Sony SmartWatch 3
sonymobile.com
sonymobile.com
I used/liked:
1. Show to people at parties/in social situations, people are very curious about it
2. Look at texts/email (and possibly fb/twitter, but I didn't want that stuff going to my wrist) without taking my phone out. Especially when driving with both hands on the wheel, reading short texts (one word/short sentence) was pretty easy (and not too terribly dangerous, I thought).
3. Configurable face is amazing -- you can design your own watch face, add widgets like weather, battery, bluetooth connection, etc
4. If you develop, it's great to at least have one thing on the platform, in case you decide to develop for it.
One of the negatives is the closed platform. Like the galaxy gear, Sony doesn't really make it easy for you to modify the hardware/low-level software, and there's the whole silly "get our app to communicate" business, which is just trying to lock people into a walled garden.
But all in all, the smartwatch 2 is fantastic, and it's got a great (non-prohibitive) price tag. I got mine for like $100-130 on Newegg Flash
And yeah, PT Cruisers are terrible.
Genuine question: Did you include "rectangular" because you would prefer a circular smartwatch? I genuinely don't understand why people would want a round smartwatch. I don't see how a round screen would provide a good UX (this is why they don't make round monitors, or round smartphones).
Even if watches are traditionally round, I wouldn't want to have to build a UI around the constraints of a circular screen.
Whether you implied this, I have seen multiple people voice their preference for a circular smartwatch, so just trying to understand the logic vs. the constraints it would impose.
I'm sure a watch that was 6 inches wide and went halfway up my forearm like a gauntlet would be awesome to type on and read email, but I wouldn't wear it because it'd be super ugly.
The problem is that a watch is an object of fashion first and foremost. That's why you can find people willing to pay $10k for a Rolex Submariner or, say, an Omega Speedmaster "Dark Side of the Moon". They're the ultimate status symbols. That's what watches have become -- status symbols.
Apple clearly understands that with their Edition edition (though they didn't think through that name very well) and the general high-end finish of all the watches (even the Sport edition has a stainless steel frame around the watchface), but I think it was a mistake for them to choose a rectangular screen. I personally had hoped Apple would be the first company not just to make a circular smartwatch, but to also design a custom UI for a circular screen as well (as opposed to just slapping on Android Wear like the Moto 360 does).
They are not even remotely as popular as circular watches. I don't personally know a single watch aficionado who wears a square watch.
I think this is due to Sony marketing it as an "active watch", similar to the fit bands that also look like rubber toys. Personally I like it, at least the black one. It actually looks nicer than the Pebble, not that the Pebble is a standard of style.
Can anyone please come up with something more interesting than counting the number of steps I take during the day?
I prefer the form factor of the SmartBand, but that only has 3 days of batter life (with eink display!). I'd rather get the Garmin vivosmart which as 7 days of battery life.
The SmartWatch 2 was a huge improvement over the previous model, but it didn't impress me enough at the time to buy it so soon after the last one; I ended up getting the Pebble instead. This one though, looks like what I'm really looking for in a smart wristwatch. I'd happily trade my Pebble for one, and probably will once they start selling it in the US.
As for the waterproof rating, IP68 would be "no ingress of dust" (the "6" in the rating) and "the equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water (immersion beyond 1m)" (the "8" in the rating). That sounds pretty much waterproof to me. Now, if you mean it's not a diver's watch, well of course it isn't, and never claimed to be. A diver will wear a diver's watch, not a device that connects to a phone she wouldn't dive with anyway.
I had the first sony smart watch and it was amazing for its time. Then I got the pebble and loved it. Now I'm onto the Moto 360 and not looking back.
Feedback appreciated.
You website and products looks like they were happier in the Adobe Flash era of the Internet. The navigation is a disaster; small horizontal bars with lethargic animations make me dread trying to get anywhere on the site. The font selection and logo look like you told a design intern to make something look expensive.
Size wise, your website is 1,600 pixels wide. 1,600! This means you'll see horizontal scrollbars on a 15" Macbook Pro. Since it's not even remotely responsive, you've eliminated anyone coming to your site on a mobile device and even the iPad retina in portrait mode. If you can't be bothered to make it responsive (not really challenging considering the limited amount of content) at least make a mobile optimized site.
Then there are pages like this: https://www.slyde.ch/en/concept/engine
There is no reason the text should scroll on a page like that. It's a drab wall of text with no formatting, links, or really any kind of structure. Why have you made a boring wall of text -harder- to read?
Why is there a carousel navigation at the bottom of the page? Circles like this are traditionally used in carousels (which themselves are universally hated), and not for entire pages. I have no idea where those buttons lead and I'm pretty sure lots of people miss them (you could test that with Google Analytics). The confusion here is compounded, since they -do- work as a carousel on the homepage.
Regarding the watchfaces: am I correct in seeing you're selling these for $100 per engine?! Do you expect to compete on any meaningful level with the iWatch and Android Wear? Or is this one of those 'premium' experiences that certain people are happy to pay for?
So, all in all my feedback is this looks like a site trying to be premium without a clear understanding of what the word means.
> Regarding the watchfaces: am I correct in seeing you're selling these for $100 per engine?!
Yes. These watch faces (we call them virtual engines) are created by professional watch designers.
> Do you expect to compete on any meaningful level with the iWatch and Android Wear? Or is this one of those 'premium' experiences that certain people are happy to pay for?
No, because we are not a smart watch, simply an high-end digital watch. The product is premium by its materials and craftmanship. (For example: The Slyde is water resistant up to 30m).
> So, all in all my feedback is this looks like a site trying to be premium without a clear understanding of what the word means.
Point taken, there is defenately some things we have to improve with the communication.
Thanks for you feedback!
"virtual engines" ... that's fantastic! If you simply called them 'watchfaces' you might have to give them away like your competitors.
Charging $100 for a digital watchface is so amazingly brazen it could only be done if you had nothing but contempt for your customers intelligence. Or perhaps you're targeting the fools with more money than sense (such a wonderful market if you can get in it).
Serious question though: how will you compete with the iWatch and MotoX? They have vastly more features and a hardware design at the very least on the same level. Combined with app ecosystems and a solid app distribution network, it's going to be a short amount of time before iWatch 'virtual engines' come out at a fraction of your price.
BTW, this was announced back on September 3 or sooner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbDDWubWKaQ
I use the word "techie" in quotes because, while many of those people would have described themselves as techies, I found they were really just consumers of technology. They had no functional knowledge of how anything worked or how to make anything themselves. To them, the only smartphone (or smartwatch) in existence was the Apple product, because to them the entire point was to brag about acquisition.
Even within the demographic of programmers, you'll find "techies". They ask you what programming language or framework you used to build your project, then get disappointed when you didn't magically read their minds 6 months in the past and chose their darling flavor. I've got no use for such people.
Right now it looks interesting but it's hard to say much more than that.