Or I say nothing and just think about how rude that person is.
And yes, I would rather they pull out their phone than stare at their wrist every 10 seconds. I don't have a problem with someone looking at their notifications, I'm just pointing out that people think they're being sneaky with the watch when they really aren't.
Having the watch, if you don't mind wearing a watch, might be nice, but I can't justify the extra expense.
Now my life is dominated by closing those damned circles.
The addition of GPS in Series 2 improved accuracy of walking and running distance when I go without a phone. Strangely, the calorie counts of walking multiple miles are generally 20% higher when I just have the watch vs watch and phone, even though the distance, time, bpm are the same with or without the phone. So while I expected to ditch the phone more this has me keeping the phone with me. There isn't as much variety in music or podcasts with just the watch. Finally, if I need to make a call for emergency having the phone present is security.
So, the Series 3 provides another set of features that makes sense for my situation. More music, can make/receive calls if required, maybe more accurate tracking with faster CPU. And with faster, more reliable data connection, maybe some 3rd party apps will become useful as well.
I have rarely had battery issues during the day. Usually, I just take it off and charge it when I sleep and put it on again in the morning. Don't think it something i would want to sleep with it on anyway, so multi day battery life isn't a concern.
For me, the tethering angle has always been the major, #1, reason not to get involved. I've been in computers since the beginning; having such arbitrary dependencies has been a significant detractor.
However, as an observer of this segment, I have to say - isn't it about time we just had full-blown computers on our wrists, kind of, .. "anyway"? I mean, yeah .. these artificial boundaries make the machines more marketable - totally get that - but .. don't you think you'd adopt the whole platform a little more willingly - in your postulated time-scale - if it weren't for all the dependencies?
Yes, things turn by turn walking directions on a smartwatch are kinda neat the first time you try them, but the novelty wears off and glancing at your phone twice on a long walk is no bother. But I stopped using pretty much any watch functionality except notifications within a month.
Side note: I'm not sure how well iOS notifications work on fitbit. Apple is notorious for locking out competitors (even going so far as to prohibit mentions of fitbit hardware integration in app descriptions on the app store) and it wouldn't surprise me if this affects fitbit functionality with iOS phones.
I think this is exactly right. Notifications are annoying and the watch reduces the effort required to see and dismiss them. However, I recently solved this problem another way; I turned off notifications (excluding messages and a few other very context-specific apps).
This turns out to be the best way to deal with annoying notifications. Just turn them off.
Maybe you use the additional features, and that's great. None of us want to make or take calls on a watch (and not-so-secretly loath anyone who does so on the subway).
I like the way I interact with the fitbit. One quick pulse when I get a notification I want to come through. And the screen stays off unless I press the button to see what it is. No constant stream of useless stuff on the screen on my wrist distracting me and those around me.
On the other hand, I have at least 10 friends, family, and/or coworkers that all have an Apple Watch and exactly 0 of them have had an issue where it completely failed and they had to have it replaced. That doesn't count the 1 person that shattered the screen on theirs but was able to take it to Apple and get a replacement the same day.
I realize anecdotes don't constitute evidence of anything but even by your own statistics, the FitBit line doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Edit: I can't say that I'm surprised that other responses here are echoing my sentiments about the FitBit devices. It might be confirmation bias, but I hear and read the same all the time.
Anecdotally, I have lots of friends with failed iPhones and Macbooks. My girlfriend swore Macbooks off after owning the awful white Macbook that had constant motherboard and screen issues and that Apple end-of-lifed way too soon after release because they never were able to release 64-bit drivers for it (seriously... even though it's their own hardware with their own OS). Doesn't mean all Macbooks have that same failure rate or awful product support outside that model.
One thing I have noticed of my friends with fitbits vs smartwatches, they treat fitbits like beater Casio watches and they treat smartwatches like Rolexes. I'm not sure if it's perception of materials or the fact that smartwatches cost 3 to 10 times as much as fitbits. I know I don't worry too much about my Fitbit Surge 2 HR because it only cost me $75.
There is an entirely optional "going to sleep now" toggle you can flick which will give a "time to sleep" measure and marker on the graph.
So for me personally I only have phone calls, SMS/iMessages, and one or two other communication apps enabled to send notifications to my watch, plus score updates from baseball since I follow the sport.
Once you get it configured in a way that fits what you care about it works really well.
Not having to pull out my phone while cooking, or cycling (my daughter alway seems to text me when cycling home from work) is very handy.
For me, its medical telemetry first, and a phone second.
Major improvements with the gear:
- Looks like a watch - Always tells the time - Works with my normal leather watch band - Has a spotify app
I use mostly just as a watch that can do fitness tracking and recieve notifications from my phone.
I hear this constantly and I don't get this. There's a very long tradition of non-circular watches in horology. See the Reverso, the Tank, and the Monaco.
Being able to track my runs and listen to my music without needing my phone is awesome. The notifications are great once you filter out the noise and turn off the ones you don't care about but that may also inspire you to uninstall some apps. I also use the timers all the time for cooking and working out and the actual Workout app is great as a diary for me. I can look at the Health app and see everything I did and I use that in conjunction with MyFitnessPal. I also like the general motivation I get from the activity rings. They're so stupid and simple but there's no feeling quite like closing all 3 of those damn things out or getting the occasional ring to loop back around itself.
I dunno... I feel like it's definitely changed my life for the better and I really don't see much technology advances making similar changes. I mean, it's great and all to have a Retina display on my phone to see all the pictures on Instagram as clearly as possible but that's just not as big of a deal as having a device that actually motivates me. I've had Fitbit and heart monitors and even pouches and clips for the iPhone and none of them keep it dangling in front of me like the Apple Watch does.
But that's just, like, my opinion, man...
"... and anyone who is influenced by it is a dummy."
(Speaker's final remark at a meeting, many moons ago.)
Should I be more or less inclined to agree with his opinion? Not being a dummy (of course ;-) I'm not being influenced, just rational, right?
(Thanks for the watch info, it was interesting. But I'm not being influenced ;-)
Now the standard joke is that I "wish he'd told me how good it was earlier".
Top tip: get yourself another band as soon as you buy a Watch. I splashed out and got the steel with steel link bracelet. I know, it's way more expensive than the standard aluminium/black sports, but it makes me feel like I'm actually wearing a watch and not a generic fitness device.
Of course you don't have to go that crazy, just get a nylon band or one of the leather options. Anything. Just get that black sports thing off immediately.
When I first got it I thought it was really cool with a small computer on my wrist and tried to think of all sorts of things to do with it, but the truth is that your phone is better at almost everything. The only reason to prefer your watch is if you leave the phone at home or if it's quicker to not take it up from the pocket. If you try do make it do too much you'll probably get tired of it, since it won't be a good choice.
I wouldn't recommend the Smartwatch 3 though. It's a pretty good watch, one of the first with GPS, WiFi and NFC (still unused), but it won't get Wear 2.0 and the GPS ranges from pretty bad to unusable. The GPS antenna can't handle when your arm gets wet, like when you sweat, so after about 20 minutes of running the GPS connection deteriorates significantly unless you have a sweatband under it.
Hopefully Garmin will launch a watch with Spotify support in the future.
It can't replace a phone just yet, but the convenience for many tasks has made it a worthwhile purchase for me.
When I go for a bike ride, it's nice to track that and be able to check heart rate, distance, etc while riding without pulling out my phone.
The cellular isn't enough for me to upgrade, I don't run so there's never really a time I'd be without my phone.
I've ended up wearing it about 23 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Now I have to at least get out of bed before doing that :)
I'm using Sleep Watch, the times it reports for sleep and wake seem to be pretty accurate for me.
It's great for what it is; personally I use it as a watch (checking date/time/setting timers/alarms) and as a device for filtering notifications. I don't need to keep pulling my phone out of my pocket just to check if the latest buzz was a spam email from work or a text from family/friends. It's just so much more convenient.
I can go for a run, a swim, buy lunch, and take an Uber home all without my phone.
I bought the Series 1 and stopped using it because it drained the battery on my phone, especially if I was using something like Uber that needed to continuously communicate to the watch. Would love to read reviews on the battery life of the watch.
I want one... but I just can't bring myself to get one because of what people I know have said.