Never really liked fitbit when they used subscription model to access your detailed data, I don’t mind other stuff under subscription, but blocking detail on your own data under a sub was the nail in fitbit coffin.
I think Garmin might be better, but I haven’t really looked into smartwatches for a long time. seem like it is going downhill, too, based on others’ comments.
The new Pebble watches look interesting. Relatively basic, but long battery life (they promise) and open-source operating system.
yea, pebble does seem good enough, will see when it’s released.
It’s a really horrible way of doing business. Fitbit had its own niche, kind of great products, name recognition, global distribution and more. Then Google came, bought them and now we’re left with one Pixel watch, everything else on life support and a destroyed company.
Exact same thing they did to Nest too.
It’s the Google way. They frequently shut down even good and popular products of their own when they don’t align with some obscure corporate plan. The lesson is that you should never depend on a Google product or service.
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Fitbit bought Pebble like fucking Judge Doom bought the Red Car; fuck Fitbit.
I like how the author says Google killed the Fitbit Sense so they could sell an inferior product without having to compete … then said author reluctantly buys and recommends that inferior product. I’m way pettier than that. I’d use anything else, even if it sucked, rather than directly reward a company for fucking me over.
At this point if I can’t put cfw on it I don’t want it.
cfw?
Custom firmware, like an OS that doesn’t depend on google.
I had two fitbit trackers before getting Sense, and honestly, I keep it on life support, buying replacement 3rd party straps and charging cables.
When it inevitably dies, I’d move on. I never found a use for Google assistant, it can’t even set my google maps navigation properly, can’t set a reminder.
The only thing it ever did of value to me is 5 minutes of asking it for a joke.
I found Google Assistant on the Sense useful for reminders. That was about all I used it for, and it was a bit annoying that Google took it away. It’s odd that these Google-made smartwatches now only support Amazon’s voice assistant.
Garmin Instincts are amazing. Looks like a dumb watch, has most smartwatch features, the 3 Solar version lasts 40 days between charges.
Really waiting for someone to make the Fairphone of smart watches…
There’s currently a Kickstarter going on for a watch that aims to be modular and repairable. It’s called UNA Watch.
Look interesting, but imo with these things it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem, where the upgradeability/repairability only has value, if it is actually provided in the future (and economically viable). Something that can only be proven in time, but requires people to trust it before.
I’m not in the market for a new watch right now, since I just repaired the screen on my Garmin, but am keeping an eye on it, since sadly Garmin seems to have entered the early stages of enshittification.
