Moto360

Confession: I have finally succumbed to Android Wear enclosed in the Motorola Moto360 watch. There were ups and downs with this decision. First I wanted it badly. Then I learned it was using an old processor and worse, the battery needed a recharge during a day, or it was dead before evening. I could live with a slower CPU, but the battery problem ruled the product completely out!

Only two weeks ago I learned Motorola issued a software patch fixing the battery. Geez... how many times this history must repeat itself? I started posting on this back in 2006 and the phenomena is still valid :)

But back to the Moto360. It is gorgeous. Even Apple fans admit it beats the looks of the iWatch. Google Now behind it performs great with speech recognition and many fine tuned smart details (like: wearing the watch puts the phone in a silent mode - why get two beeps when you can get just one vibe on a wrist?).

And it has Qi wireless charging. No smart watch vendor has solved the charging problem yet. Overnight it should work like on the attached photo - just by placing the watch on a phone. Also there is a lot of kinetic energy in a hand moving all day. Mechanical watches have been harvesting this energy for years. What prevents electronic watches to use this proven technology? Or at least, at least the watch vendors should offer Y USB cables or cradles with micro USB pass through. How expensive would be a 3" micro USB cord sticking out of the Moto cradle? Nobody wants to carry two power supplies. Very few will shell extra $$$ for a dual port charger (BTW Innergie remains on the top podium place when it comes to travel chargers!).

Moto360 is half-worse and half-better when it comes to bulky charging accessories. The worse part is the cradle. Relatively big and heavy it is not the most welcome piece of my travel luggage. The better part is the Qi standard, as I already have a number of wireless Qi pads at home and the Moto360 charges really quickly. So the original cradle stays in my travel bag and the Moto360 charges from Nokia :)) Qi pads at home - Yay: standards rule! The Qi charging / compatibility is way, way better than the small (or not-so-small) clips / cradles provided by Samsung and LG with their watches. BUT manufacturers beware: you have to solve the watch charging problem in a smart way, as it will be blocking your market adoption.