You can never have a second first impression!
I'm thinking about those people that think it's a good idea to wear their best pajama bottoms and slippers when they come for their first check in with me or our office.
Nope, they'll never climb out of that deep hole in my view!
Just a hop and skip above a moron going into town looking like that. A lot of high school kids seem to think that is "a look" and I've seen many kids at school looking like they just get up and go to the school without getting dressed.
No, don't see any future CEO material looking like that.
I bought a new (to me) refurbished smartwatch
I've had my Pebble Steel smartwatch since Stacy got it for me, brand new, for Christmas 2015. I really like it, with its always on and easy to see screen and its black and white E-Ink display, and the number one thing, a battery that lasts 6 or 7 days!
It used to be a solid 7 days all the time and often still is, but depending how many 'notifications' I get during the week I do have to charge it on the occasional Saturday sometimes.
And now, since it is 2016, several of those early fancy models of the Android wear smartwatches are popping up as refurbished units available for a considerable discount over when brand new. The thing is, even refurbished, the Apple watch is STILL too much!
One of those brands is the Motorola, Moto 360. When it first came out I really liked the first round smartwatch body, it is a- really looks like a premium watch, smartwatch.
When it first came out though it cost around $300.00, way more than I'm willing to spend on a watch! Even the Pebble Steel was on a great holiday special for $150.00, still expensive, but $100.00 off so not 'as expensive' and a bit easier on the bank account. The Steel was around $250.00 when it first came out and as so many things do, over time, the prices often go down too.
OK, so I saw a story about a CNET "deal" about some refurbished Moto 360's available for $80.00. I thought why not? And after a week I decided to get one. Two weeks later it came in the mail.
I like the heavier weight and larger face of the 360 over the Steel. It really looks and feels premium. The stainless steel body may be part of the look difference, my Pebble is black metal as at the time the silver was sold out.
But back to the 360, I had to buy a new band as the one with the watch was too small but after the new band got here it was no trouble to change the bands out. It took a few days of reading and watching YouTube video reviews to get how it works as it is somewhat different in how it handles the notifications, which is still the main function of most smartwatches at this point, even the Apple watch.
Indoors the display is big and beautiful and some of the watchfaces one can get are really colorful and very nice. Stacy is not so impressed though and said she thinks it looks too big.
The big thing though, the battery life. It can't be always on like the Pebble and it isn't great, nowhere near the Pebble in fact, but then the Pebble is still the battery life leader of all the current smartwatches.
After getting all the system updates the watch does benefit from the things learned with over a year of the programmers adding new things and making power improvements. But still, start out at 100% in the morning and it's down to around 30% by 8 pm. So a nightly charge is still the thing, just like the Note 4 phone.
The Pebble has a magnetic charger cable that grips the left side of the watch while charging, the Moto 360 has a wireless charger stand that makes the watch a night clock with reduced power time display.
Yes I like it. But I still like the Pebble too and when traveling the Pebble is the more practical watch with its always on and easily seen in sunlight display. Like I said, indoors the 360 is great. Outside, not so much.
So the 360 will be my 'fancy' dress up watch I guess, on those rare occasions we dress up to go anywhere! Mostly I'll just switch off between the two. Oh, one thing I will say is the step counters in each. Health is the big thing now and the Moto 360 step counter at least seems to be pretty accurate, the Pebble is waaaaaayy off! And the 360 heart rate monitor is nice and works most of the time right off too.
Pebble just announced the new line for later this year and I saw my next new Pebble, a larger metal watch with their now color, always on E-Ink displays, and now 10 day battery life! Christmas time is when it starts being available so we'll see what happens. The new line of Pebble is also going health conscious and will have better health centric applications and I believe I remember seeing a heart rate monitor in the new Pebble too.
Till the next post! Tad
I bought a new (to me) refurbished smartwatch
I've had my Pebble Steel smartwatch since Stacy got it for me, brand new, for Christmas 2015. I really like it, with its always on and easy to see screen and its black and white E-Ink display, and the number one thing, a battery that lasts 6 or 7 days!
It used to be a solid 7 days all the time and often still is, but depending how many 'notifications' I get during the week I do have to charge it on the occasional Saturday sometimes.
And now, since it is 2016, several of those early fancy models of the Android wear smartwatches are popping up as refurbished units available for a considerable discount over when brand new. The thing is, even refurbished, the Apple watch is STILL too much!
One of those brands is the Motorola, Moto 360. When it first came out I really liked the first round smartwatch body, it is a- really looks like a premium watch, smartwatch.
When it first came out though it cost around $300.00, way more than I'm willing to spend on a watch! Even the Pebble Steel was on a great holiday special for $150.00, still expensive, but $100.00 off so not 'as expensive' and a bit easier on the bank account. The Steel was around $250.00 when it first came out and as so many things do, over time, the prices often go down too.
OK, so I saw a story about a CNET "deal" about some refurbished Moto 360's available for $80.00. I thought why not? And after a week I decided to get one. Two weeks later it came in the mail.
I like the heavier weight and larger face of the 360 over the Steel. It really looks and feels premium. The stainless steel body may be part of the look difference, my Pebble is black metal as at the time the silver was sold out.
But back to the 360, I had to buy a new band as the one with the watch was too small but after the new band got here it was no trouble to change the bands out. It took a few days of reading and watching YouTube video reviews to get how it works as it is somewhat different in how it handles the notifications, which is still the main function of most smartwatches at this point, even the Apple watch.
Indoors the display is big and beautiful and some of the watchfaces one can get are really colorful and very nice. Stacy is not so impressed though and said she thinks it looks too big.
The big thing though, the battery life. It can't be always on like the Pebble and it isn't great, nowhere near the Pebble in fact, but then the Pebble is still the battery life leader of all the current smartwatches.
After getting all the system updates the watch does benefit from the things learned with over a year of the programmers adding new things and making power improvements. But still, start out at 100% in the morning and it's down to around 30% by 8 pm. So a nightly charge is still the thing, just like the Note 4 phone.
The Pebble has a magnetic charger cable that grips the left side of the watch while charging, the Moto 360 has a wireless charger stand that makes the watch a night clock with reduced power time display.
Yes I like it. But I still like the Pebble too and when traveling the Pebble is the more practical watch with its always on and easily seen in sunlight display. Like I said, indoors the 360 is great. Outside, not so much.
So the 360 will be my 'fancy' dress up watch I guess, on those rare occasions we dress up to go anywhere! Mostly I'll just switch off between the two. Oh, one thing I will say is the step counters in each. Health is the big thing now and the Moto 360 step counter at least seems to be pretty accurate, the Pebble is waaaaaayy off! And the 360 heart rate monitor is nice and works most of the time right off too.
Pebble just announced the new line for later this year and I saw my next new Pebble, a larger metal watch with their now color, always on E-Ink displays, and now 10 day battery life! Christmas time is when it starts being available so we'll see what happens. The new line of Pebble is also going health conscious and will have better health centric applications and I believe I remember seeing a heart rate monitor in the new Pebble too.
Above and below, taken today, a couple of the watch faces with the Moto 360. Really nice but the screen is only 'on' for a few seconds. You have to shake your wrist to get it back on. It does have an "ambient mode" in which the display dims to just the highlight display, in the face above the digital time and below hands. It is supposed to eat the battery faster but I haven't seen any big difference. From what I read that is one of the battery life improvements with updates.
Below, taken in February obviously, is my Pebble Steel with one of its display faces, a current weather face. Yes the above face of the Moto 360 is more vibrant but there's no real complaining with the Pebble display either in my opinion as owning both.
I know the trend now is no watch, that's part of the entire problem with smartwatches, many don't wear watches anymore. Over the years I have pretty much always worn watches. My very first "electronic watch" was the very small display chrome Timex L.E.D. watch in the 1970s. That silver watch had an always dark black rectangular display until you press the crown button to light the the time (only) in red L.E.D. light for a few seconds. No accelerometers like most things nowadays, no flip your wrist to see the display, you had to press the button or nothing! And as I said above, a very small display! I would have problems with a watch display that small now. I had that watch until the finish started getting eaten off the bottom of the watch with my sweat.
My watches until the Pebble have always been first Timex and then Casio when the Casio brand jumped out in front with all those different displays and functions.
The calculator watch? I went through a couple of them. You'd think those tiny buttons would have been too small but they actually worked great and I recall using the calculator function many, many, times like sitting out in my work truck figuring out my timesheet.
Temperature sensor watches? Had those too. Wave runners, even though we've never lived near the coast, I've had those too, just for the novelty of functions like the tides.
Remember, this is a long time before smartphones and the ability to pull up almost any information needed via the Internet on your phone!
Stacy likes her "FitBit", I had gotten her the model for Christmas that you wear on the wrist and it not only records things like steps and sleep it worked fine as a watch too. That first FitBit worked good until the back came off once while it was getting charged. Unplugging the charger from it and the back plate just came off with the charging cable. After that it was a sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't, work well kinda thing.
So she bought herself a FitBit 'Charge HR' and likes that so far. She also likes the notifications the display gives her, steps, call info, and so on. With the HR (Heart Rate) it also keeps track of your heart rate like most things do now, with a green light that will shine through the skin so the sensor can watch the blood going through and count that.
Our daughter Sandy was the first person we knew of that used the FitBit several years ago now. Of course back then it was just the very small clip on thing now sold as the FitBit Zip for about $50.00. Her original FitBit was about $100.00 or $150.00 each and I remember they were so small she went through several of them either losing or washing them when she'd forget they were still clipped on her clothes.
Till the next post! Tad
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