Database Develop

[Q] Touchless Control Uses

I've been thinking about giving a Moto X a try recently and I had a few questions for those of you who own one.
Other than while driving, what are some of the unexpected uses you have found for touchless control? In theory it sounds great, but a couple of the things I can think which would be really handy (throwing it into cupholder in car and turning on bluetooth with voice, pausing Netflix stream that is beng chromecasted) can't be done because of limitations of Google Now/Search, rather than Touchless Control itself.
Also, most people seem to love active notifications. However, if the clock flashes every so often without notifications, it seems like one would occasionally not notice a real notification unless you actually glance at it, rather than something you see out of the corner of your eye and know you need to check on. Also can they be prioritized? Like the messaging icon will appear rather than gmail if you have both, because it is higher priority?
Thanks for any information.

evolvd said:
I've been thinking about giving a Moto X a try recently and I had a few questions for those of you who own one.
Other than while driving, what are some of the unexpected uses you have found for touchless control? In theory it sounds great, but a couple of the things I can think which would be really handy (throwing it into cupholder in car and turning on bluetooth with voice, pausing Netflix stream that is beng chromecasted) can't be done because of limitations of Google Now/Search, rather than Touchless Control itself.
Also, most people seem to love active notifications. However, if the clock flashes every so often without notifications, it seems like one would occasionally not notice a real notification unless you actually glance at it, rather than something you see out of the corner of your eye and know you need to check on. Also can they be prioritized? Like the messaging icon will appear rather than gmail if you have both, because it is higher priority?
Thanks for any information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The clock flashing threw me off when I first got it yesterday afternoon - I didn't know why it was flashing, and was afraid something was messed up. After a few moments though it does slow down/stop...or at least on mine it did.
And notifications (when you have multiple) I believe are set in order of receiving them. For instance, my G+ photo upload was ready for backup, and I got a Hangout SMS. The SMS took priority, while the G+ photo upload was smaller at the bottom. So I don't think it's based on "priority" but rather "which one is more recent".
Hope that helps.

Top 5 uses for your Galaxy Gear

Hi, proud owner of the gear for like 2 days, finding my uses a bit limited so far, so I thought i would list mine, if you list yours! Maybe we can get ideas from each other of how to best use this awesome piece of tech:
1. Notifications (the only one that isn't great is Touchdown for exchange, does normal Samsung exchange email work better - ie show a preview of the email?
2. The time: yup, it is a watch, after all
3. Calendar: : Keeping tabs on what my next meeting is
4. Camera:; For quick snaps to remind me of things, it's ideal
5. Phone:: For seeing who's calling, and rejecting their call usually
Feel like I should start using the pedometer, but i go to the gym every day, and don't walk alot. And definitely feel like there are other uses for this that haven't been thought of/ apps haven't come out yet. I haven't gone the custom ROM route, but I have updated to MK7.
A

1. To look like a geek
2. Notifications
3. Watch
4 Making short calls to find other peoples phones.
5. Checking current weather conditions

1 - time
2 - meeting events
3 - pedometer (hooked into s health)
4 - camera
5 - notificaations
6 - gaming! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAQ3xQnaW18&feature=c4-overview&list=UUZAweAIkRllQ7PjR9SfnNyg
7 - news (using zite)
8 - quick photo notes to Evernote

1. geek
2. girl magnet
3. phone/text
4. watch
5. wrist top flashlight like on the old centurions cartoon.

1. Time
2. Hacking
Not sure if the order is right

1: Notifications. Knowing who emailed me or texted me without picking up my phone is huge.
2: Music control. It works great with the stock music app, and even shows album art on the watch. I can be on the treadmill with my BT headphones and the phone completely hidden away and change songs and volume.
3: Quick pictures.
4: Weather updates.
5: Pedometer.

so what kind of things can you do with real apps, after installing the null rom? i'm really tempted to pick one up if there are any black friday deals

I really wish the #1 feature of the Gear was to tell time. But I find it so frustrating when glancing at my wrist to check the time all I see is a blank screen! C'mon! The wrist flick thing works ok if your hands are free. But at work my hands are always working/holding on something, and flicking of the wrist is not an option. Very hard to consider the Gear a true watch if I can never get it to tell me the time.
1. Notifications
2. Kill/waste time loading ROMs and customizing watch faces
3. Camera
4. Attract nearby geeks within a 25ft radius
5. Time

definitely this would come in handy when weightlifting in the gym

imdbui said:
I really wish the #1 feature of the Gear was to tell time. But I find it so frustrating when glancing at my wrist to check the time all I see is a blank screen! C'mon! The wrist flick thing works ok if your hands are free. But at work my hands are always working/holding on something, and flicking of the wrist is not an option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, and even when I flick my wrist it shows up only 75% of the time... needs to be either more sensitive or always-on (it has an AMOLED screen that shouldn't burn too much battery?)

eurorauser said:
Agree, and even when I flick my wrist it shows up only 75% of the time... needs to be either more sensitive or always-on (it has an AMOLED screen that shouldn't burn too much battery?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YEP! I was able to run Big Digital Clock app and have it running with the display always-on, but the battery on the Gear is tiny, so it does drain it quickly. Also, there is an issue with screen burn-in with the clock always on. Overall, I still wear the Gear over my other watches for the geek factor.. pretty cool to have a tablet on ur wrist that lets u read ur notifications. I'm coming from the original Sony Smart Watch on my PPC, which was a watch #1, then notifier #2.

My List
1. New geek toy to play with
2. Reading notifications while in meetings etc.
3. Taking calls while my hands are full.
4. Snoozing my alarm in the morning so I don't need to roll over and find my phone.
5. Telling the time.
6.Taking quick snaps.
7. Controlling my music for my Bluetooth headphones.
8. Using the wine scanning app

[Q] Galaxy S5 vs Iphone 5s thoughts.

Hi,
I have been an IOS user for quite a while, with brief excursions into Android land usually without much success. I am trying hard this time because I actually prefer a lot of things about Android (specifically the S5) ... less restrictive, removable battery, storage etc..
However some of the things I really struggle with and wonder if anybody has any answers before are listed below !
Lock screen preview of mail and txt's , I have downloaded an app called NILS but it seems to be such a hack and is not very seamless, anybody else have a better suggestions?
Bluetooth, when I get in my car , the phone starts playing the last thing i was listening to , that's fine & is similar to the iPhone, however the iPhone knows the difference between a call and music and if I turn the car off and get out , it switches off the music (but does not hang up calls). The S5 just carries on playing whatever i was listening to. I cannot find any way of changing this behaviour (any ideas ?).
Quick access to search, with the iPhone you swipe from the top and type the first couple of letters of an app to run it , sometimes this is really useful. The closest i have found is to go into the pull down notification bar and click sfinder... yeuch , any better ideas?
Memory and CPU usage, the phone gets quite laggy and I cannot find a specific reason ... other than having to installs NILS and the call blocking app (see below). I have installed task killer now , not sure if this is the correct approach.
Do not disturb mode, (blocking) , well its crap on the S5 compared to the Iphone. None of the functionality that i am used to such as letting repeated calls through and setting specific schedules is available. I have downloaded an app called do not disturb which does most of this stuff but i am sure this is also contributing to lag and memory usage. Also annoyingly it does not return the phone to the state it was in before it activated do not disturb. What do i mean by this ? I am the kind of person that has my phone on silent 99% of the time with vibrate, when do not disturb is active i want all vibrations and screen alters disabled (it does this) , but when coming out of do not disturb it switches the phone to full sounds on.
I am trying not to be down, there is a lot to like with this phone and if I could resolve some of the above I would be much happier with it.
Hope to hear some of your suggestions.

Acdisplay for lockscreen. Used it on on RAZR Maxx but not yet on my s5
Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app

zero66 said:
Acdisplay for lockscreen. Used it on on RAZR Maxx but not yet on my s5
Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will try that.

Download Apex launcher or any other launchers for lag problem, put in mind that Android uses more ram and cpu processing than IOS, that's why they keep on increasing ram, also turn off as much bloatware (apps came with phone) as possible, another very useful tip is to turn of your phone every day for few mins like your computer this will clear ram.
Welcome to the future

Don't use task killers. They don't help. Android will automatically kill off apps when it needs to. Task killers will kill off apps that will be autostarted again and this becomes a loop leading to lag and battery drain.

Hellscythe said:
Don't use task killers. They don't help. Android will automatically kill off apps when it needs to. Task killers will kill off apps that will be autostarted again and this becomes a loop leading to lag and battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh thanks for this , I will try that.

Lockscreen preview of text and mails is already in touchwiz you just have to switch it on so it will show you the preview via settings.
For quick access to applications long press on the home button will bring you google now and from there you can open your apps easily.

noideaforusername said:
Lockscreen preview of text and mails is already in touchwiz you just have to switch it on so it will show you the preview via settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes for the messaging app, however I use a third party app for email, (nine), this does not seem to support this. Anyway my use case is that when my phone is lying on the desk and mails / sms etc come in , I would like it to wake up briefly and display a preview so that I can decide to ignore it or continue on with whatever it is that i was doing. NILs does this quite well, but seems like a bit of a hack.
noideaforusername said:
For quick access to applications long press on the home button will bring you google now and from there you can open your apps easily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works fairly well.

mah123 said:
Hi,
I have been an IOS user for quite a while, with brief excursions into Android land usually without much success. I am trying hard this time because I actually prefer a lot of things about Android (specifically the S5) ... less restrictive, removable battery, storage etc..
However some of the things I really struggle with and wonder if anybody has any answers before are listed below !
Lock screen preview of mail and txt's , I have downloaded an app called NILS but it seems to be such a hack and is not very seamless, anybody else have a better suggestions?
Bluetooth, when I get in my car , the phone starts playing the last thing i was listening to , that's fine & is similar to the iPhone, however the iPhone knows the difference between a call and music and if I turn the car off and get out , it switches off the music (but does not hang up calls). The S5 just carries on playing whatever i was listening to. I cannot find any way of changing this behaviour (any ideas ?).
Quick access to search, with the iPhone you swipe from the top and type the first couple of letters of an app to run it , sometimes this is really useful. The closest i have found is to go into the pull down notification bar and click sfinder... yeuch , any better ideas?
Memory and CPU usage, the phone gets quite laggy and I cannot find a specific reason ... other than having to installs NILS and the call blocking app (see below). I have installed task killer now , not sure if this is the correct approach.
Do not disturb mode, (blocking) , well its crap on the S5 compared to the Iphone. None of the functionality that i am used to such as letting repeated calls through and setting specific schedules is available. I have downloaded an app called do not disturb which does most of this stuff but i am sure this is also contributing to lag and memory usage. Also annoyingly it does not return the phone to the state it was in before it activated do not disturb. What do i mean by this ? I am the kind of person that has my phone on silent 99% of the time with vibrate, when do not disturb is active i want all vibrations and screen alters disabled (it does this) , but when coming out of do not disturb it switches the phone to full sounds on.
I am trying not to be down, there is a lot to like with this phone and if I could resolve some of the above I would be much happier with it.
Hope to hear some of your suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally if it were me I would try another company. I have a 5s and tried the s5. The s5 is just not a good example of what android is. Hardware to software the s5 is not done very well at all. Good luck with your choice.
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

thegrants82 said:
Personally if it were me I would try another company. I have a 5s and tried the s5. The s5 is just not a good example of what android is. Hardware to software the s5 is not done very well at all. Good luck with your choice.
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely disagree. I love my S5 and the HW integration.
But each to their own.

mah123 said:
Yes for the messaging app, however I use a third party app for email, (nine), this does not seem to support this. Anyway my use case is that when my phone is lying on the desk and mails / sms etc come in , I would like it to wake up briefly and display a preview so that I can decide to ignore it or continue on with whatever it is that i was doing. NILs does this quite well, but seems like a bit of a hack.
This works fairly well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install Push Bullet and be amazed. It mirrors any notifications on your phone onto your PC via chrome. That way you don't been to look at the phone. I work at a desk all day and can leave the phone where ever and always know if I have an SMS, call, email or anything else. Don't forget Google now also works with Chrome.

thegrants82 said:
Personally if it were me I would try another company. I have a 5s and tried the s5. The s5 is just not a good example of what android is. Hardware to software the s5 is not done very well at all. Good luck with your choice.
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree a bit with your response. And that's why I am also checking out the Xperia Z1 Compact. Once you go from the Galaxy S5 to the Z1C you will notice a huge difference in speed for opening and closing apps. I am even using Nova launcher, google calendar and avoiding any TouchWiz apps, but still the lag is disappointing.

mah123 said:
Memory and CPU usage, the phone gets quite laggy and I cannot find a specific reason ... other than having to installs NILS and the call blocking app (see below). I have installed task killer now , not sure if this is the correct approach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For lags, you should try to put off the opening of S voice with the home button, because when you press it, it wait for second press for opening s voice app... or not. My S5 is really smooth now, hope this gonna help you.

HitMile said:
For lags, you should try to put off the opening of S voice with the home button, because when you press it, it wait for second press for opening s voice app... or not. My S5 is really smooth now, hope this gonna help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this , yes I did this , made a difference.

@mah123 First step, do whatever you can to separate yourself from Apple products, for good this time. Just messin, but I'll continue on:
I see that you have a lot of little details you don't like about the S5/Android. Luckily, you're on the Android platform, where you can tweak just about anything you want. For what you're interested in you'll want to have a look at Tasker, the mighty automation app from Play Store. It's $3.49 but if you don't want to pay that just download the apk from Google search. Just make sure to get it from XDA or one of the apk blogs. With Tasker you can fix your bluetooth issue by detecting when bluetooth is detected and then use command pause music. Tasker should help you fix all your other issues as well. For email the easiest fix is to use a special color on your notification LED or specific vibrate pattern to know when you have email. You can also show an overlay using a "scene" (Tasker's definition of a popup or app window) on top of the lockscreen. Handy :thumbup: But if you need help using Tasker you can do a lot of things: there are plenty of guides all over the Internet, you can google search your problem with the word "tasker" at the end, you can PM me (yes, I'm friendly), you can ask a question over at the Tasker Noob thread here on XDA (I also monitor this thread and I will answer your questions there). Welcome to Android and have fun!
--
Say thanks if I was of help!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Free mobile app

aarongillion63 said:
@mah123 First step, do whatever you can to separate yourself from Apple products, for good this time. Just messin, but I'll continue on:
I see that you have a lot of little details you don't like about the S5/Android. Luckily, you're on the Android platform, where you can tweak just about anything you want. For what you're interested in you'll want to have a look at Tasker, the mighty automation app from Play Store
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.
Fantastic thanks !

I own both phones. In the last few years I have owned the latest Samsung and Apple flagships (iPhone 4 and Galaxy S2, iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4, and iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5).
Both platforms are great and they have their cons and pros.
I am an iOS Developer. I have my name in both Cydia tweaks and App Store. To be honest I felt in love with iOS when I used it for the first time. I like Android, but not as much as iOS yet.
I find the quality of iOS blows Android out of the water. Third app quality is much better on iOS than on Android, based on what I have seen. In terms of software in general, I think iOS is much better. It may be restrictive, but nothing that can't be beaten with jailbreak. Android's big plus is freedom and yes, I like customizing my phone.
In terms of hardware Samsung blows Apple out of the water. I love the camera and that it is Water Resistant. Design wise the iPhone looks prettier, but personally I don't care about those aesthetics.
The one thing I absolutely hate about most Android phones are the hardware buttons. When I type in landscape I keep hitting the sensitive buttons accidentally, many times this result in losing a wall of text I just typed (my palm hits the back button accidentally all the time). I wish these could be disabled when typing or that they could be replaced with software buttons.
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app

There are many things that iOS does 'better' than android, or at least, its a mix of what people of become accustomed too and some are just better. So, when people do make the switch to android, or indeed WP etc, it can be an uphill struggle as those things that are 'better' are maybe less intuitive over on the android side.
However, you have to look at the bigger picture. Android is far far more customisable, even as stock. With the addition of TouchWiz and Sense etc, they bring a lot of features that in themselves are 'better' than iOS.
There are many people that go the other way (Android to iOS) and struggle with some of its inability to control and customise.
What I'm saying is.... give it time, and do not judge android on its lacking in one or two areas, try and look at it from a bigger perspective.
**When I say 'better'... I mean its what each individual sees as better, I'm not saying that it is**

aarongillion63 said:
For what you're interested in you'll want to have a look at Tasker, the mighty automation app from Play Store. It's $3.49 but if you don't want to pay that just download the apk from Google search. [ / QUOTE ]
Tasker is an excellent program. It should be paid for and not stolen.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This is a very good discussion. I find that generally programmers favor Android because of it's similar OS structure to a PC (I'm talking about the coding behind it all and C/Java), and common consumers and Apple computer owners favor iOS. This is a generalization and personal opinion. I know there is the outlier of Apple programmers, I've tried to get into it myself, but my problem I've ran into is that Objective C is overly complicated, just to accomplish simple things. Anyway, even if you don't develop apps, you may favor Android as a coder thanks to Tasker. I've found myself addicted to Tasker as far as tweaking/programming goes, without the need to use Android SDK. Then, you can still export Tasker projects to apks if you want. Tasker can make a good visual-sdk app creation tool.
iresq said:
Tasker is an excellent program. It should be paid for and not stolen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. :thumbup:
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Free mobile app

New Watches

Except for having android wear the new Samsung and LG watches don't seem to represent any major improvement over the gear. They still have a 1 day battery life and neither one has a camera. As strange as it may seem, I find the gear camera very useful.

My understanding is the LG has a 36 hour battery life with the screen on all the time. So, you can see the time constantly like a regular watch. It gets brighter if you engage the interface.
I wish the Gear did that.
I think I only get about 2 hours of screen on time for the Gear.

screen on
screen on is nice although the screen is a lower resolution. I think the lg spec page indicates battery life is 1 day, but testing will tell.

The resolution looks good enough for the screen size in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWNZTYPbzA
I'd take always on screen with that resolution over the screen time of the Gear with the higher resolution any day,
Actual watch is kinda ugly though

moto
yea, they're really pushing the round moto as the "beautiful" watch, but price is supposedly above $300.

I actually like the look of the gear live, the way the metal curves over the wrist look kinda cool. Plus at £169 it's not that expensive really, the only thing I want confirmation on is can we answer calls on it ? I like being able to take a call while driving or working.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

Actually, I like the look and interactions with the notifications on the LG better than the Gear.
Not sure if all Android Wear UIs will be the same, or some customisation will be done by each brand.
LG G Watch Unboxing and Initial Setup: http://youtu.be/TLYgU3XErGU
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Free mobile app

hoddy4 said:
yea, they're really pushing the round moto as the "beautiful" watch, but price is supposedly above $300.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will gladly pay more than $300 to add the moto to my watch collection.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium HD app

No speakers on any of the first 3 Android Wear watches. They have mics so you can voice interact with the watch, but you wont be able to conduct a call from any of the watches.

Bladder61 said:
No speakers on any of the first 3 Android Wear watches. They have mics so you can voice interact with the watch, but you wont be able to conduct a call from any of the watches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So can they do the following?
Make a call
Can we load music, movie, ringtones
Can we add apps like google play music
Otherwise, what can we use that 4gb internal storage for
Tia,
Ian b

richlum said:
The resolution looks good enough for the screen size in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWNZTYPbzA
I'd take always on screen with that resolution over the screen time of the Gear with the higher resolution any day,
Actual watch is kinda ugly though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the Gear 1 is able to keep the screen on all the time (but it kills your battery sooner ofcourse)
I am on Null_23 and installed "Studio Clock" from Play Store.
This clock (it's an app, no widget or watchface) has the option to keep the screen on, which works perfectly.
1 click on the screen makes it brighter.
After a few seconds it dims the screen again.
EDIT : Ok, just tested a little more : watch will stay on untill a notification comes in. After that it will switch off.

no microphone and no camera
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.

hoddy4 said:
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The new Android Wear watches do have mics. Its the primary way you interact with "OK Google". The watches are always listening and from reviews respond instantly to "OK Google" even in a noisy room.
I still think the hardware on our Gear 1 is superior to the AW devices. Hopefully we may get some Devs that can figure out how to get AW on our watch.

hoddy4 said:
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he ment speaker and not microfoon.
The new Gear watches don't have a speaker for calling.
In fact, as far as I have seen, they can't be used for calling whereas our Gear 1's are able to

thanks for the correction. the point is that the gear hardware is in some ways superior to the new ones.

You have to think of Android Wear devices as "Nexi." They are the wearables equivalent of AOSP meaning they're all functionally the same. Everything they do (so far) is tied to Google Services which is great if you're "all in" with Google as the main provider for what you do on your phone. The Tizen Gear's are a better choice if you are more dependent on some of the Samsung apps and services. Android Wear is really just Google Now on your wrist. At least as it currently stands. And once a notification is dismissed it's gone which, based on how I use my current Gear, wouldn't thrill me.
The watch starts off dark (and dims after 5 seconds; this is immutable for now). To wake up the always-on display, you can press the lock button, twist your wrist (and wait a beat or two), or tap the display. If notifications await you, they show up in card form, which you can swipe away to dismiss or swipe up to expand. Swiping to the left reveals finger-friendly icons for making the next move, like opening the notification in your phone or launching into navigation.
You can swipe down from the top to view the date and your battery life meter, or mute and unmute the phone. A long press calls up wallpaper motifs, most of which Google supplied, though a few are Samsung's own. Holding on the lock button invokes the Settings and its various options.
Still, most of what you do on the Gear Live you do with your voice: setting alarms and reminders, navigating, and composing a text message or email to contacts. Samsung, by the way, has splashed out with adding its own stopwatch interface in addition to Google's. You can ask to see your heart rate, which triggers the monitor to do its thing; you can likewise demand to see how many steps you've taken.
Notification displays come in the form of miniaturized Google Now cards and pass along information like stocks, weather, sports scores, and social interactions. You can also control a music player and field phone calls. Notifications are larger and easier to read than notifications seen on Samsung's other wearables, but this is more controlled by Google than by Samsung, whose customized contributions are heavily curtailed with Android Wear.
Google's voice-driven interface has its ups and downs: we did manage to execute several voice commands, including sending short texts and email messages. But, one drawback popped up immediately: you can't approve or abort a message if Google's voice engine misinterprets you, or if you change your mind. Grammarians also won't like the usual issues that come with voice transcription -- mainly irregular capitalization and punctuation you have to voice yourself.
Android Wear is meant to be always-on: in the default mode, the Samsung Gear Live (and LG G Watch) have displays that are bright and colorful, but power down into dimmer, black and white displays that always stay lit to some small degree. As a result, our early impression on battery life isn't good. We got less than 24 hours of use on a full charge. Making the screen go fully dark after a few seconds should help, but then you'd need to wake it up to see the time or do anything else. Battery life seems like it could be a major drawback on the first generation of Android Wear watches.​http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-gear-live/

Use Outside
BarryH_GEG said:
You have to think of Android Wear devices as "Nexi." They are the wearables equivalent of AOSP meaning they're all functionally the same. Everything they do (so far) is tied to Google Services which is great if you're "all in" with Google as the main provider for what you do on your phone. The Tizen Gear's are a better choice if you are more dependent on some of the Samsung apps and services. Android Wear is really just Google Now on your wrist. At least as it currently stands. And once a notification is dismissed it's gone which, based on how I use my current Gear, wouldn't thrill me.
The watch starts off dark (and dims after 5 seconds; this is immutable for now). To wake up the always-on display, you can press the lock button, twist your wrist (and wait a beat or two), or tap the display. If notifications await you, they show up in card form, which you can swipe away to dismiss or swipe up to expand. Swiping to the left reveals finger-friendly icons for making the next move, like opening the notification in your phone or launching into navigation.
You can swipe down from the top to view the date and your battery life meter, or mute and unmute the phone. A long press calls up wallpaper motifs, most of which Google supplied, though a few are Samsung's own. Holding on the lock button invokes the Settings and its various options.
Still, most of what you do on the Gear Live you do with your voice: setting alarms and reminders, navigating, and composing a text message or email to contacts. Samsung, by the way, has splashed out with adding its own stopwatch interface in addition to Google's. You can ask to see your heart rate, which triggers the monitor to do its thing; you can likewise demand to see how many steps you've taken.
Notification displays come in the form of miniaturized Google Now cards and pass along information like stocks, weather, sports scores, and social interactions. You can also control a music player and field phone calls. Notifications are larger and easier to read than notifications seen on Samsung's other wearables, but this is more controlled by Google than by Samsung, whose customized contributions are heavily curtailed with Android Wear.
Google's voice-driven interface has its ups and downs: we did manage to execute several voice commands, including sending short texts and email messages. But, one drawback popped up immediately: you can't approve or abort a message if Google's voice engine misinterprets you, or if you change your mind. Grammarians also won't like the usual issues that come with voice transcription -- mainly irregular capitalization and punctuation you have to voice yourself.
Android Wear is meant to be always-on: in the default mode, the Samsung Gear Live (and LG G Watch) have displays that are bright and colorful, but power down into dimmer, black and white displays that always stay lit to some small degree. As a result, our early impression on battery life isn't good. We got less than 24 hours of use on a full charge. Making the screen go fully dark after a few seconds should help, but then you'd need to wake it up to see the time or do anything else. Battery life seems like it could be a major drawback on the first generation of Android Wear watches.​http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-gear-live/
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The gear is very difficult to view outside. I hope the new watches improve on outside useability. Also, I don't understand why the use of solar power is not used to increase battery life since these devices (unlike a phone) are often in sunlight. I'm not sure if the technology is not ready or the cost is still too high, although the I know that I would be willing to pay more for significantly better battery life.

hoddy4 said:
The gear is very difficult to view outside. I hope the new watches improve on outside useability. Also, I don't understand why the use of solar power is not used to increase battery life since these devices (unlike a phone) are often in sunlight. I'm not sure if the technology is not ready or the cost is still too high, although the I know that I would be willing to pay more for significantly better battery life.
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Solar power seems like a cool idea but at the current technology, the rate at which it recharges the battery under regular exposure to sunlight is very very slow. It would barely make a difference. Plus not a lot of people like to be out under the direct light (cancer and crap, y'know).
Another idea would be the watch being able to recharge by shaking (like some flash lights). We move our arms a lot but I don't know how much kinetic energy is needed for it to be effective.

Gear Manager and Battery Life
I am somewhat surprised by the apparent differences in gear battery life when using different versions of the gear manager. I haven't by any means done a scientific study, but different versions seem to effect battery life more than others. Don't know why this is.

Your thoughts on Android 5.0?

So the finial version has come out. Im sure a lot of you guys have updated to it. Plus a lot of you have been using the Dev version along the way.
What are your guys thoughts?
I like the the new version but also there are still tons of things are are bugging the *poop* out of me.
I thought this was going to be "THE" version that appeased almost all android fans. Fixed a lot the issues since 2.3 while bringing a lot of new features.
1st the things i dont like.
1. Battery % WHY THE *heck* do we still not have an option to turn on a battery % next to the battery icon?????!!!!!!!
2. Hangouts picture (when syncing with FB) not always showing up bug is still present.
3. I like the new light colors with white and grey but why did they choose that color of teal. Im not super excited about that but i do like the white backgrounds.
4. Multitask menu. I dont like how EVERYTHING is in there. And why do we STILL NOT HAVE A CLEAR ALL
5. Google Now launcher. I like it and dont like it. Dont like how everything is so big and dont like how i cant have the middle space be my default. But Nova fixed that. Plus im rooted so i changed my DPI
6. Battery life. Ive only used it for 1 day (going on 1 day) but it seems my battery life is worse then on 4.4.4
7. Battery menu. Dont like anything about it.
Things i do like.
1. Material design (in most places) animations and universal layout for apps is nice.
2. Lockscreen notifications although i dont like how EVERYTHING is on there but im still messing with the menu for this feature.
Im still playing with it and im sure it will get better as apps update (what took them so long) but over all im kinda disappointed with the amount of hype 5.0 got.

Same here, like it but meh it's not there yet, hoping for apps updates etc. And my battery life is slightly worse too

I like it so far, but smart lock seems buggy as hell. I've got my Moto 360 set up as a trusted device, and even went so far as to set up face unlock, and still, I'm prompted for a passcode more often than not. There really needs to be a rescan option -- or, better yet, just make it work like it's supposed to.

Battery life seems worse for me too but I will give it another few days before really making that decision

Make sure you turn WiFi always scanning off. I am getting better than the Dev preview because of the fixed WiFi drain bug. I like it though.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

You cant know anything about battery one day after update, after update system still need some time to "sit on place" and its drains battery.

Where is material design music. Sadly it doesn't animate when I press the play button. I really like what was was shown in the demo .

jt3 said:
I like it so far, but smart lock seems buggy as hell. I've got my Moto 360 set up as a trusted device, and even went so far as to set up face unlock, and still, I'm prompted for a passcode more often than not. There really needs to be a rescan option -- or, better yet, just make it work like it's supposed to.
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I have my moto 360 set up as a trusted device and I never need to unlock my phone. Only on reboot. rest of the time works perfectly.
Im not using face unlock though.

hmmm...
i don't like how you'not able to delete multiple contacts + separation of the phone numbers from the emails.
photos app gather all the jpg files that are in the sdcard which kinda sucks (dude, i don't need my album art in my photo gallery.) + you need Google+ enabled to be able to just look at the photos.
multitask is OMG.... really really nice effect but damn, is there any real need to "mark" every menu page i open? (oh, where's the "clear all" button?)
camera is ok but there is no 0.03 seconds of the new API. pictures are taken as slow as before.
material design is not bad but it shines on multiple layers only.
keyboard is really cool looking and although it'll take some time to get used to "button-less buttons" i do like it.
and battery, well, i can't say since it's only 1 day of use.
still, i think it's going to be ok (i still hate those wakelocks though... ) and last but not least, Chrome... i still miss "text wrapping" that's why i use Opera
all in all, i don't hate it, i'm not thrilled about it but i'm sure it'll "grow on me".

UI looks definitely great,performance and battery haven't improved, nor got worse. But it's too early to comment on that.
No toggle in quick settings to cycle through sound modes(sound/silent,vibrate), dafuq Google? I'm certainly missing Xposed.

very annoyed about the removal of the stock email app, i dont want to comingle gmail and my work stuff.

gjw00 said:
very annoyed about the removal of the stock email app, i dont want to comingle gmail and my work stuff.
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you can DL the stock email app from the play store now

Really? I cant find it. Ended buying 'nine'

I really like having all my emails in gmail app. First day of use, I'm going to get 4hrs sot without messing with settings. It runs really smooth with hells kernel. I would like the pull downs yo have more options, but all in all, I'm happy.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

#sharath said:
UI looks definitely great,performance and battery haven't improved, nor got worse. But it's too early to comment on that.
No toggle in quick settings to cycle through sound modes(sound/silent,vibrate), dafuq Google? I'm certainly missing Xposed.
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It's one of my main nits as well.
I've used Power Toggles for quite a while now. Short simple and to the point and it lets me toggle between sound vibrate or silent settings easily.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc
Not my app but one I swear by.

not available in australia. jesus christ

jt3 said:
I like it so far, but smart lock seems buggy as hell. I've got my Moto 360 set up as a trusted device, and even went so far as to set up face unlock, and still, I'm prompted for a passcode more often than not. There really needs to be a rescan option -- or, better yet, just make it work like it's supposed to.
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I haven't had to enter my PIN once since I set up smart lock with my 360 and face yesterday. Works great!

You can't use the Photos app if you disable the Google+ app. So.... now I have to open the camera app and scroll through my pictures one by one to view them. Super!

I kinda don't like it.
1: The color scheme is not consistent throughout, which really irritates me. While you spend most of your time in a launcher (I use Nova pesonally) or in apps, some of those apps are system apps, and it seems like almost all of them have had color changes, they don't look good and don't even make sense.
2: Some of the features are cool, and even sound great...but they are commonly riddled with "omg, no way!" points of frustration. Smart-lock...would be AWESOME if it would just freaking work when connected to a specific wifi network! For example...in prior versions I had used tasker and secure settings to disable the lock screen and have a significantly longer screen timeout whenever I was connected to my home wifi. Tasker works just fine for the other things I use it for, such as reading my text messages outloud...but only when I'm connected to my home wifi or headphones. But the pin lock errors out, every single time. Root works, tasker and secure settings are configured exactly as they were before, and they both even have administrative rights. It still fails every time, and I get the toast message pop up. I wonder if it is because Google is worried that your neighbor might name their wifi network to the same as yours is, and have it be an open network so when they steal your phone they would automatically be able to get into it. If that is the case...well, that should be easy to fix, one make the service only work with password protected networks, and I'm also sure they could just only have it work when the network name is also reporting the same mac address. But I digress.
3: Lightflow. Ugh, enough said. You might say this is not a lollipop specific thing, but the guy posted an inquiry on this on the support thread since it was an complication with the new notification system, and they responded back saying they fixed it, and it has still not been pushed out by Google yet!
4: I find myself unable to quickly remove notifications from the lock screen and even when the phone is unlocked in some instances. For example, if I am copying lots of individual files over wifi from my computer, and there are multiple "copied" notifications as a result, the first few can be swiped away, but the rest can't! I have to click on them, and then close it. Kinda annoying.
5: One of the only reasons why I really wanted Lollipop were for the improvements to the lockscreen notifications. I envisioned being able to stop using dashclock entirely, and also having an all around easier time with notifications while the phone was locked. Nope! Sure, the basic functionality is good, I can read text messages without an app for it, and that's great...but I have to say I really miss having the unlock ability from just turning the phone on and swiping. Now I have to turn the phone on, press the padlock to get the phone to switch to the pattern lock, then do the pattern lock. That extra step is really quite annoying for me. I'd prefer to have the "extra step" be to SEE THE NOTIFICATIONS. You know, just like how it used to be with dashclock. (You would know you had a notification by the little icon right next to the time and you would swipe down from there to read them) Maybe I'm crazy, but I unlock my phone a lot more often than I have notifications to read. Especially since I can't get the pinlock automatic toggle to work when I am connected to my home wifi!
6: Most lock screen icons are blocked...and for good reason. But some of them are not. For example, in power toggles I have always used an icon that automatically makes a 14 minute timer, and another one for 29 minutes. I use this for my breaks at work of course. (The icon triggers a task in the "Trigger" app that does this) This works from the lockscreen...which sounds great because I can set that timer without having to unlock my phone...but it has also been deactivated by mistake when the phone was in my pocket. Ugh!
7: I don't like the "swipe down" from either the lock screen or from notifications bar option. A lot of this is because I am really used to using powertoggles for this, and this duplicates a lot of that functionality, but
I knew this was going to happen, I have been complaining about software "improvements" at work for the last year and a half. If something is working, don't break it!
---------- Post added at 09:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------
svanheulen said:
You can't use the Photos app if you disable the Google+ app. So.... now I have to open the camera app and scroll through my pictures one by one to view them. Super!
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Check out Quickpic. I've been using it for ages, and it has always been amazing. It's super fast, very customizable...and just plain works!

gtg465x said:
I haven't had to enter my PIN once since I set up smart lock with my 360 and face yesterday. Works great!
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Yeah, I've figured out the issue. I use "Gravity Screen" to shut my device down when I put it in my pocket. It seems that if Gravity Screen puts the device into standby, it also locks the screen in such a way that Smart Lock is disabled. Since that's normally how I shut off my device, I was seeing this almost every time. I'm hoping that the dev can fix this, because I'm really not used to touching my power button.
On another note. I wouldn't mind the email integration with Gmail, except that there's no way to label my various Exchange accounts. I have two separate Exchange accounts that I must monitor, and both simply show as a random-colored circle with a letter "J" (which is the first letter of each email address). I can't even change the color to something that would help distinguish the accounts. I just have to remember that random-color-J #1 equals one account, and random-color-J #2 equals another. It's very annoying. A combined inbox certainly wouldn't hurt, either.