71–80 of 114 posts
It's ironic or a bit disingenuous that a device putting constant notifications on your wrist is advertised for stress relief. Not unique to PW2, quite common in tech, but regardless...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you can mitigate some of the negative effects of notifications by reducing them everywhere - on your phone, on your PC, on your watch. But a watch is a new way for them to reach you. It goes in the opposite direction to reduction. I'm probably showing my age here, but there was a time that's hard to remember now when there were no notifications, no devices constantly vying for our attention. You would know what…
I also remember what it was like to not be able to reach loved ones in emergencies, to periodically find a pay phone to check a voicemail system while waiting for an important call, to have no idea that a tornado was coming. I’m happier with the choice to monitor in real-time what’s happening in my life, or not monitor, vs what we used to have: no choice at all.
In the early and mid 00s we had means to do all these things without notification spam. Even in the 90s, were these things problems? In which emergencies were you not able to reach loved ones or were unable to tell a tornado was coming? A lot of the public warning systems we have are from that time.
What you say makes sense if you go further back, but I feel like you're ignoring at least a decade where we had all these conveniences but no spam.
Per footnote 11, the "monthly sleep analysis" requires the FitBit premium subscription. I am very hesitant to support a smartwatch that locks features behind a subscription, even though I don't particularly care about the sleep analysis. I don't really see who this is for anyways. If you want a fitness tracker, you are better off with something from Garmin or FitBit. If you want the best smartwatch experience, nothin…
On the other hand, the Apple Watch requires buying a macbook ($1000 one time) + a $100/year annual subscription for ad-hoc distribution to run your own app on your watch and play with data.
I assume the majority of hacker news users who buy a smart watch are going to end up writing a few simple apps/widgets/whatever for themselves, so it seems to me like, even if you do buy the optional fitbit premium subscription, you'll end up paying less per year than for an apple watch.
I'm quite hesitant of smart-watches that lock writing and running my own simple widgets behind a subscription.
How can people tolerate a watch that's half an inch thick? That's like twice the thickness of my phone.
How can people tolerate charging a watch each night? I can't get behind this idea of having a basket of electronics you need to babysit all the time so they don't run out of battery. Especially when we already have really battery efficient tech, like hybrid watches with e-ink display.
I can't sleep with a watch on at night, so I take it off and put it on its stand, which is the charger- my phone goes on it's charging stand at the same time.
Worth noting they are offering a promo, at least in some markets, that you get the pixel watch 2 for free if you preorder the pixel 8 pro, or $200 off if you preorder the pixel 8.
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My Fossil Hybrid HR has (real) motorised hands sitting on top of an e-paper display. 2 weeks of battery pretty easily. Just a shame that the syncing software halves the battery of your phone, requires privacy-invasion talking-back-to-the-server bullshit, and is ugly and useless to boot. But still required for watch functionality. Christ I wish more smartwatches were hybrid & e-paper displays. I just seems the most ob…
I miss my Pebble. I have a Garmin now, but it lacks many basic functionalities, especially around notifications. For example, if someone texts me a few times in a row, I can't scroll to get to prior notifications. Lame!
It's ironic or a bit disingenuous that a device putting constant notifications on your wrist is advertised for stress relief. Not unique to PW2, quite common in tech, but regardless...
Also looking at my watch for a notification got many people thinking I was late for some appointment or that I was trying to find an excuse to stop talking to them. When I disabled the notifications I was left with not-so-smart watch with terrible battery life (still many times better than current models!).
Nowadays I stick either with a Casio Waveceptor or a mechanical watch depending if I need the time precision of the Waveceptor or not.
It's ironic or a bit disingenuous that a device putting constant notifications on your wrist is advertised for stress relief. Not unique to PW2, quite common in tech, but regardless...
For me, watch notifications reduce stress by allowing me to get absorbed in the moment while still being able to quickly check up on any important things without having to "context switch" by pulling out a phone.
It means that I can actually take advantage of my flexible work schedule and go out on a walk or be visiting my niece and playing with her, yet still available to others who might be working at the time.
In the early 2000s, sure there weren't devices vying for your attention, but such flexible work requirements were also not that common.
I get to do things whenever I want as long as the overall work is progressing at a decent pace. If I had to avoid getting into something enough to remember to keep checking my phone, it'd defeat the point of such flexibility, and if others had to wait an hour or two for me to notice and reply to them, work would not progress at a decent pace and the flexibility would be taken away.
This is probably also a function of my position. I'm at the start of my research career, so most of the emails I have ultimately involve me asking someone else for something which benefits me much more than them. My being extremely prompt with my replies helps a lot with making a good impression and getting things done, and a watch helps a lot with pulling that off without having to actually stress about paying attention to my emails.
I had no idea the battery life on most smart watches is so bad that "24 hours of screen on battery life" is something to brag about. The apple watch is no better. My Garmin Forerunner 945 (a running focused smart watch), more than two years old at this point, gets nearly two weeks of battery life on a single charge, and it's got an always-on screen as well. --- Quick edit: Even the latest Forerunner 965, which has an…
Turns out it doesn’t really matter. When going to bed at night I used to plug my phone in. Now I plug my phone and my watch in. Pick up both in the morning and I’m ready to go.
Ironically I find myself in fewer low battery scenarios than I did with my Pebble: because I need to charge every day it becomes part of my routine. With the Pebble I’d lose track of when I last charged it and leave the house with it running on fumes. Still miss it, though.