Lol, my guy, do your homework. Apple Watch sales, while getting some competition from Huawei, are still millions of units higher than every other smartwatch maker. A quick Google search would’ve told you that. Also, while Android Wear/WearOS was an early pioneer in terms of advanced features, WearOS watches have been… Read more

you gotta read to find out my friend.

I feel you. I, too, have an impossible time whenever I try to read the site on mobile. 

For the Battlemodo, I went with smartwatches we had full reviews of for transparency’s sake. I reviewed the Timex, but not the GTR—though as you read, I do talk extensively about the similarities in my Timex review. In general, I’m hoping to get more Amazfit reviews, as well as some other more affordable names in the… Read more

Pablo would do this shit with my mechanical keyboard too. I thought I was being clever by using switching to the Apple one (Which I don’t even like that much) cuz I could stow it under my monitor more easily. Shows what I know.

It was a dummy doc. He would not type on a blank space. Had to make him think he was ghostwriting for me. Cats are complicated man. 

Pablo says, “Mrow rwor.” Which I translate to, “Well, duh.”

I apologize for his rudeness.

My friend, Pablo types with his ass and tail. My editors also would not let me publish *just* his blog. Blame them. 

You can leave them but dunno how well he’ll take them. 

Hmm. I’ve never had an issue with our review unit for the Lite connecting over bluetooth, but good to know. I’ll keep an eye out on future Fitbit reviews. I’d agree if third-party apps are a consideration, then yeah, you’re not gonna beat Apple or Samsung (or Wear OS, but lol Wear OS ain’t...great). That said, based… Read more

Ah yes, that was me. Glad it was helpful! For this Battlemodo, I tried to stick to smartwatches here that we have full reviews for, but I would def rec the GTR for most people over the Timex as... they’re very similar. Getting more of the super cheap smartwatches/trackers reviewed for Gizmodo is on my agenda but alas,… Read more

I can definitely see that, though I think where Samsung is going to hold out is Samsung Pay and Tizen OS. Samsung ain’t gonna switch to Wear OS when Wear OS is the ugly stepchild of wearable platforms, and the company *just* launched a debit card program for Samsung Pay in partnership with So-Fi. 

At least for wearables, I think Samsung is gonna stick with Tizen OS. Because lol, Wear OS is a mess and even Google Assistant integration isn’t enough to redeem most Wear OS watches. A Samsung watch with Google Assistant, however, hmmm. 

Yeah, you’re coming up against the hardware limitations with re: Wear OS smartwatches. It’s a long ass story but the short of it is most Wear OS watches run off the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear line of chips, whereas Samsung/Apple make their own silicon. The Snapdragon Wear 2100 and Snapdragon 3100 were both outdated,… Read more

I’ve thought of doing this, however, it also sounds like a ton of work and sitting through the airport animations and Orville’s tedious dialogue *several* times to get all those bells over sounds like torture. 

Again, Gizmodo’s policy for that sort of ~99 pricing is to round up b/c it’s stunt marketing. $199, $199.95... it’s a psychological trick to make you think you’re paying less than $200. I don’t make the rules.

Gizmodo’s review policy is to round up for prices that are an iteration of 99.99 or 99.95, etc, because that’s marketing bullshit to trick consumers into thinking it’s a lower price. $199.99 is $200 but we can quibble over 1 cent if you like.

Fitbits use Fitbit OS; the Timex is running off basically the same software as Amazfit watches but re-branded for Timex. Polar runs off their own proprietary OS.

I can understand your fear re: WearOS but given Google’s professed interest in “ambient computing” and some recent acquisitions, I think they’re back on the… Read more

I do have cloud backups enabled, but it looks like it got borked somewhere in the process. Next to my FE data, there’s red angry text telling me the backup data is missing :( 

To be clear I’m going off retail price; sometimes these slightly more expensive watches are on sale for under $200 but I don’t have a crystal ball to say when they might.