[RodgerLeblanc]

I've used the watch one full day with my BlackBerry Passport and one full day with my Samsung Galaxy S6.

I prefer to report bugs I've found directly to Vector, but what I can say is all the bugs I experienced with Passport were also present on Android. In fact, all bugs I found were also reported by other users in comments of the Google Play page for Vectorwatch app, I'll just try to narrow the reasons why these bugs are occurring before reporting.

Of course, I only had it for two days now and will need a little bit more time to report all the bugs I've found with steps to reproduce them, but let's hope that will bring a better experience for both Android and BlackBerry users.

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[Nathan_Weiss]

Rodger, I reported bugs to them as well. Yes, all happened on android too.

I love the look and feel of the vector but it seems to have so little functionality next to my pebble.

Keep us posted

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[shotel]

Just an update. The vector app was updated to 1.3.0 [build 62 (8b27181)] about a week ago. Now the app continually crashes without apparent provocation. Sometimes the app goes away (disappears) on the Passport, yet the watch shows connected and receives/displays notifications. I have notified Vector support. The vector app crashes even when there is no apparent activity on the PP (incoming notifications or anything else) I doubt this has anything to do with Bridge Droid, Bridge, or BB playstore stuff as the app and watch were working near flawlessly when running the previous firmware before update. The only 'real' negative prior to this is the pathetic bluetooth range - about 10' line-of-sight. But that seems to be true on all platforms. Hopefully Vector support, which has been very fast to respond to tickets (case #'s) will provide an update.

[RodgerLeblanc]

Just an update. The vector app was updated to 1.3.0 [build 62 (8b27181)] about a week ago. Now the app continually crashes without apparent provocation. Sometimes the app goes away (disappears) on the Passport, yet the watch shows connected and receives/displays notifications. I have notified Vector support. The vector app crashes even when there is no apparent activity on the PP (incoming notifications or anything else) I doubt this has anything to do with Bridge Droid, Bridge, or BB playstore stuff as the app and watch were working near flawlessly when running the previous firmware before update. The only 'real' negative prior to this is the pathetic bluetooth range - about 10' line-of-sight. But that seems to be true on all platforms. Hopefully Vector support, which has been very fast to respond to tickets (case #'s) will provide an update.

I briefly noticed the same after updating about two or three weeks ago. I'm part of their beta team and thought it was their beta release that was acting up, I also had to switch to Pebble to focus on a bug that was affecting Pebble users at the time, I'll try to get back to Vector soon. I forgot to mention, I've started to develop another app while I was using Vector smartwatch that would be very useful with bluetooth range issue, it's called Doo and is currently in Beta Zone. It allows you to assign an action (shortcut) to your volume keys. By setting it to open Vector app, it would reconnect bluetooth if the connection was lost. Unfortunately, there are two downsides :
1) You'd need to reach out to your BlackBerry device, even if you don't need to actually unlock the phone.
2) This only works if Vector app isn't already running as an active frame, also meaning that it would only work once until you unlock the phone and close Vector active frame.

Also, this doesn't solve the constant crash of Vector app in the latest release. You can try to find an older version of Vector app online, don't know if you could find 1.2.5 somewhere.

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[shotel]

Well, I got an answer:

Thank you for reaching out to us and apologies for the delayed response!
Please note that we do not officially support BlackBerry phone, nor can we offer assistance for issues pertaining to BlackBerry device, as the app is a third party bridge version.
Thank you for understanding, we apologize for the inconvenience!
Kind regards,
Rares Platon | Customer Care Lead | Vector Watch
E: *****@vectorwatch.com

VECTOR WATCH GROUP

Looks like I will need to roll-back to the previous release. I think I downloaded it somewhere for USB update. Hopefully I can do this or the watch is useless.
It's really too bad that Vector doesn't actively pursue the BB market considering there is only one other competitive player, and opts to compete with 200+ smartwatch vendors, almost all of which have infinity more resources to advertise & sell. I assume Pebble doesn't support BB either?

[RodgerLeblanc]

Ok, can you look into your "Downloads" folder, Android apps downloaded with Google Play store or Snap save the apk in that folder and doesn't remove it after installing, if you never manually cleaned that folder, you should still have it.

Can you send it to me if you have it, I do clean that folder once in a while and I don't have the 1.2.5 version anymore, I'll make it available to other users in Bridge if you can send it to me. Use the bug report inside Bridge to find my email address.

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[shotel]

Rodger- Looked in downloads and the only version is the 1.3.0. (file: com.vectorwatch.android.apk) Perhaps the previous version was overwritten during the update? I also searched through my Xperia/Android and the vector app was auto-updated (although I never touched it since the day I installed the vector app on the PP). The vector installer is on my PC, but no vector.apk file. CAn you request a 1.2.x copy from Vector?

[shotel]

I may have stumbled upon a method to re-create the crash:
1.) Vector App disappears in active frame or watch shows not connected/link lost.
2.) restart vector app by clicking the Vector Watch icon
3.) Vector App appears in active frame - watch shows connected
4.) get Hub notice: Vector Watch - connected to watch
5.) tap on this notice in the hub
6.) immediately get a "Unfortunately, Vector Watch has stopped" message
7.) Vector App disappears in active frame - watch *may of may not* show link lost.
--if I don't acknowledge the Hub's Vector watch connected alert, it stays connected...for a while (could be 10min, could be 6 hours), but doing the above always crashes the app.

Perhaps this may help?

[shotel]

Rodger- Any further luck with this issue on your end? The watch is pretty much useless connected to the PP at this point as the 1.3 App continuously crashes.

[RodgerLeblanc]

Really sorry, didn't looked into it at all, been spending most of my free time getting my new app ready for release.

I'll try to ping Bogdan this week about the issue, I know he's still active in their Slack channel.

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[shotel]

Thanks for the response. I pairing the Vector with my Xperia just now, I see there is a new-er firmware release; 1.4. (must have just been released?)
Will try that on the PP and report my findings.

[shotel]

After many, many frustrating attempts (lots of immediate crashes when opening the app and can't-connects) , I was finally able to update the PP to 1.4. I inadvertently deleted the VectorWatch app icon. Now, I can only open the VectorWatch app by opening Play Store - (hamburger) to My apps & games - VectorWatch app - tap open. Now the app is in the Play Store active frame (not its own active frame). Any ideas on how to get icon back, or create a key-shortcut? the Interestingly, even if I close the play store frame, the VectorApp still runs and is connected and notifications come through. I purposely moved the watch away from the PP to force it to lose link, then came back and toggled bluetooth and it reconnected ok. 2 hours so far and no app crashes. Will see how it works during the day tomorrow. Thanks again.

[shotel]

UPDATE: The VectorWatch ver. 1.4 has worked flawlessly the entire day. Bluetooth actually seems to work better, either by not disconnecting at greater distances than before, or perhaps not timing-out as quickly when briefly out of range. Still have the app in a play store frame...but not as much of a concern considering it hasn't crashed once...yet...so I don't need to fiddle with it. As a side note, the new version has a feature where the watch can trigger the phone camera shutter. A better use of a watch-button-as-trigger, IMO, is to trigger BB assistant (for voice dialing) and/or answering incoming calls.

[RodgerLeblanc]

That's great news, I'll try it up today, the watch was dead when I took it earlier.

For BlackBerry Assistant, I tried really hard to start a vocal conversation with Assistant programmatically, but never found a way to do it. I can open BlackBerry Assistant programmatically, but can't start the vocal Assistant programmatically, it always need the user to reach to their phone and press on a button to start the vocal Assistant.

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[RodgerLeblanc]

After 24h with Vector watch using version 1.4.0.b (beta version, but probably the same version as you have), and it's been a great experience so far. The firmware update was straightforward for once, where it usually would have me go through disconnection and manual reconnection loops.

After updating firmware, the watch stays connected as long as I don't go out of range. If I do gou out of range, bluetooth connection is lost and the app won't reconnect until I open Vector app. Fortunately, I'm about to release a new app that allows to use your volume buttons on your phone to perfom a task, I have assigned a double click of the play/pause button would open Vector app, so when the watch disconnect, as soon as I reach back to my phone I just double click on play/pause button and the watch reconnect, I don't even haven to open my screen or unlock the device. It would be better if the connection was automatically restarted, but that's a good enough workaround for me. The app should be released soon, I'll let you know when it's ready.

Weather stream did show my temperature correctly on initial setup but never updated since, so pretty useless. I did experienced the same when I tried Vector 1.2.5 with an Android device, but haven't tested 1.4.0 on Android, so can't tell if it's a BlackBerry limitation or a Vector app bug.

All Bridge notifications came through as expected during my testing, so emails, SMS, calendar events, PocketSafe notifications, BlackBullet notifications all came in as they should, which is an awesome news after seeing how 1.3.0 was crashing when Bridge was sending stuff to Vector.

Conclusion : 1.4.0 is the most stable build so far, bluetooth not automatically reconnecting being the main downside. Other than that, it's good, at least for me.

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[shotel]

After a full week with ver. 1.4, there have been no bluetooth communication or stability issues whatsoever. Although the vector app seems to be running in a play store frame on my PP, I have yet to restart the app (I just bounce the bluetooth toggle when the watch has been out of range and lost link).

Rodger, is there some possible method that you can have the camera app for the Vector Watch instead programmatically trigger your new app - which can be pre-assigned to offer other functionality on the PP? Obviously nothing would happen when the watch losses bluetooth communication, but answering the phone or opening the assistant (which you mentioned earlier), or at some point...or when there is a stream that can do this, responding to a text with a preset message? The later is what my Sony Smartwatch does - and did previous to Android Wear.

[RodgerLeblanc]

I'll check it up, but it's probably not made available by Vector yet, don't know if they are willing to open it to customization. Can you explain how you achieved it, I tried to open the Camera from Vector but honestly haven't found out how.

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[markmall]

Is it possible to run the Vector App without Google Play or Snap? I ask because I don't use either of these. I paid for Snap but could not get it to run.

I installed the only Vector apk I could find on apkpure.com. The app runs and displays a "Checking compatibility" screen. Then it checks for updates and displays "Update available." (It appears that the update is for the watch firmware because in the upper left it says "Update Watch.") The problem is that there does not seem to be anything for me to click on to activate the update. There is no option to skip the update. If I hit the back arrow, it checks for updates again.

If I need to go through the process of installing Google Play, then so be it but I have avoided it so far. I don't want to waste an hour(s) fighting with that.

Thanks!

[markmall]

Is it possible to run the Vector App without Google Play or Snap? I ask because I don't use either of these. I paid for Snap but could not get it to run.

I installed the only Vector apk I could find on apkpure.com. The app runs and displays a "Checking compatibility" screen. Then it checks for updates and displays "Update available." (It appears that the update is for the watch firmware because in the upper left it says "Update Watch.") The problem is that there does not seem to be anything for me to click on to activate the update. There is no option to skip the update. If I hit the back arrow, it checks for updates again.

If I need to go through the process of installing Google Play, then so be it but I have avoided it so far. I don't want to waste an hour(s) fighting with that.

Thanks!

I should add that the watch must be linked to the phone because I am getting Blackbullet notifications. I am not getting email notifications or (I think) SMS notifications or telephone notifications. Just tested the phone and not working.

So I think the issue is that I need to get into the app to configure email/text/phone notifications.

[RodgerLeblanc]

You don't need Google Play or Snap, but it sure is easier with them. One way I used to get apk was with Evozi website, but it always fails lately, so I wouldn't recommend it right now.

I think there's a Chrome plug-in for desktop that allows apk download when you visit an app on Google Play website from desktop. Otherwise, I'll see if I can get the apk from Google Play on my Passport, I think it is saved somewhere in the file system whenever I download an app from Google Play.

Can you take a screenshot of the screen you're stuck into (Update watch).

Setting up a Vector watch is a very frustrating experience, both on Android and BlackBerry 10, fortunately you just have to do it once. Don't try to use an Android device to speed things up, you'll have to repeat all the same steps when connecting to your BlackBerry 10, so you won't save any time.

Posted via CB10

[RodgerLeblanc]

I should add that the watch must be linked to the phone because I am getting Blackbullet notifications. I am not getting email notifications or (I think) SMS notifications or telephone notifications. Just tested the phone and not working.

So I think the issue is that I need to get into the app to configure email/text/phone notifications.

Open Bridge and make sure the top bar selection is set to 'I own a Vector'. A Vector image should appear on main screen in Bridge instead of a Pebble image.





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[RodgerLeblanc]

Here's Vector apk I downloaded on October 9th, it's the one installed on my Passport right now.

https://app.box.com/s/c8losz238bez84zv19yefir6z1uzsdov

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[markmall]

Here's Vector apk I downloaded on October 9th, it's the one installed on my Passport right now.

https://app.box.com/s/c8losz238bez84zv19yefir6z1uzsdov

Posted via CB10

Awesome. Maybe the version had something to do with it. At least if this one worked for you.

Here is the screen I cannot get past. I can scroll through the update log, but I can't click on anything to install the update. Again, I think it's firmware for the watch itself.

[RodgerLeblanc]

Oh yeah, I now remember !!!

You need to swipe down from top and change size.

Choose the last screen size, you'll see a button will be available in the bottom of the screen.





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[markmall]

Aha! I was thinking this might be a square screen issue since the Vector app seemed so perky (like running well).

Will update...

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