And this picture which is actually on huawei site as the part of the promo (!) illustrates the best why Jony Ive said (1) that "a circle doesn't make any sense" for a smartwatch:<p><a href="http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/assets/images/medium/bg_06.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/a...</a><p>----<p>1) <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-come" rel="nofollow">http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-co...</a>
From the recent <i>New Yorker</i> profile of Jonny Ive:<p>> The shape of the body, meanwhile, barely changed: a rectangle with rounded corners. “When a huge part of the function is <i>lists</i>”—of names, or appointments—“a circle doesn’t make any sense,” Ive said. Its final form resembles one of Newson’s watches, and the Cartier Santos, from 1904.<p>I think circular watches, in principle, look a lot nicer (certainly in ads), but that quote was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Facebook screenshot[1]. I think Apple might have this one right.<p>[1] <a href="http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/assets/images/small/bg_06.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/a...</a><p>Edit: Ah, didn't see acqq just said this exact thing. "You can scroll" isn't a solution to this though. There's a big difference between being able to read a message from a glance at a wrist to having to physically interact with the device. The more interaction you need, the less benefit you have with the watch over just taking your phone out.
Huawei is the main Supplier of the GFW of China. The Golden Shield Project (Chinese: 金盾工程; pinyin: jīndùn gōngchéng), colloquially referred to as the Great Firewall of China [1] (Chinese: 防火长城; pinyin: fánghuǒ chángchéng) is a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) division of the government of China.
I'm kind of annoyed by Ive's glib dismissal of a circular form factor for watches. There's going to be a whole design language based on circles that make much more sense for watches. For instance, it's pretty easy to imagine a minimalist daily calendar overlay on top of standard hour/minute hands that give you just as much information as the vertical list orientation commonly used in calendar apps. Is it going to be able to show as much information that way? No. Will it still be very useful? Yes.
The watch on the left in the first picture appears to show a heart rate graph labelled with "bmp", which is a file format. The unit of heart rate is beats per minute, or "bpm".
The main criticism of circular smartwatches is that they unnaturally truncate text. The screenshots don't even try to hide this. While I do think circular watches look better, circular smart watches are just silly.<p>Edit: I mean to say, they look better when off or when displaying a circular watch face. They look silly when displaying text.
I'm surprised that anyone (apart from Apple) is bothering to make smart watches.<p>I stopped wearing a watch years ago, because the extra information I got from looking at my smartphone covered the overhead of pulling it out of my pocket. I've enjoyed not having something strapped to my wrist, so any of these horribly thick smart watches are going to have to provide a compelling benefit to get anywhere near my arm.<p>Because of size and power issues, you can't actually read or deal with anything but the most trivial issues on a smart watch. So the main value proposition seems to be that they tell you you need to look at your phone, and that's not compelling enough for me.<p>Apple will get some sales, from those who need their status affirming - just like the people who still wear a Rolex watch. But I'm betting that all the other smart watches disappear fairly soon.<p>My pick for the next <i>real</i> user interface revolution? Smart hearing aids, using speech as the UI. Inconspicuous, and simple to use - particularly for our affluent ageing population, many of whom need the hearing aid part anyway.
I'm in the market for a smartwatch like this and I'm seriously considering this one and I can't wait to hear more about it. BUT I have to say something about this video. I'm from Alaska and do lots of backcountry snowboarding so this kind of stuff probably doesn't matter to most people but this video is laughable for a few reasons:<p>> guy reminiscing about a memorable camping trip with friends yet can't remember how to get there.<p>> driving a classic mercedes with rear wheel drive on slick snowy roads.<p>> using ancient snowshoes that should be hung on a wall as a decoration and not actually used while wearing other completely inappropriate clothing.<p>> cool, your watch let you know it's -12c hopefully your ears won't be frostbitten off by the time you're done wandering around in the backcountry by yourself without a hat. (wouldn't want to mess up that stylish hair do)<p>> a watch whose battery will only last a couple days is probably not the best thing to depend on for an overnight trip in the backcountry.<p>> using google now as if he would have cell data coverage in the backcountry.<p>I know I'm being a bit harsh and I'm probably not the target audience for this video.<p>But my honest impression based on that ad is that people who use this watch are fashionable city slickers who have no idea what they are doing and use completely impractical even dangerously outdated equipment in order to look fashionable.<p>What would actually appeal to me?<p>>Guy hauling ass on his mountain bike/snowboard/skiis.<p>>He checks his watch to view his heartrate/trail data on an app like <a href="http://www.strava.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.strava.com/</a> .<p>>App indicates relevant data like current heart rate, average speed, trail location.<p>>scene cuts to end of his ride where the app indicates he has just set both a new personal record for that trail and that he is also the new recordholder.<p>>Guy is back at his car. Watch indicates he has a fancy dinner appointment in one hour.<p>> Scene cuts to him changed into fancy clothes and putting on his nice blazer/spiffy trenchcoat. His watch indicates that he should leave now in order to get to the appointment on time complete with a map and directions.<p>>guy is seen at dinner with watch displaying a classy watchface showing off that it is suitable to be worn with formal attire.<p>ad ends.
I'm really hoping they pull this off. Their hardware is alright, perhaps a bit cheap feeling. But the software, yikes. Huawei understands memory so poorly, that they have a button that appears every time you try to switch app. Said button force kills every app that's running. Then gleefully proclaims that it "freed" up memory. It's beyond idiotic.<p>It feels like they modified Android purely for the sake of modifying it. Hopefully with the watch they'll be a bit more careful. Huawei's the only major company (?) making large-screen long-life devices. I don't have to charge my Huawei phone (Mate 2) every day. That's a relief, unlike every other major phone. (And, just $300.)
Doesn't it bother anyone else that what's on that page (and in the video) doesn't really resemble the real thing[1]? This happened with another company -- I want to say LG -- and their renders were very optimistic views of the real thing, hiding the bezel and depth of the screen as well as falsely depicting how sharp the screen would look.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/3/8140837/huawei-watch-design-interview-mwc-2015" rel="nofollow">http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/3/8140837/huawei-watch-design...</a>
I'm not sure I understand how it works - are the 40 designs they talk about all 'themes' than can be swapped?<p>Ie the watch has a digital screen that displays the dial, etc?
Remember when cellphones were getting smaller every year, and a smaller phone was a status symbol? And then suddenly touchscreens happened, and now phones are getting bigger and bigger again?<p>I feel like smartwatches are the result of that "smaller" impulse pushing through the trend.
No mention of battery life in either features or specifications... I guess that most users won't find in any way troublesome that this thing barely runs for a day between charges...
I'm glad this is going to be a crowded space. With the iPhone Apple easily offered a 10x better product. Seeing the smart watch space I don't see anyone offering anything close to a revolutionary product.
Isn't Huawei the company that the United States barred because they were spying/embedding firmworms/foreign? Of course the gov would know what to look for, but why would I wear a Communist produced watch on my wrist?!