Anandtech was one of the web's first deeply geeky tech sites, and its review of the Apple Watch is about what you'd expect: long on speeds and feeds and kind of unsophisticated about usability case. The bottom line: the Watch is the first wearable to sell the millennial author on the idea of wristware, but the overall package is first-generation. In typical Anandtech style, … [Read more...]
Engadget is Not in Love with the Pebble Time
Pebble sold $20 million worth of its new Time watch on Kickstarter, and now deliveries have started. Engadget has the first review that we've seen, and it's pretty mixed. The chief problem isn't the "more geek than chic" look. It's the $200 price tag, which is high for a watch that has what the reviewer felt is a limited set of features. There's no touchscreen, no GPS, no … [Read more...]
CNET Says Apple Watch Step Counter Is Super Accurate, If…
The Apple Watch is a beautiful piece of kit with ground-breaking functionality and UI, but lost in all the shouting is a simple question: how is it as a fitness tracker, which is the core function of most smart watches? The answer is: pretty good, if you take some care. CNET took that care and documented it. Out of the box, reporter Dan Graziano found, step counter … [Read more...]
LG Urbane Smartwatch: Huge, But Easy to Fix
There were a couple of interesting articles over the weekend about the LG Watch Urbane, the first watch to run the newest version of Android Wear. The Verge liked the software, but as for the watch itself: The consensus is that this is a cheap-looking watch trying to pretend that it’s an expensive watch. It’s not fake-Rolex levels of low-brow ostentation, but it’s in the … [Read more...]
“Not Quite Necessary”: Ars Technica on the Apple Watch
How could you not love a review that starts out talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Ars Technica remains one of the few must-read tech sites, and they've done one of their patented deeper-than-deep reviews of the Apple Watch. If you want to know about speeds and feeds and components, there are better things to read. But Andrew Cunningham takes every single operational … [Read more...]
The Apple Store Try-On Experience Tried Out
We stopped by an Apple Store this morning -- the one in Soho, Manhattan -- to try on a Watch and see how smooth the try-on experience is. The short version: it's a very nice piece of hardware, and the experience is a little bumpy. In fairness, a lot of the experience is new for everyone involved; one of the sales associates reminded a customer that they themselves have only … [Read more...]
Apple Watch Review Roundup: This One Will Take Some Getting Used To (Updated)
The flood of major reviews of the Apple Watch is coming in, and they're consistent: Apple Pay is magical. Nice hardware. Third-party apps are pretty bad. Haptics are cool. 3D emojis are not. This is the best smart watch. Using one will take some getting used to. Joshua Topolsky at Bloomberg writes about how it's a fair amount of work to figure out which … [Read more...]
NYTimes Apple Watch Review: Rough and Revolutionary
We suspect that the New York Times jumped the gun this morning by publishing a full-on review of the Apple Watch, [UPDATE: other outlets have been publishing reviews today, too] even though Apple won't even start taking orders for it until Friday. On balance, though, we don't think Apple will complain too much. Tech columnist Farhad Manjoo pretty much ratified Apple's aims … [Read more...]
Re/Code Tries on Tech Clothing; Wishes It Were Better
A reporter for Re/code built a feature story out of trying tech workout clothing from Athos, OmSignal, and Sensoria. She basically acknowledged why someone would want it, but eventually came to the conclusion that it's a little early for general adoption. The drawbacks: none of it, she said, works all that well. Looking at a smartphone (which is how all these devices report … [Read more...]
Engadget Review of Healbe GoBe: Not a Fraud, but Not a Winner Either
The first in-depth review of an early production model of the Healbe GoBe is out from Engadget, and it's ... well, it's not as bad as a lot of people expected. The GoBe is likely the most controversial wearable to come down the pike. It had a hugely over-subscribed crowdfunding campaign, based on its claim that it could monitor caloric intake and glucose levels … [Read more...]