You can even see how late it is with it. The Sony Smartwatch. Is it actually a smart device or is it just an overrated gadget?
What is the Sony Smartwatch?
The smartwatch is a watch with an 1,3″ (3.3cm) OLED screen. It can be paired with your smartphone and as long as your phone is within 20 meters you can receive all Tweets, Posts, and Emails. You never have to miss anything again, without constantly looking at the screen of your phone. Many people find it annoying that poeple are constantly looking at their smartphones. Is the Sony smartwatch the solution?
In the package of the Sony smartwatch, you will find the watch, a black plastic wristband and an USB connector. When you first start up your smartwatch you have to connect it to your phone via Bluetooth (pairing). You will be asked to install LiveWare™ software on your phone. Some Sony Xperia devices already have this software installed. You can see which devices are compatible here.
After installation, you will see the icon of the smartwatch in your notification bar. Tap on it to open up the settings of the Smartwatch.
Here you can select which apps you want to install on the watch, and in which order you want to display them. You can also choose between an analog or digital clock.
The smartwatch currently supports features like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and other social media and instant messaging. But there are also apps like GPS tracking, Google maps, Chrome and calculators. Another funny app for the smartwatch allows you to see what your phone’s camera sees, via your smartwatch. Imagine what fun things you can do with this!
Currently there is no official app in the store for the popular instant messaging service WhatsApp. There is however an unofficial .apk file which you can install on your phone. You will have to check ‘allow non market apps’ in your settings in order to install this. There are several other websites who feature the Official Sony Smartwatch app’s.
When you get a new message, the Smartwatch gently vibrates on your wrist. It does not make any noise and thus it is not annoying during a class or a meeting or a conference. On the Smartwatch you can only read your Tweets, Facebook posts and Email, You are not able to write them yourself directly from the watch.
You can also control your music player from the watch, which can be handy during sporting for example. Another feature is find my phone. If you activate this app, your smartwatch will call your phone, it does not matter if your phone volume is low or off, the volume automatically goes to 100%.
Bottomline:
The smartwatch is a funny gadget, but can we really call it smart? It is more like a remote control for your phone. The question is, do you want to spent €99 on this watch? I as a gadget lover do, but if buying this watch is worth the price fully depends on your decision.
