Huawei’s $80 smartwatch isn’t worth it

You remember that adage about how if you want something cheap, fast and good, you can only get two? I’m too drunk to recall it properly, but Huawei’s doing its best to tick all three boxes with the Honor Band Z1. It’s a wearable from the company’s Honor sub-brand that’s designed to appeal to tech-savvy, budget-conscious shoppers. It’s just gone on sale in the US for $80 and, up front, it’s far too much for a neat but badly executed idea. It might be $20 less than the discounted OG Pebble and significantly more stylish, but the experience is so compromised that it’s not worth the pain.
In many ways, the Honor Band Z1 reminds me of similar “budget” smartwatches like the first Pebble and Alcatel OneTouch’s otherwise nameless Watch. Like those two, the Z1 is designed to run a custom operating system and is limited by comparison to its more expensive rivals. In addition, the trio are notably cheaper than the Apple Watch (which starts at $249) and most Android Wear devices, which run for $250 or so. And that’s if you can pick up a bargain here and there. Finally, all three are hampered with some sort of compromise that reminds all of us you can’t get a first-class ticket at a third-class price.

I’m always leery about defining watches as “masculine” or “feminine,” because, hey, it’s 2016 and we live in a more enlightened age. It’s just a shame that most of the people who saw me sporting this device asked why I was wearing a girl’s watch. That’s down to the fact that the Z1 has a dainty case and slender strap, while my massive forearms could be described as anything but. It’s also very pretty, with a round, 38mm body and a polished steel bezel that catches the eye and feels ultramodern in a ’60s sort of way.

You can’t get a first-class ticket at a third-class price.

It’s a similar story with the strap, which is made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a fancy-schmancy elastic plastic that’s resistant to oil and damage. That said, it turns out the white band is quite vulnerable to dye from my jeans, which is why the pictures in this piece have a smudgy blue tint. Before I’d even noticed, the strap’s subtle crosshatch texture was suddenly very visible so, uh, sorry about that, folks. If I have another objection, it’s that the band is narrow, to the point where it looks more comfortable on my friend’s 14-year-old daughter than it does on me.

If you’ve ever seen a Huawei Watch, you’ll be aware that it and the Z1 were shot from the same gun barrel; they even use the same charging plate. The styling is where the comparisons end, however, since the flagship Android Wear–based model is powerful, hypermasculine and… uh, everything the Z1 is not. The firm is already remedying this issue by releasing a jewel-encrusted alternative for women, but the price will be a wince-inducing $500. By comparison, the Z1 is reminiscent of HTC’s Rhyme, the company’s attempt to appeal to women by launching a deeply compromised phone with a purple paint job.

One of the oldest tricks in the cheap-smartwatch-design book is to build one with a round case but put a smaller, square display inside it. Alas, much of the Z1’s real estate is pure empty frippery, with a square 1.06-inch 128 x 128 OLED touch panel wedged inside. I’m not qualified to say how it performs in bright daylight — because it’s February in England — but it should manage to struggle against the sun. Should. I say that because, as you’ll spot in the above photo, the display is firing on all thrusters, and taking a visible picture became near impossible.

In order to sip its rather meager battery, the screen will only turn on when it senses you raising your forearm. In theory, this is fine, and at night it’s a feature you can easily disable if you’d prefer that it only light up when you touch the display. Unfortunately, it leaves you wide open for accidental touches, even when you’re asleep. More than once, I was woken by the glare of the display on my eyelids and so stopped using it for sleep-tracking after a few days. If I had another complaint, it’s that the watch only shows the time for a fleeting moment — if your eyes don’t catch it, you have to tap to get another three seconds. Then there’s the fact that a swipe is often incorrectly registered, leading you down a rabbit hole of no … nope, no, no, that’s not what I intended …

All told, the Honor Band Z1 will tell you the time, how many steps you’ve taken, how many calories you’ve burned and how much sleep you’ve had. If, say, you go out for a run, you can activate a separate activity-tracking mode that will tell you the steps and calories for that specific burst of effort. The only other stand-alone option available on the device is the ability to change the face for one of four alternatives.

What separates this device from a bog-standard fitness tracker, though, is that you can read notifications from your smartphone. If you have multiple text messages or WhatsApps, for instance, it’ll offer up a new icon on the menu to let you read those messages. Unlike with other devices, you not only get the preview but also can paw back and forth through the entire text until you decide to dismiss it. In addition, you can choose to dismiss or mute your phone’s ring when you get a call.

The Z1 also offers up idle reminders if you’ve been still for more than an hour, although in practice this doesn’t work that well. More than once I’ve been walking up a flight of stairs only to be told that I wasn’t being active enough. Oh, and if your phone gets separated from your body, the watch will ping with a little “lost signal” alert that doubles as an ersatz Bluetooth tether.

The Z1 is connected to your phone via the Huawei Wear app, which offers basic fitness- and sleep-tracking facilities. On the home screen you’ll see a large circle, the rim of which gradually fills up with a block of color the more you move (or sleep) that day. You can also tap to access your historical data and see how many calories you’ve burned off or what foodstuff that equates to. For instance, at the start of the day, you’ll be told how many strawberries you can eat guilt-free with the calories you’ve burned off, as an example. Beyond that, the app lets you tweak some of the device’s features, like activating or disabling push messages and idle reminders. But that’s about it.

Not having an always-on display means that the Z1 sips rather than gulps its 70mAh battery. In a week of testing, the device lasted nearly six days before it had to go back on the charging plate. That’s the sort of basic requirement for battery life that many other smartwatches fail to meet. But — and it’s a big but — the three-second flash when the display activates is one of those compromises that really gets in your way. It’s meant to be elegant and simple but winds up annoying you, especially if you’re trying to passively tell the time.

When you look at a gadget, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is, Which particular set of people is this designed for? Because sometimes what the company intended and what happens in reality can differ. For instance, Huawei Honor advertising is chock-full of young women, but I’d say they’re the wrong group of people. To me, it doesn’t follow that if something is fashionable, you’ll forgive it for being a shitty product, and indeed, from a tech perspective, the Z1 isn’t great.

The display is cheap, not enough has been done to make it user-friendly and it cannot in any way compete with the Pebble, which is just $20 more expensive. Yes, the older watch is significantly uglier and no, it’s never going to appeal to people who don’t want to embrace the pocket-protector-and-glasses look. But considering how much more you get for very little extra and how underwhelming the Z1 is, it’s a slam dunk. Maybe you’d consider the Z1 if you have a small child and want her to have a “my first wearable” that isn’t made of yellow plastic. Maybe then, and only then, is the Z1 worth buying, but even that’s a stretch.

Space architecture: Six buildings for the final frontier

By Cat DiStasio

Mars has captured the world’s attention recently, but space agencies around the globe haven’t forgotten that there’s a whole slew of other planets out there. And with continued planetary exploration, of course, comes the necessity to set up bases that can support life, research and agriculture far, far away from home. Science and farming intersect in outer space, and the results are like nothing here on Earth. Many buildings designed for space rely on creative approaches like 3D printing, solar power, native materials and portability. We’ve included six structures in our gallery below, and each is more unique than the one that comes before it.

One-year timelapse video of the sun shows its dancing corona

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was only designed to fly for five years, but it has celebrated six years of 24/7 solar observation on February 11th. The ultraHD video below the fold is a timelapse that stitches together images the spacecraft captured during that sixth year, from January 1st, 2015 to January 28th, 2016. Since each frame represents two hours and the photos were taken in extreme ultraviolet range, you can clearly see the sun’s corona dancing and undulating throughout the video.

Extreme ultraviolet is commonly used in solar imaging. Photos taken in that wavelength shows parts of the corona — the aura of plasma that surrounds the sun — burning at around 1,079,540 degrees F. As Paris Hilton used to say: that’s hot. Besides the undulating plasma, you might also notice that the sun gets bigger and smaller ever so slightly in the video. That’s because SDO takes images from various distances as it orbits the Earth.

NASA sent out SDO to monitor the sun in order to better understand its electromagnetic system and solar phenomena like flares and coronal mass ejections. CMEs, in particular, can cause geomagnetic storms that can disable satellites and even power grids.

Source: NASA

Astronaut Scott Kelly will answer questions from space on Tumblr

Scott Kelly, the NASA astronaut with a green thumb, is hosting Answer Time on Tumblr right from the ISS. What’s “Answer Time,” you ask? It’s like Reddit’s AMA where the host fields questions from readers, so if you missed Kelly’s AMA earlier this year, now’s your chance. Here’s a short background on Kelly, in case you’re still thinking of what to ask: he’s known as the American who has spent the most time in space and is currently on a year-long mission aboard the ISS.

Besides conducting experiments of his own on the space station, he also serves as a subject for NASA’s twins study. Scott has a twin brother named Mark who’s a former astronaut, and NASA is keeping a close eye on both of them to see what changes a human body goes through during long periods of space travel. You can already submit any question that pops into your head, but Kelly (who’s busy doing astronaut things) will only start answering on February 13th, 1:45PM ET.

Source: Tumblr

ICYMI: Cotton Candy body parts, robotic bartender and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: Vanderbilt University scientists whipped up some human capillaries by using a cotton candy machine to properly shape channels for the blood vessels. A Kickstarter project is selling a tiny video camera attachment with a flexible cord to aim and drop it into places you normally can’t see, like inside a car engine. And the University of Maryland is training a robot to make drinks by watching a human; a process that is far more adorable than you’d first think.

There are lots of great stories out this week, but we’d first recommend reading up on how ripples in the fabric of spacetime do really exist, then how Marc Andreesen managed to insult nearly everyone from India.

As always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.

Check out these great NVIDIA SHIELD game discounts

If you have a NVIDIA SHIELD gamer in your life (including yourself), why not treat them this Valentine’s? Ending on the 14th February, a few select titles are available with up to 67% off the original price, from both the GeForce NOW store and Google Play.

If you’re the exploring type, there are two adventure gems you can pick up in the GeForce NOW store and stream on SHIELD, plus puzzle-, arcade-, strategy- and adventure-game options you can pick up from Google Play. Read on for a rundown on all the titles.

Fall in love with The Park and Submerged

Any adventure game fan will definitely enjoy the spine-tingling thrills provided by The Park, which you can pick up in the GeForce NOW store for 33% off the standard $12.99 price. Step into the shoes of a frantic mother searching for her lost son in a creepy amusement park after hours. The intense storyline will keep you on the edge of your seat—and guessing—until the very end. (Purchase includes a digital download code you can use to play the game on a local PC.)

Sounds very… uh… eerie…

For a more relaxing adventure, check out Submerged, which lets you explore a mysterious and beautiful world and uncover its story at your own pace. You play as Miku, a young girl who must navigate through a flooded city to find a cure for her ailing younger brother. Submerged’s emphasis on narrative, exploration, and non-violent puzzle-solving makes it a safe, refreshing choice you can share with anyone. You can pick Submerged up now in the GeForce NOW store at 25% off the standard $19.99 price. (Purchase includes a digital download code you can use to play the game on a local PC.)

A GeForce NOW membership is required to purchase and play these games on SHIELD. Membership is free for the first three months, then just $7.99 month thereafter. Membership also gives you instant access to more than 60 additional games!

To play, navigate to the GeForce NOW menu within SHIELD Hub on your SHIELD Android TV, portable or tablet. You’ll find Submerged and The Park available for purchase in the Buy and Play Instantly category.

Up To 67% Savings On Four Google Play Games!

In addition to the savings on these two PC adventure games that you can stream on SHIELD with GeForce NOW, we’re also offering the following four native Android games at up to 67% off in the Google Play store.

JuJu

Join JuJu the shaman panda and his lizard sidekick, Peyo, for a colorful platform-style adventure to save the world from an ancient evil. Don’t let the cute characters and brightly animated levels fool you – enemies will challenge you at every hop, swing, and jump. Square off against towering robots, deadly sea creatures, and more either by yourself or with a friend in co-op play. JuJu is available now for 50% off its standard $9.99 price.

Dustoff Heli Rescue for SHIELD

Actions fans will enjoy this SHIELD exclusive, visually enhanced version of the arcade hit Dustoff Heli Rescue. Take off for a series of 25 harrowing search-and-rescue missions in one of three types of helicopters that have different handling characteristics, payload limits, and weapons. Dustoff Heli Rescue for SHIELD is available now for 50% off its standard $2.99 price.

This War of Mine

In This War of Mine, a role-playing simulation game, you will experience war from the perspective of civilians trying to survive against long odds in a besieged city. Lack of food and medicine, and constant danger from snipers and other scavengers are just a few of your worries. Life-and-death decision-making is at the core of this game, and your conscience will be your guide. Grab This War of Mine now for 66% off its standard $14.49 price.

Windward

Hit the high seas in Windward, an open-world, role-playing adventure game in which you explore a procedurally generated world filled with treasure and rival captains. Sink your enemies, plunder their cargo and visit towns to upgrade your ship and crew to try for even bigger rewards. It’s a pirate’s life for you! Windward is available now for 67% its standard $9.99 price.

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