[Other SmartWatches] willfck4beer:
imho... at $18 with free shipping on ebay, the sony liveview mn800 (NOT THE SMARTWATCH)

is badass! it's tiny, sips power, can run all day, runs standard CHIBIOS RTOS on oled screen.

There's a custom firmware/rom functioning and under active development; an OPEN source app manager for the phone; an official app from Sony still being updated... tons of support and devs. Over 50 plugin apps available at the moment. AND liveview takes standard micro usb power so no proprietary cables and chargers.... use your phone charger if you must.

I agree it's not anywhere near the power of the motoactv (which is my second favorite but good luck finding motoactv below $160ish !almost 10 times as much!) and while it does have a degree of independence and I LOVE that it runs fullblown android... it's wifi/bt only ... so for most things you are still tethered to phone anyway. And it's mini usb... so plan on carrying around an additional adapter or charger.

Liveview is tiny, extensible, and dirt cheap and universal.

imho that's hard to beat!

if motoactv comes down to $80 I'll reassess.

---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:00 PM ----------

I want the motoactv... I lust after it.

BUT. It's discontinued. Before sinking close to $200 and then more on the accessories in to something... I'd wonder how many more charge/discharge cycles the battery statistically has? MTBF type stuff.

Is the battery replaceable? Can you get a suitable replacement battery at a reasonable price?

If the screen breaks... can you get replacement screen or digitizer? Is the device easy enough to tear apart and operate on?

Is there an Open motoactv client app for phone? Will moto/google release this to allow extensibility? Will it remain compatible with future android versions/apis? What kind of a power drain will you get maintaining a connection btw phone and motoactv?

But if you have cash to burn - go for it :) It looks awesome.

Otherwise. $18 on ebay for the liveview lets you wade into the water slowly and if it breaks... **** order two!!! This thing is awesome! :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Ericss...er_Cell_Phone_Accessories&hash=item589938963b

I'm in the process of trying to build a solar watchstrap for it with this guy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thin-Film-L...675?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8132e5db

and this guy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-DC-DC-...420?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd02d1204

if this works... battery should run forever!!!

---------- Post added at 03:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 PM ----------

But the biggest feature for me is that at $18 with free 2 day shipping from NYC... this thing is cheap enough with enough functionality that people will impulse buy it and then want more features... so the DEV community is set to grow exponentially as the price continues to fall.

As we've seen time and again - there are no feats the XDA community is unable to traverse. With an exponentially growing DEV and lay community... this thing is going to continue to become sicker and sicker.

PS if you google liveview, don't be turned off by negative reviews... Imho they are older, by unsophisticated users on older android versions and older firmware and app versions. In my experiences across the evo 4g, evo 3d, and note 2, this watch is solid. The connection and battery issues have largely been obviated by the new firmwares, new phone companion apps, and 3rd party app solutions. I love this little watch. I've bought 4 of them and donated to the local hackerspace until my primary breaks - but it's been several years already and she's still ticking.