Wearable devices (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Sparkle]

I have a Pebble Time and I love it.
RIP Pebble.

Me too and had no idea that Pebble went bust until just now. That sucks. Great product.

 

[superchuck500]

Lol just messing with you guys Chuck , to be Honest i would try out the apple watch, and by the way They always mean the UN .

I thought you might be (hence my green thumb right away) but I didn't know with you man. Ha. j/k

I figured you might have some response about the grand global conspiracy involving Apple, Google, and the illuminati.

 

[antipop]

a fitbit is good for keeping track of how long you are willing to wear a fitbit

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Me too and had no idea that Pebble went bust until just now. That sucks. Great product.

Thank FitBit for that. Still have no idea why they would just shut it don't instead of trying to take advantage of its popularity amongst some people.

 

[PayOrPlay]

My wife is much more of an early adopter than I am, and she has tried out several of these things, but they have no appeal for me; I haven't even worn a watch in 15 years.

Then again, I am hitting the age where "wearable device" is more likely to evoke thoughts of pacemakers and artificial knees than a Fitbit.

 

[efil4stnias]

I have the Gear S2 Samsung.

ITs actually quite handy. phone in pocket or in car? get calls or texts to the watch. Can reply to text via voice or preset replies.

i wasnt keen at first....but after wearing several times, its pretty neat.

 

[TenTwo]

Have an Apple Watch. just got it last week. I like that I can keep my phone in my pocket and quickly glance at text messages. I can check the temperature, check my heart rate, get calendar reminders and track my activity, similarly to a fitbit. The voice to text feature is miles better than any voice to text function I have ever used. It also has this breathe app thing where you stare at the screen and you breathe while watching this graphic expand and collapse while your wrist vibrates on inhales. Pretty sure it's trying to hypnotize/brain wash me. It's relaxing though.

Took me a couple of days to figure out how to save my battery life on both the watch and the phone due to the Bluetooth and whatnot. Initially thought it was gonna be a deal breaker but I figured it out.

I didn't really want this; my wife got it for me. I am not a big jewelry guy, never was in to wearing stuff other than a wedding ring. All kidding aside, I like it and want to wear it now that I have it.

 

[The Mongoose]

a fitbit is good for keeping track of how long you are willing to wear a fitbit

I feel like this would have been a Mitch Hedberg joke if he were still around to tell us jokes.

RIP Mitch.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Thank FitBit for that. Still have no idea why they would just shut it don't instead of trying to take advantage of its popularity amongst some people.

Found this - maybe a ray of hope they will keep it going in some form..or at least through 2017. I guess its a good sign I didnt even know Pebble was gone.

https://developer.pebble.com/blog/2016/12/14/first-steps-forward-with-fitbit/

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Found this - maybe a ray of hope they will keep it going in some form..or at least through 2017. I guess its a good sign I didnt even know Pebble was gone.

https://developer.pebble.com/blog/2016/12/14/first-steps-forward-with-fitbit/

Yeah. Pebble first announced it in December...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pebble will no longer produce or sell new hardware. Active Pebbles in the wild will keep working. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pebbleXfitbit?src=hash">#pebbleXfitbit</a><a href="https://t.co/SMau6NhCEl">https://t.co/SMau6NhCEl</a> <a href="https://t.co/8NXb1wBZqu">pic.twitter.com/8NXb1wBZqu</a></p>&mdash; Pebble (@Pebble) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pebble/status/806508577087258624">December 7, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Heathen Saint]

Nope no interest dont trust those things , thats another way for them to track you.

As long as I stay relatively unimportant my chances of being hacked/tracked for nefarious purposes will remain relatively low


















Or will it :aargh:

 

[Krewe of Clyde's]

My main complaint about my fitbit is it's addictive nature. I have been a 3-5 times a week walker for over 20 years. Since I got my fitbit, I am compulsive about hitting certain step targets every day and not just my walking days. Obviously the five days I "walk" have way more steps since a "walking" day includes a four mile walk but even on Saturday & Sunday (my off days), I still have to hit a certain mark or I wind up feeling guilty that night.

 

[Brock Meaux]

now Looney will always be "Brill" in my head.

YOU MADE A PHONE CALL!

I've got a 42mm gen 1 Apple Watch. I love it. I'm not huge into fitness tracking, but I find the daily calorie goals and "time to stand" pings very useful. As a teacher, I have alarms set that remind me when classes are about to end because the intercom has been broken in my room for a year+ now, so I don't hear the bells. It's also REALLY nice to get messages on my wrist instead of having to glance at my phone every time. Useful in everyday life, but again, especially useful at school because I can get a "send so and so to the office, they're checking out" text from my principal without having to stop what I'm doing. It's made a lot of activities much more efficient in my day to day, and I'm glad I made the purchase. My biggest concern when I got it - the battery - hasn't been an issue at all. I can easily get a full day on a charge, and I've gone as much as nearly 3 days when I wore it for a weekend trip and forgot the charger before it died. I just put it to charge when I get home and put it on before I walk out the door. That said, I'll ride this one out for a while because it was a bit expensive (and I got one of the cheaper models). Either this one will have to go out, or they'll have to really innovate in a future model to get me to upgrade.

My parents and sister all have FitBits and they love them. They've gone through a few in only a year; a couple have stopped taking charges, bands have been defective, things of that nature, but FitBit has always taken care of them and replaced them, no questions asked. They're more competitive with theirs. I do question the accuracy of the step counter (my dad has said before he's done 30,000+ steps a couple of days, my mom gets steps for rocking in her recliner, etc.), but they have a group of them and some friends and they all try to win competitions with each other for the most steps.

 

[Galbreath34]

I did some unrelated consulting for a company that had newly implemented incentives around the fitbit devices. If employees bought and registered one with their HR and met certain upload goals for daily steps and other exercise goals, then every few months they got a rebate back, basically discounting or mostly covering their personal contribution to their own insurance. I really don't know the details, just know how much water cooler talk there was about them. I'm also not sure if the insurance agreement also kicked back some of the money to the company or whether the data was shared with them too (I'd imagine both).

The idea is good for people that are motivated by constant measurement and feedback, which is most people. The fears about more personal data getting out there are probably accurate too, but I think that horse left the barn long ago and is never ever going to be wrangled back in.

I long ago made my peace with the fact that unless I wanted no smartphone and wanted to spend 2 hours every day just to set up and wind down measures to avoid tracking on the Internet, that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, all of them were going to know the texture of my last poop and be able to predict better than myself what my next meal would be. The thing I hate now is when they just rub it in my face for no reason. Like when my phone vibrates with an update from Google Maps threatening me by saying I'm x minutes away from home when I didn't ask. They just have to rub in that they're watching and know where I am at any minute as well as where I live, WTH?

 

[mt15]

I'm on my second Fitbit. My company offered discounts to buy them, I probably wouldn't have bought them otherwise. They also offer incentives on our health insurance if you hit a modest step goal every day (on average) for three months (5000 steps, so anyone can hit that). This is my third year wearing a Fitbit. The heart rate and steps are not something I focus on anymore, unless it's during the period when we are earning our discount. What I do like is the link to my phone so that I don't miss a call because my phone is in the other room, and the silent alarm that wakes me up in the morning.

Ha, when I read Galbreath's post I wondered if he consulted for my company.