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?

Comments

Pebble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would the Pebble fit your needs?

Gotta love the honesty on that web page, it got a smile from me.

Re:Pebble?

[TroubleMagnet]

I have a pebble as well. It has it's limitations but it have a few nice functions that make it worthwhile.

1. See who is calling without taking out your phone, button press will tell your phone you've decided not to answer the call to it stops ringing.
2. See the text of new messages from SMS/email/twitter and likely any other source you care to see. You can scroll up and down to read them.
3. 5-7 days between charges. Some apps or faces will shorten this by a LOT. 99% of the time I use the two functions above, on a 4 day trip out of town now, didn't even bother to bring the charging cable.
4. See how many voicemails, texts, email you have waiting.
5. Control Tasker (Android only) which brings up a bunch of simple things you can do.
6. Current weather

I wouldn't want to try to enter text on it, only has 4 buttons, but if you want to see if it's worth leaving the clean room it's great. You could likely set up a couple stock messages and send them if you really wanted to, not sure if there is an app or if you'd have to get Tasker to do it.

Re:Pebble?

[ColaMan]

There's a fair bit of 'easy' customisability in a Pebble.

And the battery life of 'aroundabouta week' is great compared to the 'charge overnight' crowd. I like to have a watch on at night, and I can silence my phone and have calls vibrate the pebble to wake me up if needed, but I sleep pretty lightly.

Notifications are good (with an add-on app), Phone control is easy (with an add-on app), there's a bunch of little apps for just about anything. Download the Pebble app for your phone (no need to get the hardware to install the app) and have a poke about in the app store section to see what's about.

There are programs that allow you to make your own faces with a builder app on your phone. You can get apps for it that can pull any JSON data you want from a server, and the actual dev environment used to make 'real' apps isn't too bad to work with.

And the original plastic pebble is pretty cheap and waterproof to 5 atm. (um, swimming and showering and stuff), so I rarely take it off.

Why I got a Pebble

[Enry]

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.

Good Voice-only Interface for Phone

[billstewart]

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.)

Re:Who wants a watch that you have to recharge dai

[ColaMan]

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.

Here is how I use my Gear 2

[johnlcallaway]

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.
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 .. probably not.
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:
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 .. 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.
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 .. it doesn't require any tools to remove, although the same may or not be true for the one you replace it with.
6. It's a PIA at night driving or really doing anythin

Fellow Clean Room worker

[dan.edwards]

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.