For comparison: Texas Instruments sell something called the EZ430 Chronos watch, which has a much lower-res display, a proprietary RF protocol with a USB transceiver, and a bunch more sensors including 3-axis accelerometers, pressure and temperature.
It is based on the MSP430 microprocessor which is much less powerful than this thing, its capped at 16mhz or something IIRC and only has around 8K of program space. It is however about a third of the price.
It is interesting to note that the EZ430-Chronos can last about 6 months on a charge if continuously reading BlueRobin data (which is a one-direction wireless data) while this inPulse aparently can only last 2 to 3 days recieving data over bluetooth.
Less powerful processor and cheaper display might be a good thing, depending on your uses.
I bought 3 EZ430s. While they're interesting concepts, they're not without their problems (most notably not keeping time very well on the default firmware). You do come up against limitations and they're more of a proof of concept than anything else.
Awesome!!!! They even look good too. I might think about getting one and whip up an Android library for people to use.
Question to anyone reading this. What would be a good use to notify users? There was an article on HN about startups using a visual dashboard: http://mygengo.com/talk/blog/why-your-startup-needs-a-visual...
I think something like that would be cool to have. Hook into your KPI's and have that information right there on your wrist.
Correct me if I am wrong. I think I have found a way to track sales of both the models on sale.
Depending on how many items you ask for in order screen, it lets you go ahead or displays "stock unavailable".
For the Mettalic Silver, It seems 57 items are available at the time of writing. and for Black Anodized, it is 108. I have to take a reasonable assumption now to get the sales numbers (may be 200 at beginning?).
This is very cool. I own a few Timex Datalink watches which are also programmable. Timex recently discontinued the Datalink and they're already becoming very hard to find. I hoping some company would come up with a suitable replacement but unfortunately nobody seems to build something with a comparable design.
The advantages of the Datalink are that it always shows the time (no button press necessary), the battery lasts an entire year, is water-resistant, and is small and subtle. It also just makes a damn good watch without any of the programmable features. Every other programmable watch available is anything but subtle, with a display that isn't active all the time, and has to be constantly recharged. Those are considerable failings for a watch.
What the Datalink lacks is a denser display (but remaining as 1bit LCD is ok), any sort of wireless (ANT+ would be suitable), and sensors (pulse, altitude, position, etc). It could also use, obviously, a faster processor with more RAM and storage (it also has 32k).
The price for this watch is fantastic but it's still just not quite what I'm looking for.
This is a very hacker-unfriendly device. I wouldn't buy one.
The SDK's compilation tool doesn't invoke a compiler; it uploads your code to a service running off of http://174.129.29.50:8080.
The Arduino is fantastic because the bootloader is open-source, the hardware is open-source, and it's easy to find out full information about the hardware and pull the MCU datasheets yourself.
How can you call it "hacker unfriendly"? The thing is designed to be hacked, that's the whole point of it.
The Arduino and this are two totally different classes of devices.
For staters, this appears to be very much about the hardware. I wouldn't expect it to be open source, just like the iPhone or Motorola Droid you can develop your own apps for doesn't have open source hardware. You don't actually have to be granted access to 100% of the codebase and hardware layout for a product just to develop a neat application around something.
I saw this and immediately thought of 5 or 6 cool uses for it so I bought one. Sure, if I was going to build some kind of a product around this, or develop an app that was going to be my retirement income, I'd want a little more information about the company and their licensing models. But for a $150 hackable gadget, this thing is one of the coolest toys I've seen in a while.
I think it's a pretty good idea, but the ideal solution would be both a CAAS and the opened sourced toolchain that worked on at least one open source platform. Doing that is probably easier than releasing something cross platform like arduino, and for most people is going to be easiest to use.
I'm impressed with the price point. It's about what I'd expect a device like this to run if it were a higher-volume product selling through mass-market channels, rather than a low-volume, enthusiast product selling only through the manufacturer's website.
But when I do upgrade my venerable analog watch, it's probably going to be to a http://lunatik.com + ipod nano 6g. A little more expensive, requires a jailbreak, but a hell of a lot more functional, and doesn't require uploading my code anywhere to compile it once jailbroken.
That was my plan too with the hope that I could do something similar to this and load/write my own apps. I actually received my lunatik kit with a ipod nano 6g about two weeks ago.
1) the ipod nano 6g has not been jailbroken.
2) the ipod nano 6g has no bluetooth built in
This watch is a better fit for what i want to do now - get up and running now with a programmable wrist based terminal.
I love the design of the lunatik but until the nano 6g is jailbroken I'm just wearing a nano on my wrist. The novelty of which has worn off since I can't hack it to do anything special.
Has the nano been successfully jailbroken? Last I saw was that some of the images/text could be changed but I wasn't aware of anyone getting actual new code running...?
Having access to information without having to dig your phone out of your pocket (not to mention a phone you can't operate with sturdy gloves) is very useful in such situations.
Which reminds me; how "weatherproof" is this thing?
Is this device "Made For iPhone" (http://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/)? If it is, I suggest putting the badge on your front page. If it's not, I suggest applying for it to be.
The devices look cool from a technical perspective. It could use a few more sensors (GPS, gyro/movement, temp, etc.) but I'm sure that will come.
The only problem, I think, is that they're not very stylish. A bit too large/clunky looking. I'm not sure how to fix that while keeping the display a useful size. But that what geniuses like you guys are for!
If they really take off, I'm sure the design could become much smaller and more elegant over time.
I ordered one to hack about with. If it becomes part of my daily routine I'll probably have my jeweler in Detroit hook up a more attractive case and band for it.
Agree on the sensors, it would be nice to at the very least have a dead-simple accelerometer, but I also know what goes into bringing a piece of hardware like this to market. The $150 price point probably doesn't leave a ton of margin, and it's just on the cusp of not having to be a "considered purchase" for people. Adding more stuff would drive up the manufacturing cost and price into something that starts to become a $399 product and the number of experimenters who will buy one on a whim drops dramatically.
* Your 3rd video is the most presentable one and best intro, make it on top.
* The screen seems not be a touch-screen since not mentioned in features. So seems like only way to navigate the on-screen "buttons" with a single physical button is to press it until it cycles to highlight screen button and press and hold it to select. This does not seem to be a good UI.
For a v.2, you either need to use a capacitive touch screen, or make that single button you have on the bottom face of the watch like iphones, and have 4 to 6 buttons on the side, 2 to 3 on each left/right side so that app developers can program their screen buttons to float to left or right and user can just press the corresponding button. Of course the side buttons will need to be "concave" (not sure the right terminology for it) and be seamless on the side and not use that same old metallic button used in many watches. Minimalist does not work on a non touch-screen. Remember that even the ipod retained all 6+scroll buttons in its 10 year history.
[Edit: After a bit more though, if the side buttons are to be implemented, they need to go on only one side since the opposing side need to be empty for the opposing force of the thumb.]
Even if you decide to use a touch screen (pro version?), get rid of the side button and make it on the face like the iphone -- not only does it currently not look right on the Black Anodized version (some design work may be needed for a front facing button to look good on the Metallic one), but it will also hurt the users' finger less being a iphone-like button on the front for intensive apps like games.
* Why is the Black Anodized version cost $50 more? I would imagine the opposite. What does it have that the Metallic doesn't?
* Most people who spend $150+ on a watch actually cares how good it will look on him/her. Either make a pseudo (bunch of images wrapped in a slider div) 360 model view or take a bunch of pictures in different angles standalone and on different wrists (men and ladies). Have its dimensions stated like so:
* Why is the Blackberry features page totally hidden on the footer? That should be your main feature! In fact, write a hello world ASAP that talks to the iphone/ipad/android (eg. notifications or different vibration alerts for different notifications), it will probably 2-10x your sales and developers.
* Nitpicking - the "Buy it now" on the features page needs to be on the bottom, no one will buy until they read the features. And after reading, there's no "buy it now" action avail.
* Find a way to tap into the ipod nano watch or other smart watch community, you should get converts or potential customers there.
x (strap)= 26mm, y (height of watch casing) = 50mm, z = 36mm
- Thanks for the tips, incorporated.
- No touchscreen at moment. I like the way you think about wearable UX. If you're interested in continuing the conversation, please ping me at [email protected]
- We're testing the selling points. Right now with supply being limited (early stage startup) we decided to let people hack away at their watches. I'm sure as our capacity improves, we'll retarget consumer verticals.
- Here's a cool bit of community news, OpenWatch for Android now supports inPulse (http://beta.smartmadsoft.com/). Marcel, the creator of OpenWatch, was able to get started with our dev tools and integrated inPulse in a very short time!
A bit more on v.2 side buttons:
Make them on one side only, probably the standard right side, to account for need of opposing thumb's empty space. Make it 3 buttons, all three for single action contextual buttons for single action context menus; top & bottom can also act as scrollers for lists and long messages, middle button being 'OK' button. This button layout will still be useful even if you have a touch screen because of the small screen real estate.
A bit more nitpicking suggestions:
- First 2 videos are too noisy, replace/edit/re-do if you have time.
- Overall tone of the website and watch's usage and features is a bit too hacker oriented. This may be the audience you're after now. You'll need to sell to mainstream audience after you figure out what they are after. IMHO, its the smartphone/tablet pairing. Do not take no as an answer, either talk to Apple to get around iOS terms or if that fails, start with the jailbreak route.
I don't really see the point of having a watch nowadays. I usually just look at my phone for the time. This watch seems to do some of the stuff a standard smartphone does, but is more limited. At this point in my life, I'm trying to do what I can to limit the number of various gadgets I carry around on my person. I would rather have a small little device that does everything pretty well, than 50 devices I have to lug around that do everything perfect.
In a sense its similar to using your computer instead of a television. You can access more interesting internet videos online, and usually don't have to watch commercials because of ad blocking software. You can play video games on your computer instead of using a console. Your computer could hook up to a projector or HD Television as needed. You can read books on your computer. You can call people on your computer. You can IM/Email/Facebook on your computer. I think the future will be far fewer devices that can do a whole lot more. This watch seems like a step into the past.
Oh man, this looks /really/ cool. but the battery life? that's going to be a problem. I had a Matsucom brand OnHandPc back in the day, and it'd last a few weeks on a set of (replaceable) batteries. ran dos. It had a little joystick /and/ a bunch of buttons around the side, so it was fairly useful.
anyhow, an important use case for me, if I buy this, is using it as a bluetooth vibrator. I'm a SysAdmin and on call; but I'm not single. I want something that will wake me up without waking up anyone else who may be in the bed at the time. This means I need to wear the thing while I sleep; which makes charging... difficult.
I would give up color in a second if it would improve battery life.
Of course, I could aways just use a bluetooth bracelet at night and this during the day, but I'm bad at remembering things. I want to minimize the number of things I need to remember to charge.
I think one of the best uses for this product would be its secrecy.
For instance, I work at an establishment which bans the use of cell phones, but due to the fact that sometimes emergencies happen, a lot of people tend to sneak it in, anyway. So when our pockets buzz, our only option is to ninja it out of our pockets, hold it out of view of others, yet in our view, and check the notification.
With this invention, we would be able to simply hit a button on our watch, and not risk losing our jobs just to read a "hey how r u" BS text, or a missed call from an unknown number. Now we can tell whether or not we need to leave the office to return a text or a call without even touching the phone.
[+] [-] JonnieCache|15 years ago|reply
It is based on the MSP430 microprocessor which is much less powerful than this thing, its capped at 16mhz or something IIRC and only has around 8K of program space. It is however about a third of the price.
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos
[+] [-] erohead|15 years ago|reply
Also, we're right here on HN to answer your questions!
[+] [-] windsurfer|15 years ago|reply
Less powerful processor and cheaper display might be a good thing, depending on your uses.
[+] [-] _b8r0|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnok|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snes|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dminor|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nano81|15 years ago|reply
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=sony+eric...
[+] [-] nl|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markszcz|15 years ago|reply
Question to anyone reading this. What would be a good use to notify users? There was an article on HN about startups using a visual dashboard: http://mygengo.com/talk/blog/why-your-startup-needs-a-visual... I think something like that would be cool to have. Hook into your KPI's and have that information right there on your wrist.
[+] [-] erohead|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhavin|15 years ago|reply
Depending on how many items you ask for in order screen, it lets you go ahead or displays "stock unavailable".
For the Mettalic Silver, It seems 57 items are available at the time of writing. and for Black Anodized, it is 108. I have to take a reasonable assumption now to get the sales numbers (may be 200 at beginning?).
[+] [-] raphman|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wvenable|15 years ago|reply
The advantages of the Datalink are that it always shows the time (no button press necessary), the battery lasts an entire year, is water-resistant, and is small and subtle. It also just makes a damn good watch without any of the programmable features. Every other programmable watch available is anything but subtle, with a display that isn't active all the time, and has to be constantly recharged. Those are considerable failings for a watch.
What the Datalink lacks is a denser display (but remaining as 1bit LCD is ok), any sort of wireless (ANT+ would be suitable), and sensors (pulse, altitude, position, etc). It could also use, obviously, a faster processor with more RAM and storage (it also has 32k).
The price for this watch is fantastic but it's still just not quite what I'm looking for.
[+] [-] cstone|15 years ago|reply
The SDK's compilation tool doesn't invoke a compiler; it uploads your code to a service running off of http://174.129.29.50:8080.
The Arduino is fantastic because the bootloader is open-source, the hardware is open-source, and it's easy to find out full information about the hardware and pull the MCU datasheets yourself.
[+] [-] brk|15 years ago|reply
The Arduino and this are two totally different classes of devices.
For staters, this appears to be very much about the hardware. I wouldn't expect it to be open source, just like the iPhone or Motorola Droid you can develop your own apps for doesn't have open source hardware. You don't actually have to be granted access to 100% of the codebase and hardware layout for a product just to develop a neat application around something.
I saw this and immediately thought of 5 or 6 cool uses for it so I bought one. Sure, if I was going to build some kind of a product around this, or develop an app that was going to be my retirement income, I'd want a little more information about the company and their licensing models. But for a $150 hackable gadget, this thing is one of the coolest toys I've seen in a while.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] acgourley|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mortenjorck|15 years ago|reply
Are you guys courting retailers like ThinkGeek?
[+] [-] gonzo|15 years ago|reply
(I like ThinkGeek, but I'm curious if there are other, similar stores.)
[+] [-] beagle3|15 years ago|reply
But when I do upgrade my venerable analog watch, it's probably going to be to a http://lunatik.com + ipod nano 6g. A little more expensive, requires a jailbreak, but a hell of a lot more functional, and doesn't require uploading my code anywhere to compile it once jailbroken.
[+] [-] JoeBracken|15 years ago|reply
1) the ipod nano 6g has not been jailbroken.
2) the ipod nano 6g has no bluetooth built in
This watch is a better fit for what i want to do now - get up and running now with a programmable wrist based terminal.
I love the design of the lunatik but until the nano 6g is jailbroken I'm just wearing a nano on my wrist. The novelty of which has worn off since I can't hack it to do anything special.
[+] [-] jasongullickson|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wpeterson|15 years ago|reply
However, in a world of smart phones I can't imagine ever using a watch like this.
Watches have been relegated to primarily fashion items, I can't imagine why you'd want one that runs code.
Sorry for the harsh review, best of luck.
[+] [-] jasongullickson|15 years ago|reply
Having access to information without having to dig your phone out of your pocket (not to mention a phone you can't operate with sturdy gloves) is very useful in such situations.
Which reminds me; how "weatherproof" is this thing?
[+] [-] commanda|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erohead|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmah|15 years ago|reply
The only problem, I think, is that they're not very stylish. A bit too large/clunky looking. I'm not sure how to fix that while keeping the display a useful size. But that what geniuses like you guys are for!
[+] [-] brk|15 years ago|reply
I ordered one to hack about with. If it becomes part of my daily routine I'll probably have my jeweler in Detroit hook up a more attractive case and band for it.
Agree on the sensors, it would be nice to at the very least have a dead-simple accelerometer, but I also know what goes into bringing a piece of hardware like this to market. The $150 price point probably doesn't leave a ton of margin, and it's just on the cusp of not having to be a "considered purchase" for people. Adding more stuff would drive up the manufacturing cost and price into something that starts to become a $399 product and the number of experimenters who will buy one on a whim drops dramatically.
[+] [-] markszcz|15 years ago|reply
As for applications, yeh GPS, Gyro would be great.
[+] [-] aubergene|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yummyfajitas|15 years ago|reply
Give it more buttons and I'll buy it.
[+] [-] fuzzythinker|15 years ago|reply
* Your 3rd video is the most presentable one and best intro, make it on top.
* The screen seems not be a touch-screen since not mentioned in features. So seems like only way to navigate the on-screen "buttons" with a single physical button is to press it until it cycles to highlight screen button and press and hold it to select. This does not seem to be a good UI.
For a v.2, you either need to use a capacitive touch screen, or make that single button you have on the bottom face of the watch like iphones, and have 4 to 6 buttons on the side, 2 to 3 on each left/right side so that app developers can program their screen buttons to float to left or right and user can just press the corresponding button. Of course the side buttons will need to be "concave" (not sure the right terminology for it) and be seamless on the side and not use that same old metallic button used in many watches. Minimalist does not work on a non touch-screen. Remember that even the ipod retained all 6+scroll buttons in its 10 year history.
[Edit: After a bit more though, if the side buttons are to be implemented, they need to go on only one side since the opposing side need to be empty for the opposing force of the thumb.]
Even if you decide to use a touch screen (pro version?), get rid of the side button and make it on the face like the iphone -- not only does it currently not look right on the Black Anodized version (some design work may be needed for a front facing button to look good on the Metallic one), but it will also hurt the users' finger less being a iphone-like button on the front for intensive apps like games.
* Why is the Black Anodized version cost $50 more? I would imagine the opposite. What does it have that the Metallic doesn't?
* Most people who spend $150+ on a watch actually cares how good it will look on him/her. Either make a pseudo (bunch of images wrapped in a slider div) 360 model view or take a bunch of pictures in different angles standalone and on different wrists (men and ladies). Have its dimensions stated like so:
(ditto for its height dimensions).* Why is the Blackberry features page totally hidden on the footer? That should be your main feature! In fact, write a hello world ASAP that talks to the iphone/ipad/android (eg. notifications or different vibration alerts for different notifications), it will probably 2-10x your sales and developers.
* Nitpicking - the "Buy it now" on the features page needs to be on the bottom, no one will buy until they read the features. And after reading, there's no "buy it now" action avail.
* Find a way to tap into the ipod nano watch or other smart watch community, you should get converts or potential customers there.
(Edited to format the diagram and more details.)
[+] [-] erohead|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fuzzythinker|15 years ago|reply
A bit more nitpicking suggestions:
- First 2 videos are too noisy, replace/edit/re-do if you have time.
- Overall tone of the website and watch's usage and features is a bit too hacker oriented. This may be the audience you're after now. You'll need to sell to mainstream audience after you figure out what they are after. IMHO, its the smartphone/tablet pairing. Do not take no as an answer, either talk to Apple to get around iOS terms or if that fails, start with the jailbreak route.
[+] [-] moomba|15 years ago|reply
In a sense its similar to using your computer instead of a television. You can access more interesting internet videos online, and usually don't have to watch commercials because of ad blocking software. You can play video games on your computer instead of using a console. Your computer could hook up to a projector or HD Television as needed. You can read books on your computer. You can call people on your computer. You can IM/Email/Facebook on your computer. I think the future will be far fewer devices that can do a whole lot more. This watch seems like a step into the past.
[+] [-] modeless|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gonzo|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lsc|15 years ago|reply
anyhow, an important use case for me, if I buy this, is using it as a bluetooth vibrator. I'm a SysAdmin and on call; but I'm not single. I want something that will wake me up without waking up anyone else who may be in the bed at the time. This means I need to wear the thing while I sleep; which makes charging... difficult.
I would give up color in a second if it would improve battery life.
Of course, I could aways just use a bluetooth bracelet at night and this during the day, but I'm bad at remembering things. I want to minimize the number of things I need to remember to charge.
[+] [-] flibbityjibbet|15 years ago|reply
For instance, I work at an establishment which bans the use of cell phones, but due to the fact that sometimes emergencies happen, a lot of people tend to sneak it in, anyway. So when our pockets buzz, our only option is to ninja it out of our pockets, hold it out of view of others, yet in our view, and check the notification.
With this invention, we would be able to simply hit a button on our watch, and not risk losing our jobs just to read a "hey how r u" BS text, or a missed call from an unknown number. Now we can tell whether or not we need to leave the office to return a text or a call without even touching the phone.
This is what I would use it for, anyway.
[+] [-] san007|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]