I loved this phone so much, for it's totally hands free voice control when I was driving. Nothing like it.
Does it still behave the way it used to? I am considering getting another one Just to drive with, but I am worried it may not behave the same way it used to, due to all the android updates.
1: Can you still program a customizable activation phrase using MOTO VOICE that will both wake up and unlock the Phone?
2: Does it sill read back text messages and prompt you to respond hands-free?
3: Will it still take photos hands free with a custom phrase?
Thanks!
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Okay I've always had a concern of having my phone stolen and the data in it being used for nefarious purposes (i.e. someone buys with my google account). Well not that worried but its a thought. So after 6 months of cursing blur and trying to get rid of it I thought I would try out the "Locate my phone" with it.
Logged into my blur account and yep there is my phone (phone number isn't recongised), but when I try the "locate my phone" feature it just ends up searching and never finding. Not sure if this is a carrier issue (I brought an unlocked phone from the UK and I live in Australia, my carrier does not support the Milestone 2), but just wondering if anyone else has trialed this.
I had a go at lookout but kept force closing for some reason, and I figured if Blur did what I needed, no need to pay for Lookout.
I used the motoblur apps when I first got the phone just to see what they were like...
But I quickly got rid of them as the phone was running so slow and chuggy for a 1GHz and battery life was atrocious.
As for the locate my phone feature, you would have to leave GPS on all the time yeah?...the amount of apps and Google apps that can keep track of your movements if of more concern to me than tracking the phone if ever lost (I've never lost a phone to date, touch wood!)
Sent from my Milestone 2 using XDA app
I had tried to use the feature to test that if it works, but even if I enabled GPS, the web page was keeping finding my tombstone and resulted in failure. Maybe it was caused by the position I'm in (you know China's GFW always blocks some normal internet requests). Anyway, since then, I turned to pay attention to my bags instead of trusting in blur. And I should remind you that any thief who got your phone will pull out your battery at once and therefore any app can not work.
Sent from my Milestone 2
I'm not overly sure they would always pull the battery, if I was a theif I would pull the info on the phone first that way to grab details about the customer to onsell. Also be interested incase I left my phone at work (on my charger) and panicked when I got home.
I gave up on it, and tried Seekdroid, works great, only a $1. I have no issue with being tracked by my phone, I figured that they could do it from cell towers anyway (did install the app that access the tracking data out of interest). My life is so dull that I cannot see a reason why anyone would care for that info (they would find out the bus route to work and home again mainly)
MotoBlur Works for me.
Blur works fine for me. At least in South America, I tested the locate my phone feature and it worked flawlessly. I heard seekdroid is another great app for finding your phone as well.
Motoblur is a piece of crap, it only exists to slow down the device.
Sent from my A953 using XDA Premium App
Last night I got one of those cheap Chinese smartwatches for $40 locally. (Amazon seems to have some for $20 at amzn.to/2qpSftK) Yeah I know, I know, but I work at a job that is anal about cell phones (a major gripe of mine the way places can be that way) and I need to know if my child's ride at school doesn't show up or if school lets out early due to a power outage etc, if that happens then I HAVE to pause what I'm doing and make a call or two to make pickup arrangements or else it's a legal issue of child abandonment. Such may only happen 2-3 times an entire school year, but it has happened a few times--my mother-in-law's battery was dead and she was running late, or she couldn't find her keys etc--in such cases I had to track down someone locally and get them to step-in, last minute.
Thus, I need a smartwatch which can relay calls which have come in so I can see them and it also needs to push SMS messages and let me reply to them, that way without even pulling my phone out of my pocket I will know if this has occurred (and can quickly reply to SMS) but I can otherwise keep my phone in my pocket knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that if a call or SMS has come in, this watch WILL pick it up and I WILL be able to reply to them.
This watch I got, it is fine with relaying phone calls and it even relayed the audio from a YouTube video I was watching on the phone itself, but it WILL NOT WORK with relaying SMS. At first it did, such requires installing a "BT Notifier" on the phone (which is the best?) but even then it was hit or miss, and then it just stopped. I've done EVERYTHING in terms of different BT Notifier apps, I even scanned the "OCR Code" or whatever to point to the BT Notifier specific to that model (it appears to be a GT08 type, with the "fan" style of icons, menu/phone on the bottom left and names/text on the right, this YouTube video Ksy0pd-12BI shows one like it), I set that app up--no matter, IT WILL NOT push SMS to this smartwatch, no way/no how.
Is this a common occurrence with such smartwatches? Is this a case of that I'm going to have to just accept this model CANNOT handle SMS no matter what and get something else, vs being able to actually fix this? One model I had read good things about in an article (BIT and 2lTVoxg) called the OUMAX Bluetooth Smart Watch S6 for around $50, this model looked like a good one because it downplays "fitness" features I do not at all need and instead stresses pushing smartphone notifications and being able to replay to them, which is what I DO need. I started to get it on Amazon but then it would've required several days to get here and I need something up & running quickly but without spending $250. Maybe I should've just gotten that and waited?
Tips in general?
If anyone has any tips please do reply, I am only say this because I have an update but that doesn't mean I am not still looking for help.
I've somehow got it working just fine, no timing out of connectivity or any such thing. I had saved the downloaded BT Notifier .apk file from the app it referenced in the barcode I scanned, and I tried again but this time I disabled an app I've used on the phone for a long time--NoLED, which displays a moving dot on the LCD when notifications arrive, making it unnecessary to "wake up" the phone to see missed calls etc. I've used that app for forever, it's a long-time staple of mine, but I wondered if it was possibly interfering with this process.
I'm not sure if that is the case, but since disabling it (but also turning the watch off and letting it charge to full overnight) it's working great today. I possibly could get beyond that eventually but for now I'll take it, I mean having a smartwatch does somewhat make it less necessary anyway. The only issue now--the band, it won't attach and it's apparently a permanent part of the watch's structure, not easily swapped out. I'm not sure how I'll get around that, maybe stitching another watch band on top of it using a sewing kit?
Ultimate Fix: Watch-Specific App/Disable/Install 3rd Party
I'm somewhat disappointed in the lack of replies. Is this because this watch is now perhaps an older model, or what is the reason?
In any case, I now have the ultimate fix.
It's 3 things:
(1) Install the watch-specific app by scanning the QR code and "sideloading" the app
(2) "Force Stop" this app in Google settings but DO NOT uninstall it, leave it installed.
(3) Install the 3rd party app by "Shenznen Fan Yun Technology Co, Ltd" (green background, white circle with exclamation point) then under the "Accessibility" enable the second "BT Notifications" entry, leave the 1st one at OFF
When I got this watch, the first thing I did was download that 3rd party app, it worked some but not consistently, then it totally stopped. I then stumbled across the QR code in the watch, scanned it, installed that app, and that worked--but that app was FULL of adware, constantly bugging me to install this app or that, launching a new tab and page in my Chrome browser, and just being a total pain. I was glad the watch worked, but hated that behavior--so much I disabled the app, figuring I'd just have to re-enable it when the watch was being used.
On a hunch, eager to try again, with the watch-specific app still disabled, I downloaded the 3rd party "Shenznen Fan Yun Technology Co, Ltd" app and, just totally guessing, under "accessibility" enabled the 2nd entry (both entries have identical names so you can't tell which is which), but didn't uninstall the watch-specific app only because I figured that I would end up having to revert back to it anyway.
To my surprise, this has worked. It seems to require me turning the watch off and connecting through the watch initially, but however I get a connection and the SMS message log on the phone populates on the watch, at that point it is stable and reliable from that point on. I had it running today all-day and was receiving texts and the inbox was coming up reliably.
I hope this helps somebody. (Note: this watch is still being sold as eBay item #381686066028.)
Well, there doesn't seem to be a generic smart watch thread, so I thought I would post this here. If there is a better place for it, mods may feel free to move it if they wish.
So, i am looking for a recommendation on a smart watch. I was a pebble time user for a long time, but after the announcement that they will stop supporting it thus summer, i am a bit concerned its gonna stop working, so I have started my search. So far I have been through and returned a Fossil, and am getting ready to return my Zen Watch 3 because of all the bugs and problems (see my post yesterday) so I came here for a recommendation. If needed, I have a 6P running Android 8.0.0 rooted.
So here are my needs. please keep in mind that the needs listed may (I don't know) be common to most/all smart watches, but figure I should probably include them in case.
1) It must work reliably 99.9% of the time. 15 seconds before the watch notifies me of a phone call isn't acceptable. (Hence why I am thinking about ditching my Zen. The Zen Watch 3, as least as it is working for me is a horribly unreliable piece of junk, and Asus tech support is a total joke.)
2) It must notify me of phone calls, and text messages, and include the contact name in the notification.
3) I must be able to reply, at least by voice, to text messages I receive.
4) Must get at least 24 hours out of a charge with light use, and have some battery to spare. EG. My Zen watch, I use it occasionally, and after 24 hours, I usually have 25-%-35% life left. Thats why I got rid of the Fossil. Battery life was horrible.
5) Sub $500 Canadian (For our US people out there, thats about $400)
6) Must be available in Canada, and be purchasable from a retailer that permits "I didn't like it" returns. (Such as big box stores, etc, where you can return an item because it didn't suit your needs. After the nightmare I have been though with these watches, it has to be able to go back if its junk IMO)
7) IF it runs android wear, it must run 2.0+, however I am not insisting it be an android wear watch.
8) If it doesn't run android wear, there must be a google authenticator app available for it.
9) It must either have at least one programmable button (programmable button to launch an app) OR have a way to launch an app very quickly. Lets say with less then 2 seconds of work. I map this button to my authenticator app (see #8) because I use it often.
10) Must run at a decent speed. I find the zen watch crazy slow. I am not used to it taking at times 5-10 seconds to open an app.
Things I would like:
1) I kinda like Android wear. The selection of apps seems quite nice, and having google assistant right on the watch seems pretty awesome.
2) An extended battery life. Maybe I was spoiled by my pebble, and my 5-7 day battery life, but I would really like that, if its even available.
3) Color screen. Not really a need, but would be nice to have.
4) Decent selection of apps.
5) The ability to use my watch to take/receive calls, and actually use the watch as a speaker phone. Via bluetooth of course, I am not expecting it to work standalone without a phone.
So maybe I have been spoiled by my Pebble, and ran into a decent watch that just works, and works for my needs. I understand its possible that a watch that meets my needs (other then the pebble) just doesn't exist, and if thats the case, just tell me so. I am willing to accept that an an answer.
Before I end, I want to thank those of you that actually took the time to read my post, as it is a rather long one. And I want to thank those that took a few seconds to think about my needs and what may be available/useful to me. And a special thank you in advance to those that take the time to actually reply.
I just got a Ticwatch E. It's fresh out of the box today using Android Wear 2 and all that (I gather it originally didn't support Android Wear, but it does now with the latest firmwares I guess.) One of the biggest reasons I finally updated to a modern smartwatch (my Pebble Time has served me very well and done just about everything I ever wanted except just a few things) was to be able to use the Google Assistant for (mostly) hands-free operations like getting directions while driving and etc without having to pull out the phone, unlock it, etc etc. (Especially since I prefer that my phone stays in my pocket when I don't need to do anything complex and at all times while driving.) I setup a bunch of stuff but just found out I have a huge problem in that this is the one thing I needed that absolutely does not seem to work.
Whenever I attempt to actually use the assistant by either holding the power button a moment or "ok google" (which I want to keep off to save battery life, but I turned on to test this) it just pops up a blank screen with a picture of a circle with an arrow (basically a refresh symbol which seems to be used to say "loading" a lot on Android Wear.) I've tapped around, tried sliding from each direction (of course left to right just backs out, but I tried the other three too,) waited a long time, and tried unlocking the phone after a quick google search. I have no clue what if any apps other than Android Wear need to be installed, but I did install the Google Assistant and already had the actual Google app itself installed. (I'd rather have only whatever is necessary, but for now I'm kind of trying to throw everything at it.) I also have the Ticwatch app itself installed even though I don't need or want the fitness tracking stuff.
I have a friend that is 95 years old who suffers from Dementia. She broke her hip this last weekend and is in the hospital an soon will transfer to a rehab care place. Dementia is ****ed. You get to watch a person slowly disappear. I don't get to see her as often as I would like and sadly only one other person goes to occasionally visit her. So my idea is to limit the N7 to just basically a simple 1 step procedure for her to be able to alert me to start a video chat or where a nurse could easily start it up for her. I thought i was going to write a camera program but reality and my lack of skills hit real quick. I have about 4 hours to make this happen and I was hoping yall would help with what apps and/or tweaks i could quickly setup to make this possible. I have aosp_grouper-7.1.2-ota-20201107.eng.ds.zip that I just installed.
main thing i need to be able to do is for her or a nurse to push a icon that'd alert me to call her back. Also iI'd like to be able to lock the screen on her so no accidently app closures. remoting in would be nice so i can continue to update and improve the tablets functionality. Please help. Thanks.
first this rom sucks..
You should be able to set a video chat app as the kiosk app to lock it down and disable screen lock so pressing the power button unlocks instantly