Google announces Android Wear, OS for smart watches

[TwiceOver]

If someone would just build http://www.wp7connect.com/2013/11/05/concept-art-lumia-smart-watch-video/ without the stupid ass colors, they'd "sell like hotcakes".

This would probably cover 99% of what people want to do with a "Smart watch".

Maybe I'm wrong and the fat ass watch is here to stay and not just today's fad. But until they get that thickness down to something that a person can wear with a dress shirt and not constantly be snagging it on your cuffs, you can count me out.

Also, it is downright stupid to even think about releasing a watch with less than 20 hours of usable life. I don't know what Samsung was thinking, but it's their money I guess.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I actually want the color LCD/OLED on my wrist. Some of the custom watch faces for the Gear are amazing.

 

[cronos]

All in a massive chunky watch. They could get the same data in a thinner sleeker design with longer battery life if they weren't so focused on putting a massive LCD on your wrist.

If you read my post closely, I didn't comment on your statement about the size, but I commented on everything else.

So did you watch the videos before you started ranting? If you did, did you just not get that it has the exact features you wanted?

 

[destrekor]

If someone would just build http://www.wp7connect.com/2013/11/05/concept-art-lumia-smart-watch-video/ without the stupid ass colors, they'd "sell like hotcakes".

Those look terrible!

Here's a round face... oh, but most of it is bezel.

 

[TwiceOver]

If you read my post closely, I didn't comment on your statement about the size, but I commented on everything else.

So did you watch the videos before you started ranting? If you did, did you just not get that it has the exact features you wanted?

No, it doesn't. Please note that I'm mostly ranting on how fat ass it is. The technology isn't there to do all this crap in a nice thin watch. Can it do everything I requested? Yes. Could I duct tape a cell phone to my wrist and it'll do everything I requested? Yes.

 

[TwiceOver]

Those look terrible!

Here's a round face... oh, but most of it is bezel.

I guess I don't get a hard on for edge to edge things. I have yet to see anything that doesn't have a bezel. And I don't expect this thing from Moto to be edge to edge either.

 

[cmdrdredd]

No, it doesn't. Please note that I'm mostly ranting on how fat ass it is. The technology isn't there to do all this crap in a nice thin watch. Can it do everything I requested? Yes. Could I duct tape a cell phone to my wrist and it'll do everything I requested? Yes.

I bet you it's both thinner and lighter than my daily use watch.

 

[destrekor]

I guess I don't get a hard on for edge to edge things. I have yet to see anything that doesn't have a bezel. And I don't expect this thing from Moto to be edge to edge either.

It's not about "edge to edge" - it's about the design and style of a watch. When you have a watch, the entire circular watch face, or at least the part under the crystal (or glass or plastic), is dedicated to showing the time. There isn't a small section for time and a whole bunch of watch-face not involved in the overall "image".

That's all I'd like to see with a smartwatch. It doesn't need to be perfect, but it should look and feel like a watch. A watch face's size is up to design, but the entire face is information or design. Having what amounts to nearly a 1/3rd of overall "watch-face" actually only end up being blank empty bezel, with perhaps an always-present button...? That's not at all like a watch.


The overall size of this smartwatch might be dictated by internal components, but it's also not at all outside the realm of "normal" when it comes to watches. Some watches are petite, some are rather large. Some are obnoxiously bulky with insane design, others are large but restrained and comfortable.

This smart watch might be larger than other ones, or not. I admit I have a little hesitation about its size, but I just can't give it an honest judgment until I wear it one day. Every watch is different, based on the overall design... I've generally shied away from large watches, but I cannot even truly tell this one is large. In video, it doesn't look obnoxious. I think part of its overall visual size is the fact that some images show a full-color full-face display. That immediately throws up a visual contrast that our eyes are not used to seeing on the wrist. When it's shown with only the black analog watch face, it looks to have gorgeous dimensions (which would be the visual state from which I'd actually make my judgment. If it looks too obnoxious as a watch, I probably won't get it. It might look perfect as a watch but look massive and alien as a color display, but the eyes will adjust to that and I can accept that.


Photos of watches have never worked that well for me. I can get a general rough idea, but I need to see it in person to really gauge size. Plus, with watches, it's really all about your individual proportions and mostly your wrist size. If you have thin frail-like wrists (or are female/feminine), a large watch-face almost always looks very wrong. Sometimes nothing but larger watches look right on those with larger forearms/wrists.

 

[desura]

I was thinking today that a smartwatch is definitely the place where you would want skeuomorphic design, like having the software animations look as much like a real watch as possible. It would especially be cool if you could download and install various "skins" that replicated famous watches throughout history.

No, I don't think the "flat" design of new iOS7 was a good idea.

 

[cronos]

No, it doesn't. Please note that I'm mostly ranting on how fat ass it is. The technology isn't there to do all this crap in a nice thin watch. Can it do everything I requested? Yes. Could I duct tape a cell phone to my wrist and it'll do everything I requested? Yes.

You mentioned the size only on your first two sentences. Well maybe there is one other sentence in there somewhere related to size.

Here is your full post, if you forget (or too lazy to scroll up):

They both look chunky as all hell. I don't want a watch sticking 3/4" off my wrist that I have to charge twice a day.

Why doesn't someone focus on what people actually want. Instant notifications at a glance, up to date weather, sports scores, news. You don't need a big ass LCD display to do this. You can take the design of a basic digital watch, add BLE, some processing power.

I haven't met a single person that is interested in taking photos with their watch, making calls with their watch, etc. What I have talked about with other people is the ability to at a glance see if I need to actually do something with my phone. At a glance, get the current weather.

Seems like everyone is trying to jump over the steps to the top landing. I don't see why any major manufacturer couldn't churn out the above device in the sub $100 range and profit heavily.

So no, clearly you didn't 'mostly ranting on how fat ass it is'. In fact you were asking about features and usage that's clearly shown in the videos. You were also ranting about features you claimed people do not need but apparently are in some smartwatches, but none of these are featured in the videos (which makes me wonder what products exactly you were ranting about).

Finally, I can't believe I have to ask a simple yes/no question three times.

Did you watch the videos before you posted your first comment?

 

[destrekor]

I was thinking today that a smartwatch is definitely the place where you would want skeuomorphic design, like having the software animations look as much like a real watch as possible. It would especially be cool if you could download and install various "skins" that replicated famous watches throughout history.

No, I don't think the "flat" design of new iOS7 was a good idea.

I think a smartwatch is the ONLY place where skeuomorphic design should exist. I find it is generally a very tacky design principal.
The pastel colors and gradients of iOS 7 were the wrong choice imho, but the overall design was significantly better.


With a watch though, indeed... a watch face is a simple thing. Considering it is a display, and this is something Motorola has already done with the MotoACTV, there will be assorted watch faces to use. Some will undoubtedly be based on known and historical timepiece and clock designs, others will be, well... wonky.

(I don't mean to antagonize - I merely wanted to state, with qualifications, that such design does work here, but imho, only for one purpose and one purpose only)

 

[TwiceOver]

You mentioned the size only on your first two sentences. Well maybe there is one other sentence in there somewhere related to size.

Here is your full post, if you forget (or too lazy to scroll up):



So no, clearly you didn't 'mostly ranting on how fat ass it is'. In fact you were asking about features and usage that's clearly shown in the videos. You were also ranting about features you claimed people do not need but apparently are in some smartwatches, but none of these are featured in the videos (which makes me wonder what products exactly you were ranting about).

Finally, I can't believe I have to ask a simple yes/no question three times.

Did you watch the videos before you posted your first comment?

Yes. I did watch TV video of what they expect it to do. We'll see what it actually does when it comes out. Honestly, it looks so highly dependant on Google Now that I probably won't be impressed. Google Now is so hit or miss for me. It reminds me about crap I searched for months ago but has never notified me about the hundreds of packages ive had delivered. Rarely tells me anything news related that I've even searched for and read about on Google news.

Plus the video showed way too much swiping going on. I want to look down and see that it is 67 and cloudy out. Not swipe around looking for information.

 

[vshah]

it's google now + app notifications, shown in the google now style. It will probably work just with notifications if you have now switched off.

 

[destrekor]

it's google now + app notifications, shown in the google now style. It will probably work just with notifications if you have now switched off.

Something tells me there is going to be a certain level of customization on the watches.

As it is, most struggles with Google Now come from the fact that individuals don't dive into the preferences section of Now. There is a fair bit to toggle, and a lot relies upon really utilizing your Google account. That, and you need to really utilize Google for them to gather enough on you.

It works quite well for me, but I've accepted a certain level of "google owns me"... I don't feed them what I feel I truly want to keep private, but who am I kidding, the NSA computers probably have all my separate "dentity" threads compiled together since they come from the same sources. I'm not so worried I'm running through TOR or into the deepnet. lol

I use Chrome on the desktop and have it signed into my main gmail account, almost all of my shopping and whatnot goes into that account, and I search either using google in chrome on the desktop, or through chrome on my phone or the basic google search box, depending on how I feel. I sometimes use Dolphin for some browsing, especially if I need to login somewhere (love you Lastpass!), but generally stick to Chrome.

Google Now usually gives me more cards than I want.

 

[desura]

I wonder how a smartwatch could be made to do mobile payments.

If you think about it...a smartwatch would have even less likelihood of theft than a wallet or a smartphone.

 

[Sheep]

If someone would just build http://www.wp7connect.com/2013/11/05/concept-art-lumia-smart-watch-video/ without the stupid ass colors, they'd "sell like hotcakes".

If you're going to give examples of a good-looking watch, images and a video of something that looks like it fell out of a toy vending machine even when you ignore the horrible colors isn't going to convince many people.

 

[bgstcola]

Twiceover, I completely agree. I like bezels as small as possible on a phone, but on a watch it is not important. What's important is the size (should be the size of a normal watch) and design and the battery life.

 

[MrSquished]

ars did a pretty in depth review of the Google Wear watch OS:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014...wear-googles-quantum-leap-of-a-smartwatch-os/

 

[destrekor]

ars did a pretty in depth review of the Google Wear watch OS:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014...wear-googles-quantum-leap-of-a-smartwatch-os/

I like.

I wonder if the watch face is a custom app or home-screen from Motorola. Hopefully there is a good and quick, voiceless way to get between the watch and notifications... I'm beginning to suspect that is what the crown/button is for.

They've shown an interest in preserving the stock Android feel, but with bonuses, as opposed to heavily customizing the experience. Hopefully they managed to keep that approach but still keep it so we can easily get notifications or a clean watch face as we go about the day.

 

[EvilYoda]

I'm glad some people have mentioned the crown...I think it's a great touch. Instantly makes it look more like a classic watch and having that simple "button" could simplify parts of the UI.

 

[destrekor]

Twiceover, I completely agree. I like bezels as small as possible on a phone, but on a watch it is not important. What's important is the size (should be the size of a normal watch) and design and the battery life.

I'd say a watch bezel matters more than ever compared to phone bezels. But, to each his own.

That's why I've generally disliked the look of most smart watches.
Between the body design, which has its own true bezel around the edge (on watches, the bezel can sometimes be rotated), and then an additional bezel filling in between the display and the external frame... that's just way too much wasted space.

Part of what makes a good watch look that much better is the visual balance. Outside of the metal frame edge, the rest of a watch is typically all watch face... there isn't unused blank space that will always be there.

That's the magic of the Moto 360 design that I am really loving. It, quite simply, looks like a watch. If it was a square display with black spaces filling in between the face and edge/frame, it'd look like a terrible and cheap attempt to look like a nice watch sitting on the wrist.
This might actually just pull off the fashionable watch look, that, oh, happens to be a smartwatch.


I suspect some people were just never a fan of watches or anything, which might explain why some smart watches have still managed to remain in the market.

I haven't worn a watch in a year or two, because I keep forgetting to get my old cheaper one as well as the hand-me-down serviced. Neither are super fancy, just nice looking affordable quartz models (the hand me down is a quartz Seiko... dad got the automatic Seiko ). I've been craving a smartwatch, comically enough... but refuse to get one until it can actually serve as a respectable watch. I'm fine with mostly embracing new technology in place of the old tech (watches with movements), though I'd love to have a truly nice (expensive) watch to break out for the big events... which would be assuming I'd have the money for such a watch, and the events at which to wear them. lol

 

[thescreensavers]

That Motorola Watch with the black metal band looks very nice!

I have already tried out this type of device with a watch called "MetaWatch" I had the analog version. It was only for developers but I got one anyhow. It was nice when it worked correctly. Only issue was battery life was terrible, hardly a day charge which I believe was some driver issues..etc but still it never got what they said it would.


If these watches can last 2 full days at a minimum with a nice bit of usage, with wireless charging Id buy one.

Thought this time around I will wait a little bit. I will love to see how each manufacturer implements its own variation. Battery Life is King here!

 

[Kaido]

Pocket previews article-saving on Android Wear smartwatches:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/21/pocket-previews-article-saving-android-wear/