The neatest app, though, was VFinder, which let us use the SmartWatch as a viewfinder for our phone's camera. One of the more useful apps is Find My Phone, which lets you activate an alarm on your phone remotely, and it alerts you when your phone moves out of range of the SmartWatch. If you pair the SmartWatch with a Sony Ericsson Xperia phone, you will also see an option to answer the call. The Weather app shows the current local conditions as well as a three-day forecast Ĭlick to EnlargeIf a call comes in, the SmartWatch starts buzzing, and displays the number of the caller, along with the option to silence the buzzing, or hang up the call. Too bad it didn't display the track names. However, the small display on the SmartWatch meant a lot of scrolling if the tweet or post was particularly long.Ĭlick to EnlargeOther apps include Music player, which let us play and advance tracks on our phone, as well as adjust volume. We liked that the SmartWatch was smart enough to open the Web pages for Twitter and Facebook if we didn't have those apps installed on our phone, or if we did, opened the app itself. For example, the Twitter app shows three options at the bottom of each tweet: View in Phone, Send a Canned Reply, or retweet. It can also be used to respond to messages. The SmartWatch isn't just a passive device for catching up on what's going on around you. In order to see the actual tweet, you have to press on the screen. We wish that it would show the message itself, and not just the Twitter icon, for example. There are several different clocks you can download, but unfortunately, the default black-and-white digital clock is the only one that appears when you wake the watch from sleep.Ĭlick to EnlargeAny time a new message, tweet, or Facebook update gets posted, the SmartWatch emits a small buzz, and the appropriate icon appeared on screen. Overall, the interface is simple, but effective. However, there's usually little difference between what's displayed on a widget and what's displayed on an app, so the main benefit is one less gesture to perform.Īt the top of every screen is a small battery indicator as well as the time. Akin to the widgets on Android phones, the SmartWatch widgets show tweets, Facebook updates, weather and so forth in real-time.Ĭlick to EnlargeJust about every app has a corresponding widget, which you can choose to activate using the LiveWare manager. If you're on an apps page and you swipe downward, you access the widget section of the interface. Apps are opened by pressing on the respective icon, and a pinch gesture closes it. Swiping to the left or right reveals the apps you've installed. The latter shows icons for each app you installed, four to a screen. Still, it manages to cram in two interfaces: Widgets and Apps. There are currently about 30 apps available, and include not only those two social-networking apps, but a hodgepodge of others from email and Find my Phone to Tic-Tac-Toe.Ĭlick to EnlargeWith only 1.3 inches at its disposal, space is at a premium on the SmartWatch's display. (The easiest wasy to find them is through the LiveWare app). While these apps can be found in the Android Market, and include Twitter and Facebook, they're essentially extensions optimized for the SmartWatch, and are different from the standard Android apps of the same name. The LiveWare app is used to install apps onto the SmartWatch itself. Unlike the WIMM One watch, the Sony SmartWatch lacks Wi-Fi, so it must be paired with a phone to receive apps and updates. Then, we paired the SmartWatch with our Nexus S 4G. With the Sony SmartWatch, you have to press a button.īefore using the SmartWatch, we first downloaded the LiveWare manager app from Google Play (according to Sony, this app will be preloaded on all Sony Ericsson phones). At least the WIMM watch has a monchrome mode that displays the time at all times. While it saves juice, we wish we could adjust the time ourselves. To conserve energy, the screen times out after 15 seconds. You can see individual pixels, which makes everything look grainy, and the screen was hard to read outdoors, even in overcast conditions. MORE: Smartwatches: Why Their Time Has Finally ComeĬlick to EnlargeThe SmartWatch's 1.3-inch OLED display has a resolution of 128 x 128, which isn't high by any standards (the iPod nano's is 240 x 240 and even the WIMM watch is 160 x 160).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |