It is a testament to the new sensibility that something like this can be worn in public and be "cool." I had a CASIO Data bank watch that was really cool but man the nerd-griefing I got if I wore it outside of the Science Club crowd was intense.
I really think this remains to be seen. I'm a pretty geeky guy, and there's no way I'd wear any of the smart watches I've seen to date in public.
Wearing a watch just isn't a common thing among people under 40 these days in general. Those who do wear them tend to do so primarily as a fashion accessory. The simple fact is all the watches I've seen so far have been flat out ugly. They absolutely recall the old calculator watches you're referring to. But at least wearing a watch was a fairly normal thing back then.
I'm not saying it's impossible for there to be a cool smart watch, just that I haven't seen it yet. Everything out there so far is going to be serving a very niche market, IMO.
The question now is how is really going to buy and wear those watches once the novelty effect wears off? People who are wearing watches as a fashion accessoire are probably not going to swap their Rolex or Breitling for some ugly plastic-y looking thing. This leaves the more geeky crowd that might be interested in the smartwatch for its functionality. I'm not convinced it provides enough added value over using my phone to warrant wearing it. I think, in the end, the target demographic for smartwatches is limited to the same people who used to wear those Casio watches and will remain a niche for the foreseable future.
I don't think there is any research which says wearing a bluetooth headset everyday is bad for you, but based on some anecdotal stories I've read, and my gut feeling, it doesn't seem like a good idea.
http://toq.qualcomm.com/#toq-hello
Qualcomm isn't big in the consumer space but mirasol displays seem promising.
But then there's not even a release date. This is a concept page, not a product.
Or, everyone's hedging their bets. Better to be on the train platform than off it if the train actually comes.
But the problems are Price, Performance(Battery life, responsivness) and Limitations that make it work only with Samsung phones. For those reasons I think the Gen 1 of the Gear will flop. And who knows what kind of apps Samsung is running on the Gear - if that's something non-standard it makes it even worse. (If Google released a watch it would hopefully work with all Android devices and let people build apps using the standard Android SDK.)
So meh on the Gear. With Note 3 and Note 10.1 however Samsung seems to be mostly doing the right things - extended multitasking, more RAM, Dot, Circle, Box, great screen res, more battery life etc. Almost makes me hopeful 10 in Android tablets might go somewhere finally!
The Google card UI is slick and very user friendly, but it can stagnate pretty quickly given the potential for a more accommodating, dynamic UI that a company like Apple can make with a limited range of devices. I think it's not just a simple visual gimmick that Apple demonstrated a parallax effect as a major visual feature of iOS 7.0. If the iWatch is some sort of wrap-around your wrist screen, then layers of visual information could be really interesting.
I like the design. I could see myself wearing one while actively engaged in various sports. I'm not so connected to my Note 2 while playing basketball, but I just might be with Gear.
prediction 2: once prediction 1 starts to happen, and people realize that (1) there is a device measuring physiological signals from their body, (2) it also has a gps tracker, (3) it is also connected to "the cloud" and (4) if it is android based, it is potentially sending all this info to the google-borg, there will be (I hope) a new imperative to have an honest discussion about privacy
or not
No, people will be excited that they can have a Fitbit, camera, and phone all in one.
That's why I think Basis B1 [1] is the most interesting of all "smartwatches". It's a pity they are basically out of stock since several months.
...people that will want to use it to track their kids
Even if smartwatches become a trend, they will still be worn by some limited percentage of the population. Out of that limited percentage, an even further limited percentage will understand the privacy issues. And a smaller yet percentage of those folk will actually care about the privacy issues enough to do something about it.
1) We build more medical watches than gadgets. Right up against the skin means great data quality if you take biometric data seriously in terms of the problems that can be solved. But comfort and fit are extremely important to get right.
2) We build around a data co-op model. If you share your data we show how your health data relates to everyone else. You get more info by giving. If you choose not to share, we can't share the crowd with you. You become an island unto yourself.
P.s. We're hiring: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6311608
After reading the press release, I'm still trying to understand what legitimately useful functionality is provides beyond your phone. I'm amazed they didn't at least include some bio measurement capability (beyond accelerometer). I would have thought it would be a key potential application.
As noted in the PR, a watch and fashion icon apparently:
Standalone Watch and Iconic Fashion Accessory
Yes it's version one, but surely they can do better.
[1]-https://twitter.com/androidpolice/status/375317526755827712
Recall when the Galaxy Note first came out it was almost universally mocked (including on here, it should be mentioned. I recall the pages of people declaring it DoA, etc). Turned into an incredible success.
And let's bring this full circle -- in selling larger and larger smartphone/tablet devices, it almost makes a market for a device like this.
At $300 this isn't going to go far, but I'm sure the $200, 800x600, quad-core successor is just around the corner, and then the $100 model, etc.
I wouldn't expect this to weigh more than 100 grams. In comparison, a Rolex Sea Dweller weighs 220 grams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_Sea_Dweller).
For me this would be useful when going to the gym, I could listen to music, see urgent emails and if it had GPS then track bike rides and runs. If it had a heart rate monitor then perfect. I don't like the fact it has to connect to your phone, standalone would be preferred.
What could possibly go wrong?
i could maybe get behind that.
but if it can't do anything on it's own, without the phone, it loses like 99.5% of it's appeal. if your phone or tablet had to be tethered to a laptop or desktop, it would be useless.
i'd think a huge part of the appeal of smart watch would be the fitness stuff. i know my wife doesn't really like using her phones because it is too big for running. she likes her garmin watch better. if you have to take a 5.7 inch phone with you, wtf good is the watch? Sure there is a slight bonus to just putting phone in pocket instead of on arm and using the watch to check stuff, but man it feels like this is missing the point.
i'm not convinced i want a smartwatch, but i'm pretty sure i want it to be able to do "something" on it's own. As it is, this is a dumbwatch second screen for phone.
Agreed. See PlayBook - BlackBerry Handheld pairing. The biggest appeal in BB was BBM and the PlayBook alone did not include it. #Fail
Yes, I am saying this thing looks kind of awful.
As a side note, this presentation is one of the most amazing displays of poor taste I have ever seen. You have to give them kudos for improving on the stage decoration of last year (remember the red curtains horror?) - now the music, the acting, and the outfit of the presenters still sound out of this world to me.
PS: for the golden trophy of inelegance, I'm still unsettled between the plastic glasses and the grey smoking!
"So how does dialing on this work like? You dial on your watch with phone in your hand and then talk on your phone or you talk directly by raising your wrist upto your mouth. How does it work?"
Reply: "I saw an early demo a while back. You just say "go go gadget phone" and then talk into your pinkie."
That would be awesome
Watch the video here at the 2:00 mark to see it power off: http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-gear/
[0]http://cdn.tutsplus.com/ae.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/06/Aetu...
