Apple Watch As Portable Baby Monitor

Recently I discovered an unexpected usage of my Apple Watch ... and that is to use it as a portable baby monitor.  My wife and I take my kids to friends/family places very often.  When our 6 months old needs to take a nap, we usually have to put her down at someone's bed and other flat surface.  We have monitor at home for us to monitor the baby to make sure nothing terribly wrong has happened.  So in a new environment, baby monitor feels like a something that can ease our mind while chilling at with family/friends.

Apple Watch has the ability to remote control iPhone camera to take photos.  By using this feature, I can place my iPhone close to where my baby sleeps and point the camera at her.  By activating the remote camera feature from Apple Watch, I can clearly see how my baby girl is doing.

The photo below is what I can see from my Apple Watch when placing my iPhone on top of the head board.

I can't hear anything but at least I can see if she is moving outside of the pillow area or stuck underneath a pillow.  It provides us an ease of mind.  It's definitely something that I didn't thought as an usage for my Apple Watch when I purchased it.

Maybe this tip can help you as well.  We all know parents are very paranoia ;)

Apple Watch Sport Space Grey with fancy bands

I don't think I'll ever spend $200+ on an extra band.  It's not that I don't appreciate it .... But I just don't find it that much nicer.

Anyway just out of curiosity, I went to Apple Store and try out the classic Buckle and Milanese loop bands with my space grey watch.  Since there is no pictures anywhere for such combination available, it'll at least show me the potential.  Maybe I'll win lottery jackpot and decide to buy one :)

Surprisingly, both bands don't look too bad with the space grey model.  What do you think?

Apple Watch vs Pebble - The world of difference for notification

After using my Apple Watch for more than a week, I think the biggest difference between Pebble and Apple Watch for iPhone users is the notification and the things that you can do with it.

What Pebble can do:

• Vibrate whenever a new notification comes in.  The notification will be displayed on the watch screen.  You can click up and down button to view more information or the middle button to clear it.  That is pretty much all you can do for iPhone users.  I know Android users can reply text messages with some predefined text.  So, it's pretty much just letting you know you can a notification and what is it.  You'll still have to change to your iPhone for any action afterward.

• If you didn't attend to the notification for a while, the notification will display automatically on the screen.  You can then go to the notification manually to view them.
• It vibrates with such a force that you'll know you have a notification for sure.  So, I can usually wear my watch a bit loose.

What Apple Watch can do:

• Display short notification message then the long notification message if you raise your arm soon enough after the haptic tag.  If you're too late, you'll see the red dot on the top of the watch screen the next time you raise your arm.
• By swiping down, you'll get all the notifications that came in.  It'll be the short notification and then you can click on each notification to view the long/full notification message.
• For text message or iMessage, you have the options to reply and dismiss.
• The most important benefit of Apple Watch is the third party implementation of the notification.  For instance, I have been using Outlook on my iPhone as my main email app.  With Outlook notification, I get options to archive, delete, schedule for later, or mark as read.  The most of the time, I can react to the notification without taking my phone out. The only time I need to get my iPhone out is to reply email. 

• When I'm using my iPhone and get a notification, Apple Watch doesn't tap or do anything.  It is good because I don't have to dismiss the same notification twice.  For example, the reminder app can allow me to snooze or complete the task right on my watch.

• The haptic tap is very gentle.  Even tho I have gotten used to it now, I still miss the tag from time to time.  So, I believe when Apple says it's trying to help you doing the important things and not get distracted.
• Display Chinese character flawlessly!!! I don't know what's going on.  But Pebble is still not able to display Chinese characters even tho they have promised the functionality for a long time.  There are some apps that helps with that.  But I can never get it to work ...

I think Pebble is still a very good option for hardcore watch wear who needs to have the watch to be always on and battery last a long time.  But Apple Watch opens so much more possibilities for the iPhone users.  Plus, I don't think Apple will open up as much flexibility for Pebble.  It's sad but I guess that's just the nature of the business.

Apple Watch Sport Unboxing

I finally got my Apple Watch Sport Space Grey 38 mm version today.  Here are some unboxing photos.  The box is definitely different from the stainless version (you can see the unboxing of the stainless version here).  I guess when you paid $250 more for a watch, you should get a nice and bigger box with it too :)

Except the package and the watch casing, the pairing and the functionalities are exactly the same between all models.

Apple Watch Unboxing

Here is the unboxing of an Apple Watch (Stainless) with black sport band.  The Sport model is a different package.

Outside box

The inside box

Opening the inside box

Voila, watch is here !!!

Underneath the watch is the charging cable

Watch on the wrist

The extra half of band

Pairing with the Apple Watch

Pairing

Pebble Steel Vs Apple Watch

I had my appointment to book a try out appointment on Friday.  I tried the 38 mm and 42 mm Apple Watch Sport and the 42 mm stainless edition with the leather loop trap.  The leather loop trap is my favour trap and the one that I want the most.  But it's only compatible with 42 mm and it is pretty expensive ... However, the leather loop trap is really comfortable and feels really good.

One of the things that I didn't know before was which size to pre-order for the Apple Watch (one of the other things also includes ... why do I need one).  So, I asked for two different size of watch to try it out and I compared with the Pebble Steel.

From the following photos, you can see how each model compare to Pebble Steel.

Pebble Steel vs 38 mm Apple Watch Sport white	Pebble Steel vs 42 mm Apple Watch Sport (space grey)
Apple Watch Sport 38 mm (white) and 42 mm (space grey)	Apple Watch 42 mm with blue leather loop

Before the try out appointment, I pre-ordered the 38 mm space grey online in the morning around 3:18 am (ET) after waking up by my 3 months old baby.  But I still have to wait for  4 to 6 weeks before it's delivered ... anyway, that's a different story.  I felt 38 mm is probably the best option considered I don't have a really big and long arm.  But after trying the 42 mm one and compare with my Pebble Steel size by size, I'm a bit confused now.  The 42 mm Apple Watch is basically the same size as my Pebble Steel only a bit thicker (should have taken a photo from the side).  But I'm not sure and don't want to pay that extra $70 for 42 mm ... yeah, I lived in Canada and it's more expensive :(

I'll likely stick with 38 mm only because it's 1st generation and I still don't know if it's worth the price.  So far I think Pebble might be more practical because I only needed the basic functionality.  The battery life and always-on are two very useful and important features for watches.  At the same time, when I'm home with my kids, I can see the following situations that Apple Watch would be useful

• I can actual picking up phone call from my watch and not looking for my phone
• Reply text message directly without looking for my phone
• The remote app will allow me to control iTune without looking for my phone

I prefer to put my phone away when I'm with my kids (trying to be a role model and pay 100% attention to them).  Currently, I can know if the call or message is important enough for me to reach/look for my phone.  But with Apple Watch, I don't even have to look for my phone, I can do all above directly with the watch.

I know they are not good reasons to spend money on gadgets.  But again, there is never good reasons and most of the gadgets are not necessary.  I think I like it, I want it are probably good enough reasons for it.  Anyway, waiting for it to deliver and try it out in real life :)

Pebble and Misfit iOS Sleep Tracking

Sleep is probably the most important status that I care and track.  I have been using my iPhone with Sleep Cycle App to track my sleep.  After I got my Pebble, I have been use Misfit to track my sleep and my steps pretty much 24/7.

In general, Misfit tracks my sleep relatively well.  There are not a lot of information that explains how Misfit calculate the restful sleep time.  On a typical night, it displays the following information for the previous night sleep.  It tells you the total sleep time and your restful sleep time.  It also shows you a little graph indicate when you're in restful sleep at the bottom of the screen.

Misfit can also present your data in a weekly view.  It indicates your average and your daily sleep time against your sleep goal.  Oh yeah, you can set your goal.  I have set my goal to be 7 hours a day ... probably a luxury for some people :)

One thing that is really cool about the Misfit is that you don't have to do anything before you sleep.  Misfit magically figures out that you're sleeping (most likely based on your movement) and start tracking your sleep instead of steps.  Of course, it does make some mistakes from time to time.  For example, if I put my watch on my desk before I go out to play basketball, it would think that I'm already sleeping and start tracking.  But I'm actually out playing basketball ... Because of this, I have to turn off the activity tracking overtime I took my Pebble watch off for shower or anything ... That being said, I forgot to turn on the activity tracking back so I missed the sleep tracking quite a few times.

Another thing I like about Misfit is that it is actually able to track your sleep in segments.  I just had a little baby girl two months ago so I have been waking up in the middle of the night.  Misfit is able to figure out that I was awake for about 40 minutes before I went back to sleep.  See the screen shots from the same night below.

I have used Morpheuz app on Pebble to track my sleep too. It does track the sleep but I doesn't store the sleep stats as well.  It only kept the detailed movement graph for one day and you can import them to iOS Health app to store permanently.  But health app only shows the sleeping hour and not the quality of it.  So, I like Misfit for my sleep tracking purpose better at least for now.

My First Smart Watch - Pebble Steel

The Apple watch announcement really got me excited. After all I have a lot of Apple products throughout the years.  Most of the time I have extremely good experience from using a Apple product.  Recently, the experience had not gone as well as before (Airport Extreme 5GHz signal dropping, random issues with iPhone 6, ...etc).  Hopefully, it does not signal the start of product quality drop from Apple.

Apple watch sounds all good and everything.  But there is a big problem ... I have not wear a watch for over 4,5 years now.  A watch has not been very useful to me ever since I had my first iPhone.  Will a watch (I know it's a smart watch) be useful to me now?  Based on the rumour, an Apple watch will be at least $350 for the basic model.  For something that I don't know if it'll have a use to me, $350 seems to be a lot of money.  After all, I'm just an average job and I don't have sponsor or demo products send me to try it out ... everything is out of my own packet :(

I decide to get something cheaper as a warm up and a trial to the so called smart watch.   There are a lot of options out there around $100 to $200 (Microsoft Band, Pebble, Misfit, Jawbone, and ...etc)  The options for iPhone are more limited which makes my life a little bit easier.  At the end, I got a Pebble Steel from Kijiji.

The setup for Pebble is easy and quick.  It all starts with download Pebble app from the Apple App Store on my iPhone.

 

From the Pebble, you can install up to 8 apps or watch faces to your Pebble watch. You can also add as many apps or watch faces to your locker on your phone (only limited to the space on your phone). The locker allows you to install app to your Pebble watch without downloading it again. The watch face that I use the most if the YWeather as you can see from the first photo above.  It gives me a nice general overview of the day (date/time, day of the week, temperature, and weather based on GPS on iPhone).

I have been wearing the Pebble watch for over a month now.  I find it very useful as I don't have to take out my iPhone from my packet as often now.  When there is a notification on my iPhone, I just have to take a quick peak on the Pebble to determine if I need to response right the way or not.  Pebble can display all notifications you get from your phone.  You can adjust the notification selection from the iPhone notification settings.  At work, I usually turn my phone to vibrate only.  When I walk, I can't feel the vibration so I usually don't know people text me or call me.  But now, Pebble vibrates on my wrist, I don't miss any call any more.

Another feature that I know I would like to use on my Pebble is the sleep tracking.  Before Pebble, I used a iOS app called Sleep Cycle.  It was good and gives me a lot of information about my sleep.  But it requires you to place the phone under the bed sheet ... With Pebble, I have tried Misfit and Morpheuz apps to track my sleep so far.  Both of them have advantages and disadvantages.  I will write another detailed blog about those two later.

I also used the alarm on my Pebble.  The silent vibration on my wrist ensures that I won't wake up my wife at 5:40 in the morning ... Yes, I usually wake up at 5:40 to go to work ... I hate it :(

After all, I'm happy with the purchase and I started understand the benefits of having a smart watch.  I have been wearing my Pebble watch 24/7 because of the sleep tracking.  The incredible long batteries of Pebble watch definitely makes it possible.  Now, I'll see if Apple watch is really that much better then my Pebble Steel to make me want to switch :)