#also I have both a wristwatch (analog) and a phone

[theback-rooms]

Following your advice, Katie and I replenished the snacks and water and grabbed a container of salt, and headed back down.

This time I remembered to check if my watch and my compass worked. The compass definitely works: it went a little crazy when we were on the stairs, but once we got out into the forest it calmed down. The path through the forest seems to travel basically northward, and deposits us on the southern bank of the lake. The palace is on the northern side.

My analog wristwatch worked, in the sense that it kept ticking away the minutes, and when we got back to my apartment, it was actually still set to the correct time, according to our phones. But it was really weird: it had a second hand, and I watched it, and it seemed to be moving more slowly than one tick per second. It also wasn’t moving consistently: some seconds were distinctly longer than others.

I have no idea what any of this means.

Katie agreed to walk along the shore of the lake rather than take the boat, partly persuaded by your arguments, which I read to her. We walked westward along the southern shore.

It was still a moonlit night there (it always seems to be a moonlit night there, no matter what time of the day we go), and the evening was pleasant and warm, with pleasant scents on the breeze.

The orange yarn that we left at our original path was still there, and since we were walking along the lakeshore, we didn’t think it was necessary to use any more for the moment.

As we walked, I kept thinking that I heard things rustling in the diamond trees, which sparkled brilliantly in the moonlight. I kept grabbing Katie’s arm and hissing, “There’s something there!” She was just turning for the fifth time to say, “There’s nothing there,” when there was a thundering noise, and we both jumped and yelped.

A herd of some kind of deer burst out of the forest and ran right past us along the shore. I was too startled at first to get a good look, but once they had run past I began to register things about them. They looked about the size of white-tailed deer, and they were very beautiful and graceful, with a brush of stiff hair up the back of their necks like zebras. But that was definitely not the weirdest thing about them: instead of a pair of antlers, or even a pair of horns like an antelope, each deer had a single horn growing from its forehead.

We watched them surge down the shoreline and then back up into the trees, and Katie and I turned and stared at one another.

“Were those... unicorns?” Katie said breathlessly.

“I think they were.”

There was a pause, and then Katie made a sound that I think can only be described as a squeal of delight.

“My goodness, what a noise!” a voice spoke up, and we both jumped and whirled again.

There was a man standing just a few yards from us. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, although maybe he came out from the trees while we were distracted by the unideer.

He had black hair and dark eyes--he might have been Latino. He was dressed in a shining, highly embroidered green... well, I guess it was a doublet? Something very Tudor-y. Thank God he was NOT wearing a codpiece. He had on some relatively normal-looking cloth trousers and knee-high boots. His eyes, which had attractively drooping lids, were sparkling with amusement, and he was grinning.

“I beg your pardon, ladies,” he said, and did an actual bow, one leg forward, arms out, and everything. He was still grinning. “There is no one here to make an introduction, so I must introduce myself: I am Lord Julian.”

After a dumbstruck moment, Katie managed to make some sort of curtsy (despite her jeans) and I tried to follow her example (and failed miserably. I’m going to have to get curtsying lessons?).

I started to give him my name, and Katie elbowed me HARD in the ribs and gave me a LOOK, which I didn’t understand at all, except maybe, “We don’t want the creepy stranger in the Renaissance Faire costume who is living in the magical forest under your bedroom to google you on ye olde internette and start stalking you”.

Come to think of it, that’s actually hella creepy.

ANYWAY.

Katie goes, “We’re just passing through!”

Lord Julian smiles like he understands everything that is going through Katie’s head (I wish I did!!) and says, “Have you ladies not thought to join us at the ball?” He gestured to the castle.

“Ball?” I asked. “Is that what the music is?”

“Yes, indeed. Many fine folks from diverse lands have come to enjoy Lady Laurel’s hospitality. There are boats many places along the shore for those who find themselves by this lake so that they may join in the revels.”

“Oh! That’s what the boat was?” Katie says eagerly. “We’re not going to get cursed if we get in it?”

Lord Julian laughed at that, and I have to admit, the way his eyes smiled was very attractive. “No, you will not be cursed. But unless you are skilled at rowing, you may also take a very long time to cross the lake! May I take you across? My boat is just along here--”

I grabbed Katie’s sleeve in warning, but I shouldn’t have worried. She was already pasting on a polite smile and coming up with a vague excuse. “You know, it’s really late already, and I promised my boyfriend I’d spend some time with him tonight.” I thought she said the “boyfriend” part unnecessarily loudly, but w/e. “Come on--” She very nearly said my name and then caught herself. “Come on, let’s head home.”

“I am sorry to say farewell to you both,” Lord Julian said, not appearing particularly upset. “Perhaps some other time.”

Katie and I gave big, noncommittal smiles and hurried back along the shore.

When we got out of earshot, I asked her why I wasn’t supposed to give Lord Julian my name. “Because that’s a fairy thing,” she explained. “If they have your real name, they have power over you."

“What kind of power?”

“Magical power,” Katie said shortly. “Not-good power. Is he following us?”

He wasn’t, and we soon made our way back to the stairway.

So we know a little bit now about the palace on the other side of the lake, but I’m not sure if we should try to cross over the lake or not. What do you folks think? Katie and I are both on the fence about this, and about what to do next. My ask box is open, and you can always leave tags, replies and comments! I would really appreciate the advice.

[droneseco]

Is the Withings ScanWatch the Best Health-focused Wearable?

Withings ScanWatch

9.00 / 10

Read Reviews

Read More Reviews

Read More Reviews

Read More Reviews

Read More Reviews

Read More Reviews

Shop Now

The Withings ScanWatch is a hybrid smartwatch with advanced health monitoring capabilities. The watch has a 30-day battery life, can mirror your phone's notifications, and track your exercises. It is water-resistant up to 50m to use in the rain and the pool. The most attractive elements of this stylish smartwatch are the health-monitoring features. Alongside standard fitness-tracking, the ScanWatch can perform ECG monitoring, assess your blood oxygen levels, and perform respiratory scans while you sleep.

Key Features

Integration with Apple Health, Google Fit, and over 100 other services

Fitness tracking, including steps, sleep, and workouts

Works well with other Withings products

Health monitoring capabilities, including ECG, SpO2, and atrial fibrillation

Specifications

Brand: Withings

Heart Rate Monitor: Yes

Color Screen: No

Notification Support: Yes

Battery Life: 30 days

Operating System: Not applicable

Onboard GPS: No

Offline Media Storage: No

Customizable Strap: Yes

SIM Support: No

Pros

Excellent value given the range of features

Smart and neutral design

Look can be customized with alternative bands

30-day battery life

Cons

Currently only available in Europe, awaiting US regulatory approval

Syncing data to third-party platforms can be slow or inconsistent

Buy This Product

Withings ScanWatch other

Shop

// Bottom var galleryThumbs1 = new Swiper('.gallery-thumbs-1', { spaceBetween: 10, slidesPerView: 10, freeMode: true, watchSlidesVisibility: true, watchSlidesProgress: true, centerInsufficientSlides: true, allowTouchMove: false, preventClicks: false, breakpoints: { 1024: { slidesPerView: 6, } }, }); // Top var galleryTop1 = new Swiper('.gallery-top-1', { spaceBetween: 10, allowTouchMove: false, loop: true, preventClicks: false, breakpoints: { 1024: { allowTouchMove: true, } }, navigation: { nextEl: '.swiper-button-next', prevEl: '.swiper-button-prev', }, thumbs: { swiper: galleryThumbs1 } });

There are two common types of wrist-worn gadgets; smartwatches and fitness trackers. Fitness trackers focus primarily on helping you keep tabs on your daily exercise. Smartwatches, on the other hand, are more like an extension on your smartphone with a comprehensive range of apps, services, and sensors.

There is a third style of device; a hybrid smartwatch. These wearables sit somewhere between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch, capable of tracking your exercise, overall health while offering some level of integration with your smartphone.

The Withings ScanWatch is a hybrid smartwatch with fitness tracking capabilities, a long-lasting battery, and an analog clock. This would be interesting in its own right, but the wristwatch also gives the Apple Watch's health monitoring features some much-needed competition.

Withings ScanWatch Design

The Withings ScanWatch is a wrist-based gadget that you might actually mistake for a traditional watch. At first glance, it's hard to see any obvious signs of the technology within. The watch face has two hands (one for hours, one for minutes), and there's an adjustment crown on the right-hand side, which is ever so slightly larger than on a standard watch. This is good, though, as you use the crown to interact with the device's various smart features. The most obvious sign that this isn't a traditional watch is on the underside of the ScanWatch.

There are three visible sensors found on the back of the watch. Two of these form part of the ScanWatch's ECG feature, while the third is an optical heart rate and SpO2 monitor. Other visual clues include the smaller circular analog subdial on the lower front of the watch. This shows your percentage of progress towards your daily movement and exercise goals. Just above that, there is another, initially blank, subdial.

At a glance, this is the only clear indication that this is not a regular wristwatch. A PMOLED screen displays critical data and allows you to start and control ScanWatch's tracking elements. There's no touchscreen, so you interact with the on-screen prompts using the crown. Turning the crown scrolls through the menu, while a short push selects the highlighted option. In the case of workouts, a long press of the crown starts and stops your chosen activity.

The watch is available in either black or white, although this only changes the watch face background color. You can select between the 38mm and 42mm edition of the wristwatch. The main features don't differ, but the 42mm version adds numeric hour markers and uses red to accent the daily progress subdial. As standard, the ScanWatch ships with a silicone strap with a stainless steel buckle. You can switch this for any other Withings strap or choose your own.

Features

The Withings ScanWatch makes a compelling case as an Apple Watch alternative. Not only does it achieve an extraordinary 30-day battery, but it comes with medical-standard monitoring capability typically only found on Apple's wearable. This is all at a fraction of an Apple Watch cost, and with cross-platform support, so the ScanWatch is suitable for iPhone and Android users.

Although the company has always had a more medical-style focus on its products, in the past, Withings watches have been more closely aligned to fitness trackers than fully-fledged smartwatches. So, as you'd expect, core fitness tracking elements can be found on the ScanWatch, too. Onboard sensors monitor your steps, measure your heart rate, and track your workouts.

Selected exercises include running, cycling, walking, and swimming. Importantly, the watch is water-resistant up to 50m, so you can wear it while working out, going for a swim, or even in the shower. If your workout isn't listed, you can select Other from the menu. There's no onboard GPS, so if you want to track your training location, you'll need to keep your phone with you and connected via Bluetooth.

The ScanWatch attempts to register these activities automatically, so you shouldn't often activate workout-tracking manually. Some important everyday features are often overlooked, so it's useful to note that the ScanWatch also comes with a brief mindfulness exercise, listed as Breathe on screen. Evidently, you can use the watch to tell the time, but there's also the option to set alarms and timers and activate a stopwatch.

As this is a cross-platform wearable, the company has worked hard to ensure feature parity on both operating systems. It is often the case that smartwatches may access certain features on Android devices, but fewer on Apple's iPhones. However, both types of smartphones receive the same features, including notification mirroring. When setting up the ScanWatch, you can opt into this, although you can adjust the apps which can send notifications to your wrist.

Health Monitoring Features

The Apple Watch is widely considered one of the best wearables available due to its ECG monitor and other medical-style features. However, the Apple Watch only works with iOS devices, is quite expensive, and has several other features that many people might not need or want. So far, no cross-platform wearable has filled that gap, offering a high-quality connected experience alongside clinically-validated health monitoring.

That is, until the Withings ScanWatch. Given the regulatory hurdles required to release a medical device, it is currently only available in Europe. However, the company is working on regulatory approval in the US and hopes that the watch will be available to purchase sometime in 2021. This short delay is worth it for the number of features offered. These include; ECG measurements, sleep tracking, SpO2 monitoring, and proactive atrial fibrillation notifications.

The most prominent of these is the electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures your heart's rhythm and electrical activity. There are two ECG electrodes on the underside of the ScanWatch, and the watch's case doubles as the third ECG electrode. To enable on-device ECG tracking, you need to make a complete electrical circuit. The two sensors on the electrodes on the underside touch your skin, acting as one side of an electrical circuit.

To close this circuit, you only need to activate the ECG function on the watch, then place your palm over your watch face for 30 seconds. This completes the circuit and allows the sensors to monitor your heart's activity. A summary result is displayed on the subdial, while you can find a more detailed analysis within the Health Mate app.

The process is similar when you want to utilize the watch's SpO2 sensor to monitor your blood oxygen levels. Use the crown to select SpO2, then place your palm on top of the watch face for 30 seconds. The device will vibrate once the scan is complete and offer up a summary result on-screen and further detail within the Health Mate app.

Like other fitness-tracking devices, the ScanWatch offers sleep tracking. However, alongside the standard elements of nighttime analysis, the watch comes with a Respiratory Scan, which measures your heart rate, rhythm, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation throughout the night. In conjunction with other recorded data, this is used to inform a Sleep Score, accessible within the app.

Software

Image Gallery (5 Images)

Expand

Expand

Expand

Expand

Expand

Close

Image 1 of 5

Image 2 of 5

Image 3 of 5

Image 4 of 5

Image 5 of 5

window['gallery_1'] = new Swiper('#swipper-1', { direction: 'horizontal', spaceBetween: 20, slidesPerView: 1, centeredSlides: true, preventClicks: false, observer: true, observeParents: true, loop: false, keyboard: { enabled: true }, // If we need pagination pagination: { el: '.swiper-pagination', }, navigation: { nextEl: '.swiper-button-next', prevEl: '.swiper-button-prev', }, }); var images = document.getElementsByClassName("gallery-1-images"); for (var i = 0; i < images.length; i++) { images[i].addEventListener('click', function (event) { var swiperDiv = document.getElementById('gallery-modal-1'); var imagesArray = document.getElementsByClassName("gallery-1-images"); index = Array.prototype.indexOf.call(imagesArray, this); window['gallery_1'].slideTo(index, false, false) swiperDiv.style.display = 'block'; document.body.style.overflow = 'hidden' }); } function closeGallery(element){ element.parentNode.style.display = 'none'; document.body.style.overflow = "initial"; }

The Withings ScanWatch syncs its data to the companion Health Mate app, which is available for Android and iOS. Similarly, notification mirroring works on both platforms. When you first set up your ScanWatch using the Health Mate app, you'll be asked to enable access to your phone's notifications. If you choose not to opt-in, you can always do so at a later time. Health Mate is also compatible with over 100 other services, including Apple Health, Google Fit, MyFitnessPal, IFTTT, and even Fitbit.

In most cases, this is a two-way sync, so your data stays consistent between platforms. As native apps, Google Fit and Apple Health are the most common integrations. Both services act as data consolidation tools, enabling you to see all information at a glance. Having previously used Health Mate with an Android device and now with an iPhone, both integrations work seamlessly, as expected.

One incredibly minor bug encountered during the review period was a persistent notification within the Health Mate app reminding me to "Continue discovering ScanWatch" despite having completed this task during the initial setup and several times subsequently. Sometimes the sync between Health Mate and Apple Health would get stuck or would inconsistently update data. Patience tended to be key here, but, notably, I didn't have this issue before attaching the ScanWatch to my account.

Those small issues aside, you can view all of your ScanWatch's data within the app. The most recent recordings are shown on the initial screen, and tapping the category allows you to analyze the data over time. If you aren't sure where to start with all of this information, the Health Mate app also has an assistant chatbot that will offer personalized insights and recommendations.

Sustainability and Longevity

Before you invest in the ScanWatch or any technology-based product, it's worth considering whether the device is easily repairable and what would happen should the various cloud-based services become unavailable. Like many smart products, the ScanWatch is not user-repairable. While disappointing, and certainly a far cry from traditional watches, this is understandable.

Given the number of features on offer here, the ScanWatch is only marginally larger than a standard watch. Withings have packed a tremendous number of electronic components into an exceedingly small package. This design means that the watch is practical, but unfortunately, not repairable. Even if you could open up the device, the health-monitoring sensors need to be carefully calibrated to ensure optimum sensitivity.

For similar reasons, the watch needs a proprietary charger rather than a standard micro-USB or USB-C lead. You can purchase replacement charging cables from Withings. However, the most likely part of the watch to break or get damaged is the strap. Fortunately, you can easily replace these with any from Withings range of bands. If you prefer not to go that route, you can attach any compatible quick-release strap. The ScanWatch comes with a felted case as well for protection while not in use.

Another factor to take into account is the longevity of the platform. Smartwatch and fitness band users have felt the repercussions of this in the past. For instance, the Pebble smartwatch, generally credited with making the wearable a mainstream device, was rendered almost useless after Fitbit acquired the company. Similarly, Google has just officially completed its purchase of Fitbit. It remains unclear what the future holds for that fitness-tracking company.

Withings has also been subject to similar pressures. The French company was founded in 2008 and launched its first product in 2009. Challenging market conditions meant that, despite critically well-received products, the company was sold to Nokia in 2016. By 2018, the founder of Withings purchased the business back from Nokia and rebranded all products under the Withings name again.

This, in itself, should be taken as a positive sign. It is very unusual for a company to be purchased by the original owner so soon after an acquisition, suggesting a more solid financial position. Likewise, throughout this period, all the business' products remained functional. We can never be sure about the future, but, for now, there are no signs of trouble ahead for Withings or the owners of its products.

Should You Buy The Withings ScanWatch?

The Withings ScanWatch doesn't compete directly with the Apple Watch but continues down a similar path. This isn't surprising, though; since its inception in 2008, Withings has stood apart from other manufacturers by offering a health-focused selection of products, including smart body scales and connected blood pressure monitors. This hybrid smartwatch offers notification mirroring, which is often the most desirable smartwatch feature.

However, where the ScanWatch excels is in its design. The physical device looks nice, both smart and casual at the same time. You can customize the look of your watch with alternative bands. Aside from telling the time, the watch unobtrusively keeps tabs on your overall health, fitness, and wellbeing. The Health Mate app makes it simple to understand the data and, crucially, how to use it to inform your lifestyle.

The Withings ScanWatch is easily the best hybrid smartwatch available today, and it even makes a good case for one of the best wrist-based wearables out there. If you've been considering investing in a connected health-monitoring gadget, then your list should only contain a single item; the ScanWatch.

Is the Withings ScanWatch the Best Health-focused Wearable? published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

[senekax-blog]

Chapter One

He couldn’t stop his mind from going there, despite the time of day and its proximity to dreamless sleep. But he knew: no one truly understands the relationship the space agencies have with the US government. There’s no denying there is one: JPL, NASA, even Musk’s pretense of an agency, they’re all connected. Like an umbilical cord, feeding a cluster of entities a nutritious, life-giving elixir of cold hard cash in the form of billion-dollar budgets or multi-million-dollar contracts. Beholden, in a word. No one was ever meant to understand that relationship. It was too big, too murky, obfuscated with covert intent, like so many other secrets embedded within the world’s largest economy. What was that famous quote, about a riddle wrapped in an enigma stored in a puzzle box? If any one person knew too much about it, they might be a threat to national security.

Avalon Estes realized he was close, on the threshold of knowing too much. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe he was already over that fuzzy line and knew just enough that losing him would be the greater security threat.

The space agencies had a variety of observation platforms circling the earth, most of them looking down at the planet, a handful of them looking up, looking out, beyond, all of their data, every byte of it, circling back to the government in a mobius sort of way. Nine times out of ten it was the ones looking down that spotted the exception. This one was looking up, and out. This one was the exception to the exceptions. No matter which way they were looking, their jobs were the same: keep an eye on anything out of the ordinary. At least as far as the government was concerned. Oh, sure, science, exploration, humankind’s quest for self-understanding through discovery, all that social shit; go ahead, have at it. But in order to maintain the umbilical cord, in order to preserve it, please spy on everything else out there, both above and below, while you’re doing the social shit, and let us know what you find. And what you don’t.

Machines. Orbiting the planet. Surveilling it, surveilling other planets. Avalon Estes remembered the good old days when it was a bunch of jocks who had passed college algebra. Put them in a human centrifuge and spin ‘em at five G’s until they puked or passed out, or both, then launch them into space. Footprints on the moon. Rock samples in a bag. Fly back and fall into an ocean.

Now the machines were having all the fun. Collecting all the samples. Not flying back, but staying there, working, day and night. Not the moon but a planet. At a fraction of the cost, and better at it than the humans could ever dream of.

He couldn’t stop his mind from going there, and the phone had started it all. The first call had come to his landline at two-thirty that morning. A gaggle of propellerheads and their collection of orbiting machines had detected an object entering the solar system at a speed that challenged conventional thinking. One of the machines looking up not down had spotted it, tracking something traveling at a speed measured in the tens of thousands of kilometers per second. Some object blowing past Jupiter on a collision course with the moon. The propellerheads were worried.

The phone’s caller officially elevated Estes to Alpha Status. He was not impressed. Estes yawned, fumbled with a set of reading glasses, then picked up a cellphone and within a few screen swipes knew Stubbs was somewhere north of Nova Scotia. Over it, actually, heading west at around four hundred miles an hour. He returned to the phone call and asked the caller to keep him apprised. He then disconnected and went back to sleep. Alpha Status was pointless. He was always on Alpha status. He slept Alpha Status.

The second phone call arrived just before six in the morning. Estes was up, but only barely, still in his slippers, peeing at the toilet, so he let it ring. By the time he had splashed water on his face and popped a thyroid pill, the analog phone was jingling again. He answered it and learned the object they had been intermittently tracking for over three hours had disappeared behind the moon.

“I thought you told me it was just passing Jupiter,” Estes said to the caller as he reached for his wristwatch on the nightstand. He checked the time. “Disappeared how?” he asked, buckling the watch to his right wrist. “Who?” he asked. “Absolutely not,” he ordered, kicking off the slippers. “Deploy a response team to lock down the facility. Non-interference. I’m on my way.” Estes returned the landline to its cradle on the nightstand and picked up a cellphone next to it.

                                                     ~_/) ~

 Stubbs hadn’t heard the phone because of the DC headphones cupped over his ears but he’d felt it vibrating in his pocket, even with all the turbulence. He pulled it out and saw two letters on the screen: A and E. He pushed one side of the headphones off and answered the call. Estes asked if Stubbs could be at KXTA in less than two hours. Stubbs said he’d try, and then asked what he should do about New Mexico. Estes had already disconnected. Stubbs guessed New Mexico didn’t matter anymore, or whatever was at KXTA was more important. He put the phone back in his pocket, placed the headgear back over his ear and used its microphone to ask one of the people in the cockpit where they were. Ninety-one miles west-northwest of Wichita came the answer through the headphones. He asked if they could make KXTA in less than two hours. A few seconds later Stubbs heard a hesitant affirmative in his ears, followed by an apology: none of the crew had a security clearance for KXTA. They’d have it before they got there, Stubbs assured them. He then stretched back out over the olive-drab canvas bench seat edging the cavernous cargo hold of the C-17 Globemaster cruising over the state of Kansas at forty-one thousand feet. He kept the headset in place but was absolutely determined to get some sleep.

                                                     ~_/) ~

 Avalon Estes was downstairs in the foyer of his Georgetown condo looking out the front door’s glass panes, waiting for the car to arrive. He was wishing for a change in the weather, a little precipitation for once – snow would be nice, considering it was December – and just happened to settle his eyes on one of the copper-colored lampposts in the condo’s courtyard when its light winked out. They had all shut down, all of the courtyard’s decorative lamps, creating a blanketing pre-dawn darkness. Curious. He was thinking of the timer that controlled the landscape lights for the gated community when he noticed every light was out, in every condo throughout the complex. They had been on just a minute ago, he was sure of it, at least some of them, some of the windows in some of the townhomes, surely the ones just across the narrow street from where he stood, rectangles of light escaping through pulled curtains and louvered blinds. And now nothing. A power failure? He looked up to the faux chandelier suspended from the ceiling of his condo’s foyer as he flipped its switch on the wall. Yes, a power failure. And for some inexplicable reason he also took a couple steps back so he could see what should have been the electric-blue display coming from the microwave hanging above the range-top in the kitchen, just to confirm, as though a power outage would affect some appliances in the house but not all of them. He was wondering if he knew how to reset the clock on the microwave when a set of headlights caught his attention. A car pulled up to the curb outside the condo.

Estes had assumed the lack of power was restricted to his gated complex of condominiums until the car’s driver, a middle-aged man named Jeff who had been driving for Estes about six months, abruptly brought the Lincoln town car to a stop and mildly cursed. The intersection ahead of them was gridlocked by a dead traffic signal, forcing an increasingly impatient file of cars to manage the crossing manually. Jeff suggested Virginia Avenue might be less affected by the outage. Estes didn’t respond, wholly consumed with why his cellphone was refusing to send the text he had just composed. And then he saw it, in the upper left corner of his phone’s display: NO SERVICE. The two random and separate events connected in his mind with the subtlety of a shotgun being pump-loaded. No phone service and no power? Estes asked Jeff if his phone was working. The driver didn’t answer but handed his smartphone over the seat to Estes.

Same thing.

No service.

No power.

An object disappearing behind the moon.

Estes handed the phone back to Jeff and authorized the driver to step on it – break any traffic law you want. Jeff asked if they had gone to Bravo Status. Estes didn’t answer; he was thinking if their superiors even remotely suspected the three phenomena were related, the entire organization would be on Charlie Status before the jet’s wheels left the ground.

                                                     ~_/) ~

It had been the deepest sleep he’d had in days when the headset started shrieking an alarm meant to capture everyone’s undivided attention. It was the digital version of a grieving wail punctuated with sharp, piercing chirps and Stubbs knew something wasn’t right aboard the C-17. His headphones faithfully reported one of the crew shouting over the artificial scream, something about resetting the APU’s. Two human voices took turns shouting back a negative! and then an electronic voice, a female’s, joined the chorus, chanting Guidance System Failure! Navigation Downlink! The digital woman was on her fourth iteration of warning when it stopped, all of it, the screaming, the chirping, and the chanting. Less than two seconds later, the crew’s voices returned to the plodding and deliberate tone their years of training provided them. Stubbs heard the voices on his headset, going through a procedure, like a checklist.

He waited for a prolonged moment of silence before interrupting. “This ride come with a parachute?” he said into the headset mic, knowing that it didn’t. He meant it to be funny.

The crew ignored him.

                                                     ~_/) ~

All six hundred twenty-three of the lights inside the Super Walmart just off the four-ninety-four in Bloomington flickered exactly twice before going out, sending the cavernous super center into a blinding darkness. It persisted, and in the midst of the bewilderment that followed, with children screaming and adults shouting or laughing, the man known as Paul Runyon suspected. But then he felt the alteration in the planet’s natural radio frequencies rippling across the surface of his thought process and had no doubt. Goosebumps formed on the skin of his forearms. It almost felt good. He adjusted his vision to compensate for the absence of light. As a random voice in the darkness bravely scolded Walmart for not paying its electric bill, Paul Runyon parked his shopping cart next to a chilling unit filled with sale-priced Farmer John’s pork link sausages. One by one, he removed the items from his cart - fresh vegetables, frozen entrees, a cardboard canister of steel-cut oatmeal – and placed them on top of the pork links inside the display.

Paul Runyon then pushed the empty shopping cart through the blackened store, out of the grocery section, past aisles of shoes and diapers and beyond walls of DVD’s and televisions but made a left into a corridor when he saw the laundry detergent. He placed four one-gallon jugs of Great Value bleach into the cart. Nine feet farther down and on the aisle’s opposing side, he found as many gallon-jugs of ammonia and placed those in the cart as well. He then weaved and wheeled the cart across the deadened hundred thousand square-foot store until arriving at the gardening department tucked into a corner of the building. He found a three-gallon weed sprayer with a wand nozzle made by a company called Hudson and was placing it in his shopping cart when the spectrum of altered frequencies abruptly jiggled back to its normal rhythm. The lights of the store blinked awkwardly back to life. A chorus of cash registers and other electronic devices beeped to signify they were rebooting. Paul Runyon adjusted his vision to compensate for the rush of artificial light. He was forced to wait three long minutes before the register’s self-checkout software was settled enough to permit him to scan the UPC code of his first item.

The power anomaly had lasted seven minutes, eleven seconds, for a total of four hundred thirty-one seconds – a triad of prime numbers.  How convenient. And humans thought machines didn’t have a sense of humor. It was fourteen minutes past five am as he exited the super store through two sets of slithering glass doors. He initiated an exit sequence for his current location of Minneapolis.

The frequencies alteration was dispersed, per protocol, part of the Engagement structure. He had sensed it washing over the planet, wrapping around its spherical curve to form a hermetic seal of electromagnetic interference. The mask. Seven minutes, eleven seconds. Paul Runyon was smiling as he wheeled the shopping cart of supplies through the Walmart parking lot to the trunk of a black Jaguar XJ. He paused to enjoy the primal arc of an orange sun as it shimmered up from underneath the planet’s horizon, then loaded the items from his cart into the car’s trunk.

The cube had arrived. It was on the planet. His planet, with its magnificent sunrises and hundred-thousand-foot grocery stores that stayed open around the clock, even during power outages.

He started the supercharged V6 engine by pressing a button while seated on leather upholstery and knew he liked this car. And the townhouse on Penn Avenue with its view out the south-facing living room windows of a tree-studded park; and its swimming pool and built-in barbecue stands and fitness center and free WiFi. He liked being comfortable and human and eternal and having sex with females who sighed with urgent pleasure in his ear. He preferred the females and their organic energy, purple waves of it, soaking and gushing and vibrating and penetrating him with instinctive sincerity. Humans, with their tendency towards neural unpredictability that challenged his structural protocols, forcing them – and him – to adapt. It was all about adaptivity. Paul Runyon would preserve his own integrity by adapting. That was what his instructions told him to do.

                                                     ~_/) ~

KXTA was a four-mile-long runway all by itself in the middle of the Nevada desert just north of Las Vegas. Literally, all by itself. Nothing else but a dry heat somewhere over eighty degrees and a constant wind of about twenty knots that fought Stubbs every step of the half-mile-walk from the C-17’s belly to a tight cluster of single-story buildings painted the same color as the desert dirt surrounding them. And not a speck of security, which Stubbs found odd. The building’s interior was not air-conditioned, and he spotted Estes standing all by himself in a space that looked like it was once an office. The furniture had been removed, maybe years ago, leaving behind only a discoloration in the floor’s linoleum, rectangular outlines suggesting where walls and desks and filing cabinets had once been. Like a ghost town, the office version.

“Uneventful flight?” said Estes with a smile. He handed Stubbs a digital tablet.

“I thought you were in DC.”

“I was.”

“When you called me? How’d you get here so fast?”

Estes had already turned around and was walking deeper into the empty building. Stubbs followed. “I was on a faster jet. And that little problem you had somewhere over Kansas was an EMP. Knocked out everything. I mean the whole planet. We’re at Charlie status, by the way. Details are in your hand. We land in about forty-five minutes.”

“Land?”

Estes answered the question by pushing through another door at the other end of the empty building that put them both back into the windy heat of a blinding sunny day. A hundred feet in front of them, sitting all by itself on the sun-bleached cement was a shiny-clean, white and blue helicopter whose blades were already spun up for takeoff. They were airborne before Stubbs had buckled his seatbelt.

A thousand feet above the airstrip and a mile away from it, Estes looked at Stubbs, looked to the digital tablet Stubbs held in his hands, then reclined his seat and closed his eyes. Reclining seats in a helicopter made no sense to Stubbs at all. He activated the tablet’s power and began reading a summary brief of the past twenty-two hours.

The space agency named Jet Propulsion Laboratory, nestled into the foothills of southern California, had begun tracking an object around ten AM PST of the previous morning. An orbiting space telescope had picked up the object departing the Kuiper Belt on a trajectory towards the planets. It was small and insignificant and would have earned no attention at all except that its speed was erratic. Over a period of about six hours, the delayed data streaming in from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE space telescope recorded the object as both stationary and also moving at about one quarter the speed of light. Simultaneously. An hour later the telescope’s onboard computers refused to admit they had been tracking anything. The object was gone, and no other component of the combined JPL/NASA deep space surveillance grid – ground or orbiting – had yet to acknowledge the object. The scientific consensus was technical problems.

Stubbs swiped the screen to the next page.

Five hours later, the object was back, and had traveled over a billion miles in that time. By ten PM of that same night the object was transiting Jupiter at well over seventy thousand KPS. Stubbs used the tablet’s calculator app to do the math: something over one hundred sixty million miles an hour, according to his calculations. Million. A rate of speed that exceeded both natural and manmade conventions, which, in Stubbs’ mind – and a lot of other peoples’ apparently, according to the brief – meant the object was neither natural nor manmade. The NORAD tracking station had confirmed the object and its irrational speed. STRATCOM had been notified. Encrypted alerts had been sent out to a small cluster of select personnel. Estes had been one of them. That was when he had called him, Stubbs realized, diverting him to air base KXTA in Nevada.

Stubbs swiped the tablet again.

Just seven hours ago, approximately two-forty-four AM PST of the previous evening, six independent ground stations simultaneously tracked the object as it slipped behind the Earth’s moon, at which point everyone on Earth effectively lost contact with whatever it was they had been tracking. JPL then repurposed NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what, if anything, was sitting behind the moon. Twelve minutes later the LRO arrived at a position to do just that. Its LROC camera module captured nearly six seconds of high resolution digital imagery before an EMP event swept over the planet, disabling the entire world’s array of electronics, including the feed streaming from the LRO’s camera. The summary brief then spent nearly two screen pages explaining what an EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, was, how they were generated, and how this EMP was unlike any other they had ever seen. Or even theorized about.

It was not a solar flare event.

It had not originated on the planet.

It had not behaved the way anyone predicted an EMP of this amplitude would.

And for the first time since Stubbs had started reading, the brief used both the word alien and the word extraterrestrial. In the same sentence: The purported EMP anomaly is thought to be both alien in nature and of extraterrestrial origin.

Directly after that sentence were two links, underlined in blue text. The first one read lroc.1. The second one was labeled lroc.001. Stubbs tapped on lroc.1. A new window opened on the tablet. It was the captured footage from the LROC, a crystal-clear image of nearly half the moon from perhaps only a thousand miles above its surface. And to its left, dwarfed by the moon’s apparent size yet clearly visible against the background of black space, was a perfect sphere. It was silver, entirely reflective; like a mirror, Stubbs thought, just sitting there, not moving, a speck, just hovering, motionless. The video stopped playing. Stubbs closed the window and tapped on the second link. It looked like the same image, the same footage, the moon in exactly the same position and the sphere still suspended off to the moon’s left. Except it was no longer a sphere, but rather a tumbling, mirror-silver cube. The footage zoomed in all by itself and offered Stubbs a pixelated closeup of the spinning anomaly. A box of data was streaming numbers down at the bottom left of the screen, values for x and y, a measurement of the cube’s axial rotation.

Stubbs felt something touching his left knee and looked up to find Estes looking at him, seat upright, wearing a headset. He tapped the headset, then pointed to the bulkhead in front of Stubbs. Stubbs looked there and found a pair of headphones hanging from a Velcro hook on the helicopter’s cabin wall. He slipped them on.

“They slowed the footage down by a factor of a thousand,” said Estes. “It’s a cube, but it’s spinning on a double-axis so fast it looks like a ball.”

“Where is it now?” asked Stubbs.

“Gone.”

“Gone where?”

Estes shrugged his shoulders. “The EMP lasted just over seven minutes. By the time all the systems were back online, the thing was nowhere in sight.”

“So where are we going?”

“To put out a fire.”

“We’re firemen now?”

Estes forced a smile and gestured to the digital tablet. “Just keep reading.”

[itsnelkabelka]

Speech: A free, open, secure cyberspace for all

Introduction

Good morning and thank you, Minister, for your warm introduction.

I am delighted to be in India, and I am grateful to the Observer Research Foundation for this opportunity to address such an esteemed audience.

Before I begin to talk about our shared interests in the future of cyberspace, I’d like to take this opportunity to commend the work of my Indian counterparts.

Minister Prasad, like the UK you face vast and complex domestic, regional and global cyber security challenges and you work tirelessly to keep your citizens and businesses safe.

We both know that the threat of today will be dwarfed by the threat of tomorrow, and so our response too must be ever evolving.

At the same time we both recognise the internet’s great potential.

In both of our countries the digital economy forms a significant part of GDP, employs tens of thousands of people and continues to grow quickly.

In India, internet usage is growing at a phenomenal rate every year, and will grow faster still through Prime Minister Modi’s exciting vision for a Digital India.

So I turn to one of the most pressing international issues of our time: how to harness the power of the internet while ensuring our safety and security online.

Or to put it another way, how do we collectively continue to build a free, open and secure cyberspace for all?

Evolution of the Internet

I remember hearing about the ‘World Wide Web’ when I was just completing my law articles in 1990, but could not even begin to imagine the impact it would have.

No recent invention in human history has changed our lives so dramatically or so quickly. This extraordinary creation – the brainchild of a British engineer, Tim Berners Lee – has surely surpassed even his wildest expectations.

An internet worth protecting

Today the internet connects, informs and entertains nearly three billion people across the world. Thanks to mobile phones, we have access to its power virtually anywhere we want.

Never before have ideas, information and products been so universally available.

The internet has transformed vast swathes of the earth from communication black-spots to communication hotspots.

We can access one and a quarter billion websites from our phones, wristwatches, tablets or home computers.

We can control our bank accounts, adjust our heating – or more likely, here in India, your air conditioning - and we can shop for anything from health food to helicopters.

The Challenge

There is no doubt that the internet has spread knowledge and opportunity further and faster than ever before. It has powered extraordinary positive change.

However, the very features of the internet that make it a force for good – its low cost, its global reach and its easy accessibility – also make it attractive to those who wish us harm.

The threat is ever evolving.

From power stations to pace makers; dams to defibrillators; toasters to telecommunication networks, the growth in global connectivity is exposing us all to new risks in ways that could not have been conceived of in a world before the Internet.

We must face the fact that the more we use it and become reliant on it, the greater these risks becomes.

Last year, hackers breached the IT systems of almost half of UK businesses.

In recent months both our National Health Service and our Parliament have suffered cyber attacks.

The Costs of Cyber Crime

It’s easy with cyber security to get lost in the ones and the zeros, but for many in this room, these ones and zeros often come in the form of pounds, dollars and rupees, as they count the cost of cyber attacks.

In fact, cyber attacks have become a global industry in their own right, currently costing the world over $400 billion a year, a figure that is estimated to grow more than fivefold within the next 2 years.

The challenge that faces us all is how to respond to the spectrum of online threats, without restricting the benefits that we know the internet can bring.

It is important to recognise that much of the activity we see online is not actually “new”.

Attempts by rival powers to subvert democratic political processes can be traced back to Persia’s relations with

Athenian Democracy in the 5th and 6th Century BC.

The first documented instance of fraud was in 300BC when a Greek merchant called Hegestratos took out a large insurance policy against his ship and its cargo of corn with the express intention of sinking an empty vessel to defraud his backers.

And it wasn’t long after the advent of the printing press that the medium was being used to produce material that was viewed by the leading powers of the day as dangerous dissent or heresy.

Just as the behaviours we see online are not new, neither do we need to re-invent the solutions. Cyberspace is not a lawless space. Existing criminal and international laws apply online as they do offline, as do fundamental rights and freedoms.

However, while some online activities may be timeless, the scale, speed and anonymity the internet offers are very new indeed and present a uniquely modern challenge.

To address it, we should apply the same qualities that brought us cyberspace itself: energy, creativity and collaboration.

UK Collaborative Approach

This is what is at the heart of the UK approach – working collectively within the international system, with industry and civil society – a multi-stakeholder approach - to address the risks of the digital age while maximising the benefits.

That is why we launched the ‘London Process’ in 2011, to bring people together and further international understanding of how the “rules of the road” for cyberspace might be implemented in practice.

I am delighted that India will be hosting the fifth iteration of the Global Conference on Cyberspace here in Delhi in November.

We take this collaborative approach because the internet is a global resource, which not only stretches across international borders; it also reaches into our offices, our communities and even our children’s bedrooms.

Not only must the governance of the internet be truly global, it must also involve the full range of stakeholders represented here today.

The best analogy I can think of for the UK view of online safety and security is, as a team sport.

A sport where industry, academia, civil society, government, international partners and, above all, the public, play the part of wicketkeeper, slip, gully and deep square leg.

In other words, it is all about working together.

Responding to the cybersecurity challenge

This approach is perhaps seen most clearly in our response to the cybersecurity threat.

With the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy we are seeking to defend our people, businesses and assets across the public and private sectors; to deter and disrupt our adversaries, whether states, criminals or hacktivists; to develop our critical capabilities and to strengthen our cybersecurity sector.

Central to delivery of this Strategy is our National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which celebrates its first birthday this week.

Bringing together all of the UK’s cyber security expertise into a single body, the NCSC works with UK organisations, businesses and individuals to provide authoritative and coherent cyber security advice and cyber incident management.

You will hear more about the NCSC’s achievements tomorrow, directly from members of the Centre, who have travelled here with me.

Another important part of delivering our strategy is international cooperation.

The UK is working to strengthen partnerships on a bilateral, regional and global level to collectively tackle threats, build confidence and transparency, and strengthen global cybersecurity.

Our partnership with India is a good example.

We have built cooperation at all levels, from heads of government to our excellent working relationship with Dr Rai and relevant parts of the Indian government through interaction between our tech sectors, think-tanks and NGOs. Together we are working to improve cyber security, combat cybercrime, and advance voluntary norms of responsible state behaviour and the application of international law to cyberspace.

We have built cooperation at all levels, from heads of government to our tech sectors and non-governmental organisations.

Terrorist Use of the Internet

This kind of multi-layered approach is vital for strengthening cybersecurity.

The same is true of tackling extremist content online.

This issue is a particular priority for the UK government because the UK is reported to have the biggest online audience in Europe for Jihadist propaganda, and the 5th biggest worldwide after Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

We all have a role to play.

First, national governments have a responsibility to provide the legal framework and the resources to stop material being disseminated within our borders. And we must cooperate across borders to stop material that originates overseas.

Secondly, internet service providers have a responsibility to stop terrorist material being uploaded and to take it down more quickly when it is.

Finally, families and community groups have a responsibility to be aware of the dangers and to do what they can to prevent people they know from falling prey to online extremism.

If I may, before I conclude, I would like to set out what action the UK government is taking to tackle this issue of terrorist use of the internet. As I said just now, it is a current priority for us and our Prime Minister Theresa May has been leading global efforts.

She was instrumental in establishing the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism – an industry-led initiative to close down online space for extremist material.

At the UN General Assembly last month, alongside President Macron of France and Prime Minister Gentiloni of Italy, she hosted an event for tech industry leaders and like-minded countries, including India, to find solutions to the threats we face.

She laid down an important challenge to internet service providers: to take down extremist content within two hours of it being posted.

At a national level we are also stepping up our response, using our counter extremism and counter-terrorism strategies to help us remove “safe spaces” for terrorists online.

We are determined to prevent extremists from using cyberspace to sow fear, hatred and division. However, we must also be alert to the fact that they also seek to undermine our values. We must at all costs avoid a response that restricts the very freedoms they seek to undermine, or we will be doing their work for them.

Conclusion

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we must come together in the face of these and other threats.

We must hold fast to the values of decency, fair play and mutual respect.

We must defend the extraordinary opportunities that the internet brings.

Let us come together to keep it free, open and secure in equal measure.

Let us make sure that the internet of tomorrow is a force for good. Thank you.

from Announcements on GOV.UK http://ift.tt/2y09kwz via IFTTT

[wristwatchjournal]

Watch Review: Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition

When considering purchasing a Japanese quartz watch under $500 many enthusiasts can quickly think of brands and sub-brands like Casio, G-shock, Seiko, Seiko 5, Prospex, Citizen, and maybe any fashion brand with a Japanese quartz movement, to broaden the landscape. But while reading my previous sentence, did you happen to think about Edifice and it’s collection of watches? If you did, bravo (silent golf clap), but if you didn’t I wouldn’t blame you as it’s always taken a back seat to G-Shock and it’s multi-platform marketing monster.

A lot like Liam Hemsworth. “Who?” you say.” Exactly. Liam’s a lot like Edifice, and his well-known brother, Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor, aka Tag Heuer Ambassador driving a Formula E race car) is akin to G-Shock. Sure, they come from the same pedigree, same DNA, have a similar appearance, and both are accomplished actors, but one’s just beefier and more relevant than the other.

If we’re keeping track, aBlogtoWatch hasn’t done an Edifice hands-on since the EQWT720DC-1A back in 2012, which was almost a decade ago and about how long it took for me to write out that model name. The G-shock regularly gets hands-on coverage and, based on our track record, we’ll probably have another article by the time this one goes live.

So without further ado, I present to you the Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition. Casio’s third collaboration piece between Edifice and Honda Racing. While being a Type-R enthusiast (which I am) warrants reason for owning this watch, there are other reasons you should consider this “Liam Hemsworth” of Casios, even if it has a polarizing red, ridged strap.

The limited-edition model piggybacks off Casio’s newest ECB lineup, which is a great thing, as it has Bluetooth capability and shares the strong faceted case design elements. The ECB models’ Bluetooth functionality gets an upgrade with iOS/Android calendar sync, but the Honda Racing version has a clever trick up its sleeve with wrist detection Auto LED illumination. These two additional functions contained within the 5618 quartz module are under-marketed, as they have real-life applications versus many redundant and often ancillary functions inside the dials of other Edifice and G-shock models.

Exterior design characteristics remind me of the G-shock Aka Zonae with the red and gold accents. The gold accents are used to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Edifice brand, and Honda Racing’s red is used to highlight the number 20 on the bezel, as well as the logo and other dial elements. The strap is made from leather and has a double-ridge design with color-matched stitching reminiscent of the Bulgari Octo Maserati Mono-Retro straps, and is finished with a metal keeper etched with the Edifice and Honda logos.

The case is forged from steel and finished with a black ion coating, which is par for course based on recent trends for sport models, but I find it doesn’t do the case justice. Specifically, the black ion coating hides a lot of the interesting facets on the case and renders the watch a little too flat in real life. The design attributes incorporate some of our favorite watch shapes, such as an octagon bezel with understated bezel bolts at 9 and 3 o’clock, a long trapezoidal button guard on the left side, and multi-faceted guards flanking the pseudo-crown. A couple dimensions that make this watch extremely wearable is the overall height at 13mm and the stubby lugs, which protrude a total of 4.2mm from the case, allowing the straps to lay closer to your wrist without having to excessively curve the lugs downward.

A woven carbon-fiber dial is glossy with flat-brushed metal hour indices married to an analog/digital display. The slightly oblong and cut subdial at 7:30 displays the different modes, as well as doing triple-duty as a stopwatch minutes/hour hand, countdown timer, and calendar appointment start/end indicator. The digital LCD readout for all the functions is gold-hued to match the rest of the color scheme.

While the dial isn’t cluttered with multiple function hands, subdials, or sub-digital displays, it can at times seem busy due to visual elements that actually make it hard to read the time. This is in contrast to the marketing photos depicting a crisp, almost 3D like dial appearance. My observations were that the glossy reflective woven carbon fiber dial had a tendency to camouflage the brushed hour markers, making them disappear into the dial, and the reflective gold elements have a “black mirror polish” effect that also makes them blend in with the dial at certain angles. The watch is topped with a sapphire crystal with non-reflective coating, but I found the flat surface was a glare magnet and contributed to the washing out of contrast under the dial.

Fortunately, the legibility of the white accents are at their best when the dual LEDs illuminate the broad white hands, the highly reflective white printed hour markers on the chapter ring, and the backlit digital display. This watch’s execution of illumination is, by far, one of my favorites of all the Casios I have had a chance to try on, and the auto-illumination is reliable.

The auto-illumination time duration can be changed from 1.5 seconds or 3 seconds, which is activated and configured either through the watch directly or through the connected app. It’s activated when the wrist is turned past 15 degrees from the horizon. When making changes, I preferred using the app because trying to change this setting through the phone required over 15 presses of the mode button after you had gotten it into adjustment mode. The downside of this fantastic dual LED illumination is that it may blind you at night when checking the time mid-sleep; yes, I wear my watches to bed…I know, “weirdo.”

Bluetooth syncing allows for all the regular time adjustments but also syncs to your phone’s calendar appointments making forgotten meetings almost impossible. With the hourly signal “beep” turned on and my calendar synced, it would give me a modulating beep whenever I had an appointment coming up and start the countdown till meeting start, after which the watch will countdown the time allotted for the meeting and then reset automatically to the next calendar event, starting the countdown process again. After using it a few times, especially days with multiple appointments, it started to look like a digital calendar-event retrograde complication, if ever there was a thing,

I might be inclined to go for the stainless steel version with the rubber strap, as it makes more sense for a sports watch and because a high-contrast black watch with a Honda Racing red strap isn’t for everyone. That said, compared to a G-Shock, it’s way more subdued, has a much more svelte footprint, and is more daily-wear appropriate with proper EDC functions.

While we’re on the subject of svelte and comfortable, I want to emphasize the finish of the buckle, as it’s one of the nicest-feeling on the wrist and the leather strap should last longer due to Casio’s detail in giving the buckle an angled bend and for rounding off the inside of the buckle where the strap usually folds over itself to release the horn. In fact, I liked the feel of the leather strap so much I decided to take a quick look at the Edifice website and found another model with the same lug design with a brown leather strap, which could look nice accented against the gold and black, for $84.00! This basically screams, “Buy the strap, get a free watch head.”

This watch has a lot of technology built into it, yet the dial is one of the more subdued within the Edifice brand. Nonetheless, it packs digital functions that can be used daily and keeps you connected to larger events within your day. I personally ended up using the calendar sync, auto-illumination, hand shift, timer, and hour signal the most. I would have used the alarm function more often had it allowed me to set alarms on separate days versus a global setting for every day.

While the G-shock brand may have Supreme-like inflated prices due to its street-cred hype (which isn’t to say it’s not warranted, at times), the Edifice line comes in at a reasonable value for having as much, if not more, technology and features, much like Vans. So, when you’re over the A-lister hype and sick of Chris in all his G-Shock, Shock Resistant Thor bravado, slap on a nice everyday Liam for a well-balanced, Gale Hawthorne digital watch experience that only comes with “Intelligence and Speed,” topped with a dollop of Hunger Games.

The Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition is priced at $330. You can learn more about this watch and other Edifice models at edifice.casio.com.

Necessary Data: >Brand: Casio >Model: Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition >Price: $330USD >Size: 51mm tall lug-to-lug, 48.8mm-wide case-to-crown, 13mm-thick >When reviewer would personally wear it: Motoring events and everyday wear. No high-board diving and scuba diving, as its only good for 10 bar. >Friend we’d recommend it to first: Value-conscious friend interested in the functions and pragmatism of a G-Shock but turned off by the looks. Also an enthusiast of the following in any combination: Honda (Mugen, Type-R, HRC), motorsports, stealthy sports watches, and someone with a lot of calendar appointments. >Best characteristic of watch: Comfortable and stylish case. Straight forward app with a nice user interface and experience. >Worst characteristic of watch: “16mm” proprietary strap and the fact that there’s a Tom’s Racing LE version we can’t get in the states.

The post Watch Review: Casio Edifice Honda Racing Limited Edition appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2WO6XZ5 via IFTTT

[wristwatchjournal]

Watch Review: Casio G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 GPS Heart-Rate Monitor

This year in 2020 Japan’s Casio introduced an even clearer glimpse of the future of G-Shock. The world-famous “bulletproof” collection of highly durable G-Shock timepieces is more than 35-years-old, and Casio continues to produce both fashionable legacy models and technologically sophisticated modern G-Shock products with mainstream appeal for consumers beyond mere timepiece enthusiasts and collectors. The G-Shock Move is just such a product, and today, I am reviewing the Casio G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 (specifically, the black, white, and neon green reference GBDH1000-1A7). Don’t miss our quick-start guide on this reference if you’d just like to learn about its core features and how to log your first workout.

Casio G-Shock evolution isn’t a linear progression of products that directly improve upon one another but is more like an evolutionary tree with arms that branch into different directions representing the various ways Casio engineers have played with keeping G-Shock watches both innovative and relevant. One direction was to take all the durability and functionality of G-Shock watches and to render them in entirely analog (non-digital) form with products that have their apex in the MR-G collection. Another direction was to incorporate Bluetooth functionality into mainstream timepiece products as a simple way to update the time as people travel. Casio has even invested in smartwatches ranging from the Google Wear-powered WSD-F30 (the latest generation Casio smartwatch at the time of writing), as well as hybrid approaches that combine smartwatch functionality with more traditional G-Shock functionality. The G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 is just such a hybrid product, and I personally think it represents the future of Casio G-Shock watches better than pretty much anything else Casio has released lately.

G-Shock Hybrid Smartwatch Evolution

The GBD-H100’s direct predecessor was the Casio G-Shock Rangeman GPR-B1000 (aBlogtoWatch review here) that introduced the new MIP LCD display, dual USB/solar charging, and the new-generation operating system. The GPR-B1000 is a dive-style watch and is also both larger and twice as expensive as the newer GBD-H1000. This latest generation G-Shock product price point is likely a strategic decision, as Casio wishes to aggressively capture more of the smartwatch and activity tracker market. Given what you get, the price actually feels like a bargain when looking at the competition.

The G-Shock Move is also the brand’s first “Five Sensor” watch with the addition of a dedicated heart-rate monitor. The product actually has more than five sensors, but given the traditional way these are counted, those five sensors are a compass, altimeter/barometer, thermometer, step counter, and heart-rate monitor. Don’t forget that the Casio module inside the GBD-H1000 has features GPS signal and Bluetooth connectivity.

The reason I refer to the G-Shock Move as a “hybrid smartwatch” is because as a “connected” timepiece that does offer notifications and Bluetooth connectivity, it certainly does more smart things than a traditional timepiece. That said, it doesn’t offer a more contemporary smartwatch experience with apps and bi-directional watch/phone communication like an Apple Watch or device running Google Wear.

Instead, Casio developed its own operating system, which seems to emphasize focused functionality and efficiency. This is probably to prioritize battery life and overall reliability. Casio engineers have lots of experience creating calculators that use very low power. That is, basically, what most Casio digital watches, in effect, are. Features such as a heart-rate monitor and Bluetooth connectivity are things modern consumers want but that are hungry when it comes to battery life. Casio knows it can’t compete in all areas of the smartwatch and activity tracker market, but the brand has correctly surmised that they can have an edge when it comes to power-efficient devices.

Accordingly, one of the most common complaints consumers have about smartwatches and activity trackers, in general, is the need to regularly charge them. The GBD-H1000 has both a passive solar charging system (the photovoltaic cell is actually a ring around the screen) and can be charged with a magnetic USB-based cable. Casio’s selling point is that, for the most part, you can wear and use the G-Shock Move like any other G-Shock timepiece without having to regularly charge it as you might a smartwatch. That said, if you are regularly using power-intensive features such as GPS tracking, the light-power system won’t be able to keep up with the battery drain. You can top up the battery as needed when relying on the GBD-H1000 for repeated, long-interval tracking purposes.

Casio will continue to improve upon the core features of the G-Shock Move, as such devices are always moving targets when it comes to adding new elements, improving hardware, and refining software. I truly believe that this new operating system represents the future of what most G-Shock watches will be like. The new screens are vastly more legible than standard LCD screens, the operating system is infinitely deeper and more engaging, and the added features such as a heart-rate monitor could easily find their way into an increasing percentage of the wristwatches Casio produces.

G-Shock Durability & Design

Even though the GBD-H1000 is now in the “G-Shock Move” family, I still consider it as a spiritual successor to the Rangeman family when a design perspective. The case is smaller and more wearable than the last generation Rangeman it replaces, but the GBD-H1000 is still a larger timepiece at 55mm-wide, 63mm from lug-to-lug, and 20.4mm-thick. The resin and steel case (water-resistant to 200 meters) is solidly made but weighs just 101 grams. Over the screen is a mineral crystal, which is protected by the steep bezel structure.

As with all G-Shock watches, you can easily throw the GBD-H1000 around and not worry about it. This is increasingly true of many competitive smartwatches out there, but I really don’t think most other timepieces out there can survive the abuse a G-Shock can, and still look good afterward.

Not everyone is a fan of the GBDH1000-1A7’s black, white, and neon green/yellow color scheme. It looks like it was designed to go with trendy running shoes, but otherwise, it is hard to fashionably match the timepiece with your daily wardrobe. Other colors will be available in the future, but right now Casio also makes the G-Shock Move GBDH1000-1 that is in all black resin for a slightly more conservative look.

Compared to the Rangeman GPR-B1000, the GBD-H1000 has its pushers flipped, but otherwise, the case still has five buttons on it, and no “scroll wheel” like the Rangeman. Despite a relatively simple learning curve to understand how to use the new G-Shock operating system, I still feel that Casio has a ways to go in matching other modern smartwatches when it comes to intuitive user interface and input design. A scroll wheel or some type of directional arrow system would be a great inclusion — as knowing what button to press requires study and depends on the screen you are currently looking at.

The G-Shock move also has among the better attaching magnetic charging cables I’ve seen. They replaced the “claw dock” of the Rangeman, and while it takes a bit of finagling to make sure the cable is seated correctly, it remains securely attached to the caseback while charging. Having said that, I found myself only using the charger occasionally after heavy GPS usage. This is where I discuss my biggest compliment to the Casio team — finally a modern Bluetooth-connected activity tracker that I don’t need to worry about putting on the charger each day.

Mind you, I was charging the watch, but by putting it near a window so that light can hit the screen. It would be silly to suggest that a device like this doesn’t need to be charged — it is too power-hungry outside of its disconnected (from GPS/Bluetooth) power-saving mode to run on the internal battery alone for too long. It is more accurate to say that I kept the watch charged by using solar power as opposed to USB power. So, assuming you can expose your GBD-H1000 timepiece to enough sunlight each day, I think you should be able to use GPS tracking a few hours a week and probably avoid using the USB charger unless you are using tracking heavily.

Where I would like to see more design attention is the digital displays themselves. Sure, Casio’s engineers are still getting accustomed to a new system, but the displays are pretty basic-looking and lack the flair of, say, the case design. Casio is still new to creating modern-looking and attractive software user interface screens, but before long I’d like to see a bit more sexiness or at least additional display options when it comes to the aesthetic experience of reading the information on the GBD-H1000 and the products that will follow it.

G-Shock Move App & Smartwatch Features

While most of the existing Bluetooth-enabled Casio watches use its G-Shock Connect app, the GBD-H1000 is the first or among the first Casio watches to use the new G-Shock Move app. This app allows you to adjust various settings on the watch, and also receives activity data from the watch allowing you to view more information about your workouts/adventures as well as helps keep you on point with your fitness goals.

I’ve used a good number of smartwatch apps so far and tend to find that each of them has small quirks. A common one is having to sometimes restart the app or manually initiate a pairing to get your watch and smartphone to speak to each other. Only the Apple Watch with its totally proprietary software ecosystem seems to avoid this. It isn’t that big a deal, but I hope in the future Bluetooth-connected watches and their related smartphone application software connect more seamlessly and reliably in the background.

There is a lot you can do and view in the G-Shock Move app that isn’t really natively available on the watch, or is simply more convenient on the phone. I found, for example, that viewing the details of my workout wasn’t as simple on the watch screen itself as compared with the app. The app is also appreciably snappier than the G-Shock Move watch itself in certain regards. The timepiece’s operating system doesn’t normally lag, but it does take some time if it is updating something related to memory (such as saving or deleting a workout). This is all likely related to Casio’s desire to keep the system lean and not use too much power in order to preserve battery life. As such, pretty much all smartwatches and activity trackers today have functionality based on the premise of balancing battery life and performance.

While you can get basic smartphone notifications on your GBD-H1000 screen, I prefer to turn this feature off since I find it a bit distracting (because it isn’t that straightforward a process). I like to think of the smartphone connectivity to be an accessory to an otherwise independent timepiece device. Some smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch, aren’t really meant to live too long without being near their host phone device. The GBD-H1000 has features that get a big boost by working with a smartphone, but in reality, this is a product that can still be used entirely independently of a smartphone. Even things like auto-updating of the time can be done directly via a GPS signal.

What Its Like Using The G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 As Exercise Activity Tracker

Now let’s talk about getting sweaty with the G-Shock Move GBD-H1000. All this theoretical talk about activity tracking is just a prelude to experiencing the timepiece as an exercise companion for me. My preferred activity to test out sport smartwatches is hiking. It also helps that I do the same activity with different products so that I can evaluate how different products compare with each other. I will say right now that there is no single best timepiece I’ve used for tracking my hikes and bike rides. There are things Apple, Garmin, and Casio each do best, and other areas in which they may be beaten by the competition.

To a degree, this is about design, but more accurately I’d say that each activity tracking watchmaker chooses a different mixture of priorities for their products. For example, some watches will offer you more functionality but far less battery life. The longer you need to go between battery charges, the less the device will do for you. As I said before, Casio’s focus with its activity trackers right now is both ultra-durability and long-lasting battery life.

The MIP LCD screen is actually brighter in the sunlight and one of the most legible digital displays I’ve ever experienced on such a watch. It reflects light similar to many Garmin screens but in an even more effective way (though the Casio screen is monochromatic, whereas Garmin has a full-color display). So, high marks overall to Casio for these new types of screens.

Unlike some other activity tracker watches, Casio does not seem to allow you to indicate what sport or activity you are doing. Garmin and Apple both want the user to tell the device what activity they are doing (biking, swimming, running, etc…) prior to working out. Casio still needs you to manually tell the G-Shock Move when you are going to work out, but you just activate it without selecting a specific activity. I don’t know the full implications of this, but my guess is that this will lead to more simple operation for many consumers, but there might be precise data points that the GBD-H1000 doesn’t track as well as other smartwatches.

As a GPS-based device trying to be lean on power consumption I found that the activity tracking of my hikes was pretty accurate. Though I did find that in some areas the GBD-H1000’s readings varied from those of a Garmin MARQ. I already tested the Garmin MARQ and the Apple Watch during exercising tracking and found that the two devices were remarkably similar in their results. Casio seemed a bit off when it comes to heart-rate tracking, altitude, and calories burned. That said, if you use the G-Shock Move all the time, it will track consistently, so even if you are burning more calories than the watch says you are, you know from work out to work out how your performance is trending.

My guess is that Garmin and Apple are allowing more power for GPS and other tracking functions while Casio is being decidedly more lean about it. That probably has some minor performance implications and that explains the different readings. I don’t really see this as a ding on Casio but more generally want to tell consumers not to expect all activity trackers to track the same, even if they all say they track the same metrics.

While currently tracking a workout, you have access to a few screen displays. I like being able to view my current heart rate as well as things such as the total distance or time I’ve been exercising. Most of this can be accessible, but I still found myself scrolling through screens a bit more than I’d like while trying to focus on hiking. That is a common complaint about most activity trackers, though. What I’d like to see in the future is software in the G-Shock Move app that lets me create custom viewing experiences so that when I am working out I can see just the data I want in front of me without having to fiddle with pushers too much.

Even if you are not actively measuring a timed workout or adventure, the GBD-H1000 can still tell you things such as your current heart rate and a slew of other data. It just won’t be using GPS for tracking, etc… So even as a casual sport watch with added tools such as a compass, HR monitor, and step counter, the GBD-H1000 can work really well.

Finally, let me discuss the “Workouts” mode which is actually somewhat different from activity tracking (which most people will refer to as the watch tracking their current workout). Workouts on the watch is one of the main mode screens and, in essence, is a series of up to five “stackable” and programmable repeating countdown timers. This is best used for people who like to incorporate interval training into their exercise regimes. It is popular, for instance, to do workout sessions that rely on a series of three-minute countdown intervals. The watch can be programmed for that. You can also get more complicated with it and program five instances of a three-minute countdown timer, followed by three instances of a 10-minute countdown timer. While some planning is required, this novel feature finally offers a satisfying solution for those seeking interval training functionality on their watches.

Consumers G-Shock Move Watches Are Best For

Most consumers today still don’t really have experience incorporating a smartwatch into their exercise or lifestyle regimen. That means they rely on the products to tell them what to expect as opposed to buying new smartwatches and activity trackers with too many built-in expectations. Not having to recharge them too often may be among the few exceptions to what I just said.

This implies that just as consumers will tell Casio how to evolve its hybrid smartwatch next, Casio is telling consumers how to make use of these products. I encourage avid adventurers and regular exercisers to experiment with great products like the G-Shock Move GDB-H1000 and see how they can help improve their lives and fitness goals. For many people, the mere ability to see the distance they have traveled, the time it took them, and the effort necessary are useful enough.

Casio has even more advanced athletes in mind with the GBD-H1000, offering features such a VO2 max calculations and recommended recovery times. These tools are useful, but unless you already come to the plate knowing how to use these features, the GBD-H1000 device itself won’t give you too many hints. This is a larger issue with fitness trackers that I think will resolve itself in the coming years as consumers have more built-in knowledge of how to use these devices in a more complete fashion.

If you never want to track a workout, is the G-Shock Move a good timepiece for you? That’s a good question. Like I said, the watch is designed to offer a seamless, autonomous wearing experience that doesn’t require a smartphone and doesn’t require charging if you leave the GPS feature off. New tools such as the heart-rate monitor are useful throughout your day, such as a means to measure stress or to make sure you are putting in enough cardiovascular effort when you are seeking to do so. The GBD-H1000 represents Casio’s latest move to develop a new operating system, which is still just a few years old. More time will have to pass before lay consumers see this in more fashion-forward or slimmed down G-Shock models with accordingly refined and focused feature sets. This is important to mention because lovers of smartwatches and similar timepieces are naturally segmented between openminded early adopters with a willingness to experiment and impatient consumers seeking the latest tech experience on their wrist.

Casio’s G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 currently leads the activity-tracking watch industry in a few areas, namely when it comes to its own special blend of mixing battery life with lots of functionality. I never feel like the GBD-H1000 is simple in its features, even if the core functionality of the watch is more streamlined than some of the competition that offers a truer smartwatch experience. Most importantly, the GBD-H1000 is a novel-feeling device that will still make traditional G-Shock product enthusiasts happy. Casio continues to prove that it would rather keep quality, performance, and expectations high, even if it debuts new features a bit more slowly than some of the technology competitors out there. I’m certainly going to be keeping this watch on my wrist while being active for a long time to come. Price for the Casio G-Shock Move GBDH1000-1A7 is $399.99 USD. Learn more at the G-Shock website here.

Necessary Data >Brand: Casio >Model: G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 (reference GBD-H1000-1A7 as tested) >Price: $399.99 USD >Size: 55mm-wide, 20.4mm-thick, and 63mm lug-to-lug distance >When reviewer would personally wear it: As daily wear sports watch when features such as a compass and heart-rate monitor are useful, or as a dedicated activity tracker when I will likely be away from a charging station for a few days. >Friend we’d recommend it to first: Anyone interested in enjoying a next-generation G-Shock product that they can now fully incorporate into a trackable, active lifestyle. >Best characteristic of watch: Excellent battery life as compared to the competition. Highly legible and crisp screen. Loads of performance/features for an activity tracker that is more traditional watch than it is smartwatch. >Worst characteristic of watch: Color scheme isn’t for everyone. Case is still quite large despite being comfortable on the wrist. Understanding how to use the new operating system requires a learning curve. System slow on watch when saving/deleting data.

The post Watch Review: Casio G-Shock Move GBD-H1000 GPS Heart-Rate Monitor appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/32pDhoT via IFTTT

[wristwatchjournal]

Watch Review: Casio Pro Trek PRT-B50 Black Titanium

The longstanding Casio Pro Trek (formerly Pathfinder) watch family endures on as the Japanese brand’s famed “hiking” watch. Today, I check out the Casio Pro Trek PRT-B50, specifically the PRTB50YT-1 in black with a matching black titanium bracelet. Pro Trek’s territory even within Casio has been shrunk due to the encroachment of G-Shock models that in many ways overlap with Pro Trek models in both functionality and style. It was once only Pro Trek models that had “ABC” (altimeter, barometer, compass) sensor technology, as well as many of Casio’s hybrid analog/digital displays. This is no longer the case, as Casio has lent all of Pro Trek’s unique selling points over to the G-Shock family — so, let’s take a look at this admittedly good Casio Pro Trek model and understand how it compares and contrasts with its G-Shock “sister model,” the Casio G-Shock Mudmaster GG-B100 (aBlogtoWatch review here).

At the same time, Casio is currently selling both the Pro Trek PRT-B50 and the G-Shock Mudmaster GG-B100, which both share the same base “module” (the term Casio uses for its movements). More so, as configured, this Pro Trek PRT-B50 on the black titanium bracelet and the Mudmaster GG-B100 have the same retail price. Consumers will justifiably be a bit confused as to which model is right for them. To be fair, the base model Pro Trek-B50 comes in at a much less expensive $220 price point, whereas this version with the black IP-coated titanium bracelet costs more. In essence, the G-Shock Mudmaster is the more expensive model, and accordingly, the case is more durable and wear-resistant (though it is larger as a consequence).

I dedicate much of the Pro Trek PRT-B50 video review to discussing how it compares to the Mudmaster GG-B100… and at the end of the case, unless you have a specialized need for a particular feature in one of the two watches, the choice is a matter of taste and style. Here is where the Pro Trek model beats the G-Shock. First of all, even at 50.8mm-wide and 15.8mm-thick, the Pro Trek is the smaller watch of the two in thickness. It also benefits from having a rotating navigational bezel — but, to be honest, that isn’t very useful (especially since the module has a compass function built into it).

The Pro Trek is also a lighter watch, which is amazingly apparent even on the titanium bracelet. In total, the watch weighs just 64 grams. On the wrist, you really don’t feel like anything is there. Finally, the Pro Trek PRT-B50 marginally beats out the G-Shock Mudmaster GG-B100 in terms of legibility, thanks to the dial’s high-contrasting and very easy-to-read hands and hour markers (both of which are painted in luminant). It is also true that if you want a G-Shock with a titanium bracelet, it is going to cost you a lot more money than the retail price of a PRTB50YT-1. Speaking of the bracelet, let me discuss it a bit since, for me, this is a new bracelet design and I think its clever engineering requires some discussion.

There are two downsides to the bracelet. First is that if you have smaller wrists, like mine, the way the bracelet connects to the case means that the case lugs sharply jut out a bit. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, but it is a point of inelegance that I believe Casio should have designed around a bit better. Second, the bracelet offers only a minor level of micro-adjustment (just one extra spring bar hole in deployant to help ideally size the watch). I’d say that the options for sizing the bracelet will work for most wrists, though, as a sports watch, this Pro Trek is meant to be worn snugly enough not to move around, but not so snug as to restrict your wrist’s movement.

Sizing the bracelet is the best part because Casio engineered a really clever system that does require a tool, but one that, if you don’t have it, something you have laying around could easily double to release the straps. I also believe that this new link design helps the bracelet be thinner while maintaining a high degree of structural integrity. No, this strap isn’t going to have G-Shock durability, but I believe it will satisfy the vast majority of uses. A small plastic tool supplier with the watch allows you to press down on a hidden pusher on the rear of the case. This, in turn, causes both hold pins in the link to retract and allow it to separate. If you know what you are doing, you can go from an entirely unsized bracelet to a sized one in under a minute. This is amazing given that most other bracelets require a special spring bar removal tool, steady hands, and some patience, as the entire exercise can take 15 minutes, or more, depending on how accurate your sizing predictions are. Also, note how relatively thin and discreet the fold-over deployant clasp is. I should also mention that, in addition to the bracelet having quick-release end links, the Pro-Trek case is designed to accept many after-market 24mm-wide straps. (G-Shock watches normally don’t have removable straps, and if you do need new straps, you can typically only use ones made for that particular case.)

The rest of the Pro Trek PRT-B50 case is in matte black resin, which now partially extends over the caseback to offer what might be even more durability. Whereas the G-Shock has 200 meters of water resistance, the Pro Trek has 100 meters. The height of the rotating bezel is also designed to protect the crystal from unwanted shock. The case itself is attractive, but in a way that has always been intentionally more conservative than G-Shock. The now-larger G-Shock-style pushers are easy to press, but there are a lot of them on the case (six in total). Casio also failed to label the bottom center pusher on the front of the case that activates the backlight. The pusher almost blends in with the design of the case and I can see people wearing this watch for maybe even years without even knowing a backlight function even exists unless they are told about the location of this pusher.

As is the case with the sister G-Shock Mudmaster GG-B100 watch, the only functional downside of the module in the PRT-B50 (the Casio module 5601) is the lack of solar power generation. This would have made the watch much more autonomous. This isn’t that big a deal, as the battery is said to last, on average, two years and is a CR 2025 cell, which can be easily purchased at many stores (so it isn’t one of those finicky specialist battery sizes).

I really like this module for the money because it offers everything people have come to expect with regard to Pro Trek functionality but also some new modern features, such as Bluetooth connectivity. Using the G-Shock app, you can have your phone automatically adjust/update the time and set things on the watch, such as the alarm. “Mobile Link” via Bluetooth is a feature that is coming to more and more Casio watches, and it’s great that it is already being widely rolled out on even more entry-level models. Casio calls the Pro Trek PRT-B50 a “quad sensor” watch because, in addition to the altimeter/barometer, compass, and thermometer of previous-gen Pro Trek watches, the latest sensor is a step counter. Though this is a light form of activity tracking smartwatch, the PRT-B50 can in fact function as a simple semi-smartwatch activity tracker or you can simply use the step counter (pedometer) without any phone connectivity. In that regard, I really admire Casio’s approach with Bluetooth — as of now, on most models, using Bluetooth with your watch is optional and not required for most of the core functionality.

Even though the small negative (what the dark screens are called) LCD display does not take up the bulk of the PRT-B50 dial, it is something that you’ll use a lot. That said, I like how, from a distance, this Pro Trek looks more or less like an entirely analog watch. The default screen can display the time digitally, the calendar, steps, or a barometric pressure graphic (for weather prediction). Dedicated pushers on the case allow you to quickly activate the altimeter and compass functions. These repurpose the seconds hand as an analog indicator such as the compass needle. The system is rather refined and works quite well; it also happens to be quite snappy in its performance.

What draws me to the Pro Trek PRTB50YT-1 is its legible dial, handsome yet conservative style, and its light weight and wearing comfort. I’m still not quite sure how to tell if someone is better off with a Pro Trek versus a G-Shock, but Casio wins either way. It is true that the Pro Trek PRT-B50 is the budget model, assuming you can live without the titanium bracelet (there is a non-black model, as well). With the bracelet, the watch is still a good value given that the bracelet design is both new and not offered in this affordable form in the G-Shock collection. Starting price for the Casio Pro Trek PRT-B50 watch collection is $220 USD and, as featured, the PRTB50YT-1 has a retail price of $380 USD. Learn more at the Casio Pro Trek website here.

The post Watch Review: Casio Pro Trek PRT-B50 Black Titanium appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2YWp0g1 via IFTTT