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

unawatch.com

141–150 of 199 posts

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

#141

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,…

The missing heart-rate monitor is a pretty big limitation for a lot of users. LOL. Imagine writing a review and leaving the heart rate in last place. Just don’t write a review then.

He's talking about an 11 year old device of a 15 year old (long since discontinued) design, even flagship devices were less featureful then than some mid-market devices are now. Imagine expecting a review of such a device to be enticing to someone comparing modern options…

Also, not everyone with a GPS watch cares that much about heart rate. I am a runner (well, less so now that I used to be, but working on fixing that) and have a Feninx7, not for the health tracking features but for route tracking and the long battery life (for “ultra” events covering many hours or even multiple days).

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

#142

> "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.

Apple Watch owner , always been indestructible, especially the ultra

My first (and the original) Apple Watch, I won at the company Christmas party. My kid dropped it in the tree sap water under the Christmas tree and I didn’t find it for two days. After a lot of cleaning, it worked perfectly fine for years. I’m on the series 10 now. They’re very tough little devices.

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

#143
post #138

Not to pile up on the negativity, but looking at the SDK, first reaction is it's fucking C++ ? Can't wait for my watch to crash in the middle of something. And second reaction, when I see signatures like this : void TrackFaceTotal::setDistance(float dist, bool isImperial); void TrackFaceOverview::setPace(float pace); and bool unitsImperial; littered everywhere, it makes my heart sink a little. Can't we have some data…

No, we can't. It's an ultra-low-power embedded ARM Cortex-M33 (successor to Cortex-M4) processor, the right language to use when programming it is C++. You want a minimum of abstractions and a close-to-the-metal programming environment to maximize battery life.

Be grateful it's C++, it could be raw C.

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

#144

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?

Is that calculated locally or send to the cloud? I got fed up how many Garmin features required an account.

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

#145

> "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.

Apple Watch owner , always been indestructible, especially the ultra

my first apple watch (6th gen) died when I was using it on a water slide ending in a pool on a holiday... since then I'm wary of using it in water...

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

#146
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wash my iPhone like every month. As I do with all of my phones for the past decade. Zero issues. I had a problem only once a long time ago, when I was in water with one of my Sony, but they replaced it immediately. No issue with the replacement.

washing is okay but dropping it in a pool destroyed my charging port on iPhone 14... the phone kept working and was rechargeable wirelessly though...

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

#147
post #99

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?

Yes, mostly because the Garmin app on iOS is pretty bad at keeping a live connection up even for weather =)

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

#148

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?

My Garmin Epix's Body Battery levels might as well be randomly generated. They don't correlate at all to how I feel. YMMV.

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

#150
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

the second one are fantastic, i think i have 5+ distributed through the house and in several bags. 100 % agree, the garmin cable sucks, but at least they seem to be fine with 3rd parties offering different solutions.
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