So SmartWatches are a real thing now?

[ninaholic37]

Haha, I just saw a whole page of them in a Future Shop flyer! Man, they remind me of Calculator Watches from like 20 years ago... I wonder these things will suffer the same fate as well :hmm:

 

[sweenish]

They've been a thing since last summer.

At least for Android Wear. Samsung has been putting them out even longer.

 

[WelshBloke]

They are a thing for people who want you to spend money on something that you didn't know that you needed (and probably don't).

So go out! Get consuming!

What are you? Some sort of Commie?

 

[poofyhairguy]

They've been a thing since the Apple Watch keynote

FIFY as far as the general population is concerned.

I have and Android Wear watch and I can still admit that is the truth. Just like mobile payments basically didn't exist until Apple Pay.

 

[rcpratt]

FIFY as far as the general population is concerned.

I have and Android Wear watch and I can still admit that is the truth. Just like mobile payments basically didn't exist until Apple Pay.

I have seen and talked to literally zero people that care, and barely any that know. But we'll see...

All hail the silver apple in the sky...

 

[dainthomas]

I had a calculator watch in junior high in the 80's and I loved it.

These seem less useful than that.

 

[Commodus]

I say they're useful if done well. If you get a lot of email or other alerts during the day (I get dozens), a smartwatch can save you a ton of time. You only have to pull out your phone to deal with the messages that are genuinely important, and you can quickly respond to some of them (using voice or canned text, depending on the watch).

Yeah, it's not a necessity in the way a phone is, but it provides a lot of value to the right people. A bit hard to explain unless you've lived with one for a while.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I say they're useful if done well. If you get a lot of email or other alerts during the day (I get dozens), a smartwatch can save you a ton of time. You only have to pull out your phone to deal with the messages that are genuinely important, and you can quickly respond to some of them (using voice or canned text, depending on the watch).

Yeah, it's not a necessity in the way a phone is, but it provides a lot of value to the right people. A bit hard to explain unless you've lived with one for a while.

And it saves the crap out of your phone battery because of that.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I love smartwatches. They are like your phone that you already have but cost more and do less. What's next, blue tooth ear pieces?

 

[sweenish]

What smartwatch costs more than a phone?

Or are you seriously comparing a watch's retail price to your subsidized (paid via your phone bill) phone price? Or maybe you're taking the standard smartwatch price and comparing it against phones like the Moto G and E, the type of phone that a person with zero interest in a smartwatch would get?

Or are we talking about the expensive iWatches? The one's made of gold and marketed to kind of people that don't bat an eye dropping a few grand on a timepiece? What would it matter if it costs more than a phone? A lot of things cost more than a phone and arguably do less.

It's interesting to see all the people dumping on smartwatches. I admit that the tech isn't quite there yet, but this is first gen stuff. On paper, the iPhone was laughable as far as smartphones go in its first gen.

I mean pretty much every tech you know and love started out rough and not that great at first.

If you couldn't tell, I think smartwatches will be sticking around.

 

[touchstone]

they will be a thing when the apple watch is released and ported to android. i wonder how long it will take for somebody to trick an apple watch into syncing wtih an android phone? its just bluetooth, there is no reason why android cant connect besides the usual apple shenanigans

 

[thilanliyan]

I think all of them are disgusting...I'd never by one

 

[poofyhairguy]

they will be a thing when the apple watch is released and ported to android. i wonder how long it will take for somebody to trick an apple watch into syncing wtih an android phone? its just bluetooth, there is no reason why android cant connect besides the usual apple shenanigans

China will give us an Android Wear clone of the Apple Watch before the end of the year. There is your hack.

 

[Commodus]

they will be a thing when the apple watch is released and ported to android. i wonder how long it will take for somebody to trick an apple watch into syncing wtih an android phone? its just bluetooth, there is no reason why android cant connect besides the usual apple shenanigans

It's not going to be ported to Android... you're going to have to give up that dream.

One of the very points of it is to run extensions of iOS apps, and eventually watch-native apps (which are in turn based on iOS). Connect to Android and all it would really do is send notifications and forward SMS/calls... I'm not even sure how many of the built-in apps would work!

 

[senseamp]

I don't get these watches. What problem are they solving?
The only reason to wear a watch nowadays is as jewelry.

 

[sweenish]

And to tell the time.

Heck of a lot easier to look at wrist than to pull your phone out of your pocket/purse.

And how is a watch being worn as jewelry a knock against it? You could say that like it's a bad thing about any kind of jewelry. Or nice clothes, even.

 

[gw186]

I wonder how long they could get the battery to last if all the watch had was a screen with the ability to change faces. That's the only feature that I want, don't even carry a cell phone.

 

[WelshBloke]

And to tell the time.

Heck of a lot easier to look at wrist than to pull your phone out of your pocket/purse.

And how is a watch being worn as jewelry a knock against it? You could say that like it's a bad thing about any kind of jewelry. Or nice clothes, even.

Were talking about smartwatches (those fat clunky things with cheap electronics inside manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop) not the elegant bits of precision engineering that are actual high end timepieces.

 

[sweenish]

Were talking about smartwatches (those fat clunky things with cheap electronics inside manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop) not the elegant bits of precision engineering that are actual high end timepieces.

People wear cheap crap as jewelry all the time.

Saying that a smartwatch is no better than jewelry is just agreeing with the concept of a smartwatch. It is jewelry that tells time and does a couple more things. Again, how is that supposed to be a knock?

I'm not trying to change your mind about smartwatches. I'm trying to get you to make a legitimate point. I don't care if you like them or not. I care that your reasons are the dumbest ever, though. "You" in this sense being the general "you" of the people not being for smartwatches for the stupidest reasons.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Were talking about smartwatches (those fat clunky things with cheap electronics inside manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop) not the elegant bits of precision engineering that are actual high end timepieces.

How do you know that $10k Apple Watch was made in a sweatshop?

 

[Commodus]

Were talking about smartwatches (those fat clunky things with cheap electronics inside manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop) not the elegant bits of precision engineering that are actual high end timepieces.

I don't think you've seen the size of a lot of high end mechanical watches. Some are slim (see: Audemars Piguet)... but a lot of them can be quite chunky (Bell & Ross, Urwerk, even some TAG Heuers).

The issue is that smartwatches don't really have that option for a slimmer design yet. Processors and batteries need to be more efficient before that can happen. At least companies like Apple and Huawei are finally acknowledging that you can't just stop at aluminum and basic leather if you're aiming to produce a quality timepiece.

 

[BoberFett]

I could see the value of a smartwatch, but I'm going to wait until they get the use cases right.

 

[senseamp]

And to tell the time.

Heck of a lot easier to look at wrist than to pull your phone out of your pocket/purse.

And how is a watch being worn as jewelry a knock against it? You could say that like it's a bad thing about any kind of jewelry. Or nice clothes, even.

Most people spend most of their time in view of some sort of a clock, and/or look at their phone many times a day anyways.
Plus, there are some inconveniences on par with taking phone in and out of your pocket that you need to put up to use a smartwatch.
You have to charge the smartwatch every night.
You have to put it on and take it off.
It's sitting on your wrist all day, adding weight and trapping sweat and moisture.
The band and buckle at the base of your wrist are annoying to me when I type.
The winding/smart knob pushes into top of your hand when you flex it up.
It's distracting to have an electronic toy so close to you all the time.
I don't have a problem with wearing watches as jewelry. But a made in China toy with 2 year life span is not my idea of jewelry worth displaying.
I know Apple can randomly stick a $17K price tag on it, it still doesn't change the picture for me.

 

[vshah]

I had a calculator watch in junior high in the 80's and I loved it.

These seem less useful than that.

you could put a calculator on any of these. so they are at least as useful.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't think you've seen the size of a lot of high end mechanical watches. Some are slim (see: Audemars Piguet)... but a lot of them can be quite chunky (Bell & Ross, Urwerk, even some TAG Heuers).

But they have beautiful, beautiful exposed workings.

The issue is that smartwatches don't really have that option for a slimmer design yet. Processors and batteries need to be more efficient before that can happen.

The fact that it has to be clunky because it needs a big battery doesnt mean that its not clunky any more.

At least companies like Apple and Huawei are finally acknowledging that you can't just stop at aluminum and basic leather if you're aiming to produce a quality timepiece.

Just changing the metal that its made out of doesnt make it a quality timepiece.