[Q] Show clock without even activating screen. Possible?

[Q] Show clock without even activating screen. Possible? - G3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone.
First of all I'd like to state that I'm a massive noob on this forum, so if I'm being stupid for not finding a thread about this subject yet, please refer me to it. My apologies.
I've recently bought my LG G3 like 2 months ago. Now, I'm the type of person that likes perfection, so I've already tweaked my phone to the max (without 'hacking' into the system though), for as far as I'm concerned.
I was wondering if any of you know an app or trick to always show a digital clock on the screen, even when it's locked (untouched). I've read on forums that a lot of people complain about battery draining owing to the latter. Though I'm searching for just a tiny, dimmed clock on top of my screen so I can always look up the time without even tapping the screen. My logics tell me that those few pixels used will never really benefit to massive battery draining, and even if it would, I'm still curious whether it's possible yes or no.
I've tried the NoLED app. But like most apps, this is just another Daydream tweaker, which obviously is not what I'm looking for.
So in conclusion, I'm looking for a tiny little clock destined for the top of my screen, always visible, dimmed (to save battery life), not in the way Daydream does (since this leaves the entire screen on [draining more battery life than my idea IMO]).
Anyone know a trick, app or tweak to achieve this?
Thanks in advance!!
Jurjen

Please remove this thread. I noticed there's a Q&A section. My apologies.

Related

WIMM One vs I'm Watch

Hey everyone, I'm looking to buy a casual watch. (something less than 500 bucks) I'm really interested in both the WIMM One and I'm Watch. I have looked at the specs and reviews, but I'd like some opinions. both look like they have a lot of potential. I do like the I'm Watch's curved screen. but the WIMM One looks like its got a bit more tech on it. What do you think? I want the most bang for my buck

Personally, I'm looking at the WIMM. Both from a cost perspective and from a battery life one.
The I'm Watch can do speakerphone, which the WIMM can't, but, really, I don't see myself using a speakerphone on a watch very often.
The dual-mode screen on the WIMM is a huge plus, in my book, as is the open-ness of the developer platform (something that I haven't seen much of with the I'm Watch).
Apps / Dev Support will make or break these devices.

I think I like the WIMM too. I have to ask, do you feel its worth getting the developer preview? perhaps I should tough it out and wait for a consumer release?

Well, I finally broke down and ordered a dev preview. It should be here in the next week or so.
After I get it, I'll let you know.

Awesome, Thanks!

Checked on my order status...
I should get it Wednesday or Thursday.
Early Christmas for me!

I've had the WIMM for a little less than a day now, and so far, the experience has been pretty good.
The only complaint I have is that Bluetooth does not want to reconnect to my phone if I let it get out of range. I have to un-pair, then re-pair the two.
Other than that, everything works wonderfully.
The display is amazing. Full color mode looks great, and the B&W LCD is amazingly crisp.
I haven't had it long enough to comment on the battery life, but so far today, after taking it off the charger six hours ago, I'm at 60%(ish) battery. Granted, it has seen only light usage, but, honestly, as a watch, I'm impressed.
I'll try to answer any questions, but so far I can definitely recommend getting one.

I got my WIMM in yesterday, and let it charge for the suggested three hours first. It's been on my wrist for the past eight hours and I'm still at 90%.
I've gotten really good at the swipe controls now; it's second nature.
My young daughter keeps playing the tilt ball puzzle game I downloaded from the WIMM beta forum.
I keep using the News reader app from the same place. That one alone, even though it's using sync'd data and isn't pulling realtime, is going to keep me happy with the watch because it's great for passing time in bed, while waiting, etc. It works surprisingly well on the small screen.
I have it set to sync my Google Calendars every few hours. Fantastic, having my appointments right there. (One included watchface even shows the next item.)
Having weather and time on my wrist for my favorite work and pleasure locations around the world is handy.
I downloaded a Christmas watchface with falling snow, which is fun to show off.
Just now, my wife asked for a wakeup in a half hour, so I pulled up the alarm app and a few seconds later I had one set to remind me. So easy.
The only problem I'm having is getting ADB to recognize the darned thing. Once I get past that common new-Android-device problem, I'm going to be creating some apps myself for it. First, probably a family picture viewer.
By itself, the WIMM looks bulky. On my wrist, with the way they sloped the wrist band carrier, it looks fine. Love the magnetic charging cradle, btw.
Now I wish I'd bought a couple for Christmas presents to my stepsons who love gizmos.

Heading towards 24 hours now, and still at 50%.
However, I am not using the Bluetooth. Just a WiFi auto sync every 3 hours.
I really like that whenever the watch goes into standby mode after a few seconds, the screen turns into a transflective B&W LCD image that is updated once a minute. Saves battery and yet the watchface is always visible unless it's dark... and then just a slight tap brings up the backlight and full color.

kdarling said:
The only problem I'm having is getting ADB to recognize the darned thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@kdarling, let us know if we can help you w/ your ADB connection, either in our forums or [email protected].
-Ted Ladd
WIMM Labs
P.S. Sorry to intrude on the discussion.

tedladd said:
@kdarling, let us know if we can help you w/ your ADB connection, either in our forums or [email protected].
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Ted. I'm constantly adding on more Android devices for development, so I'm used to having a bit of trouble now and again. I thought at first it was because I only have the R3 usb drivers from Google. I also inserted a line in the usb inf file with the WIMM ID.
After reading comments by others, I finally found that I just had to hold the module down tight in the dock paddle while my laptop was talking to it. I've cleaned the contacts, but it just seems that they don't make good connections by themselves all the time. Overall, though, that's a relatively minor annoyance.

Hi kdarling, I wonder if you could help me by answering a couple of questions about the WIMM one as although there are a few reviews online I cant seem to find all the answers I was after
1) I assume this doesnt currently have GPS? It doesnt seem to mention it in any of the reviews so I assume not, and if so then thats a shame since there is real potential here for this to be the ideal "athlete" device which could log your training routes/speed etc especially in cases where you might not want to take your phone with you
2) How well does the Transflective screen work? Ive seen in reviews that it is updated every minuite but is that adjustable in the app? Again the reason I am asking is for sports being outside in the sun a "normal" LCD screen is unusable, but a transflective screen would be perfect for displaying stats like speed etc but only if it were updating more often then every minuite
3) how "easy" is it to develop apps for this? Again as mentioned I can see a real sporting potential for this device if you were able to launch apps that were specific for the sport you were doing (i.e. one for running, rowing, cyling etc) that displayed the data you wanted
If you could help with my questions would be great, have been looking/waiting for a dvice like this for a while really, just as shame that theres no GPS as thats an essential requirement really..

I'm not kdarling, but I have one of these as well, so let me take a stab at answering...
1) The device does have GPS, but, according to WIMM, that particular chip is disabled (via software) currently for power saving / performance reasons. I'm not positive, but I believe that the device could receive GPS information from a connected phone also.
2) The Transflective screen is absolutely amazing. The clarity is much better than I was expecting. Currently, there is no method to adjust the refresh rate for the apps that use that screen mode. From what I've been able to ascertain, the refresh rate can be specified within a given application. However, that seems to have a fairly negative effect on the battery life.
3) I'm not a "real" developer, so I honestly can't speak on this... However, having said that, I will state that it seems very marginally more difficult that developing for most other android devices, mostly due to the inherent with a device of this size/specs/interface.
I can say that this device, as it is right now, is absolutely fantastic. It has the potential to provide a tremendous impact in everyday life with a few minor tweaks, but even without any changes, it has made a significant impact so far for me.

carnagecjb said:
I'm not kdarling, but I have one of these as well, so let me take a stab at answering...
1) The device does have GPS, but, according to WIMM, that particular chip is disabled (via software) currently for power saving / performance reasons. I'm not positive, but I believe that the device could receive GPS information from a connected phone also.
2) The Transflective screen is absolutely amazing. The clarity is much better than I was expecting. Currently, there is no method to adjust the refresh rate for the apps that use that screen mode. From what I've been able to ascertain, the refresh rate can be specified within a given application. However, that seems to have a fairly negative effect on the battery life.
3) I'm not a "real" developer, so I honestly can't speak on this... However, having said that, I will state that it seems very marginally more difficult that developing for most other android devices, mostly due to the inherent with a device of this size/specs/interface.
I can say that this device, as it is right now, is absolutely fantastic. It has the potential to provide a tremendous impact in everyday life with a few minor tweaks, but even without any changes, it has made a significant impact so far for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AH thats brilliant thanks!Very interesting to hear that it does contain GPS then, even if it is disabled, since that suggests in future it may be able to activate it for those times when you would need it, and then disable it when you need battery life!
Will keep a close eye on this I think...

jerrygooch said:
Awesome, Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+ 10000000 Thanks

Sweet, so I should probably order soon then eh?

Has anybody had a stab at the I'm Watch yet? I'd really like to know before I buy one.

mastermikeywwt said:
Has anybody had a stab at the I'm Watch yet? I'd really like to know before I buy one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
X2
As long as it has a 40 hour or so battery life it's not much differernt than using a manual wristwatch.
I'd have to say though compared to the I'm Watch the wimm one is really ugly.

@carnagecjb Great reply. I couldn't have said it better myself.
@stelph By your use of the word "brilliant", I surmise that you live outside of the U.S. Good and bad news. Bad: We don't ship the WIMM One outside of the US yet, since we're still waiting for CE certification.
Good news: We just started a contest where I will send you a free unit - anywhere in the world - once you have created and posted a good app to our forums. See the Announcements within dev.wimm.com
Ted Ladd
WIMM Labs

Daemos said:
X2
I'd have to say though compared to the I'm Watch the wimm one is really ugly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many of us at WIMM Labs have created our own straps. Because the module pops out of the strap, you can place it into whatever attachment you like. I use a wide leather strap (pict attached). Other says that its ugly, but Beauty is in the eye...
Ted Ladd
WIMM Labs

Anyone with a VZW Gnex have screen burn-in? I have 0...

Just wondering because I've seen a few posts already about screen burn-in, but I've had my Nexus since launch and have no problems at all. Is it because the people that are having the issue are using the GSM version and have had it longer? Is it because those people have their screens on all day?
I'm just trying to get a baseline to understand where the problem might be coming from. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in highschool so I have no need to keep the phone screen on 4+ hours a day (I average somewhere around 1:30 a day, but most of that is reading and answering texts/emails)...but just curious.
For anyone with burn-in problems just post which version you have (and when you got it, if you could) and the average screen on-time per day that you have. Maybe this could lead to a "best practice" document to keep it from happening to others!

I am afraid that this might be a redundant post you just made.
There is no physical difference between GSM and CDMA variation's SAMOLED screens. There should be more difference between which factory and/or country it was made than between GSM and CDMA.
I know you have already, but please refer to the posts made on:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1509123&page=2
And I'll re-post the post I made over there on here as well for your information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This will probably happen to all of us to some degree sooner or later.
The image retention that lasts 1-3 seconds we might see within a month or two usage is actually one of the characteristics of AMOLED "Ghosting effect"
which is not the same as AMOLED "reverse led fatigue" (or although technically incorrect but more widely understood term "Burn-ins") which maybe seen as permanent image retention shown as yellowish outlines of icons / keyboard outlines, etc.
Sadly, there's really nothing you can do about this problem after the fact, except to change the screen itself if it is really bothersome. Or you may try to change/delete/make transparent of the permanently placed icons/other objects/pictures to try to reverse these effects.
The only preventive measures would be changing screen rotation from vertical to horizontal, and make sure you don't have the screen on at a stay still image (preferably set auto screen off to 30seconds or so.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

charlescom said:
I am afraid that this might be a redundant post you just made.
There is no physical difference between GSM and CDMA variation's SAMOLED screens. There should be more difference between which factory and/or country it was made than between GSM and CDMA.
I know you have already, but please refer to the posts made on:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1509123&page=2
And I'll re-post the post I made over there on here as well for your information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This will probably happen to all of us to some degree sooner or later.
The image retention that lasts 1-3 seconds we might see within a month or two usage is actually one of the characteristics of AMOLED "Ghosting effect"
which is not the same as AMOLED "reverse led fatigue" (or although technically incorrect but more widely understood term "Burn-ins") which maybe seen as permanent image retention shown as yellowish outlines of icons / keyboard outlines, etc.
Sadly, there's really nothing you can do about this problem after the fact, except to change the screen itself if it is really bothersome. Or you may try to change/delete/make transparent of the permanently placed icons/other objects/pictures to try to reverse these effects.
The only preventive measures would be changing screen rotation from vertical to horizontal, and make sure you don't have the screen on at a stay still image (preferably set auto screen off to 30seconds or so.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, you misunderstood my point of the post. I realize the hardware is identical (as far as the screen is concerned), I'm more interested in kind of how much screen on-time has a strong chance of creating permanent burn-in. I have a max of around 1:30 of screen on-time per day and I haven't seen a hint of burn-in...so I'm wondering if there's some magic number of on-time that will cause the problem to a much higher degree.
What I'm really hoping for is that, for instance, if we find people with 2:30 of screen on-time seem to really have the issue but people with 2 hours or less don't...then it might be a helpful practice to kind of keep screen time to a minimum above that. I realize it's not really helpful for most people (because nobody wants to curve their usage), but it's a limitation of the hardware.
Or maybe if a majority of the people with the problem seem to keep on the screen for 15-20 minutes at a time...that would help, as well.

Its going to happen. All amoled screens get it. The 2 verizom demo units at the store here have it really bad cause the screen is on all day. If you use transparent top and bottom bar, full screen in browser, and rotate your screen periodically, you can avoid the issue.

RogerPodacter said:
Its going to happen. All amoled screens get it. The 2 verizom demo units at the store here have it really bad cause the screen is on all day. If you use transparent top and bottom bar, full screen in browser, and rotate your screen periodically, you can avoid the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough none of my previous amoled based devices (captivate, SGSII, Galaxy Note) shows any signs of burn in but GNex shows slight ghosting/slight burn in of the notification bar. It's feintly visible when i open the xda app

I want my watch to look like a watch. Any apps for always on mode?

So like the title says I want my watch to always be on. So not ambient mode I hate the on and off crap. I want a dimmed but always on watch face if possible. Not worried about battery. Any suggestions?

There's a launcher (?) I think called Swipify I've seen mentioned multiple times for this. There's also at least one face available for purchase on the Play Store that allows you to choose how long it stays on, including always on. I bought it for that gimmick but never really used it. I think it's the "A06 for Moto 360" face.
In any case, understand that "always on" won't make your watch any more a watch than it will a brick, as you're looking at probably less than one hour of battery life with the screen always on.

1 hour is exaggerating. Either way the whole point of these things should be to be a watch first and foremost, and a notification hub second. LG G watch has a always on option built in and it lasts all day just fine, so I do not think what im asking is too absurd.

Well, you're asking if there are apps to do that. I answered that much.
But as far as what you're hoping you'll get, you seriously need to readjust your expectations. It sounds like you didn't do your homework prior to buying this watch. Undoubtedly this is the nicest looking smart watch now. But the battery life is not great. I get about a full day's worth with the screen turning off constantly.
I can guarantee you, you will not get a full day's battery of this watch with the screen always on. I don't know much about the LG G Watch, but I also highly doubt the whole day of battery you're talking about is with the screen on always.
I get what you're saying. It would be ideal. But battery technology is not at a point where it can power a full LCD screen for a whole day on a single battery charge. Try either of the ones I suggested and see how far it gets you. I might do it just for testing purposes at some point.

Take it down a notch bud. I did a lot of research before I bought this device. Perhaps you should do some with the way screens operate. You can in other similar watches like the G watch have everything turn off and throttle down but keep the time on the screen. The g watch turns everything to black and keeps the time and date still on screen. No reason this watch cannot do the same. I was merely asking if an app was released yet that does this. As most apps like the one you listed does this but keeps the CPU throttled up and the screen drawing more power. Hence why the battery gets killed. Do some research before talking next time. there are a million videos on youtube showing you exactly what im talking about.
Love the watch not complaining, I just want to squeez all the goodness out of it I can.

iMurderous said:
1 hour is exaggerating. Either way the whole point of these things should be to be a watch first and foremost, and a notification hub second. LG G watch has a always on option built in and it lasts all day just fine, so I do not think what im asking is too absurd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference is because of the display technology. As you know (or may not?), LCDs illuminate the entire display, whereas OLEDs (LG, Asus, Samsung) only illuminate the individual pixels, thus reducing power consumption by utilizing a simpler display graphic to use as the 'always on' portion.
To have your Moto 360 always on would be a huge drain on the battery life because of the power consumption to illuminate the display. LCDs are simply not capable of selectively illuminating pixels.

kloan said:
The difference is because of the display technology. As you know (or may not?), LCDs illuminate the entire display, whereas OLEDs (LG, Asus, Samsung) only illuminate the individual pixels, thus reducing power consumption by utilizing a simpler display graphic to use as the 'always on' portion.
To have your Moto 360 always on would be a huge drain on the battery life because of the power consumption to illuminate the display. LCDs are simply not capable of selectively illuminating pixels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be fair, the G watch is also LCD. The gear live is amoled.

SilentAce07 said:
To be fair, the G watch is also LCD. The gear live is amoled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I was referring to the R, which I assumed is what he was referring to as well... but if he's saying the LG G watch is capable of that, then I dunno what to say.

kloan said:
Well I was referring to the R, which I assumed is what he was referring to as well... but if he's saying the LG G watch is capable of that, then I dunno what to say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason the g watch is able to is because it's built with a larger battery. I had the g watch briefly and it was nice in terms of battery but just didn't hold a candle to the 360 IMO. It is a quality device though.

I'd like an always on option as well for my moto 360.

The always on mode ...is not actually a always on totally. ..it just dims to show only the dials and not the back ground. ..the lg g watch R and the gear live with oled screens will burn in if they are totally always on. .
But yes. .using apps like facer..you can select which layer you can keep dimmed on always on mode on the lg g watch. ..but that will eat battery up.
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk 2

WatchMaker lets you set up to 30s stay awake.

Lol. Dude, you really need to do your research. You'd get MAYBE three hours max with the screen on like that. Your attitude against people who are trying to inform you and help you (you know because that's the point of your post where YOU asked for OUR help) is atrocious. If you knew it all you wouldn't need to ask this question. The first guy who responded to you gave you real experience and opinion, and you told him he was exaggerating and to "take it down a notch". Lol.
Ridiculous. Hope you find what you're looking for. Let us know the moment you can get a full day of screen on time with the 360. I won't hold my breath.
Sent from my Pokedex

Not sure if this helps but like you I like a watch to be a watch and very close second I really like all the features for notifications that the smart watches make. I have had my Moto 360 for a little over a week now and I use it for keeping time and getting the basic notifications like SMS, Emails and Google Now info like weather. I do not have any other apps installed and with the Ambient Mode ON and brightness set to 2 I have been able to get 36 hours (at most) out of it with light to moderate use . The watch face I use is the preinstalled digital one. It dims just right but it will go to a black screen when there is very little movement detected. I can very slightly move my wrist and it will activate the dimmed time mode so I can see it without having to drastically twist my wrist and bring the watch up to my face.
Hope that helps.
If you find what you are looking please be sure to share as I am interested in this also.

Just to satisfy curiosity, I went ahead and tried this "always on" thing. I used the "A06 for Moto 360" face I mentioned in my initial reply, which is paid for on the Play Store so I won't link. It's not that great looking either, but it does have the option to have the watch Always On.
So, fully charged, I disconnected from the charger at 12:16 PM and changed the face to the one in question. I enabled Always On and set Brightness to max. With no usage of the watch other than to swipe away notifications and to use as a watch (i.e. looking at it for the time), the battery ran out exactly at 4:54 PM, or 4 hours and 38 minutes later. Admittedly, this was longer than my estimated one hour battery life, but again I wasn't doing anything with the watch. I didn't reply to messages, I didn't play games, I didn't check my heartbeat, I didn't control music. Only swipe away notifications and look at the time. Not quite 5 hours.
I guess it may be worth it if you're using a fancy face and going out for a date or something and you're fully charged before going. But it's useless as a daily driver with that kind of battery life.

Your very wrong. First and foremost it should be a watch. I bought a pebble for that same reason. Now before you go saying it's different due to it's e-ink display, I also own a Microsoft band and it's a color screen. I have my band with the watch always on and I user the sleep monitor every night. It easily lasts through almost 2 days and that's with constant notifications and checking pulse often.
It can most definitely be done.

YanivC said:
Your very wrong. First and foremost it should be a watch. I bought a pebble for that same reason. Now before you go saying it's different due to it's e-ink display, I also own a Microsoft band and it's a color screen. I have my band with the watch always on and I user the sleep monitor every night. It easily lasts through almost 2 days and that's with constant notifications and checking pulse often.
It can most definitely be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a galaxy gear S with tizen OS and amoled screen. With a large display and 3g, WiFi,GPS and phone calling with only 300mah will work for 2 days....
The moto 360 will not... Just accept it and move along
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk 2

So what's the point of wanting the screen always on? Are your eyes on the screen with your hands at your sides? Are you trying to show off? I don't think the whole "it should be a watch first & foremost" thing is a good enough excuse. As far as I can see, I can tell the time just fine without the screen being on 24/7. As a matter of fact, I guarantee I can tell the time every single time you can if we check our watches at the same time. No added functionality. Decrease in battery life. I see no win here. But to each there own. Charge your watch every 3 hours. I'm happy charging mine every night.

It's definitely wanting others to see his watch when he's not looking at it. Otherwise they see a black screen. I wanted that too but then realized I couldn't and moved on.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

I only get 10-14 hours out of mine but I have a bunch of apps installed. Not sure where the battery drain is because its not like most of them stay running. Maybe google fit is the big drain, but its a nice feature and I don't need much more than 12 hours. Hopefully in the future this will get an easier root (without the interface clock) and an underclock for more battery life. That's very possible. I don't need my watch running at 1 GHz and I'm willing to bet the kernel is a huge part of the battery problem (as well as the smaller battery). But hacks could fix the watch I think.

Questions for Curent Moto Owners

Hey guys, just have a few questions for mto owners that I haven't seen answered anywhere. I am interested in picking one of these devices up but I have a couple reservations.
My main question is how does the display look in dark areas, like at a bar or while driving at night. I really don't want a bright cell phone screen strapped to my wrist, like how the samsung watches look. Is this one properly dim (especially without having to mess with settings) for night time settings so it just appears like a normal watch, or does it look too bright.
The other thing I was wondering was what are the major drawbacks, I have heard it can be annoying to drive with cause the screen goes blank and comes back one when making turns cause it thinks your flipping your wrist.
Is there a setting to keep the watchface on 24/7 as well, not crazy about having a blank screen strapped to my wrist?
Any help would be appreciated.

thecrunked said:
Hey guys, just have a few questions for mto owners that I haven't seen answered anywhere. I am interested in picking one of these devices up but I have a couple reservations.
My main question is how does the display look in dark areas, like at a bar or while driving at night. I really don't want a bright cell phone screen strapped to my wrist, like how the samsung watches look. Is this one properly dim (especially without having to mess with settings) for night time settings so it just appears like a normal watch, or does it look too bright.
The other thing I was wondering was what are the major drawbacks, I have heard it can be annoying to drive with cause the screen goes blank and comes back one when making turns cause it thinks your flipping your wrist.
Is there a setting to keep the watchface on 24/7 as well, not crazy about having a blank screen strapped to my wrist?
Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also looking into getting one, The one question I can help you with from my research is that you can have the screen always on but it will drain your battery faster and generally iv'e been hearing that it barely lasts a full day

thecrunked said:
Hey guys, just have a few questions for mto owners that I haven't seen answered anywhere. I am interested in picking one of these devices up but I have a couple reservations.
My main question is how does the display look in dark areas, like at a bar or while driving at night. I really don't want a bright cell phone screen strapped to my wrist, like how the samsung watches look. Is this one properly dim (especially without having to mess with settings) for night time settings so it just appears like a normal watch, or does it look too bright.
The other thing I was wondering was what are the major drawbacks, I have heard it can be annoying to drive with cause the screen goes blank and comes back one when making turns cause it thinks your flipping your wrist.
Is there a setting to keep the watchface on 24/7 as well, not crazy about having a blank screen strapped to my wrist?
Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed with Hustlaz 100%.
also, just want to add that before you get it, first determine why you want it. if you want it to keep track of your steps/heart rate as well as get notifications sent to your wrist, then this is ideal. if you are looking for a nice time-piece that lasts all day, then a conventional watch is a better route.
i've had mine for a little over 2 weeks, and battery life has been great - even with ambient on (although, the screen still goes blank with this setting, just not as quickly, so I have turned this feature off). most reviews you might have read about battery life we're probably before the 11/9 software update. i got mine just after this update, so I can't make a fair comparison here.
otherwise, the watch works as advertised - just beware that when using the google fit app on your phone, your phone's battery will take a major hit (but you can disable the activity detection). otherwise, no noticeable hit on my phone's (moto x) battery life.
essentially, the way it works is that the watch acts like a mirror for your phone - you can also mute certain apps notifications from appearing on your watch.
my only concerns is that the steps data does not sync from my watch to my phone properly (hoping that the google fit app will be updated to accept this with activity detection disabled or at least fix the battery drain), and that when viewing those google now cards (such as weather, sports scores, traffic, etc) on my phone and I swipe them away, they also disappear from my phone - would like to keep them on my phone. I'm sure there is a setting to adjust this, just have not had the time to see for myself.
the good news is that you can buy one at Best Buy, try it out for a week, and if you don't like, you can return it. problem is that you may actually like it too much whereby you won't want to return it and you find yourself keeping your watch on all the time.