Finally they put a non applicable to the pole, but I actually do own a smartwatch. But not a f****** Apple watch. The stupid track your steps heart rate crap I wish was not present
Well, I have a Fitbit Alta, so it’s only semi-smart. I like the step counts, but what I like even more is the sleep tracking. Also it alerts me to texts, which is convenient.
I have a Pebble Time Steel since the kickstarter many years ago. Still gets multiple days of battery life, still displays my notifications, and still has the silent alarms that don’t disturb anyone else I’m sleeping with.
I love this thing, and would hate trying to find a replacement if it died.
@minuette I love my pebble so much, but I was wanting something to track my heart rate, and my pebble didn’t do that. Otherwise I would absolutely still use it. Now I have a garmin venu sq2. Keeping my pebble around just in case though.
I’ve owned a variety of these things because I find them intriguing
Finally, it occurred to me that the most important aspect was given that these things collect data. What company is one comfortable with letting it collect data?
There are some devices you can get from China that seem to be very confidently engineered and reasonably accurate, but I don’t know where the data would go and that leaves me queasy
I have an Apple Watch, which I’m quite fine, but the battery life is not acceptable
Maybe I’ll get an Apple Watch Ultra at some point and see if that’s better
I’ve heard good things about the Samsung and pixel watches, but I’ve never messed with one
I love my pebble. Are those things still functional? I don’t know where it is and I’d have to find it and see if it could still be a working device.
My fave is a Garmin, but I’ve misplaced it and since I’m not having any luck finding it, I might have to go spend some money and get a replacement
I kind of wish the garments did cellular or at least some of them had that option
But the high-end garments are already challenging. The notion of what is an acceptable high-end amount for a health watch or smart watch as is some of them are way over 1000 bucks if you get all the fancy shit.
The engineering and data collection in these things is pretty excellent, and Garman apparently keeps your data on its side and you own it. It doesn’t get shipped all over to everybody.
If you’re running the Garmin app on your phone and talk to your watch via Bluetooth from the phone, which most people do then you can choose to share your government data with the Apple health app or with the Google equivalent of that if you have android
I’m OK sharing my Garmin data with Apple because I think Apple tends to keep that data somewhat off the international data market
My theory is that if you share your data with Google then shortly thereafter, everybody has it every daya broker in the universe
@f00l@Tadlem43 Me too on the apple, however…
I’m not sure it matters much anymore. I try to stay within one ecosystem (I guess you call it that?, infosystem?) because that company already knows everything about me
I have a samsung watch. Do I love it, no. Do I hate it, no. You cannot, no matter what anyone says, totally disable the bs ‘you have goals’ stuff. (Maybe the newer one, i dunno, but not replacing every year)
Everything except my actual computers are samsung, including TV, Tablet(s), phone, and watch. So Samsung owns my soul. I’m not sure it is any better than it being Apple or Google (who still probably owns its share since all samsung products are android based).
Somedays I thing we should all just walk naked out on the street and just toss our social security cards and other identifying data in the air and get it over with. (/s for those who do not do sarcasm)
/showme a naked goddess tossing her identifying papers in the air in the middle of the city
If he is worried about data privacy, then, possibly, the thing to do is to be born in maybe 1900.
Nobody has privacy, and we all know that if you don’t hand your data out plenty of other places will simply take it from you
my first priority is not to give it to China I suppose and of course one doesn’t know whether one is giving it to China or not but at least I try not to obviously give it to China
my second priority is the limit what Google gets
Although I’m really lazy and half asked about it because I use Google maps and use Gmail.
so maybe I don’t really mean that I’m willing to do all the work of locking things down as much as possible
maybe I’m just a whiny hypocrite
regarding data I do think Apple is somewhat more protective of privacy than Google is which is not to say they’re excellent. They are most certainly not.
@f00l@Tadlem43 I will NOT own anything that is powered by a Google O/S, like Android, Chrome ect, that includes Browsers, Phones, TVs. Media boxes ect.
I work Desktop Hardware support ( which mean I hear a Lot of about network security) I know companies that WILL NOT allow Chrome on their computers.
Google is the Most snoopy, 2nd is Microsoft.
the two most secure are 1) Linux/Unix 2) Apple.
Oh BTW I love buying Open Box or referb Apple products.
So that means I have MacBook Pro, iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Mini (retired) MacPro tower (retired)
I Love iCloud. The seamless integration between all the hardware!
Yes in the past I have had PalmPilot, a fitbit (retired)
I do have many intel based laptops that were given to me, I have rehab them! One has linux, Yes one has WinDoze 10, Built AMD based tower & had a FREE copy of winDOZE 7 Pro, I have not upgraded it. But have not used it in a few years.
@f00l@mycya4me@Tadlem43 it’s all in which one in your experience has been the biggest liar. For me that’s always been apple. Dating back to the 1990s. From about when they hired Steve Jobs back. But I get it. Everybody has had different negative experiences with I’m going to call a big four not big three - apple, google, microsoft, and Amazon
@Cerridwyn@f00l@Tadlem43 Remember I have been doing Corp. IT Computer Hardware repair ( aka It’s Broke/ I Fix) for 25 years, of course it has 98% Microsoft/ Windoze.
I started with an Atari 800xl Moved to the Atari 1040 ST. So I have seen it from the Beginning. Yes I know how big an AR$ Jobs & Gates were at the Start. Amazon & Google are kinda new players. I have see so many underhanded tricks for them all.
Yes Corp use Win/Tel computer hardware for desktops, Linux/ Unix for the servers & Apple phones/ Tablets for the securty, plus they had their own on top of that for ALL Devices.
The reason some companies will NOT use chrome for the lack of security/ How snoopy Google is.
As I said this comes from over 25 years working in the field. In even know that some banks use a version of Linux on their desktops.
Home machine is currently to a Mac mini and I have a really old Chromebook that’s currently running a mini Linux install.
Yeah I use windows. I try to disable the easiest stuff to disable in terms of their current. Let’s snoop everything philosophy.
I used Fitbit for years, but have not loved their recent products and that was before Google bought them
I did try out a Fitbit charge five and I just didn’t love it and that combined with the Google aspect I just never used it
And I use Google product so I’m a total hypocrite
my first smart phone we’re all androids and I still use android phones for stuff that would be a pain in the ass on iOS
Such as when I want a phone that allows a micro SD card
And when I want serious file management
I don’t use chrome when I want a chrome type product. I usually go with Brave and it’s various iterations.
But I do use Google maps which is about a big privacy leak as you can get
And I do use Gmail although I hate email and look at it less than once a week and people who want to be in my life know to contact me through other means than email because I hate email so much
so I think I qualify as a somewhat privacy interested person, but also a gigantic hypocrite
if I had more free time, I’d probably put Linux on a bunch more machines and learn a bit more about using it because I’m really clueless except for the most basic stuff about the UI
I did decide after trying a few for a couple of days that even though they were superb smart, watch products and fitness watch products available from China. I just wasn’t gonna use them because even if the Chinese were getting my data in other ways, I wasn’t gonna simply hand it to them.
pity because the products themselves in hard terms were quite good
We actually used android products for phones until the last batch when they switched to iPhones because the hospital used it. Everyone rebelled, but they were closing us anyone so didn’t matter. I liked android because “I” not IT had some control.
(They let us start with androids because we were using hotspots and the older iPhones would not let you use the phone and the hotspot at the same time). Even those who used iPhones for personal use, said the androids worked better for their professional use.
We used internet explorer long after it was safe to do so. IT in some places really doesn’t understand outside of the building device safety, at least they didn’t before COVID. What is technically safe in a closed system isn’t sitting at starfucks. (They did manage to be one of the few healthcare systems that didn’t get hacked back then, they actually successfully fought it off.) (Having to have them manually whitelist all the home health sites was a PITA, but we go there )
Oddly, those of us who before this had some admin access had put firefox on our desktops to avoid IEs BS but we lost it after the hack. They eventually gave everyone Chrome… They started using Chromebooks for a lot of the web based work from home people too.
On a personal level, my first 3 desktops were Apples. (NOT MACS). When they released the MAC, they screwed over most of the US educational system that they had give so many free Apple][ s to and the teachers who had bought their own to be compatible
my first computers that I actually owned where the RadioShack garbage
Once you could buy the parts and build your own. I started building my own PCs that ran MS DOS or similar
I didn’t own my first Mac until recently when I got the mini it’s got an M1 chip
I must say it’s a pleasure to use even though it’s not a high-powered machine
Windows has it used for this because there’s so much written for it in terms of extensions and applications and stuff
I like using Linux because I feel few people are spying on me. But I’m the very inverse to f a Linux guru so when I set it up, I usually have to ask my more confident, technical friends or will I heavily I’m very helpful webpages
a friend of mine, took a sort of retirement job with a local highly recorded hospital that is not part of a chain and is a genuine charity hospital with a great reputation
What he was doing didn’t involve IT much at all, and his supervisors only slowly learned that he had a very serious IT and security background
After which they came to him whenever they needed to upgrade anything in the department and asked him what to do and fortunately for him and for them, he was able to walk them through making the right choices for whatever they wanted to implement next
However he told me about some processes that involve the IT department as a whole and not just his department where person who worked for the hospital and therefore we’re entirely subject to hippa to interact with basic IT systems operated by that department
The data breach possibilities were appalling
There was stuff that could’ve been sniffed out by anybody running a sniffer, and then anybody could’ve logged in and looked at data that was private to the patients or their families
Some of the logins or universal to an entire department with the same password used in each case. I wonder if any of the employees and ex employees for the last 10 years, have happened to mention that to anybody outside their job.
in the beginning he would report all this sort of you. Don’t even make these mistakes 40 years ago practices to the IT department and they actually complained back to him that he was bothering them.
This is a very well funded hospital that could afford the best level of professional IT staff
After they started, pushing back against him for mentioning the most obviously horrible privacy practices that anybody could hack who at half a brain cell he just let it alone
This is a superb hospital that is famous for the quality of it service and I hope nobody figures out who they are and how easy it would be to break into some of their systems
It’s a regional thing and I hope I’m being vague enough that nobody can suss it out from this post
I like tracking sleep, but I wish I could find one that’s also good at tracking naps. Because I really need to cut back on those.
I also love having the weather right there on my wrist. What’s the temperature outside today? Just check my watch, don’t even have to tap anything, it’s just right there.
I never had the want for one, I’m the type of person that I can’t take my watch or jewelry off and remember to put it back on. My digital one is solar powered so no worries second on is in a window so if this one dies, just swap.
It nudges me when I’ve sat a the computer too long. And calculates my exercise with a cute little green ring. Rewards me when I get enough for the day with a buzzing on my wrist and a fun picture.
if you don’t know where the data is going with the given smart watch then you don’t want the watch
if you want a smart watch either get a Garmin or similar, which keeps the data in-house and as a US company or there are some decent Scandinavian country companies that make these devices and seem to keep the data somewhat private
or get yourself an Apple Watch cause it integrates into everything you already have
and if you get one a few generations old from Swappa or someplace, maybe it won’t cost $1 billion at time of purchase
Not having a smart watch is the best part.
The find my phone feature
Finally they put a non applicable to the pole, but I actually do own a smartwatch. But not a f****** Apple watch. The stupid track your steps heart rate crap I wish was not present
It tells the time.
I mean, isn’t that the function of any watch?
Phone is ALWAYS on silent.
@hchavers, had an ex who thought it was suspicious I kept my phone on silent. He took it to mean I was cheating.
Actaually, I have at least four devices that are classified (by some entity) as “smart watches”, and have not worn any of them since February.
You don’t have to wind it!
I wear an automatic watch, so I don’t manually wind it, but with a smart watch, you have to charge it! What a hassle!
Well, I have a Fitbit Alta, so it’s only semi-smart. I like the step counts, but what I like even more is the sleep tracking. Also it alerts me to texts, which is convenient.
Leaving it in the charger for days because I forgot it exists
Paying with my watch
I have a Pebble Time Steel since the kickstarter many years ago. Still gets multiple days of battery life, still displays my notifications, and still has the silent alarms that don’t disturb anyone else I’m sleeping with.
I love this thing, and would hate trying to find a replacement if it died.
@minuette
I have a few pebbles in a drawer somewhere and haven’t used them in years, but they were so fine. I still love them.
@minuette I love my pebble so much, but I was wanting something to track my heart rate, and my pebble didn’t do that. Otherwise I would absolutely still use it. Now I have a garmin venu sq2. Keeping my pebble around just in case though.
@minuette Yikes - someone has one listed on eBay for “$10,000.00+ $20.00 shipping.”
Seems kind of chintzy to add shipping to a $10,000 price.
I’ve owned a variety of these things because I find them intriguing
Finally, it occurred to me that the most important aspect was given that these things collect data. What company is one comfortable with letting it collect data?
There are some devices you can get from China that seem to be very confidently engineered and reasonably accurate, but I don’t know where the data would go and that leaves me queasy
I have an Apple Watch, which I’m quite fine, but the battery life is not acceptable
Maybe I’ll get an Apple Watch Ultra at some point and see if that’s better
I’ve heard good things about the Samsung and pixel watches, but I’ve never messed with one
I love my pebble. Are those things still functional? I don’t know where it is and I’d have to find it and see if it could still be a working device.
My fave is a Garmin, but I’ve misplaced it and since I’m not having any luck finding it, I might have to go spend some money and get a replacement
I kind of wish the garments did cellular or at least some of them had that option
But the high-end garments are already challenging. The notion of what is an acceptable high-end amount for a health watch or smart watch as is some of them are way over 1000 bucks if you get all the fancy shit.
The engineering and data collection in these things is pretty excellent, and Garman apparently keeps your data on its side and you own it. It doesn’t get shipped all over to everybody.
If you’re running the Garmin app on your phone and talk to your watch via Bluetooth from the phone, which most people do then you can choose to share your government data with the Apple health app or with the Google equivalent of that if you have android
I’m OK sharing my Garmin data with Apple because I think Apple tends to keep that data somewhat off the international data market
My theory is that if you share your data with Google then shortly thereafter, everybody has it every daya broker in the universe
@f00l If you’re worried about your data and privacy, Apple is NOT the way to go!
I have never owned anything Apple, and that’s why.
@f00l @Tadlem43 Me too on the apple, however…
I’m not sure it matters much anymore. I try to stay within one ecosystem (I guess you call it that?, infosystem?) because that company already knows everything about me
I have a samsung watch. Do I love it, no. Do I hate it, no. You cannot, no matter what anyone says, totally disable the bs ‘you have goals’ stuff. (Maybe the newer one, i dunno, but not replacing every year)
Everything except my actual computers are samsung, including TV, Tablet(s), phone, and watch. So Samsung owns my soul. I’m not sure it is any better than it being Apple or Google (who still probably owns its share since all samsung products are android based).
Shrug. I honestly gave up on the idea of true privacy years ago. It seems like every week I am getting some notice of some (1) privacy breach, (2) lawsuit on a privacy breach, (3) settlement on a privacy breach or (4) some other class action lawsuit addressed to either (A) myself, (B) my late father, or © my father’s estate.
Somedays I thing we should all just walk naked out on the street and just toss our social security cards and other identifying data in the air and get it over with. (/s for those who do not do sarcasm)
/showme a naked goddess tossing her identifying papers in the air in the middle of the city
Something went terribly wrong. Please try again.
@Tadlem43
If he is worried about data privacy, then, possibly, the thing to do is to be born in maybe 1900.
Nobody has privacy, and we all know that if you don’t hand your data out plenty of other places will simply take it from you
my first priority is not to give it to China I suppose and of course one doesn’t know whether one is giving it to China or not but at least I try not to obviously give it to China
my second priority is the limit what Google gets
Although I’m really lazy and half asked about it because I use Google maps and use Gmail.
so maybe I don’t really mean that I’m willing to do all the work of locking things down as much as possible
maybe I’m just a whiny hypocrite
regarding data I do think Apple is somewhat more protective of privacy than Google is which is not to say they’re excellent. They are most certainly not.
@f00l @Tadlem43 I will NOT own anything that is powered by a Google O/S, like Android, Chrome ect, that includes Browsers, Phones, TVs. Media boxes ect.
I work Desktop Hardware support ( which mean I hear a Lot of about network security) I know companies that WILL NOT allow Chrome on their computers.
Google is the Most snoopy, 2nd is Microsoft.
the two most secure are 1) Linux/Unix 2) Apple.
Oh BTW I love buying Open Box or referb Apple products.
So that means I have MacBook Pro, iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Mini (retired) MacPro tower (retired)
I Love iCloud. The seamless integration between all the hardware!
Yes in the past I have had PalmPilot, a fitbit (retired)
I do have many intel based laptops that were given to me, I have rehab them! One has linux, Yes one has WinDoze 10, Built AMD based tower & had a FREE copy of winDOZE 7 Pro, I have not upgraded it. But have not used it in a few years.
@f00l @mycya4me @Tadlem43 it’s all in which one in your experience has been the biggest liar. For me that’s always been apple. Dating back to the 1990s. From about when they hired Steve Jobs back. But I get it. Everybody has had different negative experiences with I’m going to call a big four not big three - apple, google, microsoft, and Amazon
@Cerridwyn @f00l @Tadlem43 Remember I have been doing Corp. IT Computer Hardware repair ( aka It’s Broke/ I Fix) for 25 years, of course it has 98% Microsoft/ Windoze.
I started with an Atari 800xl Moved to the Atari 1040 ST. So I have seen it from the Beginning. Yes I know how big an AR$ Jobs & Gates were at the Start. Amazon & Google are kinda new players. I have see so many underhanded tricks for them all.
Yes Corp use Win/Tel computer hardware for desktops, Linux/ Unix for the servers & Apple phones/ Tablets for the securty, plus they had their own on top of that for ALL Devices.
The reason some companies will NOT use chrome for the lack of security/ How snoopy Google is.
As I said this comes from over 25 years working in the field. In even know that some banks use a version of Linux on their desktops.
@Cerridwyn @mycya4me @Tadlem43
Home machine is currently to a Mac mini and I have a really old Chromebook that’s currently running a mini Linux install.
Yeah I use windows. I try to disable the easiest stuff to disable in terms of their current. Let’s snoop everything philosophy.
I used Fitbit for years, but have not loved their recent products and that was before Google bought them
I did try out a Fitbit charge five and I just didn’t love it and that combined with the Google aspect I just never used it
And I use Google product so I’m a total hypocrite
my first smart phone we’re all androids and I still use android phones for stuff that would be a pain in the ass on iOS
Such as when I want a phone that allows a micro SD card
And when I want serious file management
I don’t use chrome when I want a chrome type product. I usually go with Brave and it’s various iterations.
But I do use Google maps which is about a big privacy leak as you can get
And I do use Gmail although I hate email and look at it less than once a week and people who want to be in my life know to contact me through other means than email because I hate email so much
so I think I qualify as a somewhat privacy interested person, but also a gigantic hypocrite
if I had more free time, I’d probably put Linux on a bunch more machines and learn a bit more about using it because I’m really clueless except for the most basic stuff about the UI
I did decide after trying a few for a couple of days that even though they were superb smart, watch products and fitness watch products available from China. I just wasn’t gonna use them because even if the Chinese were getting my data in other ways, I wasn’t gonna simply hand it to them.
pity because the products themselves in hard terms were quite good
@f00l @mycya4me @Tadlem43 I hear ya
We actually used android products for phones until the last batch when they switched to iPhones because the hospital used it. Everyone rebelled, but they were closing us anyone so didn’t matter. I liked android because “I” not IT had some control.
(They let us start with androids because we were using hotspots and the older iPhones would not let you use the phone and the hotspot at the same time). Even those who used iPhones for personal use, said the androids worked better for their professional use.
We used internet explorer long after it was safe to do so. IT in some places really doesn’t understand outside of the building device safety, at least they didn’t before COVID. What is technically safe in a closed system isn’t sitting at starfucks. (They did manage to be one of the few healthcare systems that didn’t get hacked back then, they actually successfully fought it off.) (Having to have them manually whitelist all the home health sites was a PITA, but we go there )
Oddly, those of us who before this had some admin access had put firefox on our desktops to avoid IEs BS but we lost it after the hack. They eventually gave everyone Chrome… They started using Chromebooks for a lot of the web based work from home people too.
On a personal level, my first 3 desktops were Apples. (NOT MACS). When they released the MAC, they screwed over most of the US educational system that they had give so many free Apple][ s to and the teachers who had bought their own to be compatible
@Cerridwyn @mycya4me @Tadlem43
my first computers that I actually owned where the RadioShack garbage
Once you could buy the parts and build your own. I started building my own PCs that ran MS DOS or similar
I didn’t own my first Mac until recently when I got the mini it’s got an M1 chip
I must say it’s a pleasure to use even though it’s not a high-powered machine
Windows has it used for this because there’s so much written for it in terms of extensions and applications and stuff
I like using Linux because I feel few people are spying on me. But I’m the very inverse to f a Linux guru so when I set it up, I usually have to ask my more confident, technical friends or will I heavily I’m very helpful webpages
@Cerridwyn @mycya4me @Tadlem43
a friend of mine, took a sort of retirement job with a local highly recorded hospital that is not part of a chain and is a genuine charity hospital with a great reputation
What he was doing didn’t involve IT much at all, and his supervisors only slowly learned that he had a very serious IT and security background
After which they came to him whenever they needed to upgrade anything in the department and asked him what to do and fortunately for him and for them, he was able to walk them through making the right choices for whatever they wanted to implement next
However he told me about some processes that involve the IT department as a whole and not just his department where person who worked for the hospital and therefore we’re entirely subject to hippa to interact with basic IT systems operated by that department
The data breach possibilities were appalling
There was stuff that could’ve been sniffed out by anybody running a sniffer, and then anybody could’ve logged in and looked at data that was private to the patients or their families
Some of the logins or universal to an entire department with the same password used in each case. I wonder if any of the employees and ex employees for the last 10 years, have happened to mention that to anybody outside their job.
in the beginning he would report all this sort of you. Don’t even make these mistakes 40 years ago practices to the IT department and they actually complained back to him that he was bothering them.
This is a very well funded hospital that could afford the best level of professional IT staff
After they started, pushing back against him for mentioning the most obviously horrible privacy practices that anybody could hack who at half a brain cell he just let it alone
This is a superb hospital that is famous for the quality of it service and I hope nobody figures out who they are and how easy it would be to break into some of their systems
It’s a regional thing and I hope I’m being vague enough that nobody can suss it out from this post
Best thing is not having to learn to tell time.
@phendrick
I usually use an analog watch face just so that I can feel virtuous because I’m giving myself the challenge of remembering how to read one
And bonus points for refreshing brain cells on Roman numerals, if your dial uses them?
@phendrick
I never look at the numbers or Roman numerals. I just look at the hands.
my Apple Watch is dead right now and my Garmin watch is lost and I don’t even know which numeral forms they use
I like tracking sleep, but I wish I could find one that’s also good at tracking naps. Because I really need to cut back on those.
I also love having the weather right there on my wrist. What’s the temperature outside today? Just check my watch, don’t even have to tap anything, it’s just right there.
Timers.
By the way, there’s lots of community support for Pebble watches. Check Reddit for the r/pebble subreddit and also check out https://rebble.io/ and https://apps.rebble.io/en_US/
That I have a hand washing coach! It tells me when Im done washing my hands! Joking.
/showme a handwashing coach.
The find my phone feature.
@sammydog01 I love that feature, I have used it often!
I never had the want for one, I’m the type of person that I can’t take my watch or jewelry off and remember to put it back on. My digital one is solar powered so no worries second on is in a window so if this one dies, just swap.
It nudges me when I’ve sat a the computer too long. And calculates my exercise with a cute little green ring. Rewards me when I get enough for the day with a buzzing on my wrist and a fun picture.
@romellex Yep, Mine too!
So meh… what kind of dumber than Apple smart watch will you be selling soon?
@Kidsandliz
if you don’t know where the data is going with the given smart watch then you don’t want the watch
if you want a smart watch either get a Garmin or similar, which keeps the data in-house and as a US company or there are some decent Scandinavian country companies that make these devices and seem to keep the data somewhat private
or get yourself an Apple Watch cause it integrates into everything you already have
and if you get one a few generations old from Swappa or someplace, maybe it won’t cost $1 billion at time of purchase