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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1374 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Phone brand smartwatches (apple, samsung) tell you whatever the phone brand tells you about that person in your cultural context. Usually they're a pretty straightforward status signal, but in my experience more for young women than for anyone else. (Apple cachet remains...)

As for garmins, they differentiate from other smartphones by having much longer lasting batteries (my fenix solar lasts 10 days under normal conditions and closer to 14 when I'm out and about a lot) and being notably more feature rich. No individual feature is killer, but in aggregate I end up using a whole lot of them. The sleep tracking + heartbeat sensing isn't unique among smartphones but having them has improved my self discipline. The heartbeat tracking in particular came in clutch when I had altitude sickness in colorado-- helping me notice my tachycardia and then validate that wim hof breathing actually helped me drop my heartrate from 100 to 80. The Maps+GPS+Compass works better than google maps on my phone for hiking and it saves on phone battery. (Plus it's fun to track walks/hikes) The weather+sunset/sunrise display is something I could do with a phone app but it's convenient to just have it on my wrist, especially when I'm driving. I definitely do appreciate not having to pull my phone out for notifications. There's an app for electric unicycles that can show my speed and battery readout on my watch, which I used fairly often before I got an upgraded wheel with a built-in display. Also I use the flashlight literally every day. Something about it being wrist-mounter makes it so much more more useful than a phone flashlight.

I almost feel bad for shilling them this much but my buddy works for them and got me mine for the employee discount so I feel like they've more than earned a few paragraphs of shilling.

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