Moto 360 May be Heading to Moto Maker in March

[dgstorm]

This could be some exciting news. Supposedly, Motorola is bringing the Moto 360 to Moto Maker in March. Admittedly, the idea of a customizable smartwatch seems just as good as a customizable smartphone. We are surprised Motorola didn't think of this/roll it out sooner.

Sadly, the initial customization options won't be too far removed from the usual stuff you can do already. At first it will be limited to the phone's silver, black, or gold for the watch face, and whichever watch-bands Motorola makes available. You will also get to choose from 11 watch faces which will be pre-setup to boot up when you first get your device. This will simply be the default though, and you will be able to customize that to your hearts content later.

Of course, it's possible that Motorola plans to offer more customization options in the future, and we are especially excited to check out the next-generation Moto 360.

Source: Wired

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

I'm pulling for wood and leather watch face options!

 

[FoxKat]

I'm hoping for the 360 V2 soon and am anxious to see how they deal with the removal of the flat tire! I have VERY strong belief that will be done. It as for some reviews if not the most common compliant, in some cases the ONLY complaint when comparing to other smart watches. If Motorola could;

• re-size and class up like LG did with their new Urbane,
• but do it in the slightly larger form factor of the 360,
• get rid of the flat tire,
• and reduce the thickness while not sacrificing functionality
• and battery life (hey, lets see it improve here too...),
• and come out with a fully connected version in LTE,

then they could easily be in the top 5, if not the top 3 - second only perhaps to the Samsung Gear watches, and maybe even trumping them.

 

[Ophus]

I'm hoping for the 360 V2 soon and am anxious to see how they deal with the removal of the flat tire! I have VERY strong belief that will be done. It as for some reviews if not the most common compliant, in some cases the ONLY complaint when comparing to other smart watches. If Motorola could;

• re-size and class up like LG did with their new Urbane,
• but do it in the slightly larger form factor of the 360,
• get rid of the flat tire,
• and reduce the thickness while not sacrificing functionality
• and battery life (hey, lets see it improve here too...),
• and come out with a fully connected version in LTE,

then they could easily be in the top 5, if not the top 3 - second only perhaps to the Samsung Gear watches, and maybe even trumping them.

Owning a 360 since Sept, I agree with you about the flat tire, but that is about all. My battery easily goes into the second day, I have never run it down in a day. Sure I would take better battery life, but it isn't any more of a problem on this watch than the others. As for LTE, I don't understand that at all. I'm not interested in paying Verizon for another line and having a second phone number. I'm not sure how I would even use that. If you think the thickness is a problem now, Imagine what it is going to be like when you stuff enough battery in it, to keep up with LTE. If you want to get rid of your phone completely, then this makes sense, but I couldn't drop my phone all together for one of those.

No offense intended with my comments, I just don't see adding all the cost and complication to an already outstanding watch.

 

[Mustang02]

LTE? Its a watch, why would you want its own connectivity? Its designed to compliment a phone not replace it.

I get two days out of mine, one if I use Spotify or gps.

 

[FoxKat]

Owning a 360 since Sept, I agree with you about the flat tire, but that is about all. My battery easily goes into the second day, I have never run it down in a day. Sure I would take better battery life, but it isn't any more of a problem on this watch than the others. As for LTE, I don't understand that at all. I'm not interested in paying Verizon for another line and having a second phone number. I'm not sure how I would even use that. If you think the thickness is a problem now, Imagine what it is going to be like when you stuff enough battery in it, to keep up with LTE. If you want to get rid of your phone completely, then this makes sense, but I couldn't drop my phone all together for one of those.

No offense intended with my comments, I just don't see adding all the cost and complication to an already outstanding watch.

Not offended by your comments in the least. Good point regarding the battery, it's in fact a valid one. I generally get through the entire day with mine too although there have been a couple times where it did die before the end of the day and I was quite surprised to find that it was non responsive. It may have had something to do with how many notifications I had turned on so my first thought was to strip it down to the bare bones minimum and see how it runs. It seems to have had the desired effect, but it's lost some functionality in my mind although not enough to really make a big difference.

The thickness of the watch isn't really a big deal for me, although it is considerably thicker than most standard watches that are not SmartWatch capable. That said of course, it is about as thick as and in some cases thinner than the other smart watches out there.

As for it being LTE capable, I'm not considering having it is my only phone device. I bicycle during the summer time, and generally like to run as light as possible. I'd also much rather be able to look at my watch and see various notifications and such then to have to drag my phone out of a pocket somewhere on my body or backpack. If my phone were also in my watch then I could leave my family driver phone home all together and have the multi-purpose functionality of being in contact for whatever reason including emergency situations, having full GPS functionality and at the same time still being able to view my notifications and reply verbally with just a flick of the wrist as I am able to now while carrying both the phone and watch.

So for me, it's the ability to be less tethered to the phone, even less than I am already now that I have the Smart Watch. There is no question that there are some things you just can't do without the larger screen and without a thumb a finger based keyboard of some sort. So obviously I don't have any intention on getting rid of my daily driver, my droid turbo or whatever phone I may have in the future that might replace it.

I could actually see myself spending a small amount additional monthly to have LTE connectivity. Perhaps $5 a month additionally but what would be really neat is if this watch or the LTE version of it were able to assume the role of my phone with the same phone number when I don't need my phone. That way I don't need to deal with the issue you mention of having two different phone numbers and not knowing what to do with the second number.

Of course with the second phone number you could always do a call forwarding to the watch from your first phone number and that way anybody that calls your first phone number would get you on the watch. You could also use a spoofing tool on the watch and likewise any calls that you make from the watch would appear as though they're coming from your daily driver phone. The other totally suitable solution is to use your Google voice phone number for all calls from and to both phones.

Obviously if the watch were able to assume the role of the daily driver either through a cloned SIM capability or simply just an electronic sim then you would need to worry about this problem.

LTE? Its a watch, why would you want its own connectivity? Its designed to compliment a phone not replace it.

I get two days out of mine, one if I use Spotify or gps.

Please see above.

 

[Mustang02]

You want a smaller watch but more features like LTE though. The current size can't handle using GPS, Spotify or slacker for a day. Your watch would be dead in a matter of hours. I run every day. I know what it's like to lug a stupid phone on my arm. I'd love a smaller device that could track my runs with runkeeper. The MAXX is great but not runner friendly. While biking it's easy, I just attach it to the handlebars.

Now only if they could figure out a way to charge the battery off our body(heat, sweat, etc). Then a smaller battery would be fine.

 

[Ophus]

Not offended by your comments in the least. Good point regarding the battery, it's in fact a valid one. I generally get through the entire day with mine too although there have been a couple times where it did die before the end of the day and I was quite surprised to find that it was non responsive. It may have had something to do with how many notifications I had turned on so my first thought was to strip it down to the bare bones minimum and see how it runs. It seems to have had the desired effect, but it's lost some functionality in my mind although not enough to really make a big difference.

The thickness of the watch isn't really a big deal for me, although it is considerably thicker than most standard watches that are not SmartWatch capable. That said of course, it is about as thick as and in some cases thinner than the other smart watches out there.

As for it being LTE capable, I'm not considering having it is my only phone device. I bicycle during the summer time, and generally like to run as light as possible. I'd also much rather be able to look at my watch and see various notifications and such then to have to drag my phone out of a pocket somewhere on my body or backpack. If my phone were also in my watch then I could leave my family driver phone home all together and have the multi-purpose functionality of being in contact for whatever reason including emergency situations, having full GPS functionality and at the same time still being able to view my notifications and reply verbally with just a flick of the wrist as I am able to now while carrying both the phone and watch.

So for me, it's the ability to be less tethered to the phone, even less than I am already now that I have the Smart Watch. There is no question that there are some things you just can't do without the larger screen and without a thumb a finger based keyboard of some sort. So obviously I don't have any intention on getting rid of my daily driver, my droid turbo or whatever phone I may have in the future that might replace it.

I could actually see myself spending a small amount additional monthly to have LTE connectivity. Perhaps $5 a month additionally but what would be really neat is if this watch or the LTE version of it were able to assume the role of my phone with the same phone number when I don't need my phone. That way I don't need to deal with the issue you mention of having two different phone numbers and not knowing what to do with the second number.

Of course with the second phone number you could always do a call forwarding to the watch from your first phone number and that way anybody that calls your first phone number would get you on the watch. You could also use a spoofing tool on the watch and likewise any calls that you make from the watch would appear as though they're coming from your daily driver phone. The other totally suitable solution is to use your Google voice phone number for all calls from and to both phones.

Obviously if the watch were able to assume the role of the daily driver either through a cloned SIM capability or simply just an electronic sim then you would need to worry about this problem.

Please see above.

You have a well reasoned argument and I can agree with much of it. I really don't see Verizon ever giving us the cloning of SIM cards, not willingly anyway. They are always going to try to wring every penny out of us and getting to charge for another device is just the thing they would love. Google voice would work, unfortunately my number is not a local one and they still can't give me a local one, although in the days of nationwide plans, that probably shouldn't be something I worry about. I too am an avid cyclist and can also see how having everything in one small piece would be advantageous. However, I enjoy taking the occasional photo on a ride and for now throw my phone in one of my jersey pockets and just use my watch to decide if I want to deal with anything that's happening on my phone.

Again all good points and I can understand what you are saying. Thanks for the debate!

 

[FoxKat]

You want a smaller watch but more features like LTE though. The current size can't handle using GPS, Spotify or slacker for a day. Your watch would be dead in a matter of hours. I run every day. I know what it's like to lug a stupid phone on my arm. I'd love a smaller device that could track my runs with runkeeper. The MAXX is great but not runner friendly. While biking it's easy, I just attach it to the handlebars.

Now only if they could figure out a way to charge the battery off our body(heat, sweat, etc). Then a smaller battery would be fine.

Actually charging off body heat and/or motion is the way that lots of high-end watches work now. For the body heat they use Thermoelectric generators based on the Peltier effect. When you heat one side and the heat dissipation cools from the other, you get an electric difference across the two sides. This is the technology used to power those portable refrigerators that can plug into your cigarette lighter in the car, and also those car mugs that can either heat or cool your drink, except that instead of applying heat or cold and generating electricity, they apply electricity and one side heats, while the other cools. Since reversing the voltage across the two sides reverses the heating/cooling sides you can make it both a heater and a cooler.

So they place one of these on the arm side of the watch and the rest of the case acts as a heat sink. This gives a very low voltage, a constant one, but still enough to provide supplemental power. The big issues have been the size of the Thermoelectric generator, that they are usually rather large, thick, bulky and do not bend, as well as the amount of voltage they generate for very small differences in temperature across the two sides. They're working hard to beat that problem back.

There is even a newer version of this technology that could easily be incorporated into watches.

This is one among many that promise to change battery power for wearable items. Flexible Glass Fabric Arm Band Converts Body Heat Into Electricity Ecouterre is very thin and flexible, so those are two of the biggest issues that have stood in the way of this technology. The third is also addressed her since as you can see, it's generating nearly 3 volts with just the wrist.

The ones that use motion take advantage of a tiny electric coil and magnet generator and a concentric weighted wheel that spins as you move your arm. Depending on the angle your arm is, will determine where in the middle of a revolution the wheel sits and as it turns it moves the magnet past the coils creating an electric charge.

Both of these systems have been in use for many years, but they have only had to provide miniscule amounts of power to keep the mechanisms in watches moving. Today we are looking at OLED screens that draw hoardes more power, microprocessors, RAM and more, all consuming large amounts of power and making the task of providing that power so much more difficult.

However we are nearly there. This could be the future for us in as little as a few years.