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back to article Punters want heart-throbs, not brains, when thinking wrist-jobs

Basic wearables are what the people want, according to box-counter IDC. The firm's latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker suggests the world treated itself to 22.5 million wearables in the second quarter of 2016, and found that “Basic wearables (devices that do not support third party applications) grew 48.8 per …

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  1. Byz

    Trust me I'm a Doctor...

    Did an article about these basic monitors and it showed that all of them were useless if you wanted a true measure of your heart rate. They work by trying to see when the blood moves through your veins.

    The only way to get a proper reading is to strap a device to your chest and measure electrical signals to the heart.

    In the end they recommended getting a watch, put pressure on your wrist and measure it yourself, looks like apple got the watch part right ;)

    0 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trust me I'm a Doctor...

      I don't use any of the "monitor my running" style devices as I can't see a need for them. I count my steps as a way of keeping pace and I know my routes by heart anyway. To be honest, at my level, I can't see what I'd get from monitoring my heart rate anyway.

      However, I have used a free app on my phone to check my heart rate when I had a health problem last year. I was surprised to find it was accurate, I tested it against those hospital finger heart monitors and the doctor using a watch..... always spot on. I used it over a two year period with monthly checks against the doctor who used the traditional watch method and a finger based sensor.

      I got the same results on two different phones running different Android versions. I've no idea if this is par for the course or if I was just lucky... interesting though.

      I also used a step counting app to work out my lunch time walking route and it was surprisingly accurate too. It reported 1.9km when road signs said it was 2km, which is close enough for me.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Trust me I'm a Doctor...

        I've got a garmin that has reads the heart rate through your wrist. I've been running with the garmin and another watch with HRM strap and while there were some differences, the majority of the run they were both the same value.

        0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cool masturbation joke, dude.

    But tell us more about why you were pleased that Sir Tim Hunt was sacked.

    1 1 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    target buyer

    I am probably in the target market for some kind of smart watch.

    The apple watch was not ever considered by me due to the requirement to have an iPhone.

    The Samsung watch has the same limitations.

    I have had Apple phones, then i moved to Android and have moved to different brands over the years (including Samsung and Sony).

    Make a smart watch that is smart enough to use any phone or no phone.... then you open the potential buyers to those who spend less than $500 on a phone (which is actually quite a large number of people especially in Asia).

    3 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: target buyer

      Make a smart watch that is smart enough to use any phone or no phone

      A Pebble?

      9 0 Reply
  4. MK_E

    Give me a smart watch with anything close to the battery life of a dumb one and I might be interested, otherwise it's no good to me as a watch and will never do the "smart" stuff as well as my phone.

    That said, even my phone isn't as good as my old C12 at actually, you know, making voice calls.

    3 1 Reply
  5. leon clarke

    Cheap smartwatches

    I've noticed that the current generation of very cheap smartwatches sold on Chinese import sites look pretty good based on the website description - Bluetooth 4, reasonably elegant looks, claim to sync all phone notifications, cost around £40, take ordinary watch wristbands. I've yet to take the plunge and get one but I suspect that when the smartwatch market takes off, it'll be devices like these that dominate the market.

    They tend to also have heart rate sensors but if I cared about heart rate sensors, I'd restrict myself to devices which have been reviewed by reputable review sites (which excludes all the cheap Chinese devices)

    GearBest has a good range if anyone wants to know what I'm talking about. The previous generation now cost around £20 and don't do anything useful.

    1 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El Reg lost the plot

    There's this big Iphone 7 launch today and not a word? You are stuck on wearables only.

    Shame.....

    Everyone else (websites) are having a walking hard-on about Iphone 7 and deafening silence on here?

    tch...tch...

    0 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: El Reg lost the plot

      Maybe because there isn't anything to report just yet?

      Even the Apple website itself is basically bereft of any announcements (or rather announcements of announcements) - the "watch the keynote" thing which used to be nigh unavoidable is now just a small box I didn't even find the first time I checked.

      I can't help but get the feeling there's not that much new so it's going to be an hour of stuff only the speakers find "fantastic, ecstatic" (etc etc - apparently there's no such thing as just being happy anymore).

      In other words, expect an hour of "meh" which will probably then explode into a gazillion articles declaring that Apple has lost its way, with maybe some more courageous journalists claiming it's because they're the first US company the EU has hit up for more tax after the IRS gave them a pass.

      Meanwhile, I'm just interested in Swift Playgrounds - it's genuinely the only thing I'm waiting for, and I've been basically waiting for that since the days of PSION gear where you could write useful code and compile/run directly on the device. So, on account of having low expectation to start with I don't expect to be disappointed :)

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: El Reg lost the plot

        "write useful code and compile/run directly on the device"

        It's a shame porr little Google doesn't have the funds to get Android Studio running on Android.

        0 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: El Reg lost the plot

          I have the impression that Swift is a bit closer to regular English, whereas Android strikes me as more for, well, "proper" programmers (if such a thing still exists :) ).

          That said, I'm not a programmer so I may be wrong. I tend to pick up enough to fix something that annoys me, but I'd never inflict those fixes on someone else :). I just see lots of potential with all the home kit coming in, but also major risk. Experimenting will give me a better idea of the problems.

          0 0 Reply
          1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
            Reply Icon

            I code therefore I am...?

            As a C++ dev, I like to think of myself as a proper programmer. Guess it depends on how you measure "proper".

            You've now made me worry that I don't actually exist. Thanks for that.

            1 0 Reply
      2. Down not across
        Reply Icon

        Re: El Reg lost the plot

        Meanwhile, I'm just interested in Swift Playgrounds - it's genuinely the only thing I'm waiting for, and I've been basically waiting for that since the days of PSION gear where you could write useful code and compile/run directly on the device.

        Hear hear. I loved OPL on Psions (and Nokia Communicator). Much more fun when killing time, when waiting for a flight for example, than the silly games. Not to mention just so quick and easy to write little handy tools.

        0 0 Reply
  7. Herby

    But...

    I wear the watch on the other (right) hand, and on the inside of the wrist. Not having read any of the literature, do they accommodate this in a meaningful way? I also like Twist-O-Flex watchbands that don't need disconnecting straps to stay put around my wrist. From the looks of it, the nice iWatch needs (and is provided with) a klunky leather band that needs to be fastened before one can run out the door.

    Oh, and I haven't replaced my watch in over 15 years. Will an iWatch last that long and be good for over a year on a single battery?

    Sorry.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Swarthy
      Reply Icon

      Re: But...

      Similarly picky about watch bands (for different reasons) here. A leather band on my wrist will last about six months before it basically rots off. Stainless steel is good for 18-24 (depending on the steel) before it has corroded, pitted and crumbled into uselessness.

      I am also hard on crystals, so I don't imagine I'll be doing a smart watch anytime soon - Unless they come out with one with a replaceable crystal and a titanium band.

      0 0 Reply

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