Motorola Smart Watch
Lavonda Busing
The Moto 360 is an Android Wear-based smartwatch announced by Motorola Mobility in 2014.[2] It was announced on March 18, 2014 [3] and was released on September 5, 2014 in the US[4] along with new models of the Moto X and the Moto G.
The Moto 360's form factor is based on the circular design of traditional watches, supporting a 40mm (1.5 in) viewing diameter and circular capacitive touch display. The case is stainless steel and available in different finishes. Removable wrist bands are available in metal and natural leather.[5] The watch is water resistant and has only a single physical button.
The watch has an all day battery, and rather than needing to be plugged in, it charges wirelessly by being placed on an included cradle.[6][7] Internally [8] it has dual microphones for voice recognition and noise rejection and a vibration motor allowing tactile feedback. An ambient light sensor optimizes screen brightness and allows gesture controls such as blanking the screen by placing one's hand over it. Bluetooth 4.0 is included for connectivity and driving wireless headphones. In the June 2015 release notes, Motorola announced Wi-Fi support for the device, such that it could be used out of Bluetooth range. A heart-rate sensor and 9-axis accelerometer support health and activity monitoring. It has IP67 certification for dust resistance and fresh water resistance rated at 30-minutes at 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) depth.
The Moto 360 runs Android Wear, Google's Android-based platform specifically designed for wearable devices. The 360 currently runs Android Marshmallow and pairs with any phone running Android 4.3 or higher and any iPhone running IOS 8 or higher. Its software displays notifications from paired phones. It uses paired phones to enable interactive features such as Google Now cards, search, navigation, playing music, and integration with apps such as fitness, EverNote, and others.[9]
Ars Technica criticized the "terrible" battery life and performance, blaming it on the outdated SoC (system-on-chip) used in the Moto 360: "Motorola inexplicably chose an ancient 1GHz single-core Texas Instruments OMAP 3".[10] In a review for Engadget, Jon Fingas wrote, "The interface isn't that great at surfacing the information I need at the time I need it, for that matter. Spotify's Android Wear card always showed up on cue, but Sonos' controls appeared inconsistently even when there was music playing. And the watch frequently defaulted to showing apps that weren't really relevant to the situation at hand; no, I don't need to check out my fitness goals in the middle of the workday. Google may be right that watches are primarily about receiving passive streams of information, but that doesn't excuse doing a poor job when I want to be more active." He concluded, "Even with those quirks in mind, it's pretty clear the Moto 360 has turned a corner in half a year's time. It's no longer the underdeveloped novelty that it was on launch, and it's now my pick of the current Android Wear crop. True, it doesn't have the G Watch R's true circular display, the ZenWatch's custom software or the Sony Smartwatch 3's GPS, but I'd say of the three, it strikes the best balance between looks, functionality and price."[11]
I see where Motorola's Moto Z is listed as a compatible device for Fitbit products, but was wondering if this includes ALL models of the Moto Z? My wireless carrier currently has a Moto Z4 available at a good price and I wanted to see if changing phones might help the connectivity issues I have always experienced with both my Charge 2 and my now not-working-at-all Versa. (Presently, I have an LG Stylo 2V and, in troubleshooting my connectivity issues, I discovered the Stylo 2V is NOT on the list of compatible devices.)
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. As it turns out, only the Motorola Moto Z is specifically compatible with our products and services, this means that such mobile device was tested by a specialized team here at Fitbit and they made sure that all the features of your Fitbit device and the Fitbit app will work as intended. About the Motorola Moto Z4, because of the fact that this mobile device isn't listed, we cannot ensure that everything will work as expected because this phone wasn't tested. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that your Fitbit will not work at all with it.
Re: connectivity issues with the Stylo V2 and my Charge 2 - although I've paired the Charge 2 through my phone's Bluetooth, the Fitbit app says "Device Not Found," it will NOT sync through the app, and the Charge 2 can't connect with my phone's GPS. This happened about a week ago, right after I had to restart my Charge 2 again - up until that point, everything was fine. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling the app, manually clearing the app's cache, turning the phone on/off, pairing/unpairing the device in my phone's Bluetooth setting - nothing works. I've been syncing the Charge 2 through my PC's dongle and that works fine.
(Just fyi, the reason I restarted the Charge 2 was the device stopped giving me all of my stats during exercise. It does this every month and I restart it every month. This is the first time it has ever lost the ability to connect with my phone's Bluetooth and GPS.)
It's too late for me. I already have the Moto Z4. UGH! My Versa 2 worked fine with my Z3. Someone needs to fix this ASAP. My smartwatch is now just a watch and I'm not happy. Waiting on FitBit to catch up!!!
I now have a motorola smart watch which connects to my (android) phone via WearOS, and this feeds Google Fit. But I am missing being able to log my stuff in Strava, and from what I can see my only option would be to record on strava using my phone (which is not convenient and less accurate) which could then send to Google Fit.
Are there any intermediate apps that might help. For example google fit offers to sync with something called Health Connect - would this help? I don't want to go willy-nilly connecting apps hence asking you experts here first.
I've been wearing the Moto 360 for about a month, and I really wanted it to be the ultimate smartwatch. But it's not. The Moto 360 is a mixed bag of a gadget, yet another smartwatch rather than a must-have.
Yes, the Moto 360 is distinctive. It has great watch faces, a good wrist strap and better microphones to understand your voice commands. But, at its heart, this watch suffers the very same problems as other Android Wear watches: middling battery life, strange quasi-interactive notifications and apps that are hard to access.
It's not Motorola's fault. The real issue is Android Wear, Google's operating system for wearables. It's just not a killer experience yet. The Moto 360 is just a prettier shell for Android Wear. It brings nothing new to your forearm. And so, under the hood, it's really not a better watch. Which is a shame, because with a better battery life, improved software, and a better understanding of fitness apps, this could be a pretty interesting device. Those updates may still happen over time. But they're not here yet.
The Moto 360 is a cool-looking smartwatch. There's no doubt about that. But as I strapped it on my wrist for the first time, it all seemed a step below the fantastic dream-device glimpsed months ago.
Other round Android Wear smartwatches will be on the way eventually, including the LG G Watch R, but the Moto 360 is the first to arrive. And it's not only fun to see a round display, but the watch construction is elegant, too.
A round, brushed stainless-steel body sits on top of a Chicago leather watch strap that runs right into the main body. The Moto 360 comes in two metal colors: black, and a natural stainless steel. My review unit was black, with a black leather strap. Other leather bands come in gray and stone. Extra bands cost $30, and a version with a stainless steel segmented band will debut later this year for $300. You can buy that band when it's available down the road and put it on your leather Moto 360: it'll cost an extra $80.
The Moto 360 body feels thick compared to its strap, and its round display is slightly too large -- larger than many people might like. But the clean design and lightweight feel give it a Movado-like minimalism.
On the side of the Moto 360, there's a little home button that looks like a watch crown. Unlike the Apple Watch's fancy turning digital crown, this is just a button. It activates the watch or puts it to sleep, or brings up a settings menu when you press and hold it.
On a whole, the Moto 360 has the looks of something from the future: like a real watch, but also some sort of glowing round mini-marvel. But under the hood it's less of a magical experience. The illusion falls apart, sometimes.
For instance, the Gorilla Glass-covered round 1.56-inch-diameter touch display, which actually sits slightly raised above the metal housing, is prone to smudging. The LCD screen underneath, which has a resolution of 320x290 pixels and a pixel density of 205 ppi, looks bright but not as eye-popping or crisp as some OLED displays allow. Text looks a little fuzzy and washed-out if you peer at it up close.
Your eyes aren't deceiving you. In Motorola's quest for a round screen with the thinnest outer bezel possible, a custom design resulted in an added black bar that cuts the circle off by a sliver. That black bar houses an ambient light sensor for auto-adjusting screen brightness.
The little bar isn't a deal-killer, but boy, for a watch this obsessed with looking flawlessly beautiful, it certainly stands out. It's even more baffling when you consider that another upcoming round Android Wear watch, the LG G Watch R, doesn't have that black bar -- and its thicker bezel doesn't really look all that bad. All-white watchfaces end up looking like they had a little slice cut out of them. It ruins what's an otherwise impressive design.
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