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Pixel Watch 5

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Re: Pixel Watch 5

#311

Post by VortexLain »

As a GrapheneOS user, I've had to buy pixel watch 2 in order to be able to pay via Google Pay abroad (since I unfortunately happen to reside in an internationally sanctioned country, local cards work only inside the country, some crypto exchanges provide Visa/Mastercard cards, but virtual only, so Google/Apple pay is the only choice). I really wish I haven't had to own this android-certified™ device in the first place. Have had to disable as much GMS system permissions as possible, such as pulse, GPS, physical activity via ADB.

P. S. Since it's not even possible to add a new card if the watch is paired to a device that doesn't pass SafetyNet, I've had to add cards with a stock android device, and then re-pair the watch to GrapheneOS device. This almost seems like a deliberate choice by Google.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#312

Post by dmantis »

haskman wrote: post #284

If you care about privacy and owning your own data, then don't buy this, buy a watch with gadgetbridge support ( https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ ). I bought an amazfit active 2 a few years ago and it works fantastically with gadgetbridge on grapheneos. Easily gives me 5 days of continuous battery life as well.

I have a good experience with Huawei Band. Huawei doesn't even require to pair the watch with an official app! So I never connected it to the Internet or installed their app, paired directly with gadgetbridge from the first day.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#313

Post by sulam »

gavinray wrote: post #8

Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems: Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends > Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breath…

Noninvasive blood glucose measurement has been a holy grail for wearables for over 10 years. People have thought they were going to crack it but the research just hasn’t panned out. You’re much better off getting a cheap CGM subscription, especially now that they’re available OTC most places.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#314

Post by Markoff »

anon7000 wrote: post #183

So I kinda hate smart watches, a lot. Mainly because they are about notifications and apps, both of which SUCK to use on my wrist. Notifications are especially horrible (looking at you Apple, not able to disable reaction notifications in iMessage…), distracting, stressful, make it hard to stay present and focused. What I actually want: - sleep tracking - basic health tracking - maybe basic GPS to track hikes/runs etc…

Amazfit Bip has sleep tracking, pedometer and notifications, it has also GPOS (which will significantly shorten battery life), release in 2018, it can still last 4 weeks on single charge, you can buy used for 15-20USD here in Europe

Don't expect advanced sport features like tide info or water sports, it has calendar events and can be used with open source Gadgetbridge app in phone.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#315

Post by richiebful1 »

edent wrote: post #81

I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?" I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me? I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. Wh…

This is why I bought a Casio G-shock smartwatch. I use my watch primarily as a watch: I like to track my workouts, and it is nice to get important notifications to my watch when I'm busy / trying to focus

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#316

Post by sulam »

ChemSpider wrote: post #69
gavinray wrote: post #8

Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems: Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends > Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breath…

"insulin resistance trends" - whaaaaat? how would they do THAT? That would be huge for so many people, including diabetics, obese people or women with PCOS (PCOS alone affects more than 10% of women of reproductive age) Is that measurement accurate? Like, a person starts taking Metformin -> and a few days later the watch detects a drop in insulin resistance?

Definitely not. Get a cheap CGM subscription if this is something you want to monitor and you need any sort of real data. They’re easy to apply, update quickly (within 15 minutes of a Hcg spike you will see it in the data) and you can derive A1C from it. Actual insulin resistance itself still requires a fasted blood draw at minimum and is not really recommended (too many methods with different ways of measuring each of which is clinically significant but needs interpretation — or you can do a 3-4 hour research lab test but the value is pretty limited).

Any time you see “trends” in a press release you should be very suspicious. It’s a sign that they can’t pass regulatory scrutiny and are trying to apply the research anyway. Your scale cannot measure fat percentage, your Samsung watch cannot measure blood pressure and your Garmin cannot measure VO2Max. These are all things they’d like to be able to do (and “trends” can have some value if they’re used correctly) but they are not the thing itself.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#317

Post by nbraem »

VortexLain wrote: post #311

As a GrapheneOS user, I've had to buy pixel watch 2 in order to be able to pay via Google Pay abroad (since I unfortunately happen to reside in an internationally sanctioned country, local cards work only inside the country, some crypto exchanges provide Visa/Mastercard cards, but virtual only, so Google/Apple pay is the only choice). I really wish I haven't had to own this android-certified™ device in the first plac…

To de-Google, I have GrapheneOS + a Garmin Instinct 3 Solar: - 28 day battery life - NFC payments that work internationally - always-on monochrome MIP display that is very readable in direct sunlight - sleep tracking with silent alarms - phone ring alerts - very good GPS for outdoor activities

Best of all, since you only need to charge it once a month, the watch will last 10+ years.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#318

Post by robbru »

richiebful1 wrote: post #315
edent wrote: post #81

I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?" I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me? I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. Wh…

This is why I bought a Casio G-shock smartwatch. I use my watch primarily as a watch: I like to track my workouts, and it is nice to get important notifications to my watch when I'm busy / trying to focus

Same here. I wore the Apple Watch for about 6 years. It helped me get excited about exercising and swimming on the daily, but the notifications and "focus modes" made it feel like a chore. I switched to the GShock GW-5000 and never looked back.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#319

Post by VortexLain »

nbraem wrote: post #317
VortexLain wrote: post #311

As a GrapheneOS user, I've had to buy pixel watch 2 in order to be able to pay via Google Pay abroad (since I unfortunately happen to reside in an internationally sanctioned country, local cards work only inside the country, some crypto exchanges provide Visa/Mastercard cards, but virtual only, so Google/Apple pay is the only choice). I really wish I haven't had to own this android-certified™ device in the first plac…

To de-Google, I have GrapheneOS + a Garmin Instinct 3 Solar: - 28 day battery life - NFC payments that work internationally - always-on monochrome MIP display that is very readable in direct sunlight - sleep tracking with silent alarms - phone ring alerts - very good GPS for outdoor activities Best of all, since you only need to charge it once a month, the watch will last 10+ years.

I've considered Garmin for Garmin pay, but seems like it supports much less banks, and I didn't want to gamble with checking for myself if it'd work with virtual crypto cards. Not all of them support offline NFC payments in the first place, and those which support only advertise Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#320

Post by wongarsu »

louisbourgault wrote: post #287
futureshock wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Totally. I would say I'm quite a power user usually. I very carefully explored every feature my apple watch has and tried to incorporate as many of them as I could. Very, very few features stuck because they were genuinely helpful. Almost everything being pushed is a gimmick or a feature bullet point from some product manager. The actual good stuff: Time Workouts Payments The occasionally useful stuff: Notifica…

Interesting that the alarm is such a far down feature for you. I use a galaxy watch 4, and i dont think i can ever go back from a silent alarm. Nicer to wake up to, and doesn't wake up everyone in the house as well

Silent alarm is an awesome feature. But it scales with battery life: on a watch with ~48 hours of battery you want to charge daily. And the most convenient time for that is in the night, which kills the silent alarm feature

Once you get to a week of battery life like a Garmin or those cheap armbands without screen that becomes a much better feature

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