But I was really expecting more innovation from the "by innovation only" event. Garmin's flagship watch has a feature that extends the battery life by embedded TWO SOLAR PANELS into the display. That is innovation.
By about 15%, according to that page. Anybody know how realistic Garmin’s battery estimates normally are or have a pointer to a real world test? I find it hard to believe that a watch’s face would be facing the sun a lot, even when not wearing a coat or long-sleeved shirt.
Generally I charge it every night or every other night so I don't know how long it stacks up against its estimates, but with some activities sprinkled in I think it's fair to say that a "1 week" estimate is closer to "4-5 days" if you’re active, depending on how long you're actively recording activities for during that time. As a plain smart-watch without tracking an activity or listening to music, it's down about 10% at the end of the day on those sedentary days, so I think that’s pretty in line with its numbers
I charge it in the car during my commute on Fridays.
On top of that during a normal week of milage (~50miles) I would only take it off to charge once after my Saturday long run.
Regardless my point was more that I consider that solar technology to be much more deserving of the title of "innovative" regardless of it's performance (things get better over iteration) than an "always on display" something that all of my Garmin watches I've owned over the last decade have done.
There are some things that the Apple Watch seemed designed to be tethered to an iPhone, almost like they were (bizarrely) afraid that it would make people not want to upgrade their phone. They've taken a really rapid approach away from that, though, and the watch is becoming dramatically more powerful by itself, even though it could already do all of the basic things.
What do you use for audiobooks? Audible on the AW is realllly dodgy for me.