Wearables - If you wear it and it's not iOS or Android come in here!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Wearables - If you wear it and it's not iOS or Android come in here!

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

I just got a Samsung Gear Neo a few days ago, but haven't been able to use it fully. I had a Note 2, but after 3 replacement phones due to hardware problems in a week at Best Buy they gave me the value of my phone. I have the Note 4 pre-ordered, so it's "hacked together" for now with my Note 8 tablet which should be supported, requirement wise. I get use out of the heart rate sensor, IR blaster, pedometer, and notifications as well as a few basic apps. Messaging is a no go since it's not on the tablet. I did have trouble deciding between the Neo and the 360 because of the wireless charging. And then the IR blaster was a major bonus, which was almost the deciding factor. And since all my devices are Samsung, that was another factor with the S Health features of the Note 4.

I pretty much get through the day with it right now, and have about 20% left when I go to bed at night. I can give a better report Friday when I pick up a compatible phone.

mango sentinel posted:

Does anyone have a Samsung Fit? I kind of like how it looks, but I'm not currently using a Samsung phone. There's a workaround but I'm unclear of the limitations of doing that.

Close, but I have a Samsung Gear Neo. Technically, my tablet should work with it since it's a Note 8 and it meets all of the requirements, but I had to change my build.prop to make it work. I switched it to an S5 and was able to load apps and everything to it. It also let me change the layout from the Gear Manager of the main screen with 3 shortcuts and the time.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2014 23:19

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:39

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

Reverse Centaur posted:

I saw an insurance ad for a device that you can plug into your car so it can track your driving habits and give you better car insurance rates. Presumably they track your speed and maybe even the crime/accident rates of the neighbourhoods you drive in? I guess doing that with people is the next step.

Private health care is not a thing in most of the developed world though.

That'd probably be the Progressive Snapshot. I had it, and it dropped my rates about 20%. They monitor mainly your speed, hard braking, and times you drive. Late at night (10PM+ later) effected how they calculate it, as well as rush hour morning and evening hours. They claim not to track where with a GPS.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 23:24

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

TollTheHounds posted:

I thought there was something about people getting screwed over though because how it determined "hard braking" was really random? Maybe the only people complaining were people who were really "hard braking" though I suppose.

I don't think I'd say it's vaporware yet, I mean if they're willing to give hands-on to anyone ( even if it's Engadget ) at this point then that's something at least, there is a tangible product.

There may have been; I got pretty good about it. Snapshot actually 'taught' me to instead of going right up to the stop line at a light to stop, slow down as soon as I see the light change. And after a while I figured out the pace I needed to go so that I still had speed once the light changed again. Once I did that I had no hard brakes at all from checking my usage, and my MPG actually went up a lot too since I didn't brake and accelerate. I'm sure some people behind me may not like that though.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 23:57

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

Reggie Died posted:

Are there any wrist-mount sensors that can compete with a chest strap for accuracy?

It seems like most of the new "wearable" watches treat monitoring heart rate like an afterthought, which I'm assuming is due to the lack of technology. I WOULD be a prime candidate for the LED sensors (pale skin with little hair), but I'm looking for accuracy and real time monitoring*...I think most wrist sensors just take average rates every few minutes.

My main form of cardio is skipping, so GPS is useless for my needs; a pedometer might be cool if it registered skips. Monitoring sleep cycles would be kind of neat but not a deal breaker.

I skip with a weight vest so I'm trying to avoid a chest strap if possible. I've had something akin to this in the past with great success, but I put it in a drawer a few years ago and new batteries won't bring it back to life. I feel I'm getting complacent with my cardio workouts and hoping targeting a heart rate might push me.

Not as accurate as a chest strap, but my Samsung Gear Neo 2 is sort of close. I used both the watch and my Garmin HRM while swimming; the watch updated about every second to every few seconds. And as for accuracy, the watch was usually within 5 BPS of the watch.

And for a nice bonus: hearing music underwater while swimming was a fun

# ¿ Feb 13, 2015 08:56

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

The Bananana posted:

So far, kind of disappointed with the Samsung Gear S2's:
- Battery Life: not very long. I know there's much more functionality than a watch, but when you consider the fact that a watch can go up to a year (at least) on a battery, having to charge this thing nightly (actually, during the first 24 hours I had it, after its first full initial charge, it dies on me within about 12 hours, though I'm willing to give it some slack since I was probably poking and prodding it a lot more than usual) is not exactly convenient. Also consider the contact charger it uses is kind of difficult/unwieldy to use in the car. That's right, no charging port means you'll have to carry this things wireless charger around too, if you plan on using it longer or more intensively than its little heart can stand.

-Functionality: at times, very frustrating! Sometimes text messages register, other times not. Sometimes the S Voice understands you, sometimes not (while it could be argued that this is an S voice issue, and not the watch itself, I have much more success when using S Voice on my Note 4, so I'm blaming the watch.) Further, check out the following interaction i had today: via S voice, "Schedule meeting at 11" *s-voice thinks hard for a minute* Schedule meeting at 11 flashes on the screen. Followed by a message that that function is not supported. Wtf, S2? You have access to my calendar. You have an alarm. Why can't you schedule a task or event?
Also, no streaming of spotify, (though I believe you can listen to samsung's milk music radio app).

Ultimately, my opinion is that it's a beautiful device, with a lot of potential, but currently, it is not worth the price; I have been strongly considering returning the device.

I had some pretty good luck with the Gear Neo 2 and S Voice. It had to be steady noise though; if there was music playing it wouldn't get some of what I said. And if there was say a bump in the road, whatever I said as I hit that bump was nearly always butchered.

I'm glad a guy was annoyed with being tied down to Tizen, and actually ported Android Wear onto the Gear Neo 2.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 17:50

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