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Moto 360 review

theverge.com

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Re: Moto 360 review

#51

Post by wastedhours »

tillipa wrote: post #4

I have a Pebble and I'm quite ready to upgrade to a 360. Google Now is the secret killer feature that reviewers don't take into account — probably because they've only had the device for a day and are in plugged into Apple services instead anyway. My two caveats are battery life and wrist straps. The early reviews suggest about 12 hrs battery life which is the bare minimum I'm willing to accept. I don't mind charging…

Now is ok, but can be slightly odd. Like, a card will flash up on my watch mid-morning giving me directions and time to home. Or details of a football game three days in advance, which is cool, and I dismiss it, but it doesn't come back on the day etc.

Re: Moto 360 review

#52

Post by blowski »

wastedhours wrote: post #43
blowski wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me for being a bit out of touch. Is the idea of a smartwatch to be your main phone, small enough to strap to your wrist? I imagined that it was more like a really good watch - primarily there to tell the time, but allowing you to use it as a phone when that would otherwise be inconvenient. I played around with a prototype of an Android watch, and it just seemed too small to be useful. It seems like a remote c…

It is a remote control to your smartphone - the current Wear crop don't handle any of the phones' tasks, and it vibrates when I get a notification or phonecall...

So, for example, I could tell my phone to notify the watch when I receive a call or text message from my wife? Then when she calls, the watch vibrates.

Would that be expensive from a power consumption perspective? I know next to nothing about hardware, so perhaps I'm being naive.

Re: Moto 360 review

#53

Post by iaskwhy »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #49

I really hope Apple decides to call the iWatch something, anything really, that doesn't have the word "watch" in it. It's going to typecast it as something it's not, which is a time-telling device. That's really the most uninteresting and elementary functionality that these watches are going to provide. I really want to wear something that tracks heart rate, blood pressure, room temperature, sleeping habbits, etc. Te…

Did you say the same about the iPhone?

Re: Moto 360 review

#54

Post by TarpitCarnivore »

Am I the only one who felt like he refused to acknowledge this might be a bad product? The Verge has been gushing over this watch for months now and when they finally get it they have the same faults with it as other Android Wear devices. Yet for some reason because it's round and stylish (I beg to differ) it's immediately a better product?

Re: Moto 360 review

#55

Post by k-mcgrady »

tillipa wrote: post #48
k-mcgrady wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Google Now is the secret killer feature that reviewers don't take into account" I love the promise of Google Now and it's the reason I switch to my Android phone every now and then to see how it's going. But it isn't as good as advertised. The only thing that it is very good with is sports (upcoming games, results, live scores). Everything else is hit or miss and when you're supposed to forget everything else and…

>> "I switch to my Android phone every now and then" Do you use Google's services? If you don't, Google Now won't be as 'good as advertised' because it relies on that data which may not seem obvious at first (by the way, Windows Phone's Cortana is much better at requesting and displaying the background data it needs; Microsoft has leap frogged Google and Apple already). I use Google Mail, Maps and, most importantly,…

I do.

Re: Moto 360 review

#56

Post by wastedhours »

blowski wrote: post #52
wastedhours wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a remote control to your smartphone - the current Wear crop don't handle any of the phones' tasks, and it vibrates when I get a notification or phonecall...

So, for example, I could tell my phone to notify the watch when I receive a call or text message from my wife? Then when she calls, the watch vibrates. Would that be expensive from a power consumption perspective? I know next to nothing about hardware, so perhaps I'm being naive.

Well, at the minute, it vibrates when anyone calls or texts, all Wear is is a little screen showing Android's notification system and replicating the alert structure on your device already (e.g. when I get an email, it sits in the notification bar on my phone, but I chose not to vibrate, and on Wear is opens a notification, but doesn't vibrate. Whereas for a text it vibrates on my phone, and so it vibrates the watch as well. Doesn't have sounds, so the watch doesn't ring). It does cost battery life, hence the discussion surrounding it elsewhere in the post.

Re: Moto 360 review

#57

Post by jscheel »

Aissen wrote: post #39
illumen wrote: post #23

Pebble lasts 5 days. I like the look better too. Plus it seems simple, and I like the screen in sunlight better. Plus it works with iOS AND Android - which is good, since I'm a multiplatform kind of person.

My pebble lasts between 7 and 10 days. You must be getting a lot of notifications; do you enable accelerometer-triggered backlight? Do you listen to music often (with the music controls) ?

I get a pretty good number of notifications per day, and my pebble only lasts about 3-4 days.

Re: Moto 360 review

#58

Post by rabino »

tfinniga wrote: post #17

So, here's something I've been wondering about smart watches, maybe someone here can answer. It seems like the big dealbreaker for these is battery life. But a cheap watch with quartz timekeeping and digital lcd display can last a year or more on a single small battery. Would it be possible to sandwich two lcd displays into the face of the watch, one that is cheap and one that is high-res full-color? Always display t…

It also depends what features do you expect from the watch. I have a Pebble. It does everything I want on a "smart" watch, and the battery lasts from 7 to 10 days. Which is obviously worst than a year, but it's good enough that it doesn't become a PITA for me.

Re: Moto 360 review

#59

Post by freehunter »

cromwellian wrote: post #3

12 hours is the reported life, but I bet that's with constantly fiddling with it. The device's battery life is probably proportional to how often the screen is kept on and CPU fully awake. In real world usage, after the initial geek factor expires, the device will probably last longer. I've certainly had that experience with the other Android Wear watches and Google Glass. I'd also expect the upgrade to Android L to…

My Pebble battery life went through the roof a few weeks after I got it, when I stopped loading all new apps several times a day and fiddling with it. Once I found apps I liked and settled into a routine, it went from 1 day to 5 days.

Re: Moto 360 review

#60

Post by maggit »

maggit wrote: post #20
gambiting wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't be. You have to tap it to display the watch face. Edit: Nope, I am wrong - the screen does indeed stay on all the time, sorry.

From what I gather, it is always on. Do you have a citation to the contrary? "Like both already-released Android Wear watches, Moto 360 will feature an always-on screen, which is a power-saving dimmed display that still tells the time like a traditional watch." - http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/moto-360-rele...

Maybe it is not always on after all:

"One of the cool things about Android Wear smartwatches so far has been the always-on dimmed mode, so you can always flip up and see what time it is. The Moto 360, however, doesn't roll that way. When the screen's not on, the screen's not on. The one exception is when it's on the dock, charging." - http://www.androidcentral.com/moto-360-hands-redux

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