My new pebble cannot come fast enough. I am so fucking sick of modern smartwatches. Loaded with features I don't want, the features I do want don't work reliably, and I have to charge it daily.

I specifically bought my fitness/sports watch without camera nor microphone, but sadly the next version has them, so I'll probably need to consider another brand when this one breaks.

Imagine if we had ever discovered a device for doing that.

No. No, I do not.

I mean, it’s a lot more practical to wear a watch then carrying a camera everywhere. Not saying the watch is a good idea, it really isn’t, haha.

I have the Fitbit Charge 6. Relatively inexpensive, has all the basic features and sensors, and its own GPS so you can leave your phone at home when you go for a run or whatever. Also you can tap to pay with it if you choose.

Okay that's fair. I don't live in a city so I didn't think about that, but when I visited NYC I was absolutely paranoid about having my phone out when walking around.

A few years back I remember there being an Android smartwatch which itself was damn cool (like full Android 4.4), and that also had a camera. Use case? Probably none, but it was there. Their objective was really just fitting a smartphone on your wrist.

Maybe if placed at a good angle and ability to record without much notice on the screen, it could be an emergency bodycam-ish thingy. Probably bottom of the watch, and surely a wide-angle lens.

I was bummed to hear that one of the new "features" of the repebble is AI integration. Hopefully being open source you can easily disable it forever.

And brain implants trump every other device. Would you?

I could see this as a potentially helpful tool for the blind or visually impaired. Combined with a service like 'be my eye', that could make sense.

No. Definitely not.

I’m from north Boston (the hood). Manhattan, especially Central Park and lower, is the safest I’ve ever felt in a major city. Nearby Brooklyn and Queens were the same. No one visits Staten Island. BX and Harlem aren’t for everyone.

I did not.

Is that meant to be a fair comparison?

I dont disbelieve this - but where did you see that announcement? I wish to know more, and potentially cancel my preorder depending on what I see. I went hunting in their usual channels for updates but not seeing anything related to this.

I get that too. There's an anonymity that's so bizarre. I was in Manhattan and quickly realized that im just a ghost, nobody looks at you unless they're selling something. And it's generally OK, I could identify solo women and minorities and all sorts of people clearly feeling perfectly secure in their day to day business.

It was fascinating. Kinda overwhelming, I've spent my whole life in the Southeast. But interesting.

Other than the chemical clean+terrible aftershave smell everywhere, I assume it's a fad scent post-Covid but god it made me wanna hurl sometimes it was so strong.

Ah, they're marketing to the twatwaffle demographic.

They're going for James Bond but ending up with get smart.

Am I a spy?

Not watch-related but Google-related and this video lives rent free in my head at, pretty much, all hours: https://youtu.be/6PY8C1KmNwM