Best Gadgets for Android phones or SII specifically? - Samsung Epic 4G Touch

OK what android or SII specific gadgets have you guys found? I have a post called Epic Touch Goodies
what else have you guys found? one thing I would like is a "walk away" alarm for my phone.
Several times now I almost left my phone behind on a counter top one time the lady came running after me to return it !!!! wow freaked me out.
I remember years ago this gizmo you put in your pocket or on your belt. it connected via bluetooth. if you walked away from the phone both it and the phone went nuts and started beeping.
I can't seem to figure out what keywords to use to try and find one (or they don't exist any more)
I did find something under bluetooth bracelet. its an option but only the bracelet vibrates. NO beeping on the phone so you know you lost it but no idea where its at now hehe
maybe there is software that can see when "THIS" device is connected and play a sound file when connection is lost?
anything else? any other "neat" toys you found that work with the SII ?
corded cordless wifi bluetooth anything at all.

There is something like that. I recently read it on an android blog, engadget, or lifehacker but can't remember exactly. But basically its a small puck that attaches to your keychain and beeps if your phone is left behind.
Perfect for you!
I'll post back if I remember
---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:04 PM ----------
I found it for you
http://thedroidguy.com/2011/02/gadget-spotlight-zomm-bluetooth-keychain/

I found a nice extended battery with a wall charger and media stand for $40.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Pics and links !! if you can't do pics then post links and I will post the pics from the links.
yes I did find a few the only one that really does what I want is the NIO but OUCH $75
I found the bracelets on ebay as low as $20 but while they will let me know if I walk away it COULD be upto 40-50ft before it vibrates if I get an unusually good BT signal and the phone does not "do" anything so unless its laying on a counter etc.. its going to be hard to find
the nio or the shark one both would work. you press a button on the puck and the PHONE beeps. but both of them are awful expensive
The ZOMM is less than useful as its like the bracelet you have to LOSE BT signal for it to go off that can be quite a distance under the right conditions. and it can't make the PHONE make noise.

Related

Hacking the Sony Liveview

Despite the bad reviews I picked up a Liveview yesterday. Was $50 brand new off Craigslist. And surprise surprise, it turned out to be a turd. Well, I don't like to waste money, so I set about modding it. Thought some people here might be interested to see what I did.
So far I've waterproofed the case. Next I'll be building a better strap, one that doesn't make it huge or block the USB port. http://www.jax184.com/projects/liveview/liveview.html has everything I've done so far on it.
Nice i got that thing and it "worked" but still with the having to restart it all the time was very annoying but i ended up sending mine back
So I've been using the Liveview for a couple days, or at least trying to. Even after doing a full reset of the device, reinstalling the software on my phone and removing all the plugins, it has a battery life of about 6-8 hours. In that time I turned the screen on twice, and it briefly lit up to tell me of an incoming call. No texts, no alerts, and I don't have farcebook/twatter/etc turned on. It sat 2 feet from my phone the entire time. If I actually try to use the damn thing to, say, control the media player, the battery goes dead in 2 to 3 hours.
Pathetic...
I've decided I'm going to build it into a custom case for a friend of mine with a much larger battery, since the stock one is completely and utterly useless. So much for my gasket job...
Not sure if the battery is just dying on yours or what but if I never touch the screen, mine lasts for a couple days at least (and that's with alerts!). Sad to hear yours has issues :\
Mine's brand new and running the latest firmware/software with the bare minimum of functionality enabled, so I'm as confused as you.
I have a liveview and i absolutely love it. I dont have any connection issues but i mostly just use it as a watch with out having it connected over bluetooth and the battery lasts for days when i do that. I do have an issue now where i dropped it and the select button on top doesnt work anymore
Can I connect multiple liveviews to my phone?
I just bought 4 of them for $15 a pop !! Sweet
I know I can use it with torque which is cool
what else can I do with them? Can I run album art to it from say player pro? or Pocket Casts?
is there a decent list somewhere of "interesting" things you can do with the little buggers?
Hi, do someone know the dimensions of the battery, because i have one with death batt. and need a replacement.
nice mod! Based on the pictures I can see the battery size in case I need to replace it, by the way using notifications my watch last 2.5 days, using a plugin last only 30minutes or less
nerys71 said:
Can I connect multiple liveviews to my phone?
I know I can use it with torque which is cool
what else can I do with them? Can I run album art to it from say player pro? or Pocket Casts?
is there a decent list somewhere of "interesting" things you can do with the little buggers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I just got one for $15, I wanna find some cool things I can do with it. What have you done to set yours up?
its a pain in the freaking butt. cool potential poor execution.
it constantly gets disconnected when something goes wrong ON THE DROID SIDE. terminating the app and relaunching it solves the problem for X period of time (few hours ??)
the most convenient access is also the worst designed. the watch band. YOU CAN NOT CHARGE IT WHILE IN THE WATCH BAND.
what freaking moron though that was a good idea to force us to remove it (VERY difficult) to charge it.
if the software bugs get worked out I may look into modding the stinking socket so I can charge it while in watch mode (thinking of RIVETING the case to the band) then I won't need the little watch pin thingy that is keeping me from charging it while its in the watch band.
and there is just not that many "cool" apps to use for it yet or the few out their are poorly executed.
how hard can it be to reliably push the freaking album art to the watch ?
nerys71 said:
its a pain in the freaking butt. cool potential poor execution.
it constantly gets disconnected when something goes wrong ON THE DROID SIDE. terminating the app and relaunching it solves the problem for X period of time (few hours ??)
the most convenient access is also the worst designed. the watch band. YOU CAN NOT CHARGE IT WHILE IN THE WATCH BAND.
what freaking moron though that was a good idea to force us to remove it (VERY difficult) to charge it.
if the software bugs get worked out I may look into modding the stinking socket so I can charge it while in watch mode (thinking of RIVETING the case to the band) then I won't need the little watch pin thingy that is keeping me from charging it while its in the watch band.
and there is just not that many "cool" apps to use for it yet or the few out their are poorly executed.
how hard can it be to reliably push the freaking album art to the watch ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brother....
For disconnect issue , install this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ishii.app.liveviewcharm
Its really bad remove device all time from strap : (
Hope it help you
2 Generations of Liveviews
Just to be clear, there are 2 versions of this device floating about... The older one goes for around $20 and is not much more than a novelty... The newer model runs around $100 and seems to have fixed the battery life issue... One should look at the Pebble once it is available as a possible alternative...
openliveview
Drewmungus said:
+1 I just got one for $15, I wanna find some cool things I can do with it. What have you done to set yours up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started creating a usable gui for the openliveview project. Theo openliveview project is an open source reimplementation Of the liveview app.
You van follow the development in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1422106&page=26
Note: you have to uninstall the liveview app bevore you van install openliveview
probbiethe1 said:
I have a liveview and i absolutely love it. I dont have any connection issues but i mostly just use it as a watch with out having it connected over bluetooth and the battery lasts for days when i do that. I do have an issue now where i dropped it and the select button on top doesnt work anymore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This might help you. It won't solve the issue of select button, but it'll help you read notifications.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40041226
Where can you find one for 15 bucks? Even if it did nothing, I'd want it for 15 bucks, just to have as a key for my phone using tasker. I supposed I could get any old bluetooth headset, but I wanted something wearable.
jadenguy said:
Where can you find one for 15 bucks? Even if it did nothing, I'd want it for 15 bucks, just to have as a key for my phone using tasker. I supposed I could get any old bluetooth headset, but I wanted something wearable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, $15 is AWESOME!
$18 with Free shipping on ebay buy it now is the best price I can find so far.
I bought four of them and donated 2 to the local hackerspace.
Would be wicked to control more than one at once. I'm trying to find some chick to wear two as earrings.
Perhaps one controlled with Sony app and one Open Liveview App each for one mac address.
Contrary to earlier post, I seem to be able to have both Sony and Openliveview apps installed at once (though haven't tried RUNNING both) yet.
My battery life across the two that I've evaluated and (a third I lost to the ocean) seems significantly better than the average reported above.
But a LOT of variables have changed since the OP. New firmware, new app, new phone, new bt stack, new android versions...
My impression IIRC is that this thing is ROCK SOLID on CyanogenMod7 or CM9 on evo 3d.

Phone won't charge or connect to USB, but constantly says its connected.

Having some issues with my ET4G here, not really sure how it happened. My phone went into random bootloops earlier today after pulling it off the charger in the morning. I finally was able to get it booted up but the notification light continued to stay red and it basically thinks there is a USB cable connected to it. When plugged into a pc or charger it does not charge or mount into odin. I've got the thing booted into odin mode now and plugged in, but odin just isn't seeing it. Both sprint and sammy both said they have NEVER heard of this issue, I don't know if I believe it. I have a replacement on the way (when I brought it to the sprint store the tech cracked the screen putting it back together so they are replacing it for me) but I'd like to get it atleast half working for the weekend. Any help would be appreciated!
Edit: I forgot to mention that when I put a battery in the phone, it automatically boots up. Sometimes it is successful, but sometimes it just loops at the screen you get when you charge your phone while powered off (note the phone is unlpugged!!!) Pretty weird symptom, but I know the phone doesn't normally boot itself up when a battery is put in it.
i see this alot with the samsung replenish...my theory is youve been using an off brand charger and its made the pin inside the charging port crank up at an angle, making the device think its always plugged in
i fix the replenish's easy enough by taking some tweezers and bending the little pin inside the port back down, works everytime
im a tech at an indirect store fwiw
kurtiskobain said:
i see this alot with the samsung replenish...my theory is youve been using an off brand charger and its made the pin inside the charging port crank up at an angle, making the device think its always plugged in
i fix the replenish's easy enough by taking some tweezers and bending the little pin inside the port back down, works everytime
im a tech at an indirect store fwiw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds highly possible. Also try pulling your sd card to see if that makes any difference.
Looking inside the charger port it doesn't look like anything is out of sorts. A little corrosion from humid weather and working outdoors but never any water damage. I'm looking at the inside of my phones port right now and all the gold strips are at the same level, and the cable seems to click in just fine. Am I missing something? And yeah for the record I have like 4 different USB cables I use and they are all different brands. Let me know if I should be looking for something else, or if you guys have any other input. I was able to get it to mount before I left for the sprint store, pushed a stock setup and older modem so they wouldn't question anything, but now it's just completely not connecting. Also, when I was able to mount it earlier, it would not charge but was atleast recognized by odin. When the sprint tech had my phone apart I saw the charger port myself it didn't look to have any physical damage to it...such a weird issue!
DataHawg said:
This sounds highly possible. Also try pulling your sd card to see if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah pulled the SD card as well. Tried most of the typical stuff but please mention anything "obvious" sounding anyway cause at this point I'd be willing to try double backflips to get the thing working.
kurtiskobain said:
i see this alot with the samsung replenish...my theory is youve been using an off brand charger and its made the pin inside the charging port crank up at an angle, making the device think its always plugged in
i fix the replenish's easy enough by taking some tweezers and bending the little pin inside the port back down, works everytime
im a tech at an indirect store fwiw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're referring to the 5 gold strips on the topside of the port on my phone, correct? I mean that's what I assumed but if I'm wrong or there are pins I'm unaware of let me know.
if everything is a go, you might consider trying a hard reset
---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------
vadyr56 said:
You're referring to the 5 gold strips on the topside of the port on my phone, correct? I mean that's what I assumed but if I'm wrong or there are pins I'm unaware of let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pin is probably the wrong term, but im referring to the thing sticking out in the middle of the port...is it slanted upwards? thats what happens to all these repl
kurtiskobain said:
if everything is a go, you might consider trying a hard reset
---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------
pin is probably the wrong term, but im referring to the thing sticking out in the middle of the port...is it slanted upwards? thats what happens to all these repl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The plastic housing or harness seems to be parallel to the screen, maybe slightly downward. And the little gold strips on top of the housing all seem to be flat.
A hard reset? I've tried wiping this thing a million times if that's what you mean by hard reset. Driving me crazy!
hmm seems youv worn your options down...ill tell you what, if you live in MI, come visit me in clinton township and ill either fix it or replace it, and can have you in and out in 15 minutes...if not, take it to the nearest repair center and theyll take care of you. if they dont, give me their number and ill call them and make them!!
kurtiskobain said:
hmm seems youv worn your options down...ill tell you what, if you live in MI, come visit me in clinton township and ill either fix it or replace it, and can have you in and out in 15 minutes...if not, take it to the nearest repair center and theyll take care of you. if they dont, give me their number and ill call them and make them!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha yeah I don't think theres much I can do. I'm pretty sure its software related, when the phone is not in odin mode, it sits there and mounts/unmounts itself on my pc but always as an "unrecognizable device" and I have reinstalled the drivers twice. I have a replacement coming already, just don't feel like going through the weekend without a phone (gosh saying that sounds terrible!) but lets be realistic here, cell phones are almost necessary today, especially being someone who's constantly taking calls from customers!

SONY's Smart watch review with Xperia Ion.

so i decided y not buy the smart watch since i already have the headset pro to see how this comes in handy.
So first of the smart watch and head set pro do the same sh*t, only difference besides there looks is the watch has more apps.
Now even thou they do mostly the same thing. The watch does work good in most part's. Easily with phone outta sight ,you can check your message ,fb,tw,Google ect and even check weather and answer calls. Control music and volume. I find all of this to work out pretty well when all 3 devices are snyc, phone,watch,headset.
The bad and good.
The watch when not in use goes into sleep mode ,so in order to see the time you gotta double tab screen. But you can switch options to different watch looks to keep the screen on according to movement . Thats kool and all but can kill battery life quick. I have no problem tapping lol.
one Down Fall i notice .
Even thou i can read txt message, set up a reply option or call, i wish i can actually type and reply from the damn watch itself
Good example, Google maps for the watch is one of the best application on here,keyboard pops up, easy to use. Type in any location from the watch easy have a gps on my hand only if it talked. So they could have easily done this for texting.
Using all 3 device in public like on bus or at work, works out very well for me. Only time you gotta pull ur phone is when its time to reply to a text and its so anyyoing knowing this watch can do so much more.
Well am not done with this review ill be back with more so i hope this helps out anyone even if your not interested. It's always good to have information Laying around in case lol.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, LET ME KNOW.
Sent from my LT28at using xda app-developers app
Read a lot of reviews online about this and decided NOT to buy it. Horrible screen, clumsy to use, etc.
joe3681 said:
Read a lot of reviews online about this and decided NOT to buy it. Horrible screen, clumsy to use, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. Not because of quality, but function versus dollars. However I know there's 3rd party mods/apps for the watch, I'd like to hear more on those in execution.
Maybe Spectre can chime in too with his review.
Sent from my LT28 w MIUI
I really like the smart watch. I've used it numerous times to change ring volume to vibrate or silent, view text and emails without pulling my phone out. Its nice to be able to see whether an email it txt is important and needs a reply right away or not without getting your phone out.
Honestly you don't really think you would use it that much until you actually have it. My biggest complaint is that the watch screen isn't bright enough when in direct sunlight.
The google maps app is awesome. I haven't used a lot of the other third party apps.
I don't have a problem with how the phone functions as far as having to double tap the screen or push the side button to turn the screen on. Swiping is easy. The apps could use some more function like replies and stuff but honestly that's not really the idea behind it. Its quick access to view emails, txt, Facebook, twitter and other things without having to use the phone in hand and it does that real well.
Sent from my Sony Xperia™ TL
Just heard that apple is coming out with a smart watch version.
http://mobile.eweek.com/mobile/apple-intel-collaborating-on-smartwatch-report/
~Jaramie
sent by my ION
Yea I read bout it 3 months ago am not even worried , they got the stupid nano watch already it sucks compared to smart watch only for music and Sony already working on there new Smart watch idk if it's gona be called smart watch 2 or new name.
I'll post the link for that once I find it again.
Sent from my LT28h using xda app-developers app
Smart watch update , refer to pic below for details.
Sent from my LT28h using xda app-developers app
some of the New faces ,definitely will update my review once i get a full day use of this update.
Sent from my LT28h using xda app-developers app
joe3681 said:
Read a lot of reviews online about this and decided NOT to buy it. Horrible screen, clumsy to use, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one, and I find it to be very useful. My watch was a present. I thought it was going to be a useless gimmick, but now I can barely live without it.
On the way to work (on the bus), I usually have music playing. I can leave my phone in my pocket, and switch tracks easily. At home I often connect my phone to a dock for playing music. Again, I use my watch as a remote.
I prefer to have my phone on silent/vibrate, but I have missed calls because I do not always notice the vibration. With my watch, the watch vibrates on a call! I never miss calls now.
Having email alerts and SMS alerts is pretty handy. I have wired up my home alarm system to my home network - it sends emails when my alarm goes off. These come straight through to my watch now.
The screen is very good indoors. Outside, it is pretty hard to read in direct sunlight, and not great (but usable) in shade.
The UI is pretty poorly thought out. A back button would make life much easier. To go "back" on the watch, you need to do a pinch gesture. This is pretty hard on a tiny screen. A hardware back button could easily be located on the left side of the watch.
One puzzling thing is that the API does not allow 3rd party developers to add new watch faces. I would have thought this would be a big selling point. Writing a watch face as a complete 3rd party app does not work as well, as it tends to chew more battery and doesn't integrate with the other apps properly.
The connection to the charger is stupid, whoever thought of it should be ashamed. It is very finicky. I've found the best way to deal with it, is to wrap a rubber band around the watch and cable - otherwise it may stop charging (it sucks to have it go flat 30 minutes after getting to work).
The bluetooth connection uses v2, not v3 - so it uses more battery than it needs to. Having the watch at a distance from the phone will cause it to go through batteries a lot faster.
The watch itself is relatively tough, but the clip is not. I actually broke one of the little clips that hold the watch to the watch strap. Luckily for me, the guys at Sony Central in Brisbane had a watch that had a broken screen - so they helped me to transfer the clip from that watch onto mine (the alternative was to wait for 4 weeks for a warranty repair).
On the whole, I like the watch! It's not perfect, but it is very usable.
The good
Music control
Alerts
Vibrate on call
The bad
Clip is fragile
Charging connection sucks
Cannot add 3rd party watch faces
Screen sucks in sunlight
---------- Post added at 09:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 AM ----------
princemarcus19 said:
some of the New faces ,definitely will update my review once i get a full day use of this update.
Sent from my LT28h using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the new faces ok for a few minutes, but I keep going back to the large digital watch face. It is by far the most readable. This watch really needs more digital faces!
Could some of you guys suggest which one to buy.?
I saw bunch of models and I don't know which one to buy...
Tnx
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2
funky0308 said:
Could some of you guys suggest which one to buy.?
I saw bunch of models and I don't know which one to buy...
Tnx
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is only one model of Smart Watch. Just buy one from Sony or eBay or Amazon or on polish site Allegro.pl
Sent from my LT26i using xda developers-app
Vaith said:
There is only one model of Smart Watch. Just buy one from Sony or eBay or Amazon or on polish site Allegro.pl
Sent from my LT26i using xda developers-app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Becouse I saw some models on eBay.
O.K so, we have only one model.
Tnx
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2
deadcatt said:
I have one, and I find it to be very useful. My watch was a present. I thought it was going to be a useless gimmick, but now I can barely live without it.
On the way to work (on the bus), I usually have music playing. I can leave my phone in my pocket, and switch tracks easily. At home I often connect my phone to a dock for playing music. Again, I use my watch as a remote.
I prefer to have my phone on silent/vibrate, but I have missed calls because I do not always notice the vibration. With my watch, the watch vibrates on a call! I never miss calls now.
Having email alerts and SMS alerts is pretty handy. I have wired up my home alarm system to my home network - it sends emails when my alarm goes off. These come straight through to my watch now.
The screen is very good indoors. Outside, it is pretty hard to read in direct sunlight, and not great (but usable) in shade.
The UI is pretty poorly thought out. A back button would make life much easier. To go "back" on the watch, you need to do a pinch gesture. This is pretty hard on a tiny screen. A hardware back button could easily be located on the left side of the watch.
One puzzling thing is that the API does not allow 3rd party developers to add new watch faces. I would have thought this would be a big selling point. Writing a watch face as a complete 3rd party app does not work as well, as it tends to chew more battery and doesn't integrate with the other apps properly.
The connection to the charger is stupid, whoever thought of it should be ashamed. It is very finicky. I've found the best way to deal with it, is to wrap a rubber band around the watch and cable - otherwise it may stop charging (it sucks to have it go flat 30 minutes after getting to work).
The bluetooth connection uses v2, not v3 - so it uses more battery than it needs to. Having the watch at a distance from the phone will cause it to go through batteries a lot faster.
The watch itself is relatively tough, but the clip is not. I actually broke one of the little clips that hold the watch to the watch strap. Luckily for me, the guys at Sony Central in Brisbane had a watch that had a broken screen - so they helped me to transfer the clip from that watch onto mine (the alternative was to wait for 4 weeks for a warranty repair).
On the whole, I like the watch! It's not perfect, but it is very usable.
The good
Music control
Alerts
Vibrate on call
The bad
Clip is fragile
Charging connection sucks
Cannot add 3rd party watch faces
Screen sucks in sunlight
---------- Post added at 09:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 AM ----------
I found the new faces ok for a few minutes, but I keep going back to the large digital watch face. It is by far the most readable. This watch really needs more digital faces!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No lie I do that too stands most of the time now.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
So I have used my smart watch on gs3 and its fully compatible.
Kool thing bout gs3 Bluetooth it turns itself on automaticlly .wish ion had that feature
Also this new awsome camera app is the bomb!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonymobile.extras.liveware.extension.camera
And can someone let me know if there watch takes for ever to load certain apps
Thanks.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
very good
very good

U8 Bluetooth Smart Wrist Watch

Anyone have experience with this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11133421820...eName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
neof1z said:
Anyone have experience with this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11133421820...eName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. but for $50 bucks it might be worth it just to see. I don't like that it's shipping from China though. I'm always weary about that because I have bought things that never made it to me.
The images are misleading. It's basically a bluetooth band that can control your phone's music player. As the photochopped images show mail and phone icons, no where in it's description says it can notify you of sms but offers wetchat and qq, and cannot notify you of any missed calls.
But if it's a watch remote you are looking for, then this is it. But not for me lol.
This is a new Bluetooth Smart U Watch U8 which is compatible with all Bluetooth V2.0 or above enabled smartphones,
tablets and PCs (support Android 2.3 or above),such as iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, Sumsung S3, S4, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4 etc.
Specifications:
Ambient Noise: ≤75dB
Transmitting Range: ≥10m
Talk Time: about 3 hours
Charging Time: about 1 hour
Music Play Time: about 6 hours
Standby Time: about 160 hours<br>
Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth V3.0+EDR
Range of Frequency: 2.4GHz spectrum
Language Support: English, Chinese
Bluetooth Protocol: A2DP + HFP 1.5 + HS P 1.2
Power Supply: Built-in 230mAh rechargeable battery
Features:
Stopwatch function
Support hands-free calls
Material: Steel + Silicon
Answer or Dial calls from your wrist
1.48" Capacitive Touch Screen TFT LCD
Time / Date / Week / Battery state display
Ringing reminder when you receive a call
Display the number or name of incoming calls
Play the music in your phone (after Bluetooth paring)
Dial Size: 4.6 x 4.2 x 1cm / 1.81 x 1.65 x 0.39 inch
Ringing reminder once your mobile phone disconnected
Sync phone book/SMS/call history(only for android phone)
Altitude Meter,Passometer,,Photograph,Barometer,Vibration
Remote taking photo function:You can control your cellphone to take photo from your wrist.
Ring reminder when your Android 2.3 or above smart phone receive a message (including Wechat, Facebook, Twitter,WhatsApp, Skype,and so on)
Anti-lost alarm function: When cellphone left watch alarm automatically, after a certain distance to avoid lose the phones
So I just got this watch in today. I bought it because my sony smart 1 watch broke and I thought this might hold me over until I buy the sony smartwatch 2 as a replacement.
So the watch does look nice, feels really solid. It does have a built in speaker and mic that you can use and make and receive calls and the quality of the sound isn't too bad.
The interface is really cheap looking though, don't be fooled by the images. It looks nothing like the pictures, its not some bright colorful menu. The interface is some generic bland looking menu that is just black with gold colored icons. Yes the screen is touchscreen but to really navigate around the watch itself you have to push the 3 buttons on the bottom of the screen most of the time.
Notifications are really weird on this thing, first you have to install some weird apk that isn't too user friendly. Then configure it (Figure it out yourself) to make features work like Text messages and even then its just really weird how it handles incoming messages from the phone.
My text messages work because I am using an adroid phone, but it the text messages get mixed up. After a while lets say I get a text from billy, it displays the persons name fine and the message. Then if I get a text from Anna, same thing, works fine. But after a while of getting text messages the names get mixed up. Lets say Anna text me again, it will say billy for some reason, and it will begin to repeat that persons name for any text message you get. So in the end you really dont know the name of the person really texting you.
Incoming calls are displayed for me so far with no problems. Shows me the phone number or the contact name.
So far its just a toy for me to mess around with since I got it really cheap. I wasn't expecting too much.
I forgot to mention that the phone comes in Chinese, so you have to play with the menu until you some how get on English.
Would I buy it again? Probably not. You get what you paid for.
Thanks for your review
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk
Is the smartwach 2 from sony really worth it? I'm in doubt between this an android wear
glaudrem said:
Is the smartwach 2 from sony really worth it? I'm in doubt between this an android wear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really... I've had one for a few days and, unless you're pushing a button, it's just a simple watch. More precisely, in order to check anything, you have to activate it via the button and maybe go through the menus. Otherwise, it only displays a watch (whose face you can only pick from about 10 built ones).
Not to mention battery life (2, maybe 3 days) and price (around 120-140 euros in Europe).
Thanks for the review. One question though.
When it's in standby, does it show the time ?
Or is it like a cellphone, that you have to turn on the screen just to see what time it is and if you touch nothing, the screen is off ?
---------- Post added at 05:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:23 PM ----------
Someone said he was suspicious about the chinese shopping sites, but I order from china all the time (3/4 orders / month) for years and I have always been 100% satisfied.
When something was broken, it was replaced free of charge, when something was witheld at customs, I got refunded, had things come in from under $10 to over $100, no issues !
And if you're scared, just pay with paypal, they will act as intermediate in a conflict, they can block the payment if you were scammed and even if you're too late, they have $500 insurance
Came here because I was considering the watch, which I found here : (free shipping !)
http://www.tinydeal.com/new-u-watch-u8-bluetooth-smart-dial-bracelet-watch-p-127195.html
and here :
http://www.dx.com/p/u8-wearable-1-48-touch-screen-smart-watch-w-bluetooth-pedometer-black-315057#.U2ujrnV53IA
When its on standby it does not show the time, you have to push the button on the side to display the time.You can customize the duration though, 10-50 seconds but not on all the time, My sonysmart watch was the same way except that when I shook my hand, it would display the time without me having to push the button, but that was optional.
Multia, on ebay and aliexpress is much cheaper
I bought mine off ebay from someone named jn-tech for $54.99 with shipping included.
Does it look like the pictures? Could someone who has this watch please post some pics?
Thanks
Since I have under 10 post, I can't post the youtube link I made about the watch
Well this was interesting. Too bad I found it AFTER I bought! But it's cheap so no biggie. I'm really just seeing if I want a watch-phone combo or not. I"m leaning toward not but want to try it out before I invest in something big. I'm retired military and I tend toward the big, black, glow in the dark watches but I am open to something techie. Thanks for the input!
Ginxeng said:
Since I have under 10 post, I can't post the youtube link I made about the watch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you sent me the link?
Review of the U8 Bluetooth Smart Wrist Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmkW_g75eg4
Thanks to Ginxeng!!!!!!!!!!!
neof1z said:
Review of the U8 Bluetooth Smart Wrist Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmkW_g75eg4
Thanks to Ginxeng!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! About what I thought it would be. I'll let you know when mine gets in. Mainly I want to see if I can geek it out enough to wear a smart watch or if I want to stick with my manly steel one.
How would you say this watch compares with the smartq? I know that the smartq is about twice as much and has better specs but does the U8 seem to offer enough to justify buying one so cheap? Or would you personally think it's better to get a smartq or namebrand watch?
---------- Post added at 08:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------
Thanks for the video.
neof1z said:
Review of the U8 Bluetooth Smart Wrist Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmkW_g75eg4
Thanks to Ginxeng!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got my U8 today and here's my initial impression:
Plus - 1. Immediately went to English, no Chinese. EZ setup. 2. Several choices for watch faces. Several choices for menu icons. Some are color and big. 3. Love the vibration for notification. 4. Speaker while on phone good. 5. Phone pick up works good.
Cons - 1. Washes out in sunlight bad. That's a show stopper for me. 2. Have to turn off phone Bluetooth and use handset for a private call. Switch is in my phone app and simple but still. 3. I use Touchdown for email and it doesn't notify on the watch. Working on that. 4. Band seems a bit 'soft', not hard rubber.
Added Con - not having the watch portion always lit is driving me crazy!

Need help with golfshot gps app

does anyone else have the golf shot GPS app installed on their Sony SmartWatch 3 and if so how do you get it to work as a standalone GPS. I can't for the life of me get it to work. if I click on the app on the watch it just says loading I think and spins and then disappears. I can get it to pop up when I use the app on the phone but all its doing there is just giving me the reading from my phone. I want to be able to use just the watch as the GPS like it says it can be. Any help would be appreciated.
same problem however when I click on the app and after a few seconds of loading I get the message "no round currently being played" and if I scroll to the left I get "open on phone"
Played a round last Sunday.
There’s no way to use it as a stand-alone app. You have to start the round on your phone and then start the app on the watch. The good is that you can leave your phone in the cart as the yardage provided will use the GPS on the watch. Compared to my rangefinder, it was at times about 1-5 yards off, which I can live with. Scores marked on the watch will be reflected on your phone.
As for the battery, that’s another story. The round lasted me 4 hours and the watch completely died on the 16th hold. Having the GPS constantly on definitely does a number on the watch. Kind of sucks, but figure I can have a charger in the bag for a quick charge. All in all, I’m very pleased.
Standalone Golf Shot App
Hi
You may have answered your own question by now but yes I have Golfshot on a SW3 and you can select the course on your phone and once it's loaded to the watch it will stay there as the default course when you launch Golfshot directly on your watch...just close the app on the watch but don't end the round when you've used it.
I also turn on Aeroplane mode so that the Golfshot app, which uses the Google Fused Location Api to find out where it is, falls back to the internal GPS chip... as it uses the phone's GPS by default. That has the added benefit of 1) not draining the watch battery as quickly and 2) reducing on-board noise from WiFi and Bluetooth that impinges on the accuracy of the GPS.
I've found though that the watch running Golfshot stand-alone will only last maybe 14-15 pretty quick holes of a round without draining the battery flat....so I've written my own wear app that runs completely on the watch with it's own database. That has holes positions ,max 8 hazards per hole, shot measure etc and finishes a round easily with ~ 35% of the battery left! That database however extends to exactly two courses at the moment(!) so I'm looking for a way to add a Google Earth 'course mapper' to let users add their own.
The Wear app has been a bit of struggle for someone not used to Java, Android or the SDK ..but interesting..so I will press on and do the course mapper...or source one by some other means.
---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
jester450 said:
Played a round last Sunday.
There’s no way to use it as a stand-alone app. You have to start the round on your phone and then start the app on the watch. The good is that you can leave your phone in the cart as the yardage provided will use the GPS on the watch. Compared to my rangefinder, it was at times about 1-5 yards off, which I can live with. Scores marked on the watch will be reflected on your phone.
As for the battery, that’s another story. The round lasted me 4 hours and the watch completely died on the 16th hold. Having the GPS constantly on definitely does a number on the watch. Kind of sucks, but figure I can have a charger in the bag for a quick charge. All in all, I’m very pleased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, see my reply to alnova1 in this thread.
Cheers for sharing AndyMan I wondered how it worked and googling just says it works LOL
I'm using GameGolf on my phone to track my club distances and wanted GOLFSHOT on my watch so its easy to check distances without having my phone in my hand all day (which I did yesterday)
Seriously need something to make me keep my SSW3 don't wear a watch for normal activity in day to day life !
Jalfrezi said:
Cheers for sharing AndyMan I wondered how it worked and googling just says it works LOL
I'm using GameGolf on my phone to track my club distances and wanted GOLFSHOT on my watch so its easy to check distances without having my phone in my hand all day (which I did yesterday)
Seriously need something to make me keep my SSW3 don't wear a watch for normal activity in day to day life !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which course is your 'home' one ..and I'll see if I can add it in to my database and send you a copy of the app.
Appreciated but I sold the watch earlier this week the battery just wasn't up to the job for what I needed
Andyman10 said:
Which course is your 'home' one ..and I'll see if I can add it in to my database and send you a copy of the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jalfrezi said:
Appreciated but I sold the watch earlier this week the battery just wasn't up to the job for what I needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a real shame that all the commercial apps I've seen have such awful battery life..probably because they make extensive use of the play services API whereas I use my own optimised routines for many things . My own app has pretty much the same features as the major ones, including up to 8 hazards per hole, plus a compass pointer to the next tee or green centre and I can finish a 4 hour+ competition round with 30% plus battery left!
Still, good luck with whatever route you've gone down now.
Sounds 100% better, I kinda feel the whole watch isn't really overly useful pretty lame apps etc
back to using my nexus 5 gps rangefinder app #GameGolf - NFC tags the next purchase (and probably next to be sold
Hi Andy. Did you ever progress this?
Would be very interested in testing your app Andy!
Please???

Categories

Resources