681–690 of 809 posts
My partner is on one of the teams responsible for red tape and cost-cutting at Alphabet. After having frequent conversations about past failed projects, I'm surprised this project got the green light. Personally, I don't see this product taking off. As a parent, I think it looks quite lame, and I don't think anyone at Google knows how to break into product areas for kids. I've seen quite a few headlines concerned abo…
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Not the poster, but since getting a smartwatch with a cellular plan, I've found myself more often leaving my phone when out and about - especially with my kids. I'm still be able to make calls, text, listen to pods and music, pay for stuff, navigation etc. but without any of the distractions. The only essential thing I'm missing is a camera!
Are you able to connect to Carplay?
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>whereas today you’d be safer without one This is absolutely not the case unless you believe what happened in China, Russia and Cambodia in the 20th century, governments murdering hundreds of millions of their own people, somehow magically cannot happen again. Orders of magnitudes more people have been killed by their own government when they lacked any means to defend themselves than have been killed by school shoot…
Two things: 1. We're not talking about those places in those times that you reference. We're talking about today, presumably in the US, since we're talking about a "stupid law thought of 200 years ago" aka the 2nd amendment to the US constitution. 2. It is hilarious that some people believe that owning a gun is going to protect them in any meaningful way from organized, sanctioned government violence toward them. May…
> Fitbit Ace LTE has been tested with hundreds of families and is designed to get 16+ hours of use from a full battery. Fail. Adults struggle to recharge their devices every day and my kids certainly won't remember to. Garmin Kids watches, while drastically different in functionality and connectivity, last 12 months before a battery replacement is needed and are wildly more suitable for young kids.
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100%. My kid is not getting a smartphone until he's ~16 but we're looking at a restricted smart watch right now (a flip phone would also be acceptable but a watch is physically attached which is ideal for 7 year old).
> a watch is physically attached which is ideal for 7 year old Better hope that watch is water- and shockproof because a healthy 7yo will find many ways to test those features.
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> With the social pressure going on, I expect she'll get a smartphone earlier that I'd honestly prefer (not that we are there any time soon), and quite a bit before she's a teenager. Our kids (8 & 10) keep telling us nearly every kid in their class has a smartphone, but we're still not letting them have one. Fuck social pressure; that's an important lesson to be learned in itself.
I do not understand how anyone can be so categoric about this - it should not depend on peer pressure but also it should not be dictated by some ideologies. Phones (instant communication actually) is part of modern world and is here to stay and children should learn it as fast as they are able to handle it. Otherwise there is a danger of being left out for them. And at their age there is few other equal things that c…
Hard disagree to this idea as justification for purchasing something for a kid.
The most useful gift that my parents gave me is a cultivated disregard for what is popular. It's not that I go out of my way to alienate my peers—I try to get along well with everyone and it mostly works—but the habit of wanting to participate with the crowd is one that I've watched hamper many a life, and the lack of that habit has allowed me to get a lot further in my career and in my personal and social life than most of my peers.
In next year: Google EOL watch for kids, closes servers rendering watches useless.
My bet is Google EOL.
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There's also a really simple hack: they can just leave their phone/watch at home. And now even if you or they have an emergency, you can't reach them :)
Lol, and then they get grounded. They can't hack if they are taught to expect swift consequences for messing around
Kids are a lot more clever than you give them credit for :)
Smartwatches may be an overlooked answer to the kid phone conundrum. Watches have the communication and location tracking that parents demand without the distraction of phones.
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My watch changed my relationship with my phone very positively, so I offered to get my kids watches as a phone alternative. Not that they couldn't have phones at all, but they'd leave them at home when going on, and not carry them in their pockets around the house. They declined because they think watches are lame and nerdy. Only the most unfortunate kids get watches. They still can't carry them around the house, but…
How did your relationship To your phone change?
The watch did a few things. It made it so I didn’t feel like I needed my phone around since my urge to have it was communication with my family or work. So, with that handled I could relax and leave the phone at home.
It also allowed me to see quite clearly how unnecessary my phone actually was. I rarely actually use my watch while out and about because the instances in which I imagined I’d need my phone were mostly false. The watch is useful, but maybe a few times per week rather than per day.
Finally it demonstrated that the utility I imagined my phone had outside of necessity was a lot more limited than I thought. Apps and cameras are cool, but not using them is, too. I really don’t care that my phone is gone when it’s gone.
So, I’ve gained up to hours per day of my life back and broke a terrible habit. I tried willing myself out of it but failed. Ultimately the watch was a great solution.
The trick is actually putting the phone away, though. If you carry both you’ll just use the phone anyway.