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Hi all,
I hope that these are valid questions and someone may be able to answer them for me.
I am in the market for a smart watch but have some trouble finding out what these watches can ACTUALLY do.
Let me give you a scenario. I currently use my phone when i go out on the MTB (for health and fitness) with headphones.
I use MapMyRide cycling app to track and record my cycling sessions etc. I also listen to music and take txt's or calls from time to time whilst out.
Now I was REALLY impressed by the looks of the Moto 360 and I would love to be able to leave the phone at home and just take out the watch with me, but can I???
I had previously an i'm watch from Italy (nice smart watch) and although the watch, apps and everything was sweet i had some serious issues with it.
Anyway thats another story but I would like to be able to store music on the watch and listen to it vie corded or BluTooth headphones. Is there an app for this or does it have to use the phone??? i.e. the watch is merely a phone controller.
I would also like to use something like MapMyRide with GPS tracking etc and sync that to my phone when i get back home, so that the phone and watch are both up to date.
Are the above possible or do i need to look at other devices??
I await in anticipation as i like the Moto360 but just not sure if it right for me??
Thanks
Kev
Not quite yet. You can view your progress on your Moto360 (I use Runkeeper, but Mapmyrun/walk/ride work with it too), but you'll need your phone with you for the GPS.
I think the only Android Wear watch with built in GPS is the Asus (or Sony - I'm not sure). With those you'll be able to track your location and rides.
You can (as of this recent software update) have music saved to your Moto 360 and listen to it via a bluetooth headset.
After receiving the new 4.4.W.2 update, I decided to move some songs from Google Play on my phone onto the watch for offline playing.
Here's how it went:
Downloaded an album with 12 tracks onto my phone
Took my watch off off the charger at 100% battery
Began to transfer music to the watch, took 25 an hour to move 12 songs. Only checked the screen maybe 5 times during the transfer
After the transfer was complete, I listened to about 5 min of music
Battery dropped from 100% to 70% in a span of half an hour......
Call me crazy, but this leaves a lot to be desired..
Jbuch84 said:
After receiving the new 4.4.W.2 update, I decided to move some songs from Google Play on my phone onto the watch for offline playing.
Here's how it went:
Downloaded an album with 12 tracks onto my phone
Took my watch off off the charger at 100% battery
Began to transfer music to the watch, took 25 an hour to move 12 songs. Only checked the screen maybe 5 times during the transfer
After the transfer was complete, I listened to about 5 min of music
Battery dropped from 100% to 70% in a span of half an hour......
Call me crazy, but this leaves a lot to be desired..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how to transfer music, but how do you play music from the watch?
ChrisNee1988 said:
I know how to transfer music, but how do you play music from the watch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since the new OTA lets you store music on the watch itself, go into settings and pair the watch with a bluetooth speaker or headphones. I have mine paired with the Moto Hint, when I have the hint in my ear and I play a song on the watch it will stream to the earpiece.
Call me crazy, but I think you are expecting too much from a device that isn't really intended to be a standalone media player.
Putting music on a smartwatch, or a Moto 360 to be specific, is kind of dumb to begin with imho.
Why? First, it's a watch.. Second, it has only 4GB of storage. Third, it has no speakers or audio output jacks. Fourth, ya, it's a watch.
Playing music from a smartphone and controlling via the M360 is more than sufficient and has almost no effect on battery other than regular operations.
My 2 cents.
Jbuch84 said:
After receiving the new 4.4.W.2 update, I decided to move some songs from Google Play on my phone onto the watch for offline playing.
Here's how it went:
Downloaded an album with 12 tracks onto my phone
Took my watch off off the charger at 100% battery
Began to transfer music to the watch, took 25 an hour to move 12 songs. Only checked the screen maybe 5 times during the transfer
After the transfer was complete, I listened to about 5 min of music
Battery dropped from 100% to 70% in a span of half an hour......
Call me crazy, but this leaves a lot to be desired..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Test it again taking out the transfer step. I would bet that is what is eating up battery not the actual playing of the music.
how to transfer song to watch?
Andromjb said:
Call me crazy, but I think you are expecting too much from a device that isn't really intended to be a standalone media player.
Putting music on a smartwatch, or a Moto 360 to be specific, is kind of dumb to begin with imho.
Why? First, it's a watch.. Second, it has only 4GB of storage. Third, it has no speakers or audio output jacks. Fourth, ya, it's a watch.
Playing music from a smartphone and controlling via the M360 is more than sufficient and has almost no effect on battery other than regular operations.
My 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's your opinion, but... if excusing faults based on the fact that "it's just a watch"is sound reasoning, then you're completly abandoning the appeal and leaving many wondering why bother dropping $250 on "just a watch".
Aside from notifications, wasn't this feature one of the main selling points for the device? Personally, I looked forward to being able to leave my clunky phone at home while going on a run. It seems natural that a smartwatch should be able to set me free of cords and allow me to listen to music wirelessly. If the device battery struggles to handle that, I can't imagine how short the life would be if music and GPS ran at the same time.
This turned into a rant.. but I was hopeful that this update might bring purpose to the Moto 360. As it stands now, its a $250 watch that is less useful than my $75 g-shock anytime I move more than 25 ft. away from the smartphone it was meant free our addiction to.
I agree this would be a useful feature. I could see not bringing my phone to the gym and using my watch to listen to music.
I still think this watch is worth every penny I paid for without this feature. Hell, being able to change the watch face daily is a pretty cool feature by itself. Add in the ability to get notifications on a device that looks like a watch I'd wear with a suit, and it's worth the $250.
Jbuch84 said:
That's your opinion, but... if excusing faults based on the fact that "it's just a watch"is sound reasoning, then you're completly abandoning the appeal and leaving many wondering why bother dropping $250 on "just a watch".
Aside from notifications, wasn't this feature one of the main selling points for the device? Personally, I looked forward to being able to leave my clunky phone at home while going on a run. It seems natural that a smartwatch should be able to set me free of cords and allow me to listen to music wirelessly. If the device battery struggles to handle that, I can't imagine how short the life would be if music and GPS ran at the same time.
This turned into a rant.. but I was hopeful that this update might bring purpose to the Moto 360. As it stands now, its a $250 watch that is less useful than my $75 g-shock anytime I move more than 25 ft. away from the smartphone it was meant free our addiction to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never said it was "just" a watch. I was more implying that it's main purpose is not to be a media player specifically.
Being that Android Wear & Google Play Music just implemented this feature in the latest update, I don't believe this was a selling point at the time of M360's sale. Not to mention, the first implementation is most definitely not going to be optimized.
Is it a cool feature? Of course. Is it it useless? Of course not. But that is also dependent on the user.
Seems you just are not happy with the battery life and watch in general from your response.
even if you store music on your watch and leave your phone at home while going on a run or gym... don't u still have to carry a bluetooth speaker to hear the music..lol.. anyways.. resetted watch 4 times.. no luck here...ughhh..
Andromjb said:
I never said it was "just" a watch. I was more implying that it's main purpose is not to be a media player specifically.
Being that Android Wear & Google Play Music just implemented this feature in the latest update, I don't believe this was a selling point at the time of M360's sale. Not to mention, the first implementation is most definitely not going to be optimized.
Is it a cool feature? Of course. Is it it useless? Of course not. But that is also dependent on the user.
Seems you just are not happy with the battery life and watch in general from your response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life is great, can last 30 odd hours so long as I only use the watch to check time a handful of times a day.
My post was to see if anyone else is experiencing such problems and if they had any real world uses similar and ways to save battery.
no one should be surprised that using the watch as a media player would kill the battery.
the best use for the media player on the watch is to be used while working out or running. because it will definitely need to be recharged after using it for an hour as a media player.
Is offline music only support google music? ? I still not.figure out how to.download local song to.watch, anyone can clairfy? Thanks.
gammite said:
no one should be surprised that using the watch as a media player would kill the battery.
the best use for the media player on the watch is to be used while working out or running. because it will definitely need to be recharged after using it for an hour as a media player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you go to the start menu on the watch and select the play music app, it will inform you there is no music stored on the watch and you need to change a setting on your phone to "download to android wear". go into play music on your phone and in the settings is where that option is. As soon as I checked it, the music i had downloaded to my phone started downloading to my watch. once it's done you can access the music from the play music app on your watch. the newest play music version is required i believe.
FlowingAway said:
if you go to the start menu on the watch and select the play music app, it will inform you there is no music stored on the watch and you need to change a setting on your phone to "download to android wear". go into play music on your phone and in the settings is where that option is. As soon as I checked it, the music i had downloaded to my phone started downloading to my watch. once it's done you can access the music from the play music app on your watch. the newest play music version is required i believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate. Now i know.
Since i have not played google music before, so does this offline download to.wear only support.song.from google? But not local music? And how I know the download.is.happening? Also can I select which songs be download to 360?
mmx6688 said:
Thanks mate. Now i know.
Since i have not played google music before, so does this offline download to.wear only support.song.from google? But not local music? And how I know the download.is.happening? Also can I select which songs be download to 360?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the looks of it, it's only music you've purchased from the play store, or music you've uploaded to play music. local music residing on your phone won't transfer over. you'll definitely know it's happening, a notification appears on the watch that says how many songs are left remaining to download. as far as which songs you're getting, i'm still testing it, but it looks like it's going to be all songs you've downloaded to the phone, but i could be wrong about that.
FlowingAway said:
From the looks of it, its only music youve purchased from the play store, or music youve uploaded to play music. local music residing on your phone wont transfer over. youll definitely know its happening, a notification appears on the watch that says how many songs are left remaining to download. as far as which songs youre getting, im still testing it, but it looks like its going to be all songs youve downloaded to the phone, but i could be wrong about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Now I have a full.picture.
Jbuch84 said:
Battery life is great, can last 30 odd hours so long as I only use the watch to check time a handful of times a day.
My post was to see if anyone else is experiencing such problems and if they had any real world uses similar and ways to save battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha. Results are pretty sporadic from what I've gathered. There are too many variables right now, such as people using poorly optimized watch faces and/or apps. Possibly running older frimware/software, enabling/disabling ambient screen, brightness settings, etc.
Hard to get a baseline, but my results personally have been pretty great. I can't complain.
I use stock Moto watch faces, most specifically Retrograde (black background). Textra for SMS, it offers a lot of customization (vibration settings, color, etc), and is one of the most fluid in terms of replying via watch. Sometimes I use Mini Launcher, but it tends to drain battery a little more than usual and gets in the way a lot while swiping.
If you aren't using stock faces, then I recommend you stay away from third party watch faces until the Wear update with face customization becomes available.
Not just you. I listened through the watch for 30 minutes and it absolutely smoked my battery.
I wonder how the other watches hold up
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
Hello,
I am a newcomer in the world of smartwatches. So I've buyed a smartwatch 3 and I struggle to find how to control Play Music on my watch.
When I launch music on my phone, controls are not showing up on my watch. And on my watch when I go to Google Music I can just download musics but not play remotely. And I don't want to download musics because I have a lot of tracks on my phone and I cannot choose which one synchronise on my watch.
I forgot to mention that I'm running lollipop preview, I maybe it is because of that...
Flav106 said:
Hello,
I am a newcomer in the world of smartwatches. So I've buyed a smartwatch 3 and I struggle to find how to control Play Music on my watch.
When I launch music on my phone, controls are not showing up on my watch. And on my watch when I go to Google Music I can just download musics but not play remotely. And I don't want to download musics because I have a lot of tracks on my phone and I cannot choose which one synchronise on my watch.
I forgot to mention that I'm running lollipop preview, I maybe it is because of that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
When you have a track playing on the phone tap the watch face then scroll up from the bottom the track will be displayed then scroll from right to left then the volume controls and track skip will be on the watch screen.
Thanks but it's not working. Maybe due to the lollipop preview version on my phone...
Flav106 said:
Thanks but it's not working. Maybe due to the lollipop preview version on my phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem on lollipop with two different installs of KNX01V. Playback fro the watch works great, but when music is playing on the phone, no card shows up on the watch. As soon as the phone is paused (with the phone notification still present), the card shows up on the watch. If I then hit play on either the watch or the phone, the card on the watch disappears. Going to try a new build of lollipop soon.
Play Music v5.7.1717Q.1530520
^^ same for me on nexus 5 eev purview
Can someone one kitkat check this?
Flav106 said:
Hello,
I am a newcomer in the world of smartwatches. So I've buyed a smartwatch 3 and I struggle to find how to control Play Music on my watch.
When I launch music on my phone, controls are not showing up on my watch. And on my watch when I go to Google Music I can just download musics but not play remotely. And I don't want to download musics because I have a lot of tracks on my phone and I cannot choose which one synchronise on my watch.
I forgot to mention that I'm running lollipop preview, I maybe it is because of that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running Lollipop too. Music cards don't seem to show when music playback is triggered from the phone. However I do get the name of the current track playing if I tap the screen and navigate back to the watch face, but it disappears (so the phone is sending the information).
As far as I can tell Android Wear currently only supports Google Play Music in the following ways....
Open The Play Music app, this plays back music synced to the watch. This is a bit crap because there is no real control over what is synced, this does result in cards being shown.
Say "OK Google Play Music", this launches Play Music on the phone and plays back tracks at random. This also results in the cards being shown.
It seems Play Music is still a bit raw on Android Wear at the moment, hopefully Google will add the ability to sync specific playlists or albums just to the watch rather than randomly selecting from those that have been synced to the phone.
Bojanglez said:
I am running Lollipop too. Music cards don't seem to show when music playback is triggered from the phone. However I do get the name of the current track playing if I tap the screen and navigate back to the watch face, but it disappears (so the phone is sending the information).
As far as I can tell Android Wear currently only supports Google Play Music in the following ways....
Open The Play Music app, this plays back music synced to the watch. This is a bit crap because there is no real control over what is synced, this does result in cards being shown.
Say "OK Google Play Music", this launches Play Music on the phone and plays back tracks at random. This also results in the cards being shown.
It seems Play Music is still a bit raw on Android Wear at the moment, hopefully Google will add the ability to sync specific playlists or albums just to the watch rather than randomly selecting from those that have been synced to the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's indeed the behavior I can observe on my watch.
I hope you're right and Google will allow to select tracks to synchronize in a future update because actually this is unusable for me as I have tons of GB stored on my phone.
The thing is android wear shows cards/notifications that are not ongoing on the phone, when you pause music - notification is not ongoing and wear shows it
I finally works well with official Lollipop and last version of Android Wear : http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-wear/
Flav106 said:
I finally works well with official Lollipop and last version of Android Wear : http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-wear/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, this version seems to work perfectly now. This will be great for skipping tracks whilst driving.
Keep contemplating this to replace my TomTom Multisport. Really miss the motoactiv when it worked, and it would be nice to transfer a Playlist, pop on the bt headphones and go. Will I regret the purchase? I have some amazon points and a gift card I can get it for about $80 or so.
I use mine mainly as a GPS device to keep track of my tracks. Ghostrunner is great for mapping your runs. GPS is very quick and accurate in my opninion (owner for 3 weeks, bought it for the GPS)
Overall i'm happy, used it with Ghostracer, Strava & Runkeeper some of the apps can be flakey but other than that i love it.
Love it! Ghostracer / endomondo to track runs while listening to music with Google play music - works very very well.
Good to hear. I just want to transfer a playlist to the watch and be able to go... 128gb card on the phone so I can store quite a bit.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Golf and running watch
Hi. I just bought the SW3 for running and golf. Was tired of lugging my phone along to listen to music. I tried Runkeeper but it stopped working a few times in the middle of a run. Have switched to Ghostracer and it has performed flawlessly. I put some music on the SW3 and it worked well with my Plantronics BT earbuds. I wasn't so happy yesterday on the golf course as the SW3 ran out of battery on the back 9. Could have been because I was using Golfshot and the SW3 was connected to my phone the whole time. I might try Hole 19 and put the SW3 into Airplane Mode. Still early days for me though. I rooted the SW3 yesterday and put on crpalmer's tetra kernel to see if that will help out with battery life.
Yes overall the GPS on this device has been great, especially with the Ghostracer app others mentioned. The only challenge comes in when the metal backplate gets really wet from a lot of sweat or if you get stuck running in a good rain. I had a 7 mile run in September that stopped logging at 4.1 miles when the drizzle coming down became a solid downpour. Ghostracer kept tracking time, but GPS coordinates gave up. It seems to be a known issue to many users.
Wifey has one and it's complete garbage. You have to start music and running app in a particular order, it takes forever to get a GPS fix and it invariably either loses GPS or freezes/crashes mid run. Sony don't even seem to have bothered to make a GPS tracking app, so users had to wait for the rest of the developers to catch up.
I normally take my phone with me when I walk or run so I can stream Pandora and, thus, use the phone's GPS. But a couple of days ago I decided to leave my phone behind and listen to the music I had downloaded to my watch. I had a big problem getting the music (Play Music) and tracking (Ghostracer) to stay on. I started with the Ghostracer and then turned on the Play Music, but the play music stopped the Ghostracer. Then I restarted the Ghostracer (which began recording as a new run), but this stopped the Play Music. I went back and forth a few times before I was able to get them both to stay on. It seems like everytime I left the Ghostracer display, it would stop the current run. Runkeeper (which I normally use when I am running with my phone) does not do this. For this reason, once I got them both to stay on, I left the display on the Ghostracer app.
Once I got them both to stay on, everything was fine, but this was almost a quarter of a mile into my run (which was supposed to be 5 miles). So I ended up going somewhat over 5 miles for my total run that day. I think the trick is to start the Play Music first, but I'm not sure. If anyone has any advice on this, please let us know.
As for the GPS, once I got Ghostracer to stay on, it worked flawlessly. It was at least as accurate as my phone's GPS is.
I should also point out that I was using Jabra Sport Pulse BTLE earbuds. I like it that the Ghostracer app displays both the average and current heartrate from the Jabra Sport Pulse on my watch along with the pace, distance, and time.
I don't like it that I can hear each step reverberate in the Jabra Sport Pulse earbuds as a heavy background BLOOMP, BLOOMP, BLOOMP... sound. The SMS BioSport earbuds that I use with Runkeeper when I run with my phone do not have this problem (and they don't have to be recharged).
So for now, I'll continue running with my phone, streaming Pandora thru the SMS BioSport earbuds, using the Runkeeper app on my watch to display the time, distance and pace, viewing the Pandora notifications on my watch for the artist and song title (and to control volume and skip tracks), and listening for the Runkeeper audio cues on my earbuds that give me my current and average heart rate (along with pace, distance, and time) every 5 minutes. This is not an ideal arrangement, but the best one available for now.
Strange about the Play music and Ghostracer interfering - I use both of those for each run and don't have any issues... Chrisinleedsuk - I do start Ghostracer about 2 minutes before running to get a good signal without the phone.
I have a pair of BT headphones but I usually use this BT adapter so I can use my nicer Dunu headphones:
http://www.myblueant.com/products/headphones/ribbon/
Cheers.
JavaGP said:
I normally take my phone with me when I walk or run so I can stream Pandora and, thus, use the phone's GPS. But a couple of days ago I decided to leave my phone behind and listen to the music I had downloaded to my watch. I had a big problem getting the music (Play Music) and tracking (Ghostracer) to stay on. I started with the Ghostracer and then turned on the Play Music, but the play music stopped the Ghostracer. Then I restarted the Ghostracer (which began recording as a new run), but this stopped the Play Music. I went back and forth a few times before I was able to get them both to stay on. It seems like everytime I left the Ghostracer display, it would stop the current run. Runkeeper (which I normally use when I am running with my phone) does not do this. For this reason, once I got them both to stay on, I left the display on the Ghostracer app.
Once I got them both to stay on, everything was fine, but this was almost a quarter of a mile into my run (which was supposed to be 5 miles). So I ended up going somewhat over 5 miles for my total run that day. I think the trick is to start the Play Music first, but I'm not sure. If anyone has any advice on this, please let us know.
As for the GPS, once I got Ghostracer to stay on, it worked flawlessly. It was at least as accurate as my phone's GPS is.
I should also point out that I was using Jabra Sport Pulse BTLE earbuds. I like it that the Ghostracer app displays both the average and current heartrate from the Jabra Sport Pulse on my watch along with the pace, distance, and time.
I don't like it that I can hear each step reverberate in the Jabra Sport Pulse earbuds as a heavy background BLOOMP, BLOOMP, BLOOMP... sound. The SMS BioSport earbuds that I use with Runkeeper when I run with my phone do not have this problem (and they don't have to be recharged).
So for now, I'll continue running with my phone, streaming Pandora thru the SMS BioSport earbuds, using the Runkeeper app on my watch to display the time, distance and pace, viewing the Pandora notifications on my watch for the artist and song title (and to control volume and skip tracks), and listening for the Runkeeper audio cues on my earbuds that give me my current and average heart rate (along with pace, distance, and time) every 5 minutes. This is not an ideal arrangement, but the best one available for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm looking to snatch up a smartwatch on BF or maybe treat myself this xmas if nothing goes on sale. But I don't see the point of a smartwatch if it can't track my runs with an independent gps to save me from running with my note 5 ( no armband in the world can stop it from rubbing my underarm) . Looks like I have to choose between the urbane 2 and the Sony smartwatch 3? Also, does anyone know do I have to have a cellular plan to use the urbane 2's gps?
Just wanted to make sure these are the only two choices so I can make an informed decision.
I'm not seeing gps on the urbane 2.
http://www.lg.com/us/smart-watches/lg-W200-Opal-Blue-lg-watch-urbane-2nd-edition
ConnectivityLTE / 3G, Bluetooth® Version 4.1; Wi-Fi® Connectivity and Offline Music Play
Sensor9-Axis (Gyro/Accelerometer/Compass) / Barometer / PPG (Heart Rate Sensor)
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dbpaddler said:
I'm not seeing gps on the urbane 2.
http://www.lg.com/us/smart-watches/lg-W200-Opal-Blue-lg-watch-urbane-2nd-edition
ConnectivityLTE / 3G, Bluetooth® Version 4.1; Wi-Fi® Connectivity and Offline Music Play
Sensor9-Axis (Gyro/Accelerometer/Compass) / Barometer / PPG (Heart Rate Sensor)
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read on androidcentral and https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidWear/comments/3ss9lf/lg_urbane_2_does_it_actually_have_gps/ states that it does. Forums have confirmed that even without cellular activation that they can get GPs lock. So I guess that means these are the 2 devices I should look at
Not seeing where anyone confirms it has gps. The 2nd guy says yes to a video of gps in action, but that doesn't tell me squat. And there's no proof. The last guy owns one and can't tell if it has standalone gps because it makes him turn on his phone to use maps.
So what are you reading that I'm not?
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dbpaddler said:
Not seeing where anyone confirms it has gps. The 2nd guy says yes to a video of gps in action, but that doesn't tell me squat. And there's no proof. The last guy owns one and can't tell if it has standalone gps because it makes him turn on his phone to use maps.
So what are you reading that I'm not?
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://m.androidcentral.com/first-five-things-know-about-lg-watch-urbane-2nd-edition-lte
Ctrl+f gps
Edit: after some googling looks like moto 360 sport has gps too. Something to consider.
People confirm it in this thread...
http://www.androidcentral.com/first-five-things-know-about-lg-watch-urbane-2nd-edition-lte
Seems like android wear needs an update though to fully take advantage of it all. I'll wait for a deal to pick one up, and I'm sure by then someone will have tried it with ghost racer and posted results.
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dbpaddler said:
People confirm it in this thread...
http://www.androidcentral.com/first-five-things-know-about-lg-watch-urbane-2nd-edition-lte
Seems like android wear needs an update though to fully take advantage of it all. I'll wait for a deal to pick one up, and I'm sure by then someone will have tried it with ghost racer and posted results.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol identical post times. But yeah I'm with you. I am looking for something with better battery life and screen based on common complaints from the sm3. Independent gps is a must to justify androidwear for me tho.
Yeah. I'm trying to avoid getting the Garmin, and I don't really "need" a smartwatch. Living with my TomTom multisport and carrying my Sansa clip with wired buds. Would love to ditch the combo. Not as concerned about battery life. Just want a seamless experience.
And with the way they update androidwear, I think it's the time to jump in with this generation of devices.
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I'm happy user of SW3. As many people here, I use Ghostracer for GPS tracking. It 's not perfect, but quite good. Battery life may be an issue for long runs. GPS fix sometimes takes a long time, but otherwise GPS is quite accurate.
Do you get a GPS signal without connecting the watch to your phone? I am testing a smartwatch 3 and it need to be connected to my phone to find the place where I am. I am testing with Maps and Viewranger and none of them finds a signal.
So I'm thinking about picking up a galaxy watch today. I have been a long time wear os user. My current watch is the Ticwatch E.
Im a guy with smaller wrists, the ticwatch e 43mm case fits me pretty well so I was thinking about getting the 42mm galaxy watch, but the larger battery is in the 46mm is really appealing. For anyone who has seen them side by side in person, does the 46mm look that much larger?
How is Bixby on the watch for doing basic things like setting timers and sending texts? I have seen the reviews where it is bad at some more advanced tasks but I just use my Google assistant for basic things.
I also use Google play music, I know there is no stand alone app for the watch but is there at least a basic play/pause, next track option on the watch when playing something through play music?
I can answer the first point.
My wrists are 5.9 inches around, but when I tried the 46mm it looked absolutely fine to me, so that's what I have ordered.
The 42mm didn't seem that much smaller, but the screen was notable smaller.
Try it in a store, to know how you think it looks on your wrist.
There is play, pause and next and previous track options with name of song and album artwork on the music app. I use the widget to easily skip a track. Its not bad. The only downside compared to wear os is that you cant use google play music as a standalone app to play music without your phone.
brownpm85 said:
So I'm thinking about picking up a galaxy watch today. I have been a long time wear os user. My current watch is the Ticwatch E.
Im a guy with smaller wrists, the ticwatch e 43mm case fits me pretty well so I was thinking about getting the 42mm galaxy watch, but the larger battery is in the 46mm is really appealing. For anyone who has seen them side by side in person, does the 46mm look that much larger?
How is Bixby on the watch for doing basic things like setting timers and sending texts? I have seen the reviews where it is bad at some more advanced tasks but I just use my Google assistant for basic things.
I also use Google play music, I know there is no stand alone app for the watch but is there at least a basic play/pause, next track option on the watch when playing something through play music?
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I can say that the watch is not a huge difference from any 42mm watches, but it will look big if the 43mm watch was already a perfect or a large fit on you. I don't think bixby on the watch is anything you could use. I've tried it several times and it appears to do the bare minimum of tasks. Like how you'd ask S Voice back in the day. It can set reminders, send texts and make calls and alarms, but it can struggle sometimes and hang for some time. However, I don't think you'll need any assisstant as the rotating dial and the smooth experience can help you accomplish tasks fast enough.
As for the music, you have spotify to install as a standalone app or as a remote for your phone. The Music app on the watch is set to work as a remote with play / pause, volume up / down and skip tracks forward or backward. You can also send tracks to your watch and use the watch alone with the onboard storage with a bluetooth headset or from the watch speakers. I mainly use it as a remote for the large amount of music on my phone, but you could probably fit some music on the watch.
The verdict is: if you're looking for a smartwatch that looks cool and elegant and has good functionality, the Galaxy watch is for you. If you're the kond of person who wants the watch for apps and all that stuff, you will find some on this watch, but it's not as versatile as Wear OS. I personally like Tizen and the look of the watch plus the battery life.
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Oh, and the watch has Uber (for me with a galaxy phone) if you want to catch a ride. I used to call ubers with google assisstant as my previous watch didn't have uber. It doesn't have Google maps (or pay extra for a third party app), but you can download Here maps (or Here WeGo as it's named) and it's really nice with offline maps on the watch.