're describing as your requirements are pretty much what a smartglass was designed to do.
Just lay it on the bench, dress, take it with you inside and keep an eye on it. Cheap and handy.
-- Cheers!
and let everyone know you're hip, up-to-style, and have more money than sense.
Sports applications - specifically it should measure the movement of your arm at the very least, if not the full exercise monitoring/recording of the fitbit and the similar items.
Medical application - specifically at least measure your pulse, if not full blood sugar, etc.
In addition it should have a good voice recognition and bluetooth capacity to make up for the small screen size.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I use a Neptune Pine on a daily basis. It's not a perfected device, but it's good enough for me to prefer it over a conventional smartphone. It's a fully independent smartphone/watch running Android 4.1.2, you should take a look at it. Gen 2 should be an even better device.
I work in a cleanroom as you do and have found that my smartwatch is useful for the very reasons you describe. I have a different suggestion though, which is IMO a more versatile and certainly cheaper. Buy a Motorola MotoACTV and root it. What a lot of people don't realize is that the 360 is actually Motorola's second generation watch already. They billed the MotoACTV as a fitness tracker, but it does all the smartwatch type things stock, and then you can install a custom android ROM and run whatever apps you want. I bought mine off ebay for $60, and with a little help from here I got results similar to this. It basically becomes the world's smallest tablet on your wrist, and my gmail and facebook messenger work fine on it. The only issue I have is that they don't support our corporate exchange server email, but if you set up forwarding you can work around that.
At least a Note 4. Take the stylus out of the phone and put it in your pocket inside the suit. Phone goes outside where you have regular access to it. If you try to walk away and leave the phone on the desk the phone rings because the stylus is too far away.
By default I get texts and emails on my watch, can set reminders and alarms and text by voice, and of course answer and dismiss calls which is surprising useful with a BT ear piece. But with some good apps like Coffee I can easily send texts, with a custom face I can see my steps and weather outside at a glance (important where I live in the winter). I hardly take out my phone a fraction as much as I used to except to type long texts or emails or occasional web browsing.
Nevermore.
I guess for me I doubt any smart watch would convince me to wear a watch again. Many so far seem to be bulky, uncomfortable, fragile, or rather useless. Who wants a watch they have to charge every night? Yes, obviously like Google Glass you will have techies who will convince themselves how great a smart watch can be. But a niche group can be found for almost any product. Doesn't mean it will be hugely successful or provide enough useful features at a target price that will sell in big numbers. Even Apple may find that smart watches are simply a fad tech gadget that makes people want one before they ever discover a real need for one.
Every night, I set my (dumb)watch next to my phone as I plug in the phone to charge. It wouldn't be a hardship for me (or most folks) to plug in their watch at night for charging right alongside their phone.
Then again, the smartwatch people evidently think it's too much trouble to pull their phone out of their pocket whenever the poor little thing gets upset about something and demands instant attention. So, maybe you're right.
From the "I commonly work in a clean-room (CR.)" I knew we were onto a winner here.
What you actually want to do is not put your phone on the 'inside' of your "CR" gear.
If that's not an option, then I suspect neither is farting around with a wrist-computer.
Being serious. I'm a Pebble user and the main service it provides is putting your phone notifications on your wrist - it lets you break the pavlovian response of looking at your phone everytime it goes 'buzz'
However, it pretty much assumes that when you glance at your wrist and determine it's important, you get out your phone to resolve whatever.
Depending on your watch of choice, your interaction scope may vary - but they all assume if you need to offer a proper response to whatever, you get out your phone - a smartwatch isn't for you sir.
Yeah, I've come to realize that slashdot really is just a place for old curmudgeony tech people who automatically hate all new tech...
At no point did you indicate what you might want to do with a smart watch. We might be able to make some guesses if you told us what kinds of things you commonly do on your smart phone. Without that information, any responses here will be less useful than a few minutes of googling.
I absolutely love my Pebble. Its primary purpose is in helping me to determine whether I should remove my phone from my pocket or not. The Pebble will show me who's calling me, or will display a text message, or the first few lines of an e-mail. Based upon that, I may or may not want to take out my phone. In my opinion, watches are not very convenient for data entry, so for any tasks that require actual input, I use my phone.
Wish you had saved your money.
Earlier today
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
Earlier today
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
Well spam you very much, Mr Ad Man.
Ignore the moronic and juvenile posts from above that were more about making the poster feel superior than answering your question. But this is ./, I wasn't surprised.
I've had my Samsung Gear 2 since July, and find the following functions the most useful, in no specific order. Most smart watches have similar functions, the camera probably being the one that is the missing from many of them. .. probably not.
1. Telling time (duh)
2. Timer. Something I use a lot more than I thought I would because it's easier to use and I don't have to take my phone out of my pocket.
3. Camera. Picture resolution isn't that great, but it's good enough to document things and share on Facebook (which I don't post from the watch, I post from my phone. Might be a way to do it from the watch, just not that much of a facebook fan that I care.) Don't expect to print 8x10 glossy pictures though. After having one, I wouldn't get another smart watch without one, it's so quick and easy to use and always easily available.
4. Get text messages. You can send them, but it's either by voice which can be annoying to others, or some of the keyboards. Keeping it to short 'yes/no' type 1replies are possible, carrying on a conversation about where to go for dinner and why
5. Send and take phone calls. As long as someone is in your contacts, the voice recognition works pretty well. The comments I've had from my wife is the quality of the audio on her end is pretty good. Because the speaker and microphone is on your wrist, it can be difficult to hear or hold it comfortably to talk. I had a conversation from about 50 feet away from my phone when I left it inside my car at Home Depot and was in the contractor bay.
7. Get other notifications. This can drive you nuts, unless you are one of those people that insists on being plugged in constantly. I turned off the email/news notifications, just got too many. Other people that I know that have one use it for those things.
8. Calculator. Tiny buttons, good for quick calculations.
10. Store customer cards. I have loaded the bar codes for most of my loyalty cards, makes it easier in some stores with remote readers, useless in others. Since it doesn't care what the bar code is, might be useful in a clean room if you have to scan bar codes.
11. 'Look behind'. This is an app that lets you see what your phone camera sees. Great for looking under sinks and behind furniture. Probably not very useful in a clean room.
12. 'Find my phone'. Easier than finding another phone to call your phone when it's lost.
13. I like the square look more than the round look, makes more sense for a computer screen.
Caveats: .. it's also water and dust resistant, that's the price you pay for those features. I set the display brightness low, which extends the timing. .. it doesn't require any tools to remove, although the same may or not be true for the one you replace it with.
1. It's not a platform to spend long amounts of time reading. The screen is small, and even with support, my arm gets tired after using it too much to read the news and other things.
2. I have to charge it up every couple of days. Because it uses a proprietary cradle, you can't just plug it in to a USB cable to charge it. But
3. Fitness programs (i.e. pedometers) chew up the battery life. If you want a fitness watch, get one. If you aren't interested in tracking those types of things, this watch is fine.
4. Don't even start to believe you are going to type emails on this. The face is just too small for anything other than very small text messages.
5. While the watch band is replaceable, finding one that fits can be problematic. I haven't spent a lot of time, but because of the way the watch is designed, I think one really needs to go to a store to find one rather than online. I've tried a couple around the house from old watches, and the ones that fit looked like crap. But
6. It's a PIA at night driving or really doing anythin
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I have an Asus ZenWatch. Below should be able to be done on any Android Wear device. In no particular order I use it for the following:
Check New Email
Check SMS
Check Caller ID
Check Weather
Check Calendar and Agenda
Check Google Now Cards (includes traffic card for my route home)
Check Other phone notifications
Dictate Notes
Check steps walked
Check Heart rate
Set Reminders
and Check the Time
Some Android Watches have a speaker in addition to the microphone so you answer and talk through your watch for phone calls. My watch can store music on the watch itself and play back through a paired BT headphones without my phone present. One could play games, but I do not see any point.
I am down to about 40% by Midnight most days. I do not see much issue with recharging it every day as I take it off every night and sticking in the charging cradle just means it is easy to find in the morning.
Android wear becomes really useful over other options if you enable Google Now. The latest generation of Android Wear watches actually look like a watch (Moto360, LG G Watch R, Asus ZenWatch). If those things do not matter, then get a Pebble or one of the high end Fitbits like a Charge or Surge, or a Nevo Watch ( http://igg.me/at/nevo/x/813785... ). The Nevo is a real watch, with basically a Fitbit Flex built in, and add in colored led notification lights. You will not be able to read an SMS or email on your Nevo, but you can tell the difference when your watch vibrates from a new notification.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
I remember watching an interview of Steve saying how they put everything into the iPhone, almost as a last shot of reviving Apple.
Huh? By the time Apple introduced the iPhone, they had already grown bigger than Dell. What is this "reviving" of which you write?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
That's absolutely right.
Moreover, if you've ever tried disabling data on your phone, you'll probably find that suddenly it easily lasts 2-3 days, which is about as much as a dumb phone.
It's not just about the battery drain caused by the radio, but rather that a smartphone without data isn't very useful, or about as useful as a dumb phone, i.e. not much.
(The above doesn't apply if you use a lot of power-hungry offline apps such as GPS or games).
Why create new technologies that can replace old ones when all of the advantages of the new ones over the old are already offered by other existing technologies and the new technology offers a significant *DIS*advantage over what it would replace?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The smart phone not only offers functionality not found in a regular cell phone, but it also offered capabilities not found anywhere else, while also still being in a pocket-sized form factor. The smart watch does nothing a smart phone cannot already do and with its battery life, unless you consider "it stays on your wrist" to be a significant advantage, and has a rather significant disadvantage over a modern digital watch when it comes to power consumption.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Does your employer agree that you 'need' access to your phone? If yes, they should figure out a way for you to communicate. If no, they may not be so eager for you to bring in personal electronics into the clean room. How clean will your smart watch be after all?
My wife has one because she can't fit any modern cellphone in her pockets, and her Veer finally died, so the phone lives in her handbag and she uses her watch. She can answer calls, talk, and hang up without (I believe) even having to touch it, and can send texts ("galaxy, send text. next patient has piece of steel stuck in eyeball, will need more lidocane.") which she then previews visually and tells it verbally to send, again without having to touch it. She's pretty thrilled with it. And it tells time. I'm not sure what else I'd want/need in a watch.
(I haven't gotten one because I destroy everything I touch so it'd be a waste. But I'm quite envious.)
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
I'll probably get an Apple Watch and it will be obsolete within a year. This is the watch I hope somebody will make:
Applications:
Time ( analog and digital)
Weather (current and 5 day)
Music (streaming and offline/stored to bluetooth headset)
Games
Fitness
Universal Remote (car, thermostat, door locks, tv, game controller, camera, etc)
Payments/Passbook (nfc, QR-Code wallet)
Voice Messaging/Notes
Voice Search (e.g. Siri)
To Do List
Hands Free Call
Facetime/Hangouts
Calculator
Calendar/Schedule
Translate
Alerts/Notifications integration
Dashboard/Tracker
Two factor Authentication
Data storage/exchange
Must Have features:
Microphone
BlueTooth
Accelerometer
Compass
Vibrate
iPhone compatibility
Android compatibility
iPhone notifications
Android notifications
Important features:
Camera
NFC
GPS
Touch Screen
Bright LED (flashlight)
I/R Led (remote control)
Water Resistance
Nice to have features:
Integrated Phone
Ambient temperature
Body Temperature
Blood Pressure
Video diplay driver/irda
Swappable Band
Swappable Case
Wireless and/or Movement Charging
Key functionality:
Shake gestures
Voice Recognition
Touch screen gestures
Swipe keyboard
Activity context
Use a desktop web app or tablet app to set up
Themes
Reflective display
Backlit Display
Greed is the root of all evil.
Why don't you just get one of those armbands for your phone and wear it over the clean suit?
... that doesn't require a mobile phone like those Casio Data Bank calculator watches.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I also work in a clean room. I also keep my phone in my pocket and have to leave to access. I have also had two different smart watches. First, should you get a smart watch... YES. It is a complete game changer to be able to feel important notifications on your wrist. If you tweek your notifications just right, you can know if you feel a notification on your wrist it is important. Also I have found the timer functions to be very useful to come back to things while I multitask. I first had a Pebble and now a Moto 360. Pluses and minuses to both units. The biggest plus on the Pebble is the battery life and always on screen. The biggest plus on the Moto is the voice texting which works most of the time even in a noisy environment. Biggest minus for the Pebble is the looks (which is really not much of a minus). The biggest minuses for the Moto 360 is the buggy software and short battery life, but it does last 15 hours for me. Which would I recommend... The Pebble. It is not as sexy, but button presses always win over voice in a noisy environment. The software is much more polished and complete on the Pebble for what you want it to do. The Moto 360 is still feeling out the best way for the software to work on a smart watch. No question in my mind after using both the Pebble is the better design for what it is trying to do. I think the Moto 360 will be a great choice once the software design is improved. The Pebble company is better focused on what a smart watch should be.
He's a dyslexic who hits capsLock in reverse
epecially if the name is prefixed with "i"
I had to change the battery in my dumb watch today. I've had it 2+ years and the little LCD display that shows the data (and stopwatch, etc. if I want) blanked out. The hands did continue moving.
I suppose in another 2+ years I'll have to replace the battery again.
I can't imagine having to charge a watch. That's almost as archaic as the mechanical watches that you had to remember to wind.
When you're a gadget fanatic you have to snap anything new up quickly, because you might not be able to get one if it doesn't last long enough to achieve mainstream acceptance (which is a negative anyway- you want to publicly wield leading edge tech that nobody else has)
So the gadget vendors create stuff like that to make lots of money from gadget fanatics. It's just 'The Sharper Image' for the new era.
Funny, because I've been a developer for 17 years, and have written mobile apps. Note the '?' mark, and the previous question about what the best platform to develop for is.
I'm hoping Apple can surprise us. We need another evolution in tech to allow things to continue moving at the retail level.
Actually, we need Apple to die, and for the gadget industry to reach the level of being true commodities. We don't need bloodsucking outfits to continue to siphon loot from people in the name of 'fashion.'
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Good grief, what the fuck was I thinking when I typed the above?
Bigger than Dell at that point in the past when Dell and all the clone outfits were flailing? Before Dell fixed things by going private?
Sure, at that point Apple was already making a ton of money licensing the iTunes brand for the sugar water sellers to put on their bottlecaps, but that's 'selling sugar water to kids' again.
I guess I look at it the other way around. I have a very nice 10-year-old Seiko electro/mechanical watch whose battery is a royal pain to both buy and change every year or so (in this case, at least.) Alternatively, I've used a GPS fitness watch in the past few years that needed to be charged every few days, though it only lasts an hour or so if you actually run the GPS. However, once I got in the habit of just charging it every night along with my phone, that's wasn't a big deal.
I honestly can't understand why it's so much harder to charge a phone and a watch every night than it is to charge a phone alone. If there were such a thing as a phone that ran for two years without charging, I could see your point. What an inconvenience to have to plug in a phone every night! But everybody's used to that by now, because it's just a reality with current battery and phone technology.
And note that using your notion of "archaic", one could make the point that the current smartphones are archaic compared to the old feature-phones that only needed to be charged every few days. But even when I had one of those, I charged it every night just so I didn't have to think too hard about whether it needed charging or not. Not a big deal once you get used to it.
While we're at it, don't you just hate it that teeth need to be brushed every night? - that's why I'll never own teeth again!
How should I know? I don't even own one. I bet if you google "smart watch manual" you could find lots of information on it. Just RTFM instead bothering us, newbie...
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I commonly work in a clean room too.
I take my phone out of my pocket, wipe it down, and throw it in my tool box before gowning up.
All I wanted to know was, "am I am somehow missing some killer app that makes a Smart-Watch worth-while?"
A handful of you have actually considered my questions and the detailed description I offered of my scenario, prior to commenting, and I appreciate your comments! The rest of you are freaking children more interested in stirring up some trivial argument and wasting time. No wonder it takes so long for the true users and developers - I happen to be both - to get together and figure out what we really want.
Shame on you.
Don't be forgetful and put our phone outside your CR suit. Cheapest solution.
>> What Can I Really Do With a Smart Watch?
Throw it away.
aaaaaaa
You had the change the battery in your watch? How archaic.
Even when I'm not wearing an automatic mechanical watch with no battery, I wear a solar powered watch that charges itself.
I guess the battery in it will wear out, but not for another decade or two.
Maybe he was talking about decabytes?
Wristhole?
I got my LG G Watch when it came out and was stuck on the first generation Google Gear hardware when all the other good watches (Moto 360) came out, mainly because I had a good discount when I got it. I wouldn't have bought this for retail price, now though I would sorely miss all the functionalities I have baked into this smartwatch to fit my lifestyle. Here are some examples of my usage with it from the most used feature to the rarely accessed one.
1. Tell the time and/or meetings I have for the day. You will need the watch face ustwo for this, great and useful interface. If there is anticipated rain (not very often in Los Angeles), I use the InstaWeather watch face so I am ahead of weather events.
2. Quickly view notifications, reminders, Google Now notifications. I had to block some apps from showing up on my watch like facebook and my work email as it was flooding it. Now it is more manageable.
3. Remind me at a certain time or place of something. I used to do this on my calendar but I found it much easier to bring up my watch and tell it to remind me. Specially the remind me feature that pops up on a certain location.
4. Play certain play lists on my Sonos system at home. To be able to do this on your Smartwatch, you will need a bunch of apps configured correctly on your phone. Tasker, AutoVoice, Macronos and a rooted phone. (After I have setup my Philips Hue lights, will be able to control that too, using Tasker with AutoHue)
5. See on my watch motion alerts on my house camera system. I made my camera system to email a certain Gmail address which is monitored by IFTTT and puts the image attachment on the smartwatch.
6. Reply to text messages using voice. You will need Hangouts for this
7. Using Tasker I am able to trigger commands using only my voice and I can basically alter the setting on my phone and whatever else it can do. I do not often do this because it is better to set these commands per location/situation than having to trigger it by voice. But the option is there should I need to.
8. Trigger taking pictures/videos from my phone, no need for selfies and timer anymore. Needs the google Camera app
9. Add notes to evernote. Usually when I just need to take something down like if I am measuring something or to remember a number.
What does an Xbox related technology have to do with it?
Have you considered an armband-style case for your phone? It straps the phone to your body pretty much as if it were a watch. You'd have to remember to take your phone out of your pocket and put it in the case when you suit up, but I assume you'd have the same problem remembering to remove a watch and put it back on over your suit.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Would it be any easier to understand if I said that I don't generally ever take my watch off? Plus, half of the time, I will forget to charge my phone at night anyways... Although the battery will usually last long enough that I can recharge it when I get to work in the morning. Since I do not really need my cell phone to be portable while I am working at my desk, this is not an issue. It would be a royal pain in the ass to have to plug in my watch too, however.... because then I can't wear my watch during the day, when I actually *USE* it.... either that, or I have to spend the day being tethered by the wrist to a cable that is charging my phone.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I don't know what kind of clean room you are working in but the majority of semiconductor clean rooms don't allow ANY smart phones or any network-enabled or USB-enabled devices inside because of security and IP reasons. You really are going to want to check in on this first: ANY Asian semiconductor fab will terminate you or if you are a contractor, bar you for life, if you take such devices inside their perimeters. Most US fabs of any size have similar rules and restrictions. It certainly sucks if you are doing work for them but it means you actually have to plan our what you are doing more carefully and in advance.
See other comments - if it's a "clean room", then I can't imagine how bare skin would be allowed. And for no small number of jobs, memory devices are forbidden in the workplace. So, [shrug] not a problem I'm likely to face.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Do your arms get cold because of you not being able to wear long sleeve shirts or a suit coat?
Does your brain get cold because you don't use it?
When fully charged the watch will only keep going for six months of darkness. It's rare for me to go six months without having lights on in the house (which charge it when I'm not wearing it), lights on in the office (which charge it because I take my watches off to use a computer) or just be outside on a warm day where I don't need long sleeves.