Birbla

Join the discussion

Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.

Sign in
  • Hacker News
  • This product category is very important to me because of security concerns. The push notifications are stored in a database on most smartwatches that are relatively simple to hack. This and other vulnerabilities represent a significant attack surface on top of smartphones.

    On a more social side, I find that people are more frustrated if I don't immediately reply when they know I have a smartwatch. While I understand that these watches make it easier to stay notified, I find it annoying to have more expectations in return. I still have plausible deniability with smartwatches similar to the Una watch. Otherwise, the toxicity of the technology is significantly greater.

    by kittikitti
  • Is there any good watch outside doing GPS for position and time, minus all the body survzeilance things?
    by jhoechtl
  • Apple Watch is great for that, and you can turn off whatever you don't like.
    by Schiendelman
  • I have an Amazfit Balance 2 and it does GPS just as well as any other smartwatch and you can turn off all the body surveillance.
    by RedShift1
  • I have garmin as it doesn't require any sort of connection or activation to function out-of-the-box.

    Just put it on your wrist.

    You CAN decide to use garmin-connect for apps/updates or pair it with your phone, but I never have and I'm fine.

    Apple watch and others require activation.

    by m463
  • Nice, this might be the right thread to ask a question i have had on my mind for a while: is there a watch that can track some biological metrics (heart rate, steps, sleep data etc) but allowing my to pull data off it without using some proprietary platform? Basically i want to store my data in my own database.

    Might this be it?

    by znpy
  • Seconding this request!
    by codethief
  • I believe you can do this with most Garmins ?
    by Melatonic
  • This is cool because we need more open competition for the app/identity locked ecosystems of sports related electronics like gps watches, bike computers, and action cams. I hate how none of the major brand ones will work without at least signing up for an account and most wont work at all without the manufacturers app.
    by hackingonempty
  • Doesn't this also use its own app and services? The only "open" part of it I saw in the docs was that there's an sdk to write your own app that runs on the watch. Better than nothing, i guess, but not quite what I was hoping for.
    by abeyer
  • I like this a lot. USB-C is obviously not ideal for a super durable plug but with the right cap (sounds like they use a rubber insert?) it could be great. Especially since it would allow direct data access.

    What might be cool for a version 2:

    1. Custom hardshell "door" to cover the USB-C port. Something that cannot fall off the watch. The port itself could be well sealed like a phone and then have this additional layer of physical protection.

    2. Wireless charging of some type (or even add pogo pin as well). Would be nice to top up charge without having to expose the USB-C and probably increase the plug life. Does this require a glass back? Because obviously that would not be ideal in a watch.

    3. Better waterproofing. I dont personally use my Garmin for swimming often but would be nice to not have to worry about it.

    Anybody know about the battery life in real world use?

    by Melatonic
  • For me the value of Garmin (Forerunner) is their proprietary algorithm for calculating Stress Level from HRV. It is the basis for the Body Battery measure. I find it useful to see how food and activity affects my stress levels.

    I guess it would be possible to reverse engineer a similar stress level calculation. Perhaps AI-powered?

    by arnejenssen
  • Yes, and the sleep tracking that adds or subtracts. While not super accurate, it's good enough for me.
    by kilroy123
  • Is that calculated locally or send to the cloud? I got fed up how many Garmin features required an account.
    by mtmail
  • My Garmin Epix's Body Battery levels might as well be randomly generated. They don't correlate at all to how I feel. YMMV.
    by elric
  • HRV from optical is garbage-in garbage-out

    and post-2020 Garmin has totally lost their way with development/algorithms

    by ck2
  • If the algorithm is proprietary, how do you know it is calculating something meaningful?
    by TekMol
  • I'm not sure the body battery/stress measures are that great. Garmin is infamous for having an awful sleep algo and it still has a lot of trouble detecting naps. It doesn't bode well for being able to get stress data. I think it's good for generally determining high stress vs low stress and when you've overdone exercise recently but probably not much more.
    by scheme271
  • Part of the selling point of a smartwatch, atleast in my opinion, is its ability to run apps that aren't developed by the manufacturer - for example, ones that help me be able to see my blood sugar from my CGM on my watch. They have a whole section of their site for developers, but I can't seem to find a link to any kind of store, even though they specifically say developers should register on their portal
    by VoidWhisperer
  • > Can I swim with UNA?

    > UNA is currently a non-submersible device due to its innovative modular design. So, swimming is not something we offer as an activity, nor do we advise it. UNA is IPX5 rated, which means it is splash & showerproof to a high degree.

    by slibhb
  • So it will never last a lifetime.
    by jhoechtl
  • Damn. But hopefully they improve on that. I would absolutely be considering one if this wasn't the case
    by pockybum522
  • Some good points were already brought up in the comments (IP5X, USB C charging), but I have the feeling that it's also just not a good fitness tracker/smartwatch.

    I see a single unboxing of the watch from three weeks ago on Youtube and zero reviews on YT or websites. Just posts based on their PR release that it's available now. (Though some clearly already shipped.)

    Thus, it's unfortunately very likely that the product is also not good at its main purpose, tracking activities, workouts and health. If it would only even come somewhat close to the performance of all the competitor smartwatches/trackers, they'd be louder about that part.

    by lrae
  • I ordered the watch and just had it show up this week. The software side of it seems pretty immature (as you'd expect from first launch), but there's visible progress from the tiny team already. Appeals to me to be able to write my own activities and utilities, though I'm mindful of how far their "openness" extends. Nothing is locked down on the watch so you can dump the firmware, but they don't make the firmware publicly available AFAICT.

    The hardware seems top quality (looking past the waterproofing concerns, don't love that). On first blush it seems like its in the same league as my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro for tracking though, with obviously way fewer features at this point. I intend to do a side-by-side with the Fenix 6 and a heart rate strap to compare HR and GPS to see how it shakes out under tree cover and bouncing around, but the hardware seems up for it.

    by abstract_put
  • There are only about 400 units in existence, and they just started shipping June 30:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unawatch/meet-una-the-m...

    so it's been out for less than a month. That's why you've seen zero reviews on websites, it's an indie Kickstarter. They don't have the marketing budget of a big wearables brand.

    It has a GPS, IMU, and heart rate sensor: That's enough, obviously, to track activities, workouts, and health which their competitors do with the exact same set of sensors. It remains to be seen how accurate those are, or how well the manufacturer and community can develop useful algorithms to turn raw sensor data into activity logs and actionable health insights, but step 1 is to release an MVP to get people wearing the watch and logging data, and step 2 is to use the data to improve the algorithms.

    by LeifCarrotson
  • I just finished swimming, tracked by a Garmin Forerunner 910x which I bought back in 2015 and I have been constantly using since. Wrist band replaced once each side. Battery lifetime still amazing, even with longer bike rides and GPS. Data can be analyzed locally. Uptime since I bought it: almost 100%.

    Amazing peace of Hardware.

    Also their algorithms are cool. If the watch tells me to rest more than 24 hours, I know, I will be tired the next day.

    The two features that I miss are built in heartrate monitor and temperature sensor. I payed around 500€ back then. Over the years I use this watch, the price became very reasonable.

    by lobster2342
  • Are these algos local, as well?
    by DANmode
  • i have a fenix solar, i charge it once a month.

    it has an insane number of features

    by the_real_cher
  • I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3. Fantastic watch but I find the HRM underwhelming. Not very accurate and drains battery. I pair a chest band with it instead for much better quality monitoring.
    by kitd
  • The missing heart-rate monitor is a pretty big limitation for a lot of users. LOL. Imagine writing a review and leaving the heart rate in last place. Just don’t write a review then.
    by _giorgio_