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Xenex writes:
"In the wake of the Android Ware [Video] announcement, I have been giving thought to the impact these watches could have on our life. 'The more I read about smartwatches, the more I appreciate my "dumb" watches' writes Shawn Blanc. 'But I don't just wear a watch to know what time it is. Part of the reason I wear one is as an excuse not to pull out my iPhone.' Basically: when you look at a watch you see the time, when you look at a smartphone for the time you also see notifications. Avoiding my phone is definitely a factor for me nowadays, and a 'smart' watch might just be another distraction."
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'Dumb' Watches and the Technology in our Lives
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 1) by Daiv on Monday March 24 2014, @01:33PM
I have two main requirements for a smartwatch before I buy one.
1. It better be damn responsive.
2. Make it super-simple to view notifications (ie, text messages and phone calls)
I don't want a smart watch that does everything a smart phone does. I just want to not look rude when I have an incoming call or text so I can respond as appropriate in my circumstance. I want to be able to read a text, who it's from and when it came and dismiss it easily. I don't want to respond back from my wrist in any way.
Number 1 should be first and foremost though. If it doesn't do #1, forget about #2.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @01:49PM
Might want battery life. That means bluetooth-LE. That means apple. That means you just chained your biz to theirs and they now control your biz so don't bother releasing until BT-LE works better on more (all?) android devices.
Its not going to happen as a major product until or if google and/or apple release watches so the other has to and it become a "thing" across the whole market.
One interesting aspect of battery life is I'm not a 16 year old girl so I don't carry my phone in the butt pocket of my jeans in order to draw attention so I don't care how thin a phone is. In fact I wish I had a super-fat phone because its easier for sausage fingers to hold and I could return to the glory days of recharging my phone once a week. Current phones are too small to appeal to me. Yet in comparison the current crop of smartwatches tend to barely last a day yet be roughly the size and mass of a hockey puck, so current smartwatches are too big even for a big weightlifter guy.
(Score: 1) by Daiv on Monday March 24 2014, @02:15PM
If a watch hits both of the original items I request, I would settle for 12 hours of battery life. My presumption would be any company that can hit both my requests would be able to get also get a day of battery life.
I don't believe only Apple or Google can fulfill my requests. I believe someone else out there has the drive to do it and probably will hit what I want before either of the two you mentioned. Google's Moto unit has promise from what they've already shown, Samsung threw in everything including the kitchen sink and Apple hasn't said peep. Sony's even released a few that also look like they have promise.
I just want the notifications, and no one seems intent on delivering that yet, especially the companies you've mentioned.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @02:49PM
"I just want the notifications"
I believe this is a big part of the market problem for smart watches. Customers want the notification screen and thats pretty much it. The app store people want to sell the new Angry Birds on the watch, all over again, perhaps for more money much as ipad apps used to sell for more than ipod/iphone apps (I haven't had an iDevice since I got my nexus so don't know)
This kind of competition has played out in other fields... I want a commuter car, too bad we're selling SUVs and you'll like it. Or homebuyers vs the mcmansion, that sort of thing.
(Score: 1) by Tork on Monday March 24 2014, @02:12PM
I recently purchased a Pebble Watch and, from experience, can tell you that that's probably what you're looking for. It's a watch (with a bunch of neat watch faces...), and when your phone has a notification, it turns up on the display AND the watch vibrates. Actually I've killed the sound notifications on my phone because of this. (Although it might be worth asking me a month from now if I continue to still do that.)
Basically they went the short and simple route with this watch and... it works! The watch is a nice decent size. The battery life... eh it's so so, 3 or 4 days, but since it uses something like a mag-safe adapter they claim it's water resistent. (Note: I have not tried this.) The simple interface doesn't get bogged down in minutia just to see why your phone is buzzing. And, the most shocking thing for me, is that I had no idea that watches were MISSING vibration capability. Seriously, I would never have thought I'd want a watch with this capability.
My experience with it gives me the same concern you have about getting something more sophisticated: I don't want to noodle the damn thing. The thought of actually having to do app updates on it just fills me with dread. Simple is good with a watch, treat it like a second monitor and nothing more, that's what I say.
Slashdolt logic: 1600 x 1200 > 1920 x 1200
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 24 2014, @02:54PM
3. Make it resist when I hit it on random objects. My old swatch has a new scratch from yesterday's gardening. I did not worry for one minute that it was going to break. I know that gorilla glass is stronger than Swatch glass, but there are a lot more ways one can hit and partially disable any of the current watches.
Oddly, I believe that the future of the smart watch is long thin screens nesting on the inside of the arm, maybe with a system to be readable despite shirt cuffs. I only need three lines of text, if there's more than two words per line...