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Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

getinpulse.com

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Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#142
post #78
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From http://www.getinpulse.com/faq/ What is the battery life like? With aggressive power management (turning the screen off most of the time and leaving bluetooth disconnected), it can be up to 3 days. If bluetooth is constantly connected with the screen turning on periodically for alerts, you can expect 25 - 30 hours. If you have a processor-intensive application and are using the full capabilities of the screen non…

The _state_ of battery technology is the biggest issue _for_ inPulse. There's not much they can do, given the lack of viable battery technology available. They _might_ be able to save a decent amount of battery life by using e-paper, but you lose color, and I'm not sure in practice you'd end up saving much power over the OLEDs they're currently using.

Blame other interesting things you might want to wirelessly communicate with for standardizing on power-hungry Bluetooth rather than using a lower-power wireless tech (zigbee, ANT, etc) instead/additionally.

Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#144
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok first question: Why only one button? Two would have been really nice for most things (like back and forward in powerpoint/itunes). Edit: Another one: Why don't you ship outside the US/Canada? I considered buying one, but I'm in Germany :(

We choose one button to keep it simple (and quicker to get to market). You can do a lot of things with just one button, just look at the single button on the iPhone! For example, you can do two actions, like click and click-hold.

I've experimented with using a single button (a Griffin Powermate, actually) to control all of my electronics: one tap toggles the lights, three taps changes lighting scenes, press and hold/five taps turns the projector on or off, eight taps toggles "party mode," ... I'm quite convinced that multiple buttons would be better :).

Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#145
post #139

I'm impressed with the price point. It's about what I'd expect a device like this to run if it were a higher-volume product selling through mass-market channels, rather than a low-volume, enthusiast product selling only through the manufacturer's website. Are you guys courting retailers like ThinkGeek?

Do you know of other retailers like ThinkGeek? (I like ThinkGeek, but I'm curious if there are other, similar stores.)

SparkFun, if you're not already aware of it, is only vaguely related to ThinkGeek, but it seems to me anyone looking at a hackable watch would be right at home there.

Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#146
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok first question: Why only one button? Two would have been really nice for most things (like back and forward in powerpoint/itunes). Edit: Another one: Why don't you ship outside the US/Canada? I considered buying one, but I'm in Germany :(

We choose one button to keep it simple (and quicker to get to market). You can do a lot of things with just one button, just look at the single button on the iPhone! For example, you can do two actions, like click and click-hold.

You could not do much on an iPhone without the touchscreen.

Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#148
post #39
post #34

Does this run multiple applications or do you have to plug it in each time you want to run a different app?

One app at a time, right now...but we're working on getting multiple apps running as well! Good point.

So I can't have a watch and notification app running on the watch? Guess you'd have to make them into one application?

If you do get that working, does that mean new hardware?

Re: Show HN: Our new $149 hackable Bluetooth wristwatch

#149

There is a similar product, Sony Ericsson LiveView, which can be worn as a wristwatch and paired with an Android phone: http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/accessories/overvie... Retails for EUR 39.50. I do not own one so cannot say anything about how well it works -- just came across it randomly yesterday when buying something online. If the client is Android-based it is almost certain the protocol can be easil…

Looks like they have some kind of development support for LiveView: http://developer.sonyericsson.com/wportal/devworld/downloads...
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