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After thinking about this and reading ArsTechnica's coverage I think this smartwatch goosechase needs to end. Its just a waste of time and resources for all involved. Its not the right idea.
Google unveils Android Wear: a version of Android for smartwatches
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GuitarAtomik
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I'm kind of with you on that one. Wearing both seems like it would be overkill. Though they both have their own specific strengths.
Was he talking about the screen? I thought he was talking about the battery saving tech.
They're related, IMO. He didn't go into specifics, but one of the tech points that saved battery life on the Moto X was that screen. I also wonder why they didn't just say "yeah it's got wireless charging" but "you'll learn more about that on the way" or something vague like that. Wireless charging isn't really a new thing or a killer tech at this point. I'm wondering if they've found some other way to extend it.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I always thought smartwatches were a terrible idea, but I saw a Superior Court Judge wearing one the other day.
Phoenix
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Why would that have an impact on whether or not you thought they were a terrible idea?
there's also live footage which might quell down the 'vaporware' reaction that some people have in reaction to announcement videos
You're cute
there's also live footage which might quell down the 'vaporware' reaction that some people have in reaction to announcement videos
Well now. So much for it being gigantic, or vaporware that was "all just renders".
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There's nothing conceptually appealing going on at all here.
OriginalThinking
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Nope. Just because something hasn't worked in the past, doesn't mean it will always be so. It needs the right product at the right price point at the right time. I'm really not sure where you assume the waste in resources here is, nor have you articulated why it's the wrong idea or what in your opinion you believe the right idea is.
Having owned a Pebble, I know what it's advantages are, and what it's drawbacks are. This product won't be for everyone, but it will be mass market when done correctly. The record breaking kick starter for Pebble alone shows the demand is there. But no one has had the vision or resources to really nail the concept of what a smartwatch should be. It's certainly not the Galaxy Gear. However, this seems the closest to understanding that a smartwatch is a companion and not a standalone product.
Simple, actionable notifications, a simple buttonless interface, fitness applications and music controls set in a fashionable design. I think Motorola in conjunction with Google are about to realise that vision.
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Coming at it from the mini smartphone approach is just the wrong idea. I'm sure we can look forward to decades of strapping sensors and microprocessors to our bodies, I have no doubts about that. But THIS, this isn't it. Theres no miraculous way to design around a flawed concept. And there needs to be a HUGE amount of technological progression for this concept to even be fully realized. With the tech we have now what if I get up to take a piss and my phone is left on my drawer.. my watch just stops working? I can think of a million impracticalities that in my mind signify the absolutely infancy this concept is at.
I saw a poster here uses their pebble to crib notes while they give lectures and I can see the utility there. I'm sure for some fraction of a percentage of people this solution makes sense. However, I am confident 10 years from now 90% of our wrists are gonna look the same as they do now.
I saw a poster here uses their pebble to crib notes while they give lectures and I can see the utility there. I'm sure for some fraction of a percentage of people this solution makes sense. However, I am confident 10 years from now 90% of our wrists are gonna look the same as they do now.
bluetooth works up to like 40 feet, and wifi direct further
If you're at home the watch can just hop on wifi and have all the same functionality.
Glass for example, at home/work would just switch to wifi instead of being tethered to my phone, and I could leave my phone at my desk and still have glass fully functional around the shop.
It's not a mini smartphone at all. It's a notification catcher more than anything. I can just imagine chilling at home watching tv laid back, watch goes off "so and so is coming on in five minutes" tap the watch and tell my watch to tell my google tv to switch to channel x. *drool*
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40 feet is not a lot.. it might sound like a lot, but its not very far. I will revisit my opinions on this concept when fundamental things like that have been solved. I might just be being a stick in the mud, but I'm a huge techboner guy and I am not into this at all.
Copernicus, you know I love you.. but you just described a mini smartphone. Whatever enough negativity from me.
OriginalThinking
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I think you're coming at this from a negative viewpoint. No product starts out perfect. It evolves and improves with time. When mobile phones first launched they were clunky, expensive, had little battery. Yes they had a utility which suddenly lead to mass expansion.
Your watch won't stop functioning just because you're bluetooth connection isn't there. It'll still tell you the time and date, so you're no worse off than a regular watch. When your mobile phone is within Bluetooth range of you (which let's be honest is 90%+ of the time for the vast population) then it'll do far more.
The fitness market in particular is huge and only growing. And having owned a pebble the value in knowing whether a notification is important enough to pull your phone out of your pocket shouldn't be underestimated. I can't even tell you how many phone calls and texts I didn't miss because although I hadn't heard my phone ring, I had felt the vibration on my wrist.
Using a pebble to take lecture notes is a little OTT. I'm not sure what huge technological leaps are required outside of battery life. And that hasn't harmed the growth of smartphones. People will face a choice between utility and battery life. If smart wear can prove the utility outweighs the negativity of having to charge a watch then the product will be successful. And Motorola are one of the few to realise that watches are fashion pieces.
Smart watches are as much heart purchases as head purchases. No one needs an iPhone, when a budget android handset will do all the same things at a fraction of the price. That hasn't suddenly lead to iPhone sales dropping. If companies get the right mix of appealing to the head with utility and the heart by being genuinely desirable, they will have a winner. And if it fails, what have we, the consumer lost?
Nothing.
conceptionally though, it's the true evolution of a watch
the functionality of a watch is nothing more than to remind you of something based on the current time, instead of being "what time is it" "oh i have to do this" you just get "here's what you have to do" and then you get options to do that
even if you lose connection to your phone, that wont automatically erase notifications in queue my alarms on my phone still work in airplane mode
granted a the smartphone has usurped it, but its time for the watch to take back its glory
plus good looking watches are awesome
The entertaining part is they will all have different capabilities so they won't respond in unison.
Or you'll post/text the same thing to one person four times.
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All these videos are of people fiddling with a 1 inch screen. You know how often I engage with the UI of my watch? Twice a year at daylight savings. I understand where you're coming from but you're describing something different than what I see in the videos. I'm looking at some of these screens and there are menus and stuff. I do admit I like the dream of a context aware watch that knows everything about me and knows what I need to see before I do but to me that seems as far fetched as it is key to this becoming a something meaningful.
I'm bullish about health sensors though, I have been for a while. Almost bought a red fit.bit bracelet a little while ago.
Not liking what I'm seeing. Looks like a rectangular screen inside a round watch face.
Edit;
Upon further looking, you do see the "cards" fill in the top of the face as he scrolls through them. Crisis averted.
Well, as it is right now Google Now is already handling a lot of things on my behalf. When it comes to juggling my work and non work schedules, it keeps a pretty tight ship. It remembers things I search for, and gives me bits of information that are increasingly more relevant. It also does a good job at the usual stuff Google Now is associated with - weather/sports scores/packages etc.
Knowing Google as you do Jtwo, don't you think that Google now will continue to improve in the near future? Just what would you like from your watch that you think is far fetched? I'm not sold on watches yet, to be 100% honest, but if I think about it, one thing that would be useful for Google now to do is alert me on deals for products I've recently searched for, especially if I'm in, say, a walmart or something and it just vibrates on my wrist and says "hey, while you're in walmart, I know you were looking at getting a new vacuum earlier, and this well reviewed vacuum is on sale here for a reasonable price".
Does that seem like something useful, and does that seem far fetched?
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That seems completely far fetched. Imagining the type of infrastructure, ecosystem and evolution of their algorithms we'd need for the type of casual encounters you describe to happen everywhere with anything for everyone seems completely and totally far fetched. Which is sad because if it were possible I'd be pretty damn pumped for one of these watches. We're essentially talking about taking all human input out of the equation. Think about that. Think about what would need to be in place for the type of computer that receives no input from you and is still useful.
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I want to see it. I want to like smartwatches.
Well, the deal thing is already sort of of in place, it's not particularly far fetched.
Keep a list of items a user has searched for.
Whenever you poll the users location, and they are in a store, and there is some sort of api that allows you to see what items are for sale in that store, check against the users list of items they have searched for.
If item is at a 'reasonable' price, ie, below market average, alert user.
The reaction has been fascinating. Many of the Apple fan sites are flat out ignoring the news. A few weeks ago Gruber was snarking at Motorola
Then when the Android Wearables video dropped yesterday he was skeptically tweetingDaringFireball said:
After the moto 360 news and videos came out there was no update lolGruber said:
Two most curious reactions so far (besides Jtwo's sticking his head in the sand
)The answer is "Google is getting better at design faster than Apple is getting better at web services."Lapidus said:
What innovations is Apple's eventual iWatch going to offer? Gesture UI? Payment system? The iWatch will have to be especially 'sexy' (curved screen as on the Samsung Galaxy Fit) and/or the fitness function would have to be ground breaking (diabetes management?) because Apple is already far behind on the stuff Google showed off yesterday. iOS notifications don't support response actions, there's no iOS intents system (to enable third party Voice actions), there's no iOS equivalent to Google Now, Siri isn't as good as Google's voice dictation, no iOS equivalent to Google's Home automation...
Apple still has its captive iPhone/iPad userbase that will make any iWatch a success but, unlike at the iPhone launch and the iPad launch, I don't think Apple will be dominating this new market
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The deal thing were using is just for purposes of the discussion though, nobody actually wants that right?
It needs to be more like Google knows you spent an inordinate amount of time browsing tumblrs of old crt monitors while listening to a specific soundcloud playlist that unbeknownst to you you listened to a lot this one weekend back 4 years ago while also having searched craigslist a lot for old synthesizers that fascinate you so it tells you a coffee shop on main street you don't go to is having a vintage instrument swap today.
Thats the level of complexity I'm talking about. Which is far fetched.
They're doing that already, assuming you have browser history turned on and using their services.
I go to the movies during weekdays alot after work. If I look up movies during the day, by the time I'm leaving work, there's google now cards showing showtimes for the movie, traffic time to the theatre I visit all the time.
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Are they really though? And what about the parts of my life that don't revolve around buying things? We are off in the weeds here, I'm enjoying the discussion though.
The distinction between my example and your example with the movies is the ephemerality of the interaction. Displaying movie listings based on a search 8 hours previously is way less complex than making judgements based on years worth of data to recommend something that is only going to exist for an 8 hour window. Hell, I don't even know that data (the sale) would get into google in this scenario.
That level of complexity is pretty far fetched, but I don't think it needs to be at that level to be useful or meaningful - and in fact, the level it currently is at is already very impressive. The deal example is absolutely compelling - at least in my opinion, and it is a good example of how Google can slowly iterate on their services to provide an ever increasingly functional level of 'assistant'.
To extend that scenario, it wouldn't be much more far fetched if Google also knew you buy a lot of things on Amazon, and told you it was on sale/cheaper there - and allowed you with a tap or voice command or something simple (but still secure) purchase an item.
Regarding things like nearby vintage instrument swaps - that's not particularly far fetched either. It would be simpler if you typed in, at one point "Vintage instruments" or something into google - Google could occasionally search for events near you, see if that key phrase is available, and notify you.
Take a look, if you haven't already, at the current cards Google Now supports.
One of my girlfriends favourite Google Now cards was when I was traveling to the US a few months back. I gave her my flight info at some point. Well she's a bit of a nervous gal when it comes to flights, so when she pulled out her phone roughly when she thought I should have landed, and it told her that my flight had landed okay with no delays? It was super useful to her.
I was looking up robert irvine and gordon ramsay videos on youtube yesterday.
and now this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wa4dqanynj71uwb/Screenshot_2014-03-19-20-50-56~2 (1).jpg
The blog is about restaurant impossible and kitchen nightmares show.
e: yeah, flight information shit is ace. Same deal, someone forwarded me their flight itinerary, and I had to drive them. The day off, I had traffic/weather to the airport preloaded for me.
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Yeah I need to try Gnow I guess. I only have chrome and ios though.
So it just gave you an "im feeling lucky" search result based on previous youtube searches? My whole deviation into discussing the faults of Gnow is based entirely around the concept of imagining a smartwatch that requires no interaction from you but is still useful. I have no doubts its useful at what it does now.
So it just gave you an "im feeling lucky" search result based on previous youtube searches? My whole deviation into discussing the faults of Gnow is based entirely around the concept of imagining a smartwatch that requires no interaction from you but is still useful. I have no doubts its useful at what it does now.
I don't know if it was a feeling lucky search, but it did so without me having to do anything.
I'm not sure how it weighs what it gives you, I'm really curious. But it's not just an 'I'm feeling lucky' thing - I think it also suggests sites on popularity and whether or not you've visited the site before.
For example, it's suggesting I read a Forbes opinion piece on why Apple should release their next iPhone sooner rather than later. I don't remember particularly searching for anything iphone related recently, but I do occasionally look up things Apple related - so it figures this is interesting enough and maybe in line with what other 'similar' users read, that it would grab my interest. It did actually, ima go read it on the can now.
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Deleted member 22576
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I get that. And can see the uitility in it, but extrapolating out the type of prediction and analytics required to make a legitimately passive smartwatch that is useful to you seems pretty far off compared to the functions you guys are describing. Which is was my initial point.
GoogleNow is definitely fascinating and I do know more about it than I did 20 minutes ago.
GoogleNow is definitely fascinating and I do know more about it than I did 20 minutes ago.
Hey, I almost agree with you. But it's more like I'm not really sold on smart watches yet, I haven't seen anything that has been particularly compelling to me personally yet. But I imagine for a biker, or people who aren't allowed to have phones out, a smart watch is much more useful.
I think for wearables, I'd like a HMD more than anything, but an HMD that can at least do some basic object recognition and augmented reality would be what would really compel me - that being said, I get why some people see utility in Glass.
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I didn't really think about reading twitter on a watch. I would probably be way into that.
GuitarAtomik
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That would be awesome and all, but that seems needlessly specific. It's like not seeing the point of a TV unless it can automatically turn on, automatically change the channel between shows you like, deciding which one to DVR if two come on at the same time, and turning off, without you ever interacting with it, and being able to determine all that based on your search history and GPS location. It can be a useful product long before it gets that advanced.
Nothing1016
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I only see wearables becoming more popular when Apple says so.... The being said, I still don't think they will light the world on fire.
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See I view that analogy is its like not wanting a TV on my wrist that doesn't offer those things because my life is filled with various sizes of TVs that do all that stuff better.
I made a pretty epic grandstanding comment to kick this off that can be proven untrue simply by the fact that this current concept of what a wrist computer is is useful to somebody. But I think the sentiment behind it holds very true, this is a conceptual deadend.
I'm not even particularly attached to this hypothetical idea of a smartwatch with no touch screen, but I do think its a far more compelling one than what we have.
I think there's a couple of arguments for what a smartwatch needs to do to get peoples attention.
I didn't used to wear a watch until about two years ago. I don't need a watch, I like using it, because of it's appearance. Easy time checking is a bonus, but on a functionality level, I use it to remind me how much time I have left until _____ or how much time has passed since____.
The other argument for a smartwatch is that it has be something no one has thought of that couldn't have been reproduced otherwise.
I'm in the former group. If it looks great, and has added functionality I can offload from my phone, and makes things more convenient. Sign me up.
If it also does something amazing that I've never though up, sign me up, but that's not my primary focus on it.
I think more people fall into the first group.
GuitarAtomik
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^^^ Agreed. Never underestimate convenience. As long as the price is right, that's all it needs to take off.
sweetvar26
Member
For me its not really about the features presented, it is more about the potential for indie developers to truly start to imagine what can be done with it. For a proof of concept and starting point it did capture my imagination.
For me there are two deciding points: price and battery life.
For me there are two deciding points: price and battery life.
MrGreencastle
Member
Really shouldn't be using LCD displays on these things. If you want to get better battery life it seems like a better idea to go with color eink or oled. Moto 360 is hot though.
Did we expect anything else from Gruber?
We have no idea if Apple is even making an iWatch at this point. So far this is all pure speculation based on the mounting evidence that they are going to enter the health and fitness space.
Besides iPod and iPad I don't think Apple has really at any point "dominated" a market.
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