Chronos Will Turn Any Watch into a Smartwatch
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
The big problem, one that afflicts pretty much every smartwatch, is one of battery life. One of the great things about non-smart watches is that they run for years, not days. Chronos doesn't bypass this limitation (although one nice thing w/ Chronos is that if one forgets to charge, the main watch will continue to work).
The only winner in my mind is the FitBit or similar. I have owned the Apple Watch since launch and I absolutely hate it's battery issues. Not to mention that I consider the product slightly flawed. I don't need or use it's calendaring, stocks, weather or most other apps that have much better UX right on my phone, which is always with me and the Apple Watch needs to be connected to in any case. It just seems so coerced.
> The big problem, one that afflicts pretty much every smartwatch, is one of battery life
I have always wondered if a FitBit or similar device can operate in low power mode and manage to charge itself during running or similar vigorous activities. Or if wireless charging will ever get to the stage that if I am in close proximity to my laptop, my watch and phone can start charging themselves wirelessly. Or even some kind of a magnetic latch that can do away with charging cables so I can just tack my phone onto my Macbook and have it charge. Fun times ahead.
Care to elaborate? While I do see that non-watch-lovers would see the value in fitbit, but I dont see a traditional watch-lover wearing FitBit along side his usual watch. The Chronos was a very specific market in mind: People who love mechanical watches, but would like some extra functionality in the same watch. They don't want a ring, a bracelet, etc. Chronos caters to them while being as unobtrusive as possible. I personally think that's a brilliant move
I use my Apple Watch as a simple nightstand and alarm clock. It works well.
Yes, the pebble is great for that.
> or even just allowing your phone to detect that you're asleep so it can turn on do-not-disturb.
Wouldn't it just be able to detect that if you plug it in at night?
Myself, I don't mind multiple devices but not each with a single feature. I would also like them displaying things through the watch, and not just the phone.
A small point of note - it has been wound. But not by hand. It has a rotor (i.e. weight) in it that spins when you move, and this winds the watch.
http://i.imgur.com/VWvlDgH.jpg
> I wonder if something similar would suffice for energy needs of a device like this with no screen to power?
When I looked into it this was not possible. But of course, now that I've said that, someone's going to figure out how to do it.
I think that the trick would be customized silicon so it would be as lower power as possible. You'd also want to use super-low-power wireless technology to link it to your phone, and I think that the speed would be the tradeoff.
In practice I got ~5 months before I needed a replacement, but that's still pretty decent.
I'd say the comparison is apt given Activites are ostensibly analogue watches with basic activity/sleep trackers built in, with BTLE comms.
The only issue I can see with the device isnt actually related to the device- it looks like it depends on proprietary standards, meaning it needs its own apps and hooks.If noone wants to support another smartwatch in their app, this is dead before it hits the water.
I hate hearing my phone ring and ALWAYS keep it on vibrate, but sometimes you don't feel a pocket vibration in your pocket.
After realizing a hated all of Pebble's apps, and not needing a watch face to tell time, Pebble just became a wrist vibration band for my text messages. But that feature alone is enough for me to keep the device around.
I don't know what the situation is on Android, but on iOS they're connecting to the Apple Notification Center Service that was introduced in iOS 7. So I think Chronos will be able to respond to any app that generates iOS notifications.
Chronos means I get to keep it and get smart watch functionality. Cool.
What this test overlooks is that that doesn't reflect how watches are used e.g. do the buttons stand up to pushing when at depth? Does moving your wrist cause the case to flex imperceptibly, etc? This is why diving watches have ludicrous depths on them, 300m and 600m, because you need that kind of static strength to stand up to normal use at 30m or 50m.
There is no way that this device will be suitable for scuba. Probably OK for swimming tho' as it has no buttons. But since it's removeable, as another diving watch wearer, I'm interested...
After all, I wouldn't take my phone diving, why would I take Chronos?
(I wear my scuba watch everyday, it is during "out of water" activities that Chronos might be of interest.)
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."
"Such a disappearance is a fundamental consequence not of technology, but of human psychology. Whenever people learn something sufficiently well, they cease to be aware of it. When you look at a street sign, for example, you absorb its information without consciously performing the act of reading.. Computer scientist, economist, and Nobelist Herb Simon calls this phenomenon "compiling"; philosopher Michael Polanyi calls it the "tacit dimension"; psychologist TK Gibson calls it "visual invariants"; philosophers Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger call it "the horizon" and the "ready-to-hand", John Seely Brown at PARC calls it the "periphery". All say, in essence, that only when things disappear in this way are we freed to use them without thinking and so to focus beyond them on new goals."
"How do technologies disappear into the background? The vanishing of electric motors may serve as an instructive example: At the turn of the century, a typical workshop or factory contained a single engine that drove dozens or hundreds of different machines through a system of shafts and pulleys. Cheap, small, efficient electric motors made it possible first to give each machine or tool its own source of motive force, then to put many motors into a single machine."
Mark Weiser on Ubiquitous Computing: [2]
"Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives. Alan Kay of Apple calls this "Third Paradigm" computing."
[1] https://www.ics.uci.edu/~corps/phaseii/Weiser-Computer21stCe...
< The players in those markets
Wearable market = created by people who want wearables. Enhanced shoe market = created by portion of people who wear shoes.
It does seem like it could appeal to some people who don't need the convenience of reading a text or app notification from a regular smart watch.
The point is, people have different needs. Some like getting notifications on their wrist. Myself, I like smartwatches more for the input side - ability to control stuff without interacting with the smartphone directly.
Also, that's good that some people just don't see the need for it. It means the tool is useful. I hate the trend that hit the mobile market (and already affects the smartwatches) that makes companies design for lowest common denominator - it means people like me, who would like to use a specialized, feature-laden device can't get anything, because they don't exist on the market.
Sadly I doubt it'd work well for the fitness tracking uses if I used it that way. It'd have to be on a wrist to track pulse and whatnot.
Very elegant, up to 20 days battery life. Fits on any watch
I want one with a tiny LCD on it to show me my footsteps and heartrate, and I want to plug it into my computer and get a CSV. That's it. For the 99% of normal people who don't want to play with their data in python, you can give them a simple OTG cable and have your app do everything there.
I don't need a smartwatch to read me my text messages or buzz for notifications.
While they're radically different form factors, they appear to be similar in volume. The battery life on the Mi Band exceeds 30 days which makes me wonder why this thing can only manage 36 hours.
Speaking of software, this thing seems to do everything I wish the Mi Band did. The Mi Band is such a waste in this regard.
Does anyone know if there is a way to solve this problem?
The notifications system (simple vibration & optional LED) seems discreet as well.
I sometimes too want to express my appreciation for something with more than just an upvote, but find myself without anything insightful to say. The current solution is to get an "yes, it's ok to just upvote" counseling, but I sometimes wonder if there isn't something to improve there.
Upvotes signal everything from "it's a great idea!", through "oh, cool", to "headline looks interesting, I want to save that for later reading". On the other hand, since posting "it's great" doesn't seem like much of a contribution, even the best ideas (or Show HNs) end up having lots of criticism in comments here, despite that most HNers may actually really like it. A way to signal "it's a great idea" besides upvotes could correct the comment bias.
(1) An upvote signals a positive sentiment
(2) A downvote signals a negative sentiment
(3) A subject's "newsworthiness" is measured by the sum of upvotes and downvotes (i.e. 5 upvotes and 5 downvotes = 10 newsworthy points)
(4) A subject gets buried by measuring the square of the difference between downvotes and upvotes, divided by total votes squared (i.e. 5 downvotes and 1 upvote has a newsworthy score of 6, but it will have a "bury" score of (5-1)^2 / 6^2. This would only apply to subjects with more downvotes than upvotes.
Currently, upvotes end up being a mixture of "positive sentiment" and "newsworthy" -- there needs to be a method of distinction between those.