The author mentions the Withings Activite as a viable, albeit less "smart" alternative to the iWatch, and I just had to chime in -- the Activite is one of the best devices I've ever owned. It's beautiful, useful, and inconspicuous. And no, I don't work for Withings.
That is exactly what struck me as well, I guess BLE 4 doesn't consume near that much energy as some people (me) think it does. So probably it's the display that consumes the most amount of energy. And since this device also has no notification feature it means most of the time there is no connection to your device.
This is good news to me though, means when I finally come around to making devices/projects I can use BLE and still have good battery life! Now just find a BLE 4 module that's cheaper than the ESP8266.
Why is that? I actually enjoy the deep amount of functionality with the Apple Watch - there's a lot of "there" there, and that makes me more productive and happier.
As far as I've seen (mostly from their own marketing materials) everything the iWatch does, it does worse than a smartphone. Essentially, anything I might consider using it for, I would rather just do it on my phone. It doesn't let me replace my phone, since it doesn't even work without it.
Good to hear -- I've been interested in the Activité, but haven't gotten my hands on one to try it out yet. I like my Fitbit for keeping me honest about walking around and whatnot, and my analog watch doesn't do that for me, so I find myself somewhat ridiculously wearing one on each wrist.
In your experience, what are the downsides of the Activité, vs. a regular old analog watch?
I use an Android phone and have no intention of using an iPhone. I checked the Withings app ratings in Play Store and its 3.6 with quite a few reviews regarding bad integration due to the Android app done almost like an afterthought.
I would love to hear from others regarding the experience on Android because I think I like the watch so issues with the app would be the main issue for me.
Those of you in the market for a smartwatch (or any watch really) should check it out: http://withings.com/us/en/products/activite