I've said it before but I'll say it again, I hate exercise, but I'm happy to do it as long as I don't notice I'm doing it.
When it comes to tracking my weight and diet, doubly so.
If there was a way to weigh in, without having to think about it, that would seriously work for me.
Turns out, there is a way. And it's awesome.
A few weeks back I reviewed the fitbit ChargeHR activity tracker and was pretty impressed with the results and the way the data magically appeared on my fitbit account without me having to do much at all.
I mean, obviously I had to do something. You can't meet your daily step goal without actually taking some steps. But of course, the cool thing was fitbit tracked it all for me, even integrating seamlessly with my preferred running app, Endomondo.
Still, what's the point of all this exercise I'm trying so hard to pretend isn't happening to me? Being fit is nice, I suppose - especially the feeling good part of it. What would be even better would be to feel... what's the word?... "attractive"? That involves dropping a few kilos and then annoyingly, keeping them off.
Turns out, the most effective way to do that seems to be eating less and exercising more. I know, boring, yet true.
The fitbit app/dashboard does a pretty good job of making you feel guilty about everything you eat, and I've been able to find most of the stuff I bung in my gob in their online database when I log my meals. You can even look things up by their barcodes, although annoyingly some sandwiches don't always come with a barcode.
This part of the process is still pretty tedious and I look forward to a time when you can just take a photo of your plate and the app will work out the calories from the picture.
Which brings me to the other part of the equation; tracking my weight. That used to be equally tedious - I'd often forget what I'd weighed in at between the time I got off the scales and the time I could be bothered picking up my phone. This of course allowed for a certain "margin of error" when it came to noting any improvement or deterioration, once the real figure had been adjusted by a time delay and wishful thinking.
Well the fitbit Aira takes all that guesswork (lying) away.
These scales look just like any other set of electronic scales... actually, quite a bit cooler than most, especially in black. They run on 4 perfectly ordinary AA batteries. There's a little bit of setting up to do to connect them to your WiFi network, but not much really. All you'll need is another device that's already connected to that network; like a phone or a laptop and your fitbit account.
The rest happens automatically. The fitbit Aria somehow knows it's you every time you step on it, it weighs you and measures your BMI too. You can tell the scales have detected the right person because they flash your initials up on the screen before sending all that information back to your fitbit account via your WiFi router.
So simple, yet so clever. You can register up to 8 different users so the whole family can send their weight through the cybersphere to their fitbit accounts. Apparently the Aria differentiates between users by their previously recorded weights (if there are 2 people who are close in weight, you have the option of scrolling between the users with a quick tap on the scales).
I'm not sure what happens if you manage a REALLY dramatic weight-loss between weigh-ins. Would the Aria still recognise you? Of course, the reason I don't know this is sadly I've never experienced a dramatic weight-loss between weigh-ins.
Much to the Domestic Manager's relief, you don't even have to be a registered user to use the fitbit Aria; you can just step on the scales and be weighed as a guest. I think she's worried about her weight being stolen out of the cloud and used for nefarious purposes, but I've been feeding my details into my fitbit account for ages and haven't experienced any Jennifer Lawrence-style leaking of my personal bits to date. In saying that, the Aria can actually Tweet my results if I want it to. I'm not sure WHY I'd want it to though, and I'm pretty certain the rest of Twitter isn't that interested either. There really IS some information the rest of the world doesn't need to know.
Of course, the real question is, has the fitbit Aria helped me lose weight?
Answer; hey, it's only a set of scales.
But at least I feel luxuriously lazy using them.
Click here for more information on the fitbit Aria
When it comes to gadgets, I don't know too many people who are more likely to give one a go than me. I'm talking a proper go too, not just taking it out of the box, having a bit of a look at it, reading the specs, turning it on and turning it off again.
Whatever it is, if it's new, I want to have a try. I just hate to feel like I'm missing out on new tech.
But I've got to admit, I've been wearing the Huawei Talkband B2 for a few weeks now and I'm still not really sure what it is...
One thing I do know, is the Talkband B2 is about the best looking whatever-it-is I've ever seen. Available in white or black TPU bands with silver faces or in a brown leather band with a gold face, the Talkband B2 is a much classier effort than the somewhat plasticky first generation.
Essentially, it's an activity tracker, not a smart watch. At least, I think that's what it is.
Like a fitbit or Jawbone device, it counts steps and monitors sleep, its elegant screen showing the time, steps taken, calories burned and time spent asleep.
But unlike those devices, the Talkband B2 is also a bluetooth earpiece that pops out of the wristband so you can take and make calls.
Yes, you read that right. And no, I have no idea why.
All I can say is it does all those things extremely well and looks awesome while it's doing them.
There are two types of people in the world, those who are happy to talk on a bluetooth earpiece and those (probably the vast majority) who think that's about the geekiest thing you could ever do. At least this strange device from Huawei means you're not walking around with the earpiece in the whole time - it's secured to your wrist looking like a pretty cool watch. Then, when your phone rings, your Talkband B2 vibrates and you just pop it out and bung it in your ear to take the call. While I felt like a nerd doing it, I can't complain about the sound quality, it was excellent.
The Talkband B2 will pair with most modern Android and IOS phones, although unsurprisingly I found it connected with a Huawei handset a little more seamlessly than a Samsung one; it's quite bossy with the bluetooth connectivity and kept wanting access to the Samsung's contacts list whenever it reconnected which was a bit annoying considering I'd already granted that permission every single time. I didn't have any issues like that when pairing it with a Huawei P8.
Apart from the activity tracking, (it seems to do a good job of recognising if I'm running or just walking) you can also set silent alarms using the accompanying app. The Huawei Wear app is very straight-forward, in fact, perhaps too stripped down compared to other fitness apps available, only really recording your steps and sleep. There's no facility to track meals or to manually add other exercise, although if you have an UP account (for use with Jawbone trackers) you can sync the information you collect from your Talkband B2 there.
In my opinion, the Talkband B2 is such a good-looking thing, it's worth wearing just as a watch if nothing else, although there are a few downsides.
While the curved, reflective screen is super styley, it's almost impossible to read in bright sunshine, especially if you're wearing sunglasses, so if you're planning on keeping an eye on your step count while out for a run, you might be a bit frustrated. The screen does provide a couple of funky graphics for your enjoyment though; if you reach your daily step goal, you get a very life-affirming little fireworks display while the whole device vibrates in celebration. If, however, you've just been lazing around on the couch too long, a little stick-man appears to vibrate your wrist and remind you to get up and do something. Sounds silly, but it's kind of fun.
I have to say, it feels a little strange wearing the Talkband B2 to bed. The TPU strap is certainly comfortable enough, but the whole device sticks up a bit higher than a normal watch which makes you feel like you might cause some collateral damage in the middle of the night.
But did I mention how good looking it is? Whatever it is...
For about the same price, there are other activity trackers on the market with heart-rate monitors, which may be something Huawei needs to consider next time round, but you can't take or make phone calls with those other devices.
So I guess that's what it is; an activity tracker you can make calls with. Is there a market for it? I don't know. But it's a lot better looking than most other wearables I've tried.
Click here for more details on the Huawei Talkband B2
It's not easy to compare one laptop with another, you just expect them to work and it's very difficult to test reliability over time without time.
The same could be said about tablets. Once you get past processing power and operating systems, what could really be the difference?
But what if you had one device that did both jobs?
The Yoga 3 Pro is Lenovo's new flagship device, and it's their big push to wake the New Zealand market up to the fact Lenovo is the world's biggest computer manufacturer.
At first glance, it appears to be a super-skinny laptop, but the unique feature of the Yoga 3 Pro is its bendy-ness. In fact, you can use it 4 different ways; Laptop, Stand, Tent or Tablet. Personally, I'm a laptop guy but I know plenty of people who are into tablets and I'm well aware there are other 2-in-1 devices out there.
I don't know about you, but until I tried the Yoga 3 Pro, I had no idea what Stand mode or Tent mode were, or why you would want them. However, once I started "Yoga-ing" it didn't take me long to find out.
I'm not going to spend time comparing the guts of this laptop with other machines, whether it's faster, the graphics are better, or if it has more or less memory. As I pointed out at the top, a new computer should work. Full-stop.
I will say the Yoga 3 Pro starts up very quickly, much more like a tablet than a laptop and then the Windows 8.1 OS is what it is. I'm assuming by now, most PC users like me just pretend they use the ever-limited tile mode, but usually jump straight back into the more traditional Windows desktop at the earliest opportunity. It'll be interesting to see whether Microsoft has managed to reconcile this dual-personality aspect of its OS once Windows 10 is released in a few weeks time. That's not really anything to do with Lenovo's Yoga Pro 3 of course... except... well, this thing is so damn versatile I actually found myself switching between desktop and tile modes more than I usually would.
The 13.3inch screen is part of it - very hi-res and crystal-clear, at 3200 x 1800. This comes at a cost though, some of your old apps may need updating if you want them to display correctly.
The touch-screen abilities of the display worked very well, in fact so well, for the first time I've found myself using a combination of keyboard and screen pushes to operate a device. Touching the screen to place the cursor just seems more interactive than using the touchpad. This is where the lines between laptop and tablet really start to blur.
Now let's say you want to play a game controlled by swiping the screen; no use leaving the device set up as a conventional laptop, it'll eventually just tip over backwards. This is where Stand mode comes in; you simply flip the physical keyboard away underneath and it becomes a very stable support for your next game of Minion Rush... or whatever. Doesn't have to be Minion Rush. I'm just using that as an example. It's not like I'm just sitting here playing Minion Rush for hours on end. Right?
Anyway...
The other thing the Yoga Pro 3 excels at is video. A great screen means a great viewing experience and Stand mode is a good option for this too, although what if you haven't got enough flat space available to accommodate the "stand" (ie, the folded-under keyboard half of the laptop)?
All you really need is the space for the Yoga Pro 3's two skinny edges. Yes, simply fold this thing into a "Tent" and you'll be able to plonk it down just about anywhere, the display automatically flipping the right way up of course.
Whichever of its 4 profiles you decide to use, the Yoga 3 Pro magically figures it out, providing an on-screen keyboard whenever required. You'd be hard-pushed to find another machine on the market as versatile as this.
It's not perfect of course. I wouldn't recommend this device if the majority of your use will be tablet based, as the touch screen is not as responsive as other tablets I have used but the major downfall here is battery life.
The Yoga 3 Pro takes several hours to charge and even at 100 percent is unlikely to last out a working day. Mysteriously, the Lenovo website states you'll get up to 9 hours usage from a full battery, but I never came anywhere near that, experiencing significant drain even when the device was turned off. Of course, this is not unusual - I don't think I've ever come a across a single electronics manufacturer whose battery life claims resembled anything like reality. Whatever happened to under-promising and over delivering?
This battery issue is a shame, because it nullifies the portability of such a slim device if you have to take a charger with you everywhere you go. Other than that, the Yoga 3 Pro has a surprisingly solid feel to it, in spite of its skinniness, probably due in large part to the unique hinge design. No matter which of the 4 profiles I used, the screen stayed firmly in the position I wanted it to.
If I had one other minor niggle, it's the combined mic/headphone port. I get why they have these on something as small as a phone, but it's annoying not to be able to plug in a separate mic and headphones into an actual computer, no matter what size it is.
On the bright side, I found the physical keyboard very user friendly and when I set the facial recognition lock, the on-board webcam knew it was me every time.
Admittedly, you'll be paying a premium for this device, but if the kind of versatility I've described is what you're after, the Yoga 3 Pro may be well worth the investment.
Click here for more on the Lenovo Pro 3
If there's one thing I hate, it's exercise.
Unfortunately, if there are two things I love, they're eating and drinking. Turns out, if I do too much of those second two without enough of the first one, I turn into a big balooba.
Now there seems to be 3 main problems with being a big balooba. 1: It looks gross. 2: Apparently it's very bad for my health. And 3: It FEELS gross.
So my strategy is to do as much exercise as possible, without noticing. At least now I have a device to do the noticing for me...
The fitbit ChargeHR is the first product I've tried from the fitbit range, and it's a pretty comprehensive selection; by my count there are at least 7 different fitbit devices currently on offer to cater for your unique fitness monitoring requirements.
Don't be confused, these are not smart watches. fitbit seems pretty committed to creating a separate place for itself in the wearable market it calls, "Activity Trackers." In saying that, some of these devices do tell time and display notifications, so I'm detecting a slight overlap at the top of their range.
The ChargeHR is one step down from the smarter, but far bulkier, Surge. The Surge is bigger because it contains GPS technology and has a larger screen to display text notifications. The Surge also features a music controller, one of my favourite features on my smart watch, but probably not absolutely essential when it comes to fitbit's primary focus; tracking your fitness journey.
The pared-down ChargeHR is a much more subtle affair, featuring only the smallest of screens, no wider than the strap itself. To look at the ChargeHR is almost identical to the slightly cheaper Charge, but for an extra $20 you get a heart-rate monitor as well. (I'm guessing that's what the HR stands for, but I'm no branding guru)
I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't spend the extra $20, unless you simply don't HAVE an extra $20. If that's the case, wait till next payday and spend the extra $20. Heart rate monitors are cool and I struggle to see the point of any kind of fitness tracking without one. If you want to know if you're doing the same thing you did yesterday, but harder, monitoring your heart rate seems to be a pretty good way to go about it.
How accurate these kinds of monitors are is always up for debate. It's a mystery to me how a couple of little lights shining on the back of your wrist are supposed to take your pulse. I compared readings between the ChargeHR, my smart watch and various pieces of gym equipment while doing various pieces of gym and I rarely got anything like the same reading from all 3 devices. It's funny to see me with a smart watch on one wrist and a fitbit on the other though.
However, just because the numbers may not be that precise, doesn't mean they're not useful. The whole point of this kind of fitness tracking is to improve over time - so even if the BPM you've recorded is out, as long as it's out by the same amount tomorrow, you'll still know whether you've improved? Right? Seems like a good theory, anyway.
The real magic behind any fitbit device is the app or (and here's where a fitbit really DOES differ from your average smart watch) the browser-based dashboard. That's right; you don't even need a smart phone to run the ChargeHR, it comes with it's own dongle so you can sync straight to your PC or laptop.
I've used a lot of different fitness apps, but fitbit is one of the most straightforward and helpful. You can customise exactly which aspects of your life you want to track and leave out the ones that are less important to you.
Steps, distance, calories burned - those are pretty popular areas to start with. But if you want to set a weight goal and track your meals, that's easy enough too. I'll talk more about that in couple of weeks when I review the fitbit Aria wifi scales. (Yes, you read that right; WIFI scales!)
All of this stuff syncs back to your fitbit account periodically throughout the day, automatically appearing on your phone app or the dashboard on your computer. Once you've achieved your daily goal (steps, distance, calories burned or stairs climbed) the ChargeHR vibrates the hell out of your wrist to let you know how clever you are.
Those good vibrations can also be set as silent alarms (they will definitely wake you) or even to notify you of an incoming call on your phone. You can scroll through your daily progress on the wee screen, which shows the time too. The display is a pretty low-tech, Space-Invaders style, white-on-black affair, which you can also activate with a slow double-tap. It's basic, but given you're not trying to read emails or texts on it, it's all you need. Because the screen is basic, you'll squeeze at least 4 days battery life out of the ChargeHR without having to plug it in. When you do charge it, it tops up fast - from 0-100 in well under an hour.
Cosmetically, the ChargeHR is neither unattractive or a fashion statement. The band, available in black or purple (grape? aubergine?) is light and comfortable with more of a rubbery than a plastic feel to it. This is important if you're planning to wear it to bed to track your sleeping habits. I'm not sure why people track their sleeping habits, although it's certainly weird to see how often you get up to pee logged on an app.
What I like most about all this is it all happens without me thinking about it. I love not thinking. This is because the ChargeHR is recording everything all the time, and that's the real difference between a fitbit and a smart watch; the device itself is driving the the tracking process, whereas a smart watch is really just a way of interfacing with the phone it's paired to.
So am I fitter? Have I lost weight? Give me a chance, it's only been a few days. What I can tell you is I'm definitely on track.
Reality is such a drag, don't you think?
I'm sure after a hard day's wrestling with sabre-tooth tigers and tracking woolly mammoths, not to mention all that gathering, even the earliest cavemen felt the need to turn off for a while. That'd certainly explain all those paintings on their walls.
Now you can really escape, while sitting in your favourite chair. Over the last year or two, Oculus has been making a lot of noise about the future of Virtual Reality. Now they've teamed up with Samsung and the future has come a whole lot closer.
I first encountered Samsung's Gear VR late last year, when it was released in conjunction with the Galaxy Note 4. At that point, the Note 4 was the only handset the VR headset would work with. I was intrigued with the concept, but not particularly impressed with the limited content available. I flew my own virtual jet-pack around a bit, fun - but the graphics were somewhat rudimentary and the experience seemed far from real.
What a difference 6 months can make.
The latest version of the Samsung Gear VR has been designed for both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge - surely the 2 coolest phones on the market right now.
This makes the 360 degree possibilities presented by Oculus more accessible than ever before, so I accessed them and almost didn't come back.
This is so much more than 3D, it's the visual equivalent of surround sound. Using the gyroscopic properties of the GS6 handset, the Gear VR tracks exactly where you're looking; up, down, side-to-side - even behind you. I rafted a river, I went on stage with Cirque du Soleil, I even explored some of the most picturesque tourist locations in the world, all from my couch.
Wearing this thing makes you look like a total idiot, but make no mistake, it's really cool. I persuaded several people who have absolutely no interest in this kind of stuff whatsoever, to don the Gear VR and without exception, they all admitted they were impressed by how real the reality was.
Then there were the people who needed no persuasion whatsoever... kids go absolutely nuts over this thing. Monster Number 2 took one look at it and said, "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" (Yes, that is a direct quote) Cue an endless stream of friends, cousins and random children off the street to give it a go.
I mean, come on - there are shooting games in which you aim just by looking at the thing you want to destroy. Double cool.
It's actually a very well designed piece of kit to boot. Your S6 or S6 Edge simply clips into place at the front of the headset and you're good to go. The adjustable straps are comfortable enough, and while wearing a whole cyber-world on your face takes a bit of getting used to, only a bit.
Just a warning though, you're on a strictly a solo expedition. Without a doubt, this is the most anti-social piece of technology you'll ever own. In fact, pair a set of bluetooth headphones with the S6 and your house could burn down around you without you noticing a thing.
For gaming, there are also bluetooth controllers available, but there's plenty to see and do without shooting things. You can watch a movie in your choice of cinema... or on the moon. (I'm not even kidding) What's more, download a 3D file, and you'll experience it in a much more authentic environment than squashing your movie onto a boring old 3D TV.
But a 2 hour feature movie is probably the very limit of how long you would want to spend inside the Gear VR. 3 reasons for that; the comfort factor, battery life and after 120 minutes, your brain will basically be reduced to cottage cheese.
As comfortable as the Gear VR is to wear, having anything on your face that long can drive you a little crazy. Turns out, projecting 360 degree insanity sucks up a phone's juice pretty fast. But above all else, the effect of being inside this world is so convincing, you need to step out once in a while to remind yourself you're still a human being.
You may have heard about the "screen door effect" you experience when viewing your phone's screen this close up. I found this to be one of those things you notice at first, but soon ignore without even thinking about it. Apart from the battery drain, 360 degree video content also takes up a lot of memory space. You'll need to allow for that and balance it out with any other music, video or pictures you want to keep on your phone.
If you think you're going to be a real Gear VR addict, you may even want to consider the 64gb version of the S6 over the 32gb. Remember, these new Samsungs no longer have slots for extra microSD cards so storage space could become an issue.
This is a fledgling technology, and the supply of content available is admittedly still somewhat limited, but I can't believe how far it's come since that first jet-pack ride over Pixel Town. Whether the novelty would wear off over time is hard to tell (that would take time) but it's certainly one of the craziest pieces of tech I've ever encountered. Is it $300 worth of fun? You know what? It probably is. Whether I'd go out and by a whole new phone just to run it, well that's another story. However, if you're already sporting an S6, S6 Edge or Note 4, surely you must be a little bit curious...
Okay, I know I'm supposed to be faffing with phones, not printers, but I've stumbled across something pretty significant when it comes to the home printing market.
The ink situation with home printers is out of control. Anyone who has ever thought it was a good idea to produce their own Christmas cards will be familiar with the panic I have experienced when you get halfway through printing them out, only to have to replace a cartridge because you're out of cyan. Whatever that is.
Of course, you don't have a replacement cartridge because you only changed it last week when you were trying to run off that personalised calendar featuring photos of your holiday. In fact, for some reason that used up TWO cartridges... and it was only 12 pages long.
These stupid things aren't cheap either. In fact, due to loss-leading specials and other cash-back offers, in many cases it's actually become cheaper to replace the whole printer than one of the cartridges.
Not only does that seem to defy the laws of economics, but throwing out an entire printer once a month can't be great for the environment - or the capacity of your wheelie bin for that matter.
There has to be another way, and it turns out Epson is leading it...
As satisfying as it may be to hurl your existing printer out of a 2nd storey window next time a cartridge runs out mid-calendar, if what Epson claims it's latest range of EcoTank printers can do is true, your empty cartridge outrage may be at an end.
As the name implies, the key to the EcoTank is the little compartment you can see to the right of the L565 pictured above. It contains 4 separate tanks which feed the print head directly. Basically, that means you can bung a lot more ink in your printer.
In fact, Epson says you get 2 years worth straight out of the box. Yes, you read that right; not 2 weeks or 2 months, but 2 YEARS.
I decided to put this outrageous suggestion to the ultimate test; the dreaded SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT - but we'll come to that shortly.
First, there IS a little bit of setting up to do with these printers, but it's not as scary as you might think.
I won't go into the usual driver installation and Wi-Fi connection because that was all fairly straight-forward and went pretty much according to plan. It's probably worth noting though, all 3 of Epson's EcoTank printers, the L365, the L455 and the L565 are Wi-Fi capable and I had no problem connecting to a variety of devices, including iPads, Android phones and Windows PCs.
At first glance, having to fill the 4 tanks manually does seem a little daunting - like superglue, printer ink has always had an unnerving ability to find its way into places and onto surfaces you never expected or wanted it to go.
Epson has certainly done its best to make the process as foolproof as possible. The bottles containing the ink have nozzles specifically designed to rest at the top of their tanks so you can fill to the brim without accidentally dipping into anything you shouldn't. Then everything's sealed up with rubber stoppers and safely tucked away. For 2 years.
Make no mistake; You WILL end up with ink on your fingers. I consider myself reasonably tech savvy. I'm not afraid of opening things up, taking them apart and putting them back together again. But no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't empty the contents of the supplied ink bottles into their respective reservoirs without spilling some on my digits.
Oh, I got better at it as I went along and like most operations of this nature, it's a confidence thing. I started with the black ink and because I was a bit nervous about squirting indelible darkness all over myself and the printer, that's almost exactly what happened. My advice to anyone else carrying out this procedure is to have a tissue/cloth handy, to tip the bottle up and into the tank quickly and even more importantly, remove it and set it right-side-up just as quickly. Any hesitation, and you'll end up with black, yellow, red and blue fingertips like I did. Surgical gloves may be the answer... or maybe you just need to be slightly less of a klutz than me.
The printer then runs an automated priming process which mysteriously takes up to 20 minutes. For me it was less and apparently that's only when you first take the printer out of the box. There's no priming involved next time you fill up.
The good news though; in theory, that should be it for the next 2 years. What's more, when a colour DOES run out, you only have to replace that one, not all 3 colours as you do with most colour cartridges. At just $20 a bottle, this is starting to make a lot of economic sense.
But can it really go the distance? Remember that science fair project I mentioned? I let my 11 year-old have her way with the L565, and it just kept going. There were photos, there were title boards, there were pages of (somewhat questionable)results. The trusty Epson just kept printing, When she accidentally cut the top off one page and she was about to try and glue it back together, I simply said, "Don't be silly. Just print another one."
Pretty crazy, right?
Given the project was due in the next day and we were still working on it at 9:20pm, I'm sure glad the L565 lived up to its reputation. No breakdowns. No empty ink tanks. No stress. It just kept going.
Since then I've been printing with gay abandon. The 14 year-old needs her piano music photocopied for her competition? Not a problem. Even when Dad is too useless to line up the pages properly, thereby missing off all the key signatures, no biggie - we'll just copy them again.
Obviously we won't really know if it'll go the full 24 months until this time in 2017, but by then I'LL probably be obsolete, let alone the printer.
One thing's for certain. A little plastic bottle takes up a lot less space in my bin (and ultimately our landfills) than an entire inkjet printer and that's got to be a good thing.
Time for a smart watch reality check. For those of us into gadgets, we've been subjected to a lot of hype around the development of a useful, wearable device.
Many are waiting for the Apple Watch before they join the wearable world - after all, it promises so much. Trouble is, in recent years Apple products haven't always delivered on the pre-release build-up and they're still to announce the date you'll actually be able to buy one... could be February... could be March... who knows?
So let's deal with something I can actually put on my wrist right now, Samsung's latest offering, the Gear S...
May as well admit it straight up, it's the first thing everybody says; this thing is massive. Really far too big. Hard to know what Samsung was thinking when they decided screen size was more important than looking remotely normal. To be completely fair, because of its unique curved screen, the Gear S is a lot less nerdy looking than its predecessors, the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.
Because I own a Gear Neo, I'm going to be doing a lot of head-to-head comparisons and there's no question the square-faced Neo looks like a 1980's style calculator watch, while the wrist-wrapping Gear S is genuinely stylish. Still huge though. In fact, it actually felt really heavy on my wrist - maybe it's all part of Samsung's fitness regime; wear the watch, work out those forearms.
However, the bigger screen does mean you can fit more on it. Now you can choose a watch face that includes shortcuts to take you straight to your favourite apps. This is the first hint of how the Gear S is almost more phone than watch. This time there's a light sensor (just like on most phones) so now the screen can automatically adjust its brightness to the conditions, a major advantage when it comes to outdoor use.
The big point of difference with this device is it has its own sim card. While it still has to be paired with a compatible Samsung phone, you no longer need to take the phone with you to receive texts, emails and other notifications. This is great news for runners and cyclists who may still want to stay in the digital loop without wearing an oversized and uncomfortable armband.
For some reason I couldn't manage to forward actual voice calls from my phone via 3G but this may have been due to my mobile plan, which isn't actually a plan, because I'm on prepay. Once back within bluetooth range, phone and watch reconnect conventionally and you can once again make and receive phone calls on your wrist, Dick Tracy style.
So the Gear S wins over the Neo in terms of style and 3G connectivity, although loses ground in sheer size. Is there any other reason to spend the extra $200 if all you want is a smart watch that works?... Maybe not. In fact, the Gear S doesn't even have some of the features you'll find on the Gear 2 devices.
One of those features is a camera. The Gear 2 came with a camera which was a nice idea, but nobody ever used it so it was no great loss. However, both the Gear 2 and the Neo included an IR Blaster which effectively meant you could use the watch as a basic remote control. I've found this feature to be the opposite of the camera; this time although it sounds like a stupid idea, in reality, it's surprisingly useful. When all you want to do is mute the ads really quickly, or check what's on the other channel, the remote on the other side of the coffee table seems so far away when there's already one on your wrist.
The Gear S has no IR Blaster, so that's no fun.
Another feature I missed is software based, so it may be remedied in future updates, but what happened to the media controller? You can download one on the Gear app store, but the stock media controller on my Neo is elegant in its simplicity and it works well, whether I'm listening to podcasts on my run, or music through my sound system. Why Samsung would leave something so essential off the Gear S is a mystery, or perhaps just a temporary oversight.
What the Gear S DOES give you is more options. Like earlier models, it still uses a Tizen-based OS but they've given it a more Android-like look and feel, blurring the lines between phone and watch even further. This provides a more familiar experience when browsing apps and changing settings. You can only swipe left or right on the Neo, to access shortcuts to your apps. The Gear S let's you swipe in all 4 directions for 4 different reasons.
Swipe left for widgets like your daily calendar. Swipe right for notifications (email/texts/app updates) Swipe up for shortcuts to apps. Swipe down for common settings like volume, brightness and best of all, the Do Not Disturb button, a one-press shortcut that prevents your watch ringing, vibrating or lighting up in the middle of the night... or in the middle of a movie.
This adds another 3 dimensions to the previous generation and is fairly easy to learn to navigate. One small bug I couldn't seem to remedy involved the vibration setting for my notifications. I keep my Neo on vibrate and as a result, I seldom miss a text or an email. I don't keep my phone on vibrate for emails because a constantly vibrating phone is annoying for everyone. When using the Gear S however, unless I set my email notifications to vibrate on my phone, they wouldn't vibrate on my watch. A trivial inconvenience, but annoying all the same. Again, maybe this is something that will be corrected in a future update.
Finally, let's talk battery life. Given most conventional watch batteries last for years, the idea of having to charge your watch every night probably takes a bit of getting used to, but when you're powering bluetooth, 3G, a surprisingly high-end processor and a full-featured screen, there's really no way around it. Presumably the Gear S uses the latest battery technology to maximise charge time, but presumably they've also included a million new ways to drain the power too, so I didn't notice any dramatic improvement or drop-off in battery life between the Gear S and the Neo.
What I did notice was how poorly designed the charging cradle is, that's if it was designed at all. The Neo's charger was tricky enough to attach; it took me about a fortnight before I felt like I wasn't just fluking it into place, but to get the Gear S cradle to snap on is one step short of impossible. I'm guessing the attachment is built the way it is to preserve the water and dust resistance of the device - you can't just have a socket you plug things into and have it rain-proof at the same time. So why oh why oh why wouldn't they just do it wirelessly? Surely plonking the watch down on a Qi charging pad makes more sense than PULLING THE STRAP AWAY FROM THE WATCH to get the cradle in place. I'm not even kidding. The Apple Watch is claiming to attach its charger magnetically which would be a major selling point as far as I'm concerned.
There's also one of those stupid blue lights on the charging cradle we didn't have to endure on the charger for the Neo. What is this obsession with stupid blue lights that serve no useful purpose other than to light up your entire bedroom at night? We know the charger is plugged in; we're the ones who plugged it in! At least give us the option to turn it off. Enough with the stupid lights already.
All that aside, the Gear S works and that's the main thing. The extra processing power means apps seldom crash or glitch, even during vigorous exercise. The same can't always be said for my Neo which has been known to give up on recording my workout halfway through. While basically offering the same core features; heart-rate monitoring, fitness tracking, email, text, voice calls etc, the Gear S does everything just that much more thoroughly. (It's capable of stand-alone GPS navigation, for example)
At the RRP of $499, I couldn't honestly justify upgrading from the Gear 2 or the Neo, but if this is your first smart watch, I don't think you'd be disappointed with the investment. And the best thing about the Gear S - you can buy one today.
Whenever you're ready, Apple...
Over the last few days, I've been lucky enough to have a sneak peak at both the Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit smartwatch from Samsung. I'll get to the new phone in the next blog, but what I'm most excited about right now is this cool thing on my wrist.
I'm the first one to admit I have a magpie-like tendency to fall in love in the latest piece of tech wizardry to cross my line of sight. So when the idea of a smartwatch became reality, I really, really wanted one. I didn't really know why, I just did. I wanted one even though I secretly suspected they were probably next to useless, couldn't really do any of the things they promised to and none of the things you actually wanted them to. Oh, yes - and they looked ridiculous and uncomfortable too.
Still wanted one though. What a tech tragic.
Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, depending on which way you look at it, I never managed to get my grasping mitts on the first couple of generations of smartwatch. I'd see other people wearing them. I'd stare. They'd wonder why I was creepily checking out their left hands.
That's all changed now - so have the watches. Not only does the Gear Fit live up to the hype, it surprised me by doing a whole list of things I had no idea it could.
As opposed to some of its predecessors, the Gear Fit is slim and light. Throw in the innovative curved AMOLED screen and the whole package is a super comfortable fit.
Not only can you choose from a small selection of watch faces, (presumably more will be available for download further down the track) but you can change the wallpaper colour, pattern or image in the background - if want, you can put your actual face on your watch face.
That's fun, but not especially useful. What moves this thing from the category of nifty gadget to genuine tool is how seamlessly it connects with the phone it's paired to. I've never encountered a bluetooth device that works so consistently with no glitches and over such a long range.
You'd expect something called "Fit" to feature things like a pedometer and heart-rate monitor. I'd hoped I'd be able to read texts and maybe be alerted about emails and phone calls. What I didn't anticipate was what happened when my mum texted me.
I texted her back. With my watch. And it was easy.
Texts appear clearly on the curvy screen and then you have the option to send a pre-programmed quick reply. Remember, these are texts, so replies are supposed to be quick.
What surprised me more is emails work exactly the same way - obviously you only get a preview of any longer emails, without attachments, but again you can still send a quick reply or do what you normally need to do with 85% of emails... ignore them completely.
That's right, folks; you get an email, your watch vibrates, a quick glance and you've successfully ignored that message about the lunch man arriving. All without getting your phone out of your pocket or handbag.
But the thing that impressed me most was the media controller.
I use my phone to access more and more media all the time. Obviously I listen to music, directly from the handset using earbuds or headphones, via bluetooth in my car or at home on various sound systems. Once you're playing something, you can then use the Gear Fit to pause, play or skip it, or even adjust the volume. While your phone may be plugged in to something across the room, you are now effectively wearing a bluetooth remote control on your wrist. What's more, it seems to work with everything; streaming apps like iHeart radio? Not a problem. Even when streaming video from my PC through my phone to my TV, I can still pause and play from my watch.
Kill me now, it doesn't get better than this.
But back to exercise... Do you know what I hate most about running? Guys who take their shirts off. Why do they do it? I get that it's hot work, but that's why there are singlets. It's always the guys who are a little too old, fat or gross who insist on getting their gears off as well. Ick. Goes without saying, I would never go there... except... the other day it was a bit cold and rainy, so I elected to wear my phone/armband UNDER my long-sleeved running top in case there was a deluge mid-run.
When I run I use my phone to track my route, pace and time and listen to podcasts. Unfortunately, for some reason I had downloaded a whole bunch of podcasts I'd already listened to. Very difficult to skip a track when your phone is in an armband, under your shirt. Bugger. Nothing else for it, I made sure I waited till I reached a secluded section of my run, removed my shirt, skipped to the next podcast and away I went.
Only to discover I'd heard this one before too. DAMMIT!!!
I had to go through this at least 3 times before I sorted it all out. Luckily, no-one spotted me (and my moobs) at least, not that I'm aware of. I can't rule out the possibility some poor soul may have copped an eyeful, turned and fled while I was still wrestling with my phone.
If only I'd been wearing the Gear Fit that day. With 3 simple swipes of the screen, these atrocities could have been avoided.
Ironically, the only area I felt the Fit let me down was when it came to tracking my fitness. The heart rate monitor works well, but will only measure your pulse if you're standing, sitting or lying still - so not particularly helpful for maintaining a specific pace while working out. (NB: Since first writing this I have been shown a secret setting on the Gear Fit's big brother, the Gear 2, which would probably make the heart rate monitor work perfectly while exercising, so forget everything I just said) I also had an issue with the exercise tracker dropping out of Running mode and back into Pedometer mode without me realising, a short distance into my run, so the pace and distance information synced to my phone were all out of whack. This may have been a one-off though, as unfortunately, I had to give my review model back before I could re-test it.
Minor complaints about what is generally, an over-delivering device.
Now I'm suffering serious withdrawal. Every time someone texts me I reflexively glance at my wrist, but all I get is the time! What use is that? And now I have to walk all the way to the kitchen to pause my music. It's like living in the dark ages.
The eBook has changed my life.
I like to read. After watching B-grade movies in the middle of the day while eating something I've melted cheese over, reading is just about my favourite thing to do.
I'm not overly fussy about WHAT I read. I prefer science fiction but I don't mind a tell-all biography either. Thrillers keep me turning pages, but I'm just as enthralled by a sexy vampire as the next guy. (That didn't sound weird at all, right?)
Unfortunately, I can get a bit OCD when it comes to a series of books. If I discover a new author I like, for some reason I'm suddenly compelled to read everything that person has ever penned. Immediately. This used to involve a lot of hanging about. Book stores would have me on back-order, I'd be on the waiting list at the library.
Thanks to the advent of the eBook, all that waiting is behind me now.
I was a fairly early adopter, eagerly taking the original Kobo eReader home with me and never looking back. Now with just a few clicks and not much money, I can download an entire author's back-catalogue for non-stop, volume-after-volume reading. Paradise. All totally portable too, of course. How convenient to be able to carry a virtual encyclopedia of pulp fiction around with me inside a device smaller than the hard copies of most of the books it contains.
Me being me though, I wasn't satisfied. As portable as the Kobo is, I don't always have it with me. Sometimes in life, there are opportunities to read another chapter of your book - waiting rooms, slow moving queues, at work. Of course, as with cameras, now we can carry our library around in our phones.
Is it really possible to read a book on your phone? Is the screen big enough? Is there an interface "booky" enough for it to seem natural? How difficult is it to physically GET the books INTO your phone?
Well I've done it and it's actually pretty good.
As usual, I tried eReading on both the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the Nokia Lumia 820/920. Unlike the iPhone/iPad, there's no native eReader for these devices so I had to try out a few different apps before I settled on the best one for each device. On the Galaxy I went with Moon+ Reader and after a brief flirtation with Raccoon Reader on the Lumias, I settled on Bookviser instead. Both Bookviser and Moon+ Reader are free and I'm not quite sure why I'd need to buy one because they both performed admirably.
Both apps allow you to access your books via SkyDrive (or in the case of Moon+ Reader you may prefer DropBox, since you're already on an Android phone and probably have a DropBox account) You can also access various online libraries to purchase new books which will load straight onto your phone. I get mine in epub format because that's what I use on my Kobo and these load into both apps with no difficulty.
The only real differences are minor but do affect the overall reading experience. Moon+ Reader simply has more features - more fonts, more backgrounds and most importantly, more controls. Both apps can simulate a turning page if that's your thing, but Moon+ Reader has a nifty scrolling function which you can adjust to match your reading speed. This means one page melts down over the previous one at the pace you select. Call me lazy, but the I found the ability to turn pages without having to touch anything pretty awesome.
The other thing Moon+ Reader offers that Bookviser doesn't is clearer information about where you're up to in your book - not just what page and what chapter, but how far through that chapter you are. This is very helpful if, like me, you might be reading the same book on several different devices and you need to find your place quickly. Both apps give you the option of searching a particular word or phrase but for some reason, Bookviser wasn't very helpful displaying the table of contents, showing only the chapter numbers and not their titles. This may have been something to do with the electronic formatting of the books, but probably not, given they displayed perfectly well on Moon+ Reader.
Is it just as easy to read a book on a phone-sized screen as it is on the Ink-Screen display of a purpose-built eReader like a Kobo? Of course not, but the screens on both the Galaxy and the Lumia 920 are big enough to suffice. Even the smaller Lumia 820 proved totally adequate, due in large part to it's impressive clarity.
So this time, it's not really a battle between phones, but between apps. Unfortunately for the Windows 8 Phones, as usual, they just don't have the selection of apps Android offers so were always going to struggle to match a product like Moon+ Reader or iBooks. Ultimately though, there's not much in it, and certainly not enough to warrant changing phones for.
