I’m considering whether or not to buy an Android phone in a wristwatch form-factor, and am hesitating on whether it’s the best use of my money. Would anyone here care to offer their opinion?
One of my goals: Go camping and enjoy it. One of my constraints: A limited budget. I suspect that taking a watch-phone, such as an Omate Truesmart or one of its clones ( eg, http://www.dx.com/p/imacwear-m7-waterproof-android-4-2-dual-core-3g-smart-watch-phone-w-1-54-5-0mp-black-373360 ), and filling a 32 gigabyte SD card with offline maps, Wikipedia, and related materials would improve my camping experience. However, I could also purchase an iPhone-like Android phone of comparable stats for half the price, allowing me to also purchase, say, a Kelly kettle, which would also improve my camping experience. (I already have various other digital devices, but none with enough room for the maps etc. I already have solar panels to hang from my backpack and external batteries, to keep any such devices charged while in the field.)
I have some leeway in timing, to get whatever items I decide on before camping season starts, and I find myself having spent several days being indecisive about what options, if any, to pick. My thoughts keep bouncing between something like “Wrist-computers are cool and I want one” and “I’ve made poor electronics purchasing decisions in the past and regretted them”.
How do you think I should redirect my thought processes?
Sure :-D Smartwatches are computers miniaturized to the point of uselessness because of the tiny screen and UI issues. Specifically for camping or backpacking you’d be much better off with a bigger-screen device like a regular smartphone. In fact, if you’re serious about backpacking I would recommend a dedicated GPS unit.
I’ve started looking into speech-to-text and text-to-speech alternatives to the tiny screen.
a dedicated GPS unit.
I’ve tried one of those, every N years. There’s always been some issue—only providing coordinates instead of a map, or power issues, or the like—which has ended up with me leaving it out of my kit. I’m vaguely hoping that the continuing convergence of all electronic devices into “phones” means that the various solutions to those issues will also have been collected.
the continuing convergence of all electronic devices into “phones”
For backpacking I still prefer a dedicated GPS unit because (a) it’s waterproof plus I expect it to survive shock better than a smartphone; (b) it’s power-thrifty and I can leave it on for the whole day without worrying about running down the battery; (c) it can run off AA batteries which are ubiquitous; (d) if you really need GPS, you need to carry two GPS-capable devices.
For a long time I’ve wanted to want a smartwatch so badly I was forced to buy it, but the actual advantages of owning one never amounted to the desired threshold. In the end, and quite sadly, I’ve decided that there will probably never be enough reasons.
I think it’s happening the same to you: you want to want to buy a wrist-phone, but are rational enough to know that there’s no reason to do such a thing. I suggest you to meditate on the fact that you probably already know what’s the right course of action, it just sucks to follow.
In a curious twist to this process, I just dreamed that I checked this thread for a response to this comment, and found one, of which I explicitly remember only the words, “You’re playing with fire here” and “You’re taking your life into your hands”, and implicitly remember something about the authour reminding me that I’m a cryonicist.
Going camping does happen to increase the odds that I’ll have an accident where my brain ends up warm and dead. Having a communications device that’s quite likely to remain intact and ready to use if I fall down a cliff and break my legs modestly reduces the odds of that particular negative scenario. In fact, assuming that I’m not going to quit going camping, and that I already have my chosen first-aid equipment, there are few expenditures I can make which are as likely to increase my QALYs.
So: Does /that/ sound like actually useful reasoning, or mere rationalization?
I think you would be better off buying a ruggedized cell phone or radio if that is your true purpose. I suspect a watch is quite likely to get smashed in a serious fall like that.
Hm… brainstorming a bit, I’m considering looking up one of the cheaper watch-phones, removing the wrist-band, getting a SIM card for a phone service that only needs to be paid for annually, and keeping the miniaturized backup cellphone somewhere about my person. But that’s a completely separate use-case than the device for camping, so I’m not going to even consider it until I finish my annual camping gear refreshing.
Going camping does happen to increase the odds that I’ll have an accident where my brain ends up warm and dead.
While that’s true you might want to consider what other activities also happen to increase the same odds and whether you want to spend your life avoiding all of them.
My lifestyle is mostly urban; whatever accidents befall me, I’m nearly always well within range of ambulances and hospitals with personnel able to call up my medical proxy. Camping is the exception where it would likely take a few hours just for emergency personnel to reach me.
I’m nearly always well within range of ambulances and hospitals with personnel able to call up my medical proxy.
Be realistic. If you’re hit by bus on a city street, how long do you think your brain will spend being warm and dead before the information reaches someone who could call in the cryo team? And that even providing your brain stays intact.
My immediate family all know my wishes, I have a medic-alert type necklace with cryo contact info, there’s similar info in my wallet, and so on. Basically, as soon as medical professionals learn who my corpse was, which should be close to as soon as they arrive, they’ll know to contact someone who knows to tell them to put ice around my head (as a first stage in the cooling process).
By contrast, if I’m camping, then even if I stay within range of cell towers, and have arranged to call someone twice a day, then even just getting the info out that I might be in trouble (and possibly dead) will take hours-to-days, let alone finding me. (For not-quite-as-lethal accidents, I’ve got everything from a mirror that can be used as a signal mirror to a pen-style flare launcher to help point possible rescuers in my direction.)
Allow me to join the chorus of commenters who suspect that you’ve been persuaded by advertising, peer pressure, etc. that you have to have the latest cool gadget, and that you’d be better off if you could overcome that urge. It’s a useful habit to break if you have a longer-term preference for having more money :-).
Not directly answering your conundrum on wrist computers, but—I go trail running frequently (in Hong Kong), so I’ve thought a bit about wearable devices and safety. Here are some of my solutions and thoughts:
I use a forearm armband (example) to hold my phone in a position that allows me to use and see the touchscreen while running. I find this incredibly useful for checking a GPS map on the run while keeping both hands free for falls. I worry that the current generation of watches are nowhere near as capable as my phone.
Digital personal locator beacons on the 406 MHz channel (example) are the current gold standard for distress signals.
Sharing your location through your phone (e.g., on Google+) can give some peace of mind to your family and friends.
An inactivity detector based on a phone’s accelerometer might be a useful dead man switch for sending a distress SMS/email in the event of an accident that renders you incompetent. I haven’t gotten around to setting this up on my phone, but here’s an (untested) example of an app that might work.
In case of emergency, it might be useful to have a GPS app on your phone that can display your grid reference so that you can tell rescuers where to find you.
Digital personal locator beacons on the 406 MHz channel (example) are the current gold standard for distress signals.
Indeed so—but as far as I’ve been able to dig up so far, they require a bit more gold than I can afford.
Such beacons are required to be (re)programmed with a serial number appropriate for the country they’re to be used in, which can only be done at an authorized dealer, which makes online purchases from other countries almost pointless. As near as I can tell, the nearest place I can get such a beacon is at mec.ca , where the least expensive example I can find is $265, above my budget for camping electronics.
I’d be happy to have such a device; I just don’t see how I can acquire one with my particular level of fixed income.
Wrist computer: To Buy or Not To Buy
I’m considering whether or not to buy an Android phone in a wristwatch form-factor, and am hesitating on whether it’s the best use of my money. Would anyone here care to offer their opinion?
One of my goals: Go camping and enjoy it. One of my constraints: A limited budget. I suspect that taking a watch-phone, such as an Omate Truesmart or one of its clones ( eg, http://www.dx.com/p/imacwear-m7-waterproof-android-4-2-dual-core-3g-smart-watch-phone-w-1-54-5-0mp-black-373360 ), and filling a 32 gigabyte SD card with offline maps, Wikipedia, and related materials would improve my camping experience. However, I could also purchase an iPhone-like Android phone of comparable stats for half the price, allowing me to also purchase, say, a Kelly kettle, which would also improve my camping experience. (I already have various other digital devices, but none with enough room for the maps etc. I already have solar panels to hang from my backpack and external batteries, to keep any such devices charged while in the field.)
I have some leeway in timing, to get whatever items I decide on before camping season starts, and I find myself having spent several days being indecisive about what options, if any, to pick. My thoughts keep bouncing between something like “Wrist-computers are cool and I want one” and “I’ve made poor electronics purchasing decisions in the past and regretted them”.
How do you think I should redirect my thought processes?
Sure :-D Smartwatches are computers miniaturized to the point of uselessness because of the tiny screen and UI issues. Specifically for camping or backpacking you’d be much better off with a bigger-screen device like a regular smartphone. In fact, if you’re serious about backpacking I would recommend a dedicated GPS unit.
I’ve started looking into speech-to-text and text-to-speech alternatives to the tiny screen.
I’ve tried one of those, every N years. There’s always been some issue—only providing coordinates instead of a map, or power issues, or the like—which has ended up with me leaving it out of my kit. I’m vaguely hoping that the continuing convergence of all electronic devices into “phones” means that the various solutions to those issues will also have been collected.
That sounds like a rationalization. And it’s entirely unhelpful when you’re trying to figure out maps.
Granted. :)
For backpacking I still prefer a dedicated GPS unit because (a) it’s waterproof plus I expect it to survive shock better than a smartphone; (b) it’s power-thrifty and I can leave it on for the whole day without worrying about running down the battery; (c) it can run off AA batteries which are ubiquitous; (d) if you really need GPS, you need to carry two GPS-capable devices.
Maybe it’s been longer than I thought since I went GPS-hunting… What brand and/or model accomplishes this witchcraft?
My GPS is an old Garmin 76CSx.
For a long time I’ve wanted to want a smartwatch so badly I was forced to buy it, but the actual advantages of owning one never amounted to the desired threshold. In the end, and quite sadly, I’ve decided that there will probably never be enough reasons.
I think it’s happening the same to you: you want to want to buy a wrist-phone, but are rational enough to know that there’s no reason to do such a thing. I suggest you to meditate on the fact that you probably already know what’s the right course of action, it just sucks to follow.
In a curious twist to this process, I just dreamed that I checked this thread for a response to this comment, and found one, of which I explicitly remember only the words, “You’re playing with fire here” and “You’re taking your life into your hands”, and implicitly remember something about the authour reminding me that I’m a cryonicist.
Going camping does happen to increase the odds that I’ll have an accident where my brain ends up warm and dead. Having a communications device that’s quite likely to remain intact and ready to use if I fall down a cliff and break my legs modestly reduces the odds of that particular negative scenario. In fact, assuming that I’m not going to quit going camping, and that I already have my chosen first-aid equipment, there are few expenditures I can make which are as likely to increase my QALYs.
So: Does /that/ sound like actually useful reasoning, or mere rationalization?
Sounds like a rationalization to me.
I think you would be better off buying a ruggedized cell phone or radio if that is your true purpose. I suspect a watch is quite likely to get smashed in a serious fall like that.
Fair enough.
Hm… brainstorming a bit, I’m considering looking up one of the cheaper watch-phones, removing the wrist-band, getting a SIM card for a phone service that only needs to be paid for annually, and keeping the miniaturized backup cellphone somewhere about my person. But that’s a completely separate use-case than the device for camping, so I’m not going to even consider it until I finish my annual camping gear refreshing.
While that’s true you might want to consider what other activities also happen to increase the same odds and whether you want to spend your life avoiding all of them.
My lifestyle is mostly urban; whatever accidents befall me, I’m nearly always well within range of ambulances and hospitals with personnel able to call up my medical proxy. Camping is the exception where it would likely take a few hours just for emergency personnel to reach me.
Be realistic. If you’re hit by bus on a city street, how long do you think your brain will spend being warm and dead before the information reaches someone who could call in the cryo team? And that even providing your brain stays intact.
My immediate family all know my wishes, I have a medic-alert type necklace with cryo contact info, there’s similar info in my wallet, and so on. Basically, as soon as medical professionals learn who my corpse was, which should be close to as soon as they arrive, they’ll know to contact someone who knows to tell them to put ice around my head (as a first stage in the cooling process).
By contrast, if I’m camping, then even if I stay within range of cell towers, and have arranged to call someone twice a day, then even just getting the info out that I might be in trouble (and possibly dead) will take hours-to-days, let alone finding me. (For not-quite-as-lethal accidents, I’ve got everything from a mirror that can be used as a signal mirror to a pen-style flare launcher to help point possible rescuers in my direction.)
Allow me to join the chorus of commenters who suspect that you’ve been persuaded by advertising, peer pressure, etc. that you have to have the latest cool gadget, and that you’d be better off if you could overcome that urge. It’s a useful habit to break if you have a longer-term preference for having more money :-).
Not directly answering your conundrum on wrist computers, but—I go trail running frequently (in Hong Kong), so I’ve thought a bit about wearable devices and safety. Here are some of my solutions and thoughts:
I use a forearm armband (example) to hold my phone in a position that allows me to use and see the touchscreen while running. I find this incredibly useful for checking a GPS map on the run while keeping both hands free for falls. I worry that the current generation of watches are nowhere near as capable as my phone.
I rely a lot on Strava’s online route creation tool and phone app for navigation.
Digital personal locator beacons on the 406 MHz channel (example) are the current gold standard for distress signals.
Sharing your location through your phone (e.g., on Google+) can give some peace of mind to your family and friends.
An inactivity detector based on a phone’s accelerometer might be a useful dead man switch for sending a distress SMS/email in the event of an accident that renders you incompetent. I haven’t gotten around to setting this up on my phone, but here’s an (untested) example of an app that might work.
In case of emergency, it might be useful to have a GPS app on your phone that can display your grid reference so that you can tell rescuers where to find you.
Indeed so—but as far as I’ve been able to dig up so far, they require a bit more gold than I can afford.
Such beacons are required to be (re)programmed with a serial number appropriate for the country they’re to be used in, which can only be done at an authorized dealer, which makes online purchases from other countries almost pointless. As near as I can tell, the nearest place I can get such a beacon is at mec.ca , where the least expensive example I can find is $265, above my budget for camping electronics.
I’d be happy to have such a device; I just don’t see how I can acquire one with my particular level of fixed income.