WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 7, 2017 16:52:53 GMT
Like everyone else, I took in the fuss over the launch of the Apple Watch. Like almost everyone else, I didn't buy one.
I know a few people who did, but nobody has been able to tell me what it's for. The moment it's more than a trouser's width from the phone it's paired with, it becomes as useful as a Casio calculator watch from 1983, with the added hazard that the battery might expire at any minute.
It might tell you that you have a text message - but if the watch is within communicating range of the phone, you already know that. It counts steps but can't track sleep as it has to spend its nights on the charging stand.
So I won't be buying one of those. But I am tempted by the Samsung Gear S3. It looks like a proper watch, for a start - with the option to make it look like several different proper watches - so even if I am a techy-tryhard, most people won't notice. It will work with an iPhone, but has enough built-in intelligence to function adequately when the phone is not in the room. And it has a nice, chunky rotary bezel rather than the fiddly crown of the Apple. And it might be the car-safe Deezer controller I've been searching for.
£300. Not outrageous. I have some major job decisions to make, but perhaps if I get those right, perhaps one of these could be my reward. *
* Along with the E61 espresso machine, and the outdoor pizza oven. And maybe the 430e GC - which is dependent on BMW getting round to making one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2017 19:23:47 GMT
My wife has a Apple Watch. I'm not a great lover of hi-tech stuff which appears to fulfil little purpose, but I can say that her phone can be downstairs and she is upstairs and the watch is fully functioning.
Frankly though, a good clear analogue watch for less than £50 is far more useful than any smart watch. Seconds, minutes, hours, day, date and luminous can all be had in one item for under £50 (battery will last two years) and for a bit more it won't even need a battery. Smart watches need charging daily.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 9, 2017 20:34:31 GMT
The Apple Watch requires a daily charge; the Gear S3 claims to go four days on one charge. Clearly I know what a £50 Timex will do.
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Post by Hofmeister on Apr 9, 2017 21:22:15 GMT
the problem with every smartwatch is they all look so bloody awful. Yes you can have some lovely faces, but the watch body is always awful.
On my wrist at the moment is a 45 year old wind up Bulova. It looks good, classically timeless with a perfectly proportioned case and lugs, feels good, I wind it up, it tells me the time. Its value is less than 80 quid.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 9, 2017 22:00:17 GMT
I've yet to see an S3, but in pictures (and according to reviewers) it does well in the look and feel departments too. This is why it has my attention, but I do need to get an idea of what it can actually do.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2017 22:20:55 GMT
>>but nobody has been able to tell me what it's for
As far as I can see that remains the main problem.
I use my phone to make phone calls. Obviously, that's why I have it. However, since I am carrying it anyway I also want my phoen to do a bunch of others things; pretty much without exception things that I could not do without the phone.
I use my watch to tell the time. Equally obviously. But then all the additional things a smart watch can do I either don't care about, or it needs my phone to help it do it, or my phone can do just as well and its already in my pocket.
So if a smartphone is just a fashion or lifestyle statement, then its a statement that I do not wish to make.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 8:50:41 GMT
The Apple Watch requires a daily charge; the Gear S3 claims to go four days on one charge. Clearly I know what a £50 Timex will do. Not wanting to come over all Brompters (where is he btw?), but £50 is too much for me to stomach on a watch. My £9.99 Casio is fine. And even that's a bit too much label for my tastes.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Apr 10, 2017 9:10:41 GMT
My £9.99 Casio is fine. And even that's a bit too much label for my tastes. Uncomfortably reliable too, I would imagine. 😈
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 9:12:39 GMT
My £9.99 Casio is fine. And even that's a bit too much label for my tastes. Uncomfortably reliable too, I would imagine. 😈 Quite so. And 100% disposable. No battery related range anxiety.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 9:16:32 GMT
I do like a nice watch and wouldn't like a Casio - for a start, they're plastic straps aren't they? I prefer metal straps.
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Post by Humph on Apr 10, 2017 9:19:06 GMT
I wear a Casio G-Shock on the bike.
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Post by tyrednexited on Apr 10, 2017 9:22:03 GMT
I do like a nice watch and wouldn't like a Casio - for a start, they're plastic straps aren't they? I prefer metal straps. ...not all of them by any means. I've still got one of these: Must be at least 40 years old, and still fully functional (if a bit battered). I've also got one of the plastic ones I found a couple of years ago in the middle of a Peak District field!!
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Post by tyrednexited on Apr 10, 2017 9:23:56 GMT
I wear a Casio G-Shock on the bike. ....to land on?
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Post by Humph on Apr 10, 2017 9:34:38 GMT
Hadn't really thought of it like that, but on reflection, it has, on occasion, fulfilled that role.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 10:12:50 GMT
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