Martian Notifier Smartwatch
Ever on the lookout for the next great cheap smartwatch, my latest is the now $35 Martian Notifier. I bought it on TNW Deals for $35, free shipping. Downloaded the Martian Notifier app from the Google Play Store to my Samsung Galaxy, charged up the watch, paired the devices on bluetooth...voila! Easiest setup ever! Especially given the problems I've blogged about before with pairing other devices. LIKES: easy setup, classy analog display, can still read time even when battery is run down b/c analog watch has separate battery, COST, can use Google Now voice commands thru it. DISLIKES: it's limited to whatever push notifications you get on your phone. There is no step counter or altimeter, etc, you can't download new apps on it or pay for things like you can on an Apple Watch, it only vibrates (no sound), it has a special/weird charger that you can't get anywhere else (non-standard), and my biggest dislike...it scrolls the push message twice and that's it. If you don't look at the watch during those 2 consecutive scrollings, you cannot look at the message later w/o digging out your phone. There's no way to pull the message back up again on the watch. Oh well...it's cheap and it works and the setup is a LOT easier than the other models I've used, and it's classy looking and I love it...until the next watch I try heheh. ***** MAY 10, 2016 UPDATE: see 1st comment below for information about firmware update
OK I just downloaded and installed the firmware update: https://www.martianwatches.com/support/notifier-smartwatch/
ReplyDeleteIt was kind of a pain in the rear. You have to download the firmware to your laptop, then the instructions are kind of vague but I figured out that you have to plug in the watch to your laptop, open the software, turn the watch on and on the menu go to "setup", and it starts updating the firmware to version 10.54. It looks and works exactly the same with the following BIG EXCEPTION: now you can see your notifications until you press a button to "dismiss" them. Remember how above in the initial review I said "and my biggest dislike...it scrolls the push message twice and that's it. If you don't look at the watch during those 2 consecutive scrollings, you cannot look at the message later w/o digging out your phone. There's no way to pull the message back up again on the watch"...? Well now the notification stays on your watch until you press a button to dismiss it! YES! Worth the firmware download/install. If you get multiple notifications before you dismiss one, it keeps them all until you dismiss them one at a time. Very good upgrade!