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Android coming to wearables

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191–200 of 206 posts

Re: Android coming to wearables

#191
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in my nation (India) being gay is illegal Sorry for the flame material, but why is it that this is rarely mentioned in western news media (at least in the countries whose news I follow)? For those who, like me, didn't know that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_India

It is odd - there was uproar around the Russian propaganda laws regarding Homosexual relationships running up to the winter olympics (and rightly so! I am not suggesting otherwise). Yet, I (who, perhaps arrogantly, consider myself fairly well informed) had absolutely no idea that homosexuality is illegal in India. This is wtf-worthy.

It's a matter of how things are moving.

Homosexuality has been illegal in India. No change no uproar. Russia's laws have moved things bavkwards.

Look at what happened in Uganda.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It leads to me regularly switching between iOS and Android Is this only because of the app permissions model? AFAIK, other than that, Android per se isn't any less privacy-oriented than iOS. iOS apps also much more commonly retrieve various user data and marginally more often send data around unencrypted.

It's because I find Android works best when using Google's services and as I'm not paying for those (and they are using my info to sell ads) I trust Apple more to protect my data (it's in their interest).

What about your ISP? What about your network provide? Do you trust them?

And if it's in Apple's interest to protect your data, it's in Google's interest all the more to protect your data - because they do make money of some of it. Also, they have a very public declaration of what they do with the data, how they are stored and how long. With Apple, I have no fucking idea.

Also, when it comes to security, Apple has no stellar record - their's have been slow and callow approach to security (and security by obscurity).

Re: Android coming to wearables

#194
post #57
post #3

I am in the position of being torn apart by two very strong feelings. One is the world where information flow due to companies like Google does a real service to humanity: for e.g. wearing devices that can keep us reminded of our meds or monitor sugar levels, to talk just about the possibilities in healthcare. Then I think of Edward Snowden and I now know that what Google knows, maybe America/Russia/China/WhatHaveYou…

> in my nation (India) being gay is illegal Sorry for the flame material, but why is it that this is rarely mentioned in western news media (at least in the countries whose news I follow)? For those who, like me, didn't know that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_India

[deleted]

Re: Android coming to wearables

#195
Why do they have any expectation of success at the sort of power consumption that Android requires, with the power supply that wearables can contain? I note that the previous Galaxy Gear was Android - the new one is running Tizen and has around double the battery life. That's not all battery improvements, and no coincidence besides..

Re: Android coming to wearables

#196
post #47

It's going to be pretty great now that everyone has shown their "huge black square on the wrist" design before apple has shown anything. Looking forward to seeing them scramble to steal apples design.

Someone did not checked the sources before pasting the same old "All designs are ugly, XXX will do better than all and all others will rush to copy it"

Re: Android coming to wearables

#198
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in my nation (India) being gay is illegal Sorry for the flame material, but why is it that this is rarely mentioned in western news media (at least in the countries whose news I follow)? For those who, like me, didn't know that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_India

It is odd - there was uproar around the Russian propaganda laws regarding Homosexual relationships running up to the winter olympics (and rightly so! I am not suggesting otherwise). Yet, I (who, perhaps arrogantly, consider myself fairly well informed) had absolutely no idea that homosexuality is illegal in India. This is wtf-worthy.

India got quite a lot of criticism in the press for this at the time, and rightly so, but it dropped out of the news after a month or two because there was nothing new happening. Expect more press attention when there's news. (I doubt the Russian laws would've gotten so much attention if the Russian government didn't continually do things that drew attention to them.)

Re: Android coming to wearables

#199
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you watch people interact with their phones for a few minutes you realize it is a good idea. Take any average person and you'd see them constantly checking their phone for time(!!), messages, emails, weather, missed calls, current calls (i.e. who is calling me right now), change playing song etc. All those functions could be easily handled by a companion watch device.

Firstly: you can't fit all those notifications on a watch sized display. So you'd have to interact with the display. Secondly: To interact with something strapped to your risk, involves both hands. To interact with your phone requires 1 hand. There's also a mild security element - notifications and information are essentially constantly being displayed to anyone looking at you, projected outwards from the body. Add i…

Have you used a smartwatch before?

I got a Pebble recently and although you bring up good points, real world usage isn't quite the same.

>Firstly: you can't fit all those notifications on a watch sized display. So you'd have to interact with the display.

Watch defaults to a "watchface". Usually is time and/or date with maybe weather info. If a notification hits my phone, my watch pops that open on the display automatically. I hit one button to dismiss it. Quite faster than first realizing I have a notification (felt the vibration? Saw the flashing LED?) and then turning on the screen, unlocking the phone, and then checking the notification.

For music, it's two button presses to get into the music app and and one more to change songs. Can be improved here (buttons should have shortcuts enabled), but still a bit faster than pulling phone out of pocket to change songs.

>To interact with your phone requires 1 hand.

True, but I only use my watch to do quick, simple tasks that would take longer to do if I had to get my phone from my pocket.

>There's also a mild security element - notifications and information are essentially constantly being displayed to anyone looking at you, projected outwards from the body.

No arguments here! I was also thinking the other day how bad it would be to for someone to see a text they weren't meant to, haha.

>Add in all the other unsolved issues - i.e. no improvement in battery energy density for a couple of years now, and the whole thing is a non-starter. It can only provide less information, less conveniently.

Can't speak for the Moto 360, but my Pebble lasts for about 3 days on average (I've had it for a week only).

If the price isn't too high (has to be It feels good, it really does. This is one of those cases where more technology actually liberates us from tech.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#200
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious on this thought , care to expand ?

I just notice that Apple often finds themselves in court, suing someone (usually a company) for trying to steal one of their (corporate) secrets. And Google is often in court, defending themselves against someone (or a group) suing them for trying to steal their (personal) secrets. It might all be more balanced in reality, it's just an impression from online articles.

if you want to call patent trolling protecting company secrets thats questionable. As soon as you issue a patent its no longer a secret.
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