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Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#411

Post by amatecha »

Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired.

I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed.

I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major downsides compared to the Pebble OG, like battery life, lack of always-on display, and the lack of useful tactile buttons.

Being able to switch the currently-playing music track _without having to look at it_ is one thing the Apple Watch can never provide for me. I have to look, see where the UI button is, and tap on exactly the right spot on the screen. It frequently doesn't recognize that I tapped on the fwd/next track button either (presumably because I didn't tap perfectly within the hitbox). This hugely defeats the purpose of a subtle wearable that can stay "out of the way" and not steal your attention.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#412

Post by amatecha »

krick wrote: post #405

Ok, are there any wearables left that can be trusted with personal data? I want to use it to track my own activity/heartrate, not to be used and tracked by somebody else for their shady purposes.

Is there a personal data vulnerability/risk with Apple Watch? I don't know of any "tracking" or other shenanigans around the personal health data gathered from it.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#413

Post by eldenbishop »

robbyking wrote: post #397
mcv wrote: post #387

Nooo! My wife has a Fitbit and she's really happy with it. I don't want Google to kill it the way they killed Nest. That's honestly my first thought reading this. I lost my faith in Google about these sort of things.

What did Google do to Nest? I have a Nest cam and haven't noticed any difference in service.

All the works-with-nest integrations got killed recently. Infuriated me as that was a major selling point of the platform. I used to have my lights rotate evenings when I wasn't home. Also had my outside lights activate based on nest cam motion detection. All that is gone now and they haven't improved the base services for ages. It's too bad since the hardware is all really top notch.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#414

Post by eugeniub »

amatecha wrote: post #411

Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired. I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed. I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major…

FWIW you can upgrade to the S5 to get an always-on display. I upgraded from S2 to S5 and I love it. Better late than never. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#415

Post by mshroyer »

amatecha wrote: post #411

Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired. I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed. I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major…

> battery life, lack of always-on display, and the lack of useful tactile buttons.

Have you looked into Garmin's watches? Granted, they're expensive, but these are some of the main reasons I love my fenix. (In addition to it functioning as a very capable bike computer.)

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#416

Post by amatecha »

mcv wrote: post #390
harikb wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A watch that needs to be charged once in a few days is actually worse than one that could use a charge every night. Charge at night is a habit that can easily be adjusted to our daily schedule. btw Apple watch does last a full day (I meant 16+ hrs) with decent use, unless you are playing music out of it all the time or obsessively checking time/calendar. Only advantage of fitbit is that some models are easier to wear…

No, charge every night would be way worse. My wife uses her Fitbit to track her sleep, and it does this very well (much better than her previous smartwatch). She also tracks how much she walks during the day. A smartwatch that has to be charged every day would be useless to her. I have no idea about the UI that some people complain about, but my wife seems to have managed to get access quite a bit of functionality in…

FWIW my Apple Watch S4 can go a whole weekend on a single charge. I don't use mine extensively, though I do use Apple Pay for every transaction that I can. You can def go 2-2.5 days on a single charge.

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#417

Post by eugeniub »

amatecha wrote: post #412
krick wrote: post #405

Ok, are there any wearables left that can be trusted with personal data? I want to use it to track my own activity/heartrate, not to be used and tracked by somebody else for their shady purposes.

Is there a personal data vulnerability/risk with Apple Watch? I don't know of any "tracking" or other shenanigans around the personal health data gathered from it.

You can turn off iCloud sync for your Health data, but even if you keep it on, it's encrypted end-to-end across all your devices, which is nice.[1] (Some caveats apply.)

1: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#418

Post by amatecha »

darkarmani wrote: post #376
zeta0134 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not own a Fitbit, but on my older Pebble, the music integration feature allows me to play/pause the music, switch tracks (to skip that one song in the playlist I should really remember to remove), and adjust the volume. When I'm working out or doing yardwork, it's handy to have access to these things on my wristwatch rather than trying to fiddle with the phone in my pocket. It's sounds like the most minor conven…

I'm still using the original pebble. Unfortunately, i'm getting hit by the screen tearing problem and it is so old that i can't even open it to fix the problem. I don't want a watch that i have to charge daily, or i'll take it off and end up never putting it back on. I've been thinking of buying up some refurbished old pebbles as they have the exact features I want without the downsides of ALL of the newer watches/fi…

In what way can you not open it? Are the torx screws stripped? I did the "display shim" fix a couple times and it worked very well, but indeed it does rely on opening the case and putting it back together...

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#419

Post by amatecha »

mshroyer wrote: post #415
amatecha wrote: post #411

Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired. I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed. I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major…

> battery life, lack of always-on display, and the lack of useful tactile buttons. Have you looked into Garmin's watches? Granted, they're expensive, but these are some of the main reasons I love my fenix. (In addition to it functioning as a very capable bike computer.)

Nah, I already got the Apple Watch S4 as a gift so it will be a long time before I am looking for a new smartwatch! One day though, I'd definitely scour all the options available to me :)

Re: Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

#420

Post by amatecha »

eugeniub wrote: post #417
amatecha wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a personal data vulnerability/risk with Apple Watch? I don't know of any "tracking" or other shenanigans around the personal health data gathered from it.

You can turn off iCloud sync for your Health data, but even if you keep it on, it's encrypted end-to-end across all your devices, which is nice.[1] (Some caveats apply.) 1: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

Ah yeah, I have iCloud sync off for everything except the one free iCloud email account. :)
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