Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

unawatch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 199 posts

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#91

Post by LeifCarrotson »

lrae wrote: post #20

Some good points were already brought up in the comments (IP5X, USB C charging), but I have the feeling that it's also just not a good fitness tracker/smartwatch. I see a single unboxing of the watch from three weeks ago on Youtube and zero reviews on YT or websites. Just posts based on their PR release that it's available now. (Though some clearly already shipped.) Thus, it's unfortunately very likely that the produ…

There are only about 400 units in existence, and they just started shipping June 30:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unawatch/meet-una-the-m...

so it's been out for less than a month. That's why you've seen zero reviews on websites, it's an indie Kickstarter. They don't have the marketing budget of a big wearables brand.

It has a GPS, IMU, and heart rate sensor: That's enough, obviously, to track activities, workouts, and health which their competitors do with the exact same set of sensors. It remains to be seen how accurate those are, or how well the manufacturer and community can develop useful algorithms to turn raw sensor data into activity logs and actionable health insights, but step 1 is to release an MVP to get people wearing the watch and logging data, and step 2 is to use the data to improve the algorithms.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#92

Post by VoidWhisperer »

Part of the selling point of a smartwatch, atleast in my opinion, is its ability to run apps that aren't developed by the manufacturer - for example, ones that help me be able to see my blood sugar from my CGM on my watch. They have a whole section of their site for developers, but I can't seem to find a link to any kind of store, even though they specifically say developers should register on their portal

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#93

Post by LeifCarrotson »

TekMol wrote: post #28
arnejenssen wrote: post #23

For me the value of Garmin (Forerunner) is their proprietary algorithm for calculating Stress Level from HRV. It is the basis for the Body Battery measure. I find it useful to see how food and activity affects my stress levels. I guess it would be possible to reverse engineer a similar stress level calculation. Perhaps AI-powered?

If the algorithm is proprietary, how do you know it is calculating something meaningful?

It matches my lived experience.

My body battery and stress often starts declining for no apparent reason and then 12-24 hours later I feel the symptoms of an illness. Similarly, when in a tough training block, HRV is a great tool to gauge how hard I ought to be able to go: I've tried to push through and just do a tough workout anyways when it's out of range, but failed to complete the workout in good form, or felt superficially crappy but had good training readiness according to the watch and was able to do better than expected.

The same holds true in the other direction, I don't log into Connect or scroll through the multitudinous widgets of data often enough to really keep tabs on this stuff, and when I get sick or feel good or bomb a workout or succeed at a workout when I felt off, the metrics consistently back up the actual results.

Personally, I've been thinking about jumping ship to a Coros Apex 4 if my battered Fenix 6 ever gives up the ghost - Garmin's prices are insane these days. At $270, this is cheap enough in comparison to a $1200 Fenix 8 Pro to take the chance. I could buy this and a $480 Apex 4, and then decide I didn't like either of them and go back to a used Forerunner 955, before spending as much as a new top-end Garmin.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#94

Post by LeifCarrotson »

tomhow wrote: post #73
1970-01-01 wrote: post #70

How is USB a feature?? Everything done via USB-C can be and should be entirely wireless for a watch. >Gone are the days of brand specific charging cables. Returned are the days of worn-out, broken ports and searching for another charging cable.

Charging? It likely adds a lot of cost and complexity to add mag-charging if you’re not Apple or Samsung. Does Garmin even have it yet? (Edit: only on a small number of models at the premium end of their range.) So it’s an important differentiator from Garmin, which uses a proprietary connector for its charging cable, that is easy to lose/break and expensive to replace (from personal experience with a 2022 Epix).

I love the Garmin pogo chargers. I've got a few of their $3 puck cables scattered about my home, car, and office, a USB-C to Garmin adapter in my keychain and backpacking kit, and someone recently made a neat little portable battery that I wore under my strap in an ultra to recharge mid-activity.

Yeah, if you only use the stock Garmin cable (why isn't it at least right-angle?!) it kinda sucks, but there are lots of products that do it really well:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5L632HM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4F71WQC

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N18DX6Y

I would much rather these totally waterproof surface-level pads that put the spring pogo pins in the cable than give up internal device volume to a USB receptacle or magnetic charging coils.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#95

Post by LeifCarrotson »

deivid wrote: post #68

Love the idea, but I can't handle the big screens on these smart watches. To me it feels like having a fisher price toy on my wrist. Hopefully a more open alternative to Withings will emerge

This is a comparatively small one: 40.25mm diameter screen, 14.4mm thick, at 50g.

My Fenix 6 Pro has a 47mm face, is 14.7mm thick, and weighs 80g (but as a Fenix that's the stainless bezel one, the plastic bezel watches are closer to 50g).

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#96

Post by sandworm101 »

lobster2342 wrote: post #47

I just finished swimming, tracked by a Garmin Forerunner 910x which I bought back in 2015 and I have been constantly using since. Wrist band replaced once each side. Battery lifetime still amazing, even with longer bike rides and GPS. Data can be analyzed locally. Uptime since I bought it: almost 100%. Amazing peace of Hardware. Also their algorithms are cool. If the watch tells me to rest more than 24 hours, I know,…

As a former very very fast swimmer, i never found a watch that worked. The ones with the features were to heavy/draggy. So i always bought dirt cheap ones that i could leave at one end of the lane. Cheap ironmans. They got stepped on every day. People would apologise and i would throw the watch across the deck to show how much i did not care about scratches. Try this: put your watch on your other wrist. The weight/drag difference will be dramatic.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#97

Post by gbil »

TMWNN wrote: post #42
gbil wrote: post #22

The title is misleading at least, to compete with garmin you need the similar offering, with swimming/waterproofing being the huge outliar here but also the ecosystem and like it or not features like the notifications. Very valiant first effort for sure but after 6 years with a Garmin Fenix still holding 90% of its battery (and being able to replace it), I'm not their potential customer.

> but after 6 years with a Garmin Fenix still holding 90% of its battery (and being able to replace it), I'm not their potential customer. What kind of battery life did you have when you bought it, and how long is it now? Does Garmin still upgrade the firmware?

Talking about a 6s pro and got at the beginning around 10 days without much GPS enabled exercise, after 6 years I get about 9 days!

Good thing with the Fenix line is that you stop the updates which I did a year in so I don't really care about them, but I do think they stopped firmware updates for the 6series about a year ago.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#98

Post by peterleiser »

pandemicsyn wrote: post #5

> "UNA is currently a non-submersible device due to its innovative modular design. So, swimming is not something we offer as an activity, nor do we advise it. UNA is IPX5 rated, which means it is splash & showerproof to a high degree." If I had a dollar for every time some project that was ipx5 rated failed after getting caught in the rain one too many times...I'd have enough to buy another Garmin Fenix.

Yeah, and drop your iPhone, in a ruggedized case, into 3 inches of bath water for 5 seconds from a height of one foot and then realize apple's IP68 claim is laughable.

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#99

Post by DANmode »

lobster2342 wrote: post #47

I just finished swimming, tracked by a Garmin Forerunner 910x which I bought back in 2015 and I have been constantly using since. Wrist band replaced once each side. Battery lifetime still amazing, even with longer bike rides and GPS. Data can be analyzed locally. Uptime since I bought it: almost 100%. Amazing peace of Hardware. Also their algorithms are cool. If the watch tells me to rest more than 24 hours, I know,…

Are these algos local, as well?

Re: Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly

#100

Post by peterleiser »

quickthrowman wrote: post #75
pandemicsyn wrote: post #5

> "UNA is currently a non-submersible device due to its innovative modular design. So, swimming is not something we offer as an activity, nor do we advise it. UNA is IPX5 rated, which means it is splash & showerproof to a high degree." If I had a dollar for every time some project that was ipx5 rated failed after getting caught in the rain one too many times...I'd have enough to buy another Garmin Fenix.

I would not buy a watch rated less than IP68/IPX-8, annd ideally it would be much more water resistant. Apple Ultra watches are rated to 100m of water which is well beyond that. The watch I am wearing right now is a steel automatic that would have an IP69 rating as it’s rated to 150 meters of water depth.

The only IP ratings that I trust are on dive computers and dive computer watches (but I've read mixed results about Apple Watch Ultras for diving). The Garmin Descent Mk3i dive computer and smart watch is a solid performer.
Post reply on HN