The Birth Of The Smart Accessory
The Sony SmartWatch is one of the first in a range of secondary display’s for your Android-powered handset that provides quick access to notifications from select apps and services on your phone. It’s also able to show you who's calling or texting, control music, and even wait for it..... tell the time.
Sony’s range of LiveWare accessories certainly offer a unique take on connected headsets and wearable interfaces for your Android phone in the past such devices have been hit and miss; previously unresponsive and not worth parting with your hard earned cash but are phone-connected watches finally growing up, and is the SmartWatch worth the extra cash?
The SmartWatch’s main feature is a 1.3-inch OLED display fitted into a case and gives the look and feel of the recent Ipod Nano. A power button is placed where you’d find the crown winder of an analog watch, and a Sony logo is printed on the bezel beneath the glass face.
The display itself is bright, clear, and astonishingly sharp. The color depth is decent, especially for something so small — Sony’s specs say that it’s capable of showing 65,000 colors.
Rather than accommodate a microUSB port Sony have moved for a special USB cable terminating with a hooked end, this clips into place against charging terminals. This very clever and innovative approach from Sony gives the Smart Watch a better look without a clunky cheap looking microUSB on the side.
The SmartWatch looks smart – something you’d actually want to wear instead of something that’s much too nerdy to exist outside the realms of your own home. Having said this, the watch strap that comes in the box isn’t the best, but you can attach it to any watch strap you like using a specialised adapter that’s coming soon.
Unlike most smart watches, which ship with only a few apps preinstalled, the Sony SmartWatch allows you to install new apps onto the watch itself.
The watch uses Bluetooth 3.0 to connect to your phone, and is designed solely for use with Android handsets, specifically with Sony’s Xperia line, though other phones from other manufacturers are also supported — a full list is available on Sony’s website.
Once you’ve got things installed and set up, it works well. You’re able to read incoming texts, email messages and tweets as advertised, and the music and camera controls are particularly useful.All I can think about is the moment of real joy when you start using it — using your watch as a communicator as you see data beginning to appear on the device looks really fun! Over 40 apps are available for the watch, offering the core functions you’d expect like call handling, text messaging, music controls, Facebook, and Twitter. There are also a few surprises: the remote viewfinder app is especially impressive, showing the output of the phone’s camera on the tiny display and allowing you to focus and trigger the shutter.
I feel one of the most useful feature’s of the Sony SmartWatch, is going to be the ‘Find My Phone’ app, which can be downloaded through the SmartWatch app. As the name suggests, this app will locate your misplaced phone by calling it – just don’t leave your phone on silent!!!
One area the device has obvious potential in is sports. Sony has promised that a partner app for Endomondo Sports Tracker is on the way, which will offer your time and calories burned, and is aiming to have it available when the SmartWatch launches. Im a gym instructor and personal trainer and apps like this excite me and would be very impressive if it is a stable system.
All in all, it’s a definite step up from what we’ve seen previously for Android phones, although there’s still some way to go in improving the SmartWatch’s user interface. Thankfully the issues all seem to be software-related, so it’s quite possible that many of them will be improved over time, particularly as new apps are developed for the platform on an almost-daily basis.In terms of innovation, Sony have hit the nail on the head with the Sony SmartWatch. The SmartWatch definitely has its charms and works great in situations where reaching for your phone is either awkward or unsafe. The idea of syncing your watch with your phone is a great idea. The SmartWatch is certainly a huge improvement over Sony’s previous LiveWare offerings, and directly addresses many of the irritations of the LiveView. It’s also a great piece of geek chic, and is in its own way an attractive product.
I hope to get my hands on one of these soon so I can make a more detailed review on how responsive the device is and how well the apps on offer work.
Once you’ve got things installed and set up, it works well. You’re able to read incoming texts, email messages and tweets as advertised, and the music and camera controls are particularly useful.All I can think about is the moment of real joy when you start using it — using your watch as a communicator as you see data beginning to appear on the device looks really fun! Over 40 apps are available for the watch, offering the core functions you’d expect like call handling, text messaging, music controls, Facebook, and Twitter. There are also a few surprises: the remote viewfinder app is especially impressive, showing the output of the phone’s camera on the tiny display and allowing you to focus and trigger the shutter.
I feel one of the most useful feature’s of the Sony SmartWatch, is going to be the ‘Find My Phone’ app, which can be downloaded through the SmartWatch app. As the name suggests, this app will locate your misplaced phone by calling it – just don’t leave your phone on silent!!!
One area the device has obvious potential in is sports. Sony has promised that a partner app for Endomondo Sports Tracker is on the way, which will offer your time and calories burned, and is aiming to have it available when the SmartWatch launches. Im a gym instructor and personal trainer and apps like this excite me and would be very impressive if it is a stable system.
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