Thank you 😄

I wrote about it at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/graphing-the-connections-between-my-blog-posts/

Happy to say the latest nightly does support notifications. My wrist is buzzing with action!

I’m the author. I’ve now set up notifications on the advice of just about everyone. It’s pretty cool!

In which case, you might like the eInk screen on the Watchy. I reviewed it at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/review-watchy-an-eink-watch-full-of-interesting-compromises/

Screen is always on but eInk gives it great battery life. Although the rest of the watch is even more experimental than the USB-C one 😆

Hold on, so now you want to use USB C for data transfer?

Sure, why not? My headphones have a built-in MP3 player which I can load up with 32GB of music. Flash memory is tiny and cheap - why shouldn’t my watch have my music collection on it? Is grabbing a CSV of my data via USB easier than trying to send it via BT? Might be. Let’s find out.

Because again, ALL smartwatches need more battery than they currently have.

For you, maybe. This £16 one has lasted nearly 5 days of doing continual heart monitoring and is still on 40% battery. Even better, I don’t need to take it off if I want to charge it. Weekly charging is better than my phone or laptop.

I slightly disagree with you about the screen needing to be always on. I’m not always looking at my watch, so it might as well save battery where it can. I don’t leave my laptop screen on when I walk away from it, and that has a much bigger battery.

weird hardware is weird and weird is fun.

On that we can agree! This is a fun experiment.

You need a solution that fits all cases with near-optimal performance.

I disagree. I think it is OK to have some choice in the market. Some people will prefer magnetic wireless, some wired, some plutonium batteries.

and if anything focusing on it distracts from the very real need to come to a proper standard in this space, which I find somewhat annoying.

Like, mate, I don’t have the power to enact anything. I’m just one guy blogging. I’m not involved in the design, manufacture, or standardisation of anything watch related. I don’t understand why you’re getting annoyed by me talking about it though.

OK, but why do you care about uniformity? If it’s just some OCD-adjacent urge - that’s fine; do what makes you happy.

But from a technical point of view, VLC will play back no matter what the codec and compression level.

The question is why do you want to convert them?

If you use something like JellyFin as your media server and client, it will transcode them as you watch them. If you’re on your phone using crappy WiFi, it will adapt the bitrate down automatically. If you’re at home using a projector connected by Ethernet, you’ll get the original file.

If you think you’re running out of space, it’s often easier and cheaper to buy more HDDs. H265 and modern audio codec will save you a maximum of 50%. For about £200 you can get a 15TB HDD.

What’s the battery size?

The website claims 280mAh. That’s a smaller than the newest Pixel watches - but then it is only about 10% of the cost of those models.

The point is USB C is noticeably larger than pogo pins for the sake of including a whole bunch of additional pins a smartwatch has zero use for.

Agreed! But that rather depends on what you want to use it for. This model is charge only. But it could be useful to use it as a USB drive to store music, or to get health data off it. The main advantage for my personal use-case is being able to charge while wearing it.

The ideal state for a smartwatch is having an always-on display and heart rate monitoring, among other things.

Yes! This does have always-on heart rate monitoring and step count. The screen is only on when you glance at it or tap the button.

And if it’s not a standard, then it’s not fixing the problem.

Agreed! But as the Pixel watch has gone through three different charging standards, all of which are incompatible with other watches, we don’t seem to be any closer to solving that problem with wireless.

And all that’s even before you begin to consider that watches are more comfortable to charge when they have a stand to do so, since they’re small, light and fiddly

That’s a personal preference. My Pixel watch stand is fiddly to use - the magnets don’t always align. And the puck charger is pretty lightweight and moves around easily. By contrast, my lightweight USB-C cables don’t move my watch when it is charging directly.

Standards need to be standard.

I agree! But sometimes it is nice to experiment with things to see what works. And I’m very happy that this normal-sized watch is able to charge with the same cable I use for my toothbrush, eBook, headphones, fan, and phone.

Pros? It is cheap, it uses USB-C, step counter and heart monitor work, bluetooth calls work.

Cons? App is a bit crap, but works with GadgetBridge. UI is a bit slow and janky. Lots of watch faces but you can’t design your own.

Full review on my blog later today.

I’m not discounting the negatives - I’m saying it is possible and feasible.

As I point out in the article, the Pixel watch is now on its third charging format. None of which seem to be compatible with Apple or Samsung.

There are also compromises with the pogo-pin connector. You can’t charge while wearing it. You have to bring along another cable. Bits of metal can be attracted to the magnets and cause mechanical or electrical damage.

I don’t know if you looked at the photo in my post - but there’s a rubber flap covering the USB-port.

I wrote the post above. So far, the USB-C watch has lasted over 3 days and still has over 50% battery power.

Obviously, at that price it isn’t running a cellular radio or GPS. BLE is amazingly efficient - as are the built in sensors.

And yet, I literally have one on my wrist now. It’s not noticeably bigger than the Pixel 3 watch.

Here’s a video of it in action - https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vYTnG6eKghnicdNj5nkhVx

I agree with all this. The thing which caused me to uninstall was suddenly being pushed lots of abusive message with disturbing contents.

When I complained about it, Matrix told me that my public complaints were hurting the ecosystem and I should be quiet.