Moto 360 Reviews Arrive 87
An anonymous reader writes: Reviews for the Moto 360 smartwatch have started to roll in. David Pierce at The Verge praises the design: the circular display is framed by an unadorned, stainless steel shell, and fastened to your wrist with a simple leather strap. At the same time, he criticized the battery life, saying the device averaged around 12 hours of use before it needed to be charged. Pierce adds, "The Moto 360's most impressive feature is that I stopped noticing it almost immediately. Whenever I wear the LG G Watch or the Samsung Gear Live, I'm constantly compelled to fidget with it; there's this unexplainable feeling of having something alien on my wrist that is there because I need to use it. The 360, on the other hand, just vanished into the spot left on my wrist by the Seiko watch that conveniently died this week." AnandTech takes a deeper dive into the device's hardware, noting that the TI OMAP 3 processor is built on a somewhat old 45nm process, which necessitates higher power consumption than newer, smaller processes. The Wall Street Journal says it's easy to get used to speaking into your watch for basic functions, but the software — and thus, the Moto 360 as a whole — still isn't quite ready for prime time. However, almost all the reviews agree that the smartwatch's time is coming.
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Several lucky Apple fans have already gotten to see the iWatch in person, and they loved it! [youtube.com]
not ready for prime time (Score:5, Funny)
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Unless you hold it wrong.
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Re:Google (Score:5, Funny)
Is the moto 360 a google product? If so I won't wear it.
Why don't you use Bing to find the answer?
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Ned? Ned Ryerson?
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software not ready? (Score:3, Insightful)
You say the software isn't ready? I say the hardware isn't ready. How in the world is a watch with a battery life of 12 hours even close to usable?
Ooh, nice watch you have there? What time is it?
I don't know, the battery died around dinner time.
That sounds annoying. Does it happen often?
Yes, every frickin day!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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And it won't be, until it does something really useful on its own, rather than being a smartphone accessory.
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The Moto Equinoxer 360: Revolutionary new ability to accurately time hours of daylight, OR night -- on BOTH equinoxes.
What's next after the smart watch? (Score:3)
.
Smart rings?
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Re:What's next after the smart watch? (Score:5, Funny)
I think it will be smart pants. We can call them smarty pants.
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So close. SO close.
"Smart iPants" is what you were reaching for.
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Re:What's next after the smart watch? (Score:4, Insightful)
definitely won't be people
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An authenticator NFC ring would totally rule if it could work reliably. Bonus points for looking badass.
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Personally, I want a shoe phone. :-)
A watch? (Score:2)
Re:A watch? (Score:4, Insightful)
In the quest for choosing bigger numbers, Android manufacturers have been increasing average screen size to the point where the phones themselves are too big to hold in one hand or put in a pocket.
This makes the phones great for watching movies and Netflix, and gaming, but positively lousy if you want to communicate with people. I mean, you can't put it in your pocket (at least the small tight formfitting ones), and it's too big and tiresome to keep digging it out every 30 seconds to see if you have a new text or email or Facebook post.
So they invent a smartwatch that lets you keep the phone in your bag or purse (because you can't carrying it anywhere else due to size), but you can still get texts and remain "connected" without having to dig out the monstrosity.
Of course, you may argue there are plenty of small screen phones, and yes, you're right, however, the flagships have been getting bigger and bigger. And people who have flagship phones generally are more interested in smart watches (more $$$), than someone who just gets whatever phone is free today.
That's why smartwatches are around - phones have been getting bigger and bigger, and soon we'll be hauling around bricks like 80s style cellphones. (Ironically, the move to smaller and smaller phones in the late 90s and early 00s lead to more people using Bluetooth because they were too small to talk to comfortably).
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to the point where the phones themselves are too big to hold in one hand or put in a pocket.
You must have really small hands and pockets. The Galaxy S5 is a big phone and I don't have either problem.
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Why would you want your fingers encumbered with anything, and why wold you want to switch to a device that needs to be charged every 5 minutes when a smart-watch can run for 12 hours.
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According to the rumors (so you know it must be true!), Apple's watch is likely to have a built in step counter and pulse meter. That would instantly let it replace all the Fitbits, UP bands, Nike FuelBands, etc. that people are wearing with something attractive that has more functionality. I'd wear a watch if it did sufficiently interesting things that normal watches don't.
Battery life seems to be a killer (Score:3)
Re:Battery life seems to be a killer (Score:5, Interesting)
I gave up on the Pebble long ago (found it mostly useless), but one thing I do remember is that I was constantly running out of battery while out and about. I've been using an LG G watch for quite a while now, and running out of battery has never been an issue.
It is counter intuitive, but the LG's ~36 hours better life actually works much more reliably for me than the Pebble's two days (when it goes all buggy) to 7-8 days (when it doesn't, and you mostly ignore it), The reason is that I *know* I charge the LG every night, just like my cell phone. I quickly got into the habit of setting the watch down on it's charger thing as I put my wallet, phone, whatever on the nightstand etc. The LG is forgiving enough if you do forget to charge that you'll probably make it at least till noon the next day, but I almost never forget for the simple reason that it's a short, consistent pattern.
With the Pebble, I didn't want to wear out the battery by partially discharging each day then charging back to full each night (TBH I don't know if it's battery works that way, I just figure less charge cycles is probably "good" somehow.. shrug). So I tried to remember to check, pay attention to the low battery alert, whatever. It just didn't work. It was much more tedious and failure prone then just knowing I set something in a certain place each night. Sure, I could have just said screw it and charged it every night regardless, but then it's only equivalent to the Android options at best.
Re:Battery life seems to be a killer (Score:5, Informative)
The whole "partial discharges are bad" thing dates way back to the old days of timer-based NiCd chargers. Back then, chargers were dumb - they terminated the charge cycle based solely on a timer, and not based on detecting a full charge. The infamous "memory effect" wasn't actually the thing at play in most cases there - it's actually extremely difficult to reproduce outside of a lab. The problem was simple overcharging due to dumb timed chargers. As far as users were concerned, the symptoms were the same as "memory effect" so the myth stuck.
In general, partial discharges/recharges of a lithium-ion are far less stressful to it than a full discharge/recharge. However - li-ion/li-po batteries tend to lose capacity more rapidly if they are routinely kept at a high state of charge. Lithium batteries are "happiest" when they hover around 50% state of charge. (This is one of the reasons Teslas default to only charging up to around 80% unless you specifically "top it off")
Lead-acids like most non-EV car batteries are quite different beasts - they are happiest when fully charged, and will lose capacity RAPIDLY to sulfation if let to sit when partially discharged.
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This is useful information. Thanks.
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I've been messing around with an LG G watch for several weeks now (part time android dev, just getting to know the platform). It lasts over 24 hours on a charge, often approaching 48 hours if I don't fool with it a whole lot and turn off the "always on" display. To me, this is quite reasonable. Set it on the charger when you take it off each night, but if you do forget, it will still work for a good part of the next day. FWIW the battery life on the Moto X is similar, about 36 hours, and being able to u
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Yes, that would be an insane requirement. People with that kind of attitude are just a waste of time since they're in the market for a product that does not exist.
>I suspect a lot of people (most?) are like me and take off their watches at night anyways
That means you can't have any sleep-monitoring functionality in the watch, and health tracking
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That means you can't have any sleep-monitoring functionality in the watch, and health tracking is the only thing that will get many of us to strap something to our wrists, since watches have been made obsolete by our phones. A 24 hour charge, with a very fast charger or easily replaceable battery is the only way to make this work. Charging one battery while you're using the other, and making a quick swap is probably the best solution with current technology.
I suspect the number of people wanting to strap a device to their wrists for sleep monitoring are a very small subset of the potential smartwatch market. The changes you suggest would hurt the already struggling battery life of this thing, and make it bigger to boot. Given the small number of people that would take advantage of those things for sleep monitoring and the number of sales that would be lost due to the battery and size changes, it wouldn't be worth it.
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Distance from Phone (Score:2)
The people posting these reviews have had the watch for a few days, but I wonder how much education they got on it from Motorola, or if they were going in blind?
The reason I ask is that it has been well advertised today that the battery life of the watch will be HEAVILY INFLUENCED by it's distance from your phone. If the watch is seperated by the phone often, then it will constantly be using more power to communicate with it and/or be probing for the phone. This will significantly impact it's battery life,
Circular LCDs (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Circular LCDs (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a new thing called "fashion".
I'd much rather have a round watch than the current trend of recangular smartwatches.
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It's a new thing called "fashion".
I'd much rather have a round watch than the current trend of recangular smartwatches.
Agreed... though using the word 'fashion' was perhaps a mistake...
Also, when the primary use of the watch is to tell the time then a round display is justified. They're not for heavy data display anyway.
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Android Wear supports both round and rectangular screens. The reason for this is fashion, and fashion will always beat out pure function.
Circular LCDs (Score:2)
The addressing of LCDs is inherently cartesian, but I don't see why it means the display itself must be as well. The space not on the display is not wasted, there are not physical pixels being hidden here. Instead, the device provides the user with more free physical space compared to one with square screen, not to mention nicer look.
Lucky for you it's not round then (Score:2)
the 360 is 270, if you look at where the LCD actually goes...
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Would you prefer triangular or hexagonal screens?
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yeah, except for the part where it actually works fine in sunlight.
With the size of the thing (Score:1)
might as well just velcro your phone to your wrist.
Battery consumption due to CPU? (Score:3)
Everyone keeps saying how this doesn't have the latest most powersaving CPU but how much CPU does this device even need? Once a second to update the hand? Or could even be a few times a minute for a smooth minute hand.
I would be surprised if the overwhelming majority of the amperage doesn't go to the display and the BLE radio (in that order), the CPU coming last.
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The display is off most of the time. The power goes to the Bluetooth radio and the accelerometer that notices when you raise the watch up to look at the time.
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Meh, I was hoping some kind of dim OLED MIP display that would display always, like in N9 (though I did notice it was not mentioned in the specs) - it would have explained why most of the clock displays had dark background.
There are accelerometers that can queue many samples and then pass them to the CPU in one go (ie. 100 samples) and in addition they can have thresholds for interrupts. If your CPU is going to be woken once a second - assuming 100 Hz sampling rate, which is quite nice - then it doesn't rea
Not terrible (Score:2)
This is the first smart watch I've seen that doesn't look terrible. For me, a watch is primarily a piece of jewelry. I'll stick with my Ebel, thank you.
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I just stick to some classic seikos. Wear this bad boy http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iIzv... [blogspot.com]
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I agree with your points. I think what would work a bit more seamlessly is the Motorola Hint (also announced today). It's a tiny bluetooth device that sits in your ear. Much more discreet than a traditional bluetooth, with a fair bit more functionality. http://www.motorola.com/us/acc... [motorola.com]
I think this is (currently) a better solution than a smartwatch.
Pass... (Score:1)
We dont really need them in this avatar.. (Score:1)
Yeah, Tuesday (Score:1)
However, almost all the reviews agree that the smartwatch's time is coming.
iPocket Watch (Score:2)
Why encumber your wrists? What we really need is a device that you keep in your pocket and you can pull out when you need to check the time.
It can be called the iPocket Watch.