Wearable Hacks: Latest smartwatch News and Buying guide

Smartwatch Trend Even though smartwatches with features like unit converters and calculators have been in the market for a few decades, it was until 2010, when tech manufactures state produced watches that have abilities like smartphones. While big tech firms like Sony, Samsung and Apple are the biggest players in the smartwatch sector, small companies also deserve credit, especially for the magnificent role they played in promoting the contemporary smartwatches. A smartwatch is a portable device, specifically designed for the wrist. Just like a smartphone, a smartwatch has apps, uses a touchscreen and has the capability to record vital signs among other sensational features. Various brands of smartwatch exist in the market but Samsung has truly been amazing. Samsung smartwatch impelled many consumers to truly appreciate the worth of wearing a computer-like gadget on the wrist. Here are some of the features that Samsung smartwatch and other standard smartwatches offer: Apps: Besides the notifications display from the phone, the smartwatch has the capability of supporting a wide range of apps for accomplishing a particular purpose. Notification: Smartwatches have the capability to display notifications and alert on important activities or events. Fitness tracking: This feature can be explored by athletes or individuals to monitor the heart rate and pedometer during a workout session. GPS: Comes with a GPS that allows the user to track location or even obtain alerts on specific locations. Enhanced battery life span: Most smartwatches come with a good battery life that can run several hours. Samsung smartwatch, on normal use, can last four days on a single charge. Media Management: Paired with a smartphone, a smartwatch can be used to manage media. But after these positives it doesn't mean these smartwatches don't have any negatives. There is no longer-enduring personal technology than the watch. It began its life as the pocket watch in the late 15th century and retained its popularity as a staple of portable tech until the early 20th century, when it was dethroned by the wrist watch. That permutation eventually got a jolt of life from the advent of the digital wristwatch in the late 20th century. A few decades later and we are now on what appears to be the eve of the smart watch. Popular culture has hinted at the complete computerization of our old trusty timepieces for many a decade, and the size of microchips, pixels, and batteries is finally beginning to comply with our dreams. The funny thing about dreams, though: they are really hard to explain. A lot of people seem to think they want a smartwatch, but like the smartphone, it takes a company with vision to show us how it's done. Thanks to constant rumors that Apple’s going to make a watch, and the release of Smasung’s Galaxy Gear https://rb.gy/6kgaqs, it seems like everyone is asking and wondering about smartwatches this holiday season. They are supposed to bring the watch back to prominence as our go-to piece of tech. Sadly, we aren’t there yet. There are a lot of good reasons why you may want to wait at least one more season before buying into the mobile industry’s latest craze. Here are a few of them: There Are Expensive One of the cheapest fully-baked Google Wear OS smartwatches is the Pebble, and its cost is $150. That’s $150 for a black and white screen, a few apps, snake, and some different watch faces. We like the Pebble more than any other smartwatch that’s come across our desks, but it's a lot of money for a watch that is much less capable than any smartphone (and most feature phones). Sony’s Smartwatch 2 https://rb.gy/ukwdp5 starts at $200, making it one of the more affordable full-colour models, but the Galaxy Gear will run you $300, and Qualcomm’s upcoming Toq watch https://rb.gy/wowztd will cost $350. These aren’t cheap throwaway tech to try, like the $35 Chromecast. They cost some serious bucks – likely more than you spent on your phone. You have to charge them, often Battery life matters. We put up with getting only a single day of battery life from our smartphones, but do we really want to charge our watches every night, too? The Pebble is the current leader with about a week of juice per charge, but fancier watches skew toward only two or three days, which means they’ll probably need a charge every day after a few months. This needs to improve. They look bulky and nerdy This new batch of smartwatches are thinner than their predecessors, but it takes pretty unique tastes to think they look good, sleek, or desirable on a wrist. At best, the new generation of watches don’t actively get in the way of your current clothing and don’t weigh your arm down, but they are very noticeable. Chances are, if you’ve encountered one of your friends wearing a watch like this, or anyone, you remember it. That’s not good when 60 to 73 percent of people only want a smartwatch if it blends in. You have to charge them, often Battery life matters. We put up with getting only a single day of battery life from our smartphones, but do we really want to charge our watches every night, too? The Pebble is the current leader with about a week of juice per charge, but fancier watches skew toward only two or three days, which means they’ll probably need a charge every day after a few months. This needs to improve. Right now, smartwatches are like the annoying little brother of the smartphone. They want to play with its apps, they require its data connection to do almost anything, and they wear out its battery with their constant demands. Most of them require a Bluetooth connection to an iPhone or Android device to connect to the Internet, and some, like the Galaxy Gear, can’t even properly keep track of time (yes, this is true) without being connected to a phone. Worse, many watches only work with Android or iPhone. If you use Windows Phone, BlackBerry, or a flip phone, you’re out of luck entirely. If your phone doesn’t run a new enough version of Android (usually version 4.0 or higher) then you’re also out of luck. Not to harp on the Gear, but it only works reliably on a single phone right now: the Galaxy Note 3. Other Samsung Galaxy phones will be compatible soon, but it’s impossible to say when or if your carrier will release the update you need. They don’t do anything your phone can’t do better by itself Sure, it sounds convenient to take a call or snap a photo from your wrist, but it's not practical when you get in the trenches and try to do it. If Dick Tracy were real, he would have returned that monstrous phonewatch he had on day one. But what about notifications and texts? Surely these actions are more watch friendly, right? Well, maybe, buy Samsung and Sony certainly haven’t figured them out. The Gear doesn’t show you entire notifications much of the time and Sony’s watch can’t even turn on to show you anything unless you press its power button. Shouldn’t a watch know how to automatically turn on its screen when you look at it? If you have to press a button to turn on your watch screen, you’re already halfway toward reaching into your pocket and pulling out your phone. The Pebble doesn’t even have a touchscreen, which hampers much of its usefulness in a crunch. A true smartwatch doesn’t need to cheat on the connection test. It would have Wi-Fi support built in and options for other types of connections. App support won’t exist until Google and Apple jump in Google, Apple, and Microsoft own the keys to the biggest app stores and right now those stores aren’t built to support smartwatch apps. Once those companies do dive in, and they will, there will be APIs and SDKs and all sorts of universal app support for each platform. Until then, we are left with small proprietary apps from device manufacturers. We don’t know about you, but we’d rather not buy apps from Qualcomm if we don’t have to. Once the entire developer community begins to embrace watches (assuming that happens), they will begin to have good use when they aren’t attached to your phone. No one has cracked the smartwatch yet Though a bunch of smartwatches are available to buy, like 3D TVs, we don’t think they are going to take off on buzz alone. There is often a big discrepancy between what people like to read about on sites like wearable hacks and what they are willing to pay for. Some people will buy them, but most of you are smart enough to realize that they aren’t fully baked yet. We don't think this will change until at least 2025. Bottom line: Just buy a smartphone instead of smartwatch Until a company like Apple or Google steps up and shows a fascinating, useful vision for the smartwatch, we don’t think it’s going to make a big dent, nor do we think it’s worth hundreds of your hard-earned dollars. Instead, if you really want to wear more tech, maybe consider a Nike Fuelband or Fitbit and a great smartphone, like an iPhone 5S, LG G2, Galaxy Note 7, Nexus 5, or Moto X. Or skip the bands all together and just save up for a tablet. They aren’t very accurate anyway. In a year or two, come back and we’ll talk. But if you’re really going to be so picky about it, fine, get a Pebble. But don’t think you’re walking around with the future of tech on your wrist. There will be a few Pebbles before a smartwatch comes out that everyone wants, and by then it will probably be called an iWatch.

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