The Gear fit

[mKTank]

432x138 resolution. I'd definitely prefer to see text messages, emails, notifications, missed calls, etc horizontally. I don't see how you can fit the same amount of text vertically unless you stack it and that would look utterly awful and be the epitome of non-functional. Basic aesthetics.

I wouldn't read a book on my watch, and if a message comes in paragraphs and exceeds the 160 character limit, I would probably prefer to read it on my phone. Otherwise, at least the screen actually lines up with my eyes so I won't have to read my watch sideways like I have a stiff neck. Common sense.

Basic aesthetics isn't a term I'd use on something made by Samsung, frankly.

 

[spinedoc77]

I wouldn't read a book on my watch, and if a message comes in paragraphs and exceeds the 160 character limit, I would probably prefer to read it on my phone. Otherwise, at least the screen actually lines up with my eyes so I won't have to read my watch sideways like I have a stiff neck. Common sense.

Basic aesthetics isn't a term I'd use on something made by Samsung, frankly.

Yeah because the decision between these 2 options is so difficult:

"Hey honey, can you stop and grab me some milk?"

or

"Hey
hone
y can
you s
top a
nd gr
ab me
some
milk
?"

Lol, I know the one I would choose. Hey its personal preference, but it just makes more sense to me. The purpose of a smartwatch is so you DON'T have to take your phone out of your pocket.

 

[Oletros]

Yeah because the decision between these 2 options is so difficult:

"Hey honey, can you stop and grab me some milk?"

or

"Hey
hone
y can
you s
top a
nd gr
ab me
some
milk
?"

Lol, I know the one I would choose. Hey its personal preference, but it just makes more sense to me. The purpose of a smartwatch is so you DON'T have to take your phone out of your pocket.

That post has made clear what mtank tries to do

 

[sentinelsx]

How hard is it to read at an angle? I kind of agree that it's not the optimal angle, but the optimal angle would probably be vertically oriented and not use the screen space efficiently. A compromise was to horizontally orient the information and assume the person using it wasn't mentally challenged enough to be unable to read text at a slight angle.

I don't have an issue with reading at angle or stretching my arm out "vertically" instead of "horizontally" in the same plane, but let's be honest, this is exactly the kind of answer one would expect from an engineer/technology worker. And that is probably why they need people from other areas to govern how the final product should work. More flexibility would be nice in this case.

----------

Yeah because the decision between these 2 options is so difficult:

"Hey honey, can you stop and grab me some milk?"

or

"Hey
hone
y can
you s
top a
nd gr
ab me
some
milk
?"

Lol, I know the one I would choose. Hey its personal preference, but it just makes more sense to me. The purpose of a smartwatch is so you DON'T have to take your phone out of your pocket.

That's why you either have a more rectangular front face or a swivel mechanism. The fit isn't what i would use to read text messages at all.

I think the purpose of a is more of a companion. And if one doesn't want to take out the phone out of pocket, google glass makes more sense than a smart watch.

This is more natural for people who are used to seeing time on their traditional watches:

 

[mKTank]

Yeah because the decision between these 2 options is so difficult:

"Hey honey, can you stop and grab me some milk?"

or

"Hey
hone
y can
you s
top a
nd gr
ab me
some
milk
?"

Lol, I know the one I would choose. Hey its personal preference, but it just makes more sense to me. The purpose of a smartwatch is so you DON'T have to take your phone out of your pocket.

Lol you had to make it a huge font to get some terrible point across. Try again.

A reasonable example would be something that's pretty much an elongated Gear. Again, it boils down to this: it's common design sense that the screen should line up with the eyes of the reader. They failed the most basic of design necessities. But that's ok because they have apologists ghetto-justifying their mistakes for them.

 

[spinedoc77]

I don't have an issue with reading at angle or stretching my arm out "vertically" instead of "horizontally" in the same plane, but let's be honest, this is exactly the kind of answer one would expect from an engineer/technology worker. And that is probably why they need people from other areas to govern how the final product should work. More flexibility would be nice in this case.

----------



That's why you either have a more rectangular front face or a swivel mechanism. The fit isn't what i would use to read text messages at all.

I think the purpose of a is more of a companion. And if one doesn't want to take out the phone out of pocket, google glass makes more sense than a smart watch.

This is more natural for people who are used to seeing time on their traditional watches:

Image

Yeah, it's not that I disagree that it's not the optimal positioning, I just 1) don't think it's anywhere as big of a deal as some make it out to be, and 2) think the vertical alignment provides just as much of a design detriment. We can't go back and redesign the human arm, so the choices are limited. A good solution would be to simply allow the display to be flipped, but we don't know if Samsung is going to have that function and I don't believe anyone with hands on has reported that it does. I think even with consumer input you will get the same mixed answers, but if you specifically ask them about tasks then the answers would be more uniform IMO. eg: which aspect would you prefer for texts, versus which aspect would you prefer for heartrate.

I disagree about text messages (just my opinion, I don't disrespect yours), I think it's the perfect vehicle for text messaging quick messages, checking emails (at least the subject line or to get an idea what it's about), missed calls, etc. These are things that should be streamlined in life and a quick glance at my watch makes sense to me. Google glass is a little too intrusive for my tastes, I'm not quite ready to become a borg just yet, or to get beat up in a bar. Much more intrusive than a watch, and things like that still matter in society.

 

[mKTank]

Bottom line is: at the very least, this watch needs to offer rotation, iPod Nano style. All current clues point to it not having such feature.

 

[spinedoc77]

Lol you had to make it a huge font to get some terrible point across. Try again.

A reasonable example would be something that's pretty much an elongated Gear. Again, it boils down to this: it's common design sense that the screen should line up with the eyes of the reader. They failed the most basic of design necessities. But that's ok because they have apologists ghetto-justifying their mistakes for them.

Stop it.. You know that's not far from what it would be like. Text will be stacked. Let me repeat that TEXT WILL BE STACKED. Please read that, savor it, roll it around in your mouth a bit. It's not a tough concept to grasp.

Take a look at the picture below. They have fit in around 35 or so characters if you look at the text and add multiple characters for spaces, this is just a guesstimate of course. It also looks like you would easily have enough room for 3 lines of text. So using my previous example it would look like this:

Honey, can you stop and grab me
some milk? The baby just woke
up and I ran out of milk. Thanks.

Vertically I'm just guesstimating maybe what, 7 characters? So:

Honey,
can
you
stop
and
grab
me
some
milk?
The
baby
just
woke
up and
I ran
out of
milk.
Thanks.


You know what, it actually looks worse than my previous example, and I don't even think all the text would fit, it would get cut off. I understand you are going to interject some nonsense like "If I want to read my wifes text I'll just pull my phone out", but then why bother having a smartwatch? On the contrary, a horrible design decision would be to stack text vertically like that, and I mean HORRIBLE. I'm not a Samsung apologist, I am quite eclectic and use whichever company suits me. It's just in this case Samsung went with more common sense, it's not a watch that only has an hour and minute hand, it's a device that will convey information which in some cases involves lines of text.

----------

Bottom line is: at the very least, this watch needs to offer rotation, iPod Nano style. All current clues point to it not having such feature.

Yes I agree 100%. It's not that I necessarily disagree with your position in certain functions, not at all. Samsung needs to have some form of rotation.

 

[mKTank]

Stop it.. You know that's not far from what it would be like. Text will be stacked. Let me repeat that TEXT WILL BE STACKED. Please read that, savor it, roll it around in your mouth a bit. It's not a tough concept to grasp.

Take a look at the picture below. They have fit in around 35 or so characters if you look at the text and add multiple characters for spaces, this is just a guesstimate of course. It also looks like you would easily have enough room for 3 lines of text. So using my previous example it would look like this:

Honey, can you stop and grab me
some milk? The baby just woke
up and I ran out of milk. Thanks.

Vertically I'm just guesstimating maybe what, 7 characters? So:

Honey,
can
you
stop
and
grab
me
some
milk?
The
baby
just
woke
up and
I ran
out of
milk.
Thanks.


You know what, it actually looks worse than my previous example, and I don't even think all the text would fit, it would get cut off. I understand you are going to interject some nonsense like "If I want to read my wifes text I'll just pull my phone out", but then why bother having a smartwatch? On the contrary, a horrible design decision would be to stack text vertically like that, and I mean HORRIBLE. I'm not a Samsung apologist, I am quite eclectic and use whichever company suits me. It's just in this case Samsung went with more common sense, it's not a watch that only has an hour and minute hand, it's a device that will convey information which in some cases involves lines of text.

----------



Yes I agree 100%. It's not that I necessarily disagree with your position in certain functions, not at all. Samsung needs to have some form of rotation.

Uh no, your example is still completely terrible.

It would be like an elongated Gear watch. Last I checked, text on a gear watch wasn't horribly stacked if you had reasonable font size.

I'd rather read somewhat stacked text than read sideways.

 

[spinedoc77]

Uh no, your example is still completely terrible.

It would be like an elongated Gear watch. Last I checked, text on a gear watch wasn't horribly stacked if you had reasonable font size.

I'd rather read somewhat stacked text than read sideways.

Look at the picture in my post. Would you want text smaller than that? I don't think text smaller than that would make sense on a device meant to be viewed at arms length, if anything it might be too small for some. You're still going to be sideways with vertical orientation anyhow, unless you gomer pyle lift up your arm to your eyes every time you need to read a notification. Of course text isn't squashed on a gear watch, it's square, as long wide as it is tall, doh? 432x128 versus 320x320.

It's a perfectly valid example and you are just miffed because it squashed your entire point. If you would rather read text stacked up like that, pretty much one word at a time then be my guest, but my guess is you are now just making stuff up about even your own preferences.

 

[mKTank]

Look at the picture in my post. Would you want text smaller than that? I don't think text smaller than that would make sense on a device meant to be viewed at arms length, if anything it might be too small for some. You're still going to be sideways with vertical orientation anyhow, unless you gomer pyle lift up your arm to your eyes every time you need to read a notification.

Again, it would be an elongated Gear watch. That text size is perfectly acceptable and the screen would line up with the viewer's eyes. Gonna keep repeating this until you get it. The Fit is never gonna line up with the reader's eyes, and thus comfort and ease of reading is already compromised.

It's a perfectly valid example and you are just miffed because it squashed your entire point. If you would rather read text stacked up like that, pretty much one word at a time then be my guest, but my guess is you are now just making stuff up about even your own preferences.

I'm miffed because its hard finding somebody who's not either arguing out of buyer's remorse or brand loyalty. A watch shouldn't be aligned the way the Fit is. It's such an easy concept to grasp and Samsung failed to, but they get away with it because they have a loyal fanbase that's just going to make up weird reasons for why the wrong way is in some manner superior.

Again, it wouldn't be even close to one word at a time. Again it'd be like a Pebble but elongated. Again it'd be like a Gear but elongated. And neither of those watches had an issue with stacked text. You're the one here making up a terrible point from thin air about an issue that never existed. You want to buy into this subpar design, be my guest.

Maybe they should bundle these watches with heat pads for the thousands of sore necks it'll cause. Because reading a screen in the right orientation is overrated and is so 2013.

 

[spinedoc77]

Again, it would be an elongated Gear watch. That text size is perfectly acceptable and the screen would line up with the viewer's eyes. Gonna keep repeating this until you get it. The Fit is never gonna line up with the reader's eyes, and thus comfort and ease of reading is already compromised.


I'm miffed because its hard finding somebody who's not either arguing out of buyer's remorse or brand loyalty. A watch shouldn't be aligned the way the Fit is. It's such an easy concept to grasp and Samsung failed to, but they get away with it because they have a loyal fanbase that's just going to make up weird reasons for why the wrong way is in some manner superior.

Again, it wouldn't be even close to one word at a time. Again it'd be like a Pebble but elongated. Again it'd be like a Gear but elongated. And neither of those watches had an issue with stacked text. You're the one here making up a terrible point from thin air about an issue that never existed. You want to buy into this subpar design, be my guest.

Maybe they should bundle these watches with heat pads for the thousands of sore necks it'll cause. Because reading a screen in the right orientation is overrated and is so 2013.

The screen only lines up with the viewers eyes if they lift it up every single time to be level with their eyes. If you do that every single time then yes you are correct. For the rest of us who don't live our lives gomer pyling like that then you are still reading text at a slight angle just as you would horizontally. I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just saying you are right at the expense of something that is not realistic functionally. So yeah you are right The fit is never going to line up with the readers eyes, but this is correct in both aspect ratio's unless you either lift up your arm to line it up with your eyes, or you rotate your arm outwards slightly to line it up with your eyes. Or you could just take the easy way out and just read at a slight angle in EITHER aspect and save yourself a lot of trouble.

An elongated gear watch? I don't understand what bearing that has? A gear watch is 320x320, so whichever orientation you have it will have a certain amount of text which is the same. The Fit is 432x128, so the text would format differently based on if it was output horizontally or vertically. It's not really a hard concept to grasp. If you are still having difficulty with the concept, try this. Get a piece of paper, cut one into a perfect square, cut the other one into a rectangle in roughly 4:1 aspect. Now write a "text message" onto each piece of paper and tell me how many words you can fit horizontally versus vertically.

I don't have buyers remorse because I don't own a fit, you do know they were only announced and are not on sale yet? I'm also not a samsung fanboy, I'm actually not a fanboy of any company, preferring to buy my technology for what suits my needs, and reading text horizontally makes MUCH more common sense for my needs. I haven't even said I would buy a Fit, and in fact I do NOT plan on buying one.

Lastly, it's NOT like a gear that's elongated, otherwise the smallest edge would be 320, but it's 132. 320 is wider than 132, not a hard concept to grasp. You can fit more text on 320 than on 132. Let's do that slowly, 320 is greater than 132, there you go. We should also put in some heat pads for sore shoulders for all the gomer pyles who are going to read their watches by raising their entire arm salute style with their elbow all the way up into the air. Hilarious.

 

[spinedoc77]

Yes impossible. Wearing a Fit, it is not possible to achieve perfect alignment with the eyes unless you're wearing the watch with the screen facing down. Go ahead, try it.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out" and advising me to use kid scissors. No attacks? Is this guy for real?

I've retracted my remarks you took offense to, please retract your ad hominem remarks; I'm not someone with low expectations, nor an apologist ghetto-justifying Samsung's mistake, nor a fanboy.

OK nothing left to discuss, you are just grasping at straws and taking that miniscule angle and grossly exaggerating in saying it makes it "impossible" to read. You sound ridiculous clinging to the premise that text is "impossible" to read and you know it. This is aside from reading one or 2 words stacked vertically being what I would deem close to "impossible", but I still wouldn't even term it that. It's possible to read one or 2 words stacked vertically, why you would want to is beyond me but who am I to tell you what to do. At the very least I have been realistic and offered real examples, which you rejected. Let's just agree to disagree, as it's silly anyhow. You don't plan on buying it, and I don't plan on buying it, so who cares?

So
let's
agree
to
disagree
and call
it a day.

 

[gotluck]

IMO this is the most level headed section on macrumors

I wouldn't say we agree amongst ourselves

I have no use for any of the released smart watches fwiw.

If it needs to be tethered fuhgedaboutit

 

[spinedoc77]

IMO this is the most level headed section on macrumors

I wouldn't say we agree amongst ourselves

I have no use for any of the released smart watches fwiw.

If it needs to be tethered fuhgedaboutit

I'd love a standalone smartwatch you can make calls on. I was on the kickstarter for the Neptune Pine, but backed out because it was just so huge, the technology just isn't there yet.

Don't they all need to be tethered though to get relevant info? Or are you thinking like me and want a standalone watchphone?

 

[gotluck]

I want to be able to leave my phone behind. I don't really care about making calls. I just would like to know if I am missing calls and voicemails. It would be nice to have the ability to read texts or maybe the subjects of emails. though I don't care about responding. Like a souped up beeper that can handle all conditions, particularly water. Though I wouldn't complain about more features

 

[spinedoc77]

I want to be able to leave my phone behind. I don't really care about making calls. I just would like to know if I am missing calls and voicemails. It would be nice to have the ability to read texts or maybe the subjects of emails. though I don't care about responding. Like a souped up beeper that can handle all conditions, particularly water.

Maybe something like the Omate or Neptune Pine. You don't have to use the phone function, but you can put in your SIM card and get your missed calls, texts, etc. For me they are just a bit too thick, hopefully next year they have something more svelte. But I know what you mean, that would be nice.

I would miss my phone though, I like having a "screen" to get stuff done, work and/or fun. My personal dream is a truly foldable phone.

 

[gotluck]

Maybe something like the Omate or Neptune Pine. You don't have to use the phone function, but you can put in your SIM card and get your missed calls, texts, etc. For me they are just a bit too thick, hopefully next year they have something more svelte. But I know what you mean, that would be nice.

Yea you have posted links on here that look like they could work, ornate rings a bell. Yea I wouldn't complain about more features.

Apple could blow this product out of the park though, i fear their solution will be tethered though. They could make it an addon like iPads cellular

 

[Lloydbm41]

Bottom line is: at the very least, this watch needs to offer rotation, iPod Nano style. All current clues point to it not having such feature.

Bottom line is, this isn't a smartwatch. You seem to have a tough time grasping this concept. This is a fitness band first, with limited watch functionality added on, but its primary goal is to give you fitness data. Much like the Nike Fuelband (which by the way Apple supports in software development features.)

 

[mKTank]

Bottom line is, this isn't a smartwatch. You seem to have a tough time grasping this concept. This is a fitness band first, with limited watch functionality added on, but its primary goal is to give you fitness data. Much like the Nike Fuelband (which by the way Apple supports in software development features.)

It doesn't have to be a smart watch to need to be easily readable. I was speaking of it as a wrist-worn device, not a smart watch. Welcome back again.

 

[tbayrgs]

Well, seems Samsung was listening--Gear Fit now has a portrait orientation mode.

 

[JaySoul]

Received a glowing review from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2014/04/08/samsung-gear-fit-review/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

 

[MRU]

Does anyone know if it works with the Google Edition S4? I'm assuming not likely as it will be missing things like S-Health unless Samsung finally decide to release those apps on the playstore ....

I think it looks interesting and I would buy one, but not enough to pay €850 (€200 + €650) for it.... (If I had to buy a GS5 too)

 

[JaySoul]

Does anyone know if it works with the Google Edition S4? I'm assuming not likely as it will be missing things like S-Health unless Samsung finally decide to release those apps on the playstore ....

I think it looks interesting and I would buy one, but not enough to pay €850 (€200 + €650) for it.... (If I had to buy a GS5 too)

It works with 20 Galaxy models (including the S4).

The S Health app is available on Samsung's own App Store Hub Thingy Thing.

So, in conclusion, I don't know.

 

[MRU]

It works with 20 Galaxy models (including the S4).

The S Health app is available on Samsung's own App Store Hub Thingy Thing.

So, in conclusion, I don't know.

Didn't Samsung do away with Samsung Hub on the S5 ? Did they still keep the store ?

Either way that store isn't available on the google edition devices, and yeah I looked at the device list and whilst it says almost every variant of GS4 (standard, active, zoom etc..) is didn't mention GE.

I think I'm out of luck.